Bob Pike, full name Robert William Pike, is the founder, chairman and CEO of The Bob Pike Group in Minneapolis. He is known as "the trainer’s trainer" and specializes in training those who train others. Pike originated the idea of participant-centered training where instructors facilitate learning through the use of hands-on, interactive lessons. He has been involved in training since 1969 and has written or co-awritten 29 books, including The Creative Training Techniques Handbook, now in its third edition. The Creative Training Techniques Handbook has sold more than 285,000 copies since its first printing in 1989. According to the publisher Bob Carkhuff at HRD Press, which publishes The Creative Training Techniques Handbook, Carkhuff estimated the third edition has sold about 50,000 copies. In an email, Pike said the original publisher, Lakewood, now defunct, had paid him royalties based on 140,000 books sold for the first edition and 95,000 for the second edition. His 2009 book, The Fun Minute Manager, was co-written with Robert C. Ford and John Newstrom.
Biography
According to an interview with American Society for Training & Development, Pike began one career as a pastor while doing a side job but still could not make ends meet. In 1967, he tried selling training and management development programs but made only $150 in the first month. Pike then read Psycho-Cybernetics and decided to ignore his fear of for a month and to sell whole-heartedly. "So for 30 days, I decided I would do everything I could to succeed, and at the end of 30 days, I could say ‘I’m just not cut out for this,’ and I could go do something else," Pike told ASTD. "So I used affirmations such as ‘I’ll do it now’ and my favorite, ‘I’m a master salesman.’ In those 30 days, I made a little more than $1,100 in commissions, which in 1970 was a lot of money...That was what gave me my start in the training and consulting industry, and that’s where I started designing training programs." Since 1969, Pike has been developing, marketing, training and consulting on training and human performance improvement. Since then, he has designed and delivered over 600 training programs of one day or longer. He has served on the boards of ASTD, National Speakers Association and the International Alliance for Learning. In 2002, Pike joined the National Board of Lead Like Jesus and since 2005 has served as Chairman of the Executive Board. He served as a designer for the Leadership Encounter with Jesus Seminar/Retreat and is a master trainer for the Encounter certification program. In 2003, Training Magazine subscribers voted The Bob Pike Group the best “Train-the-Trainer” company in the industry. In 2007, Bob received the ISA-The Association of Learning Professionals “Thought Leader” award for his contributions to the field. According to ISA, Pike introduced the instructor-led, participant-centered model as an alternative to primarily lecture-based training in 1983 and more than 100,000 trainers worldwide have been through the Creative Training Techniques Train-the-Trainer Boot Camp. In 1991, Pike earned the professional designation of Certified Speaking Professional from the National Speakers Association. In 1999, he was awarded the Council of Peers Award of Excellence. Over the years, Pike has contributed to magazines like Training, The Personnel Administrator and The Self Development Journal. He is the founder and editor of the Creative Training Techniques Newsletter. Pike is part of the video faculty at CrestCom videos.
