In case you did not catch the news, in May of 2014, the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) officially changed it’s name to Association for Talent Development (ATD).
My personal take on this change is positive. First off, we are an international organization, not just an “American” organization. Second, this is a shift towards a focus on people.
Previously, the way we thought about training was that we trained “stuff” to people. This new vision flips that model. We now need to think in the way of teaching people to do “stuff”.
As a practical example of this change, in my organization (a financial software company), we used to say things like “I train loans” or “I train deposits”. Well, the reality behind that is that you don’t teach loans or deposits anything – they are inanimate objects. Rather, what we really do is train Loan Officers or Customer Service Representatives to perform their job better using our software tool, which leads to the financial organization meeting its prescribed goals. It’s about the people.
Here is a link to the ATD page that describes the change.
On that page, you will find a short video by Tony Bingham, President and CEO of ATD.
ATD - Central Florida Chapter Blog 
