Watch our summary video: Unfortunately, due to an unforeseen circumstance our special guest, Chad McIntosh (VP of LP & Risk Management, Bloomingdale’s) was unable to be present this past week for our webinar: Bloomingdale’s Innovative Approach to eLearning is a Game Changer.  Despite this, the show went on and our very own Christine Tutssel (VP of Strategic Initiatives) was able to guide us through the story. She went into detail about some of the challenges Bloomingdale’s was facing with a traditional approach to training. This approach included tactics like: posters, handouts, small group rallies and compulsory OSHA training.  Some of the challenges Bloomingdale’s was facing with this traditional approach included: difficulty identifying exactly who was ‘getting it’, lack of engagement in training, poor compliance, escalating claims and an overall negative image of training.  After outlining the challenges, Christine took us through the new approach that Bloomingdale’s turned to and the kind of impact this approach is having on their company. Here are some of our biggest takeaways after hearing Bloomingdale’s story:  1. Competition drives participation. In order to tackle issues of low engagement with training, Bloomingdale’s turned to the power of gamification. Leveraging elements like leaderboards and rewards, Bloomingdale’s started to see some healthy competition emerge in a variety of stores leading to dramatically increased participation levels. Christine shared that in some stores, Bloomingdale’s was seeing participation levels as high as 97%. On the webinar, the audience asked many questions about whether gamification can alienate certain audiences; however, at Bloomingdale’s there are four different generations of employees and 85.6% of them stated that gamification actually increased their participation in learning. 2. With data, there is no longer a need to assume. In some cases there might be certain topic areas where you assume employees have a high level of understanding. In Bloomingdale’s case, two of these areas were their awards program (or tip line) and their emergency shutdown procedures. After tracking individual knowledge levels, they realized that many employees actually had knowledge gaps in these areas and then Bloomingdale’s was able to take measures to close these knowledge gaps. When you have access to an individual employee’s level of understanding of any given topic, you longer have to guess at what they know and don’t know … the data will tell the story. 3. When you’re trying to make BIG changes … start small.  When Bloomingdale’s decided that a new approach to learning was needed, they decided to select a single business unit to start with and made sure to choose one where a business impact could be demonstrated. If you’re thinking of making a change to your learning environment, you don’t have to perform a complete revolution … instead try small evolutions.  Check out our Bloomingdale’s Infographic If you’ve had a chance to watch the webinar, we’d love to hear your takeaways or even get your thoughts on our key takeaways. Feel free to share them in the comments below. In our next webinar, we’re going to be diving deeper into the science of learning with our research partner Dr. Alice Kim. Alice and our CEO Carol Leaman are going to explore how the latest in brain science is impacting the way organizations deliver corporate learning. Get more details today. Written by Shum Attygalle The post Webinar Summary: Innovative eLearning at Bloomingdale’s appeared first on Axonify.

Facts and benefits to personalized learning Take a look around your office. Chances are, no two of your employees are the same. From ages to educational backgrounds to personal styles, each worker is different. In fact, these individual differences are likely why you hired many of them in the first place. These differences are expressed not just in how your staff looks, but in how they learn, retain and use information as well. The diversity of perspectives and thought processes among your employees is one of your company’s greatest resources, so why would you want a training program that fails to take advantage of that? Personalize your training for better results Companies tend to take a more standardized approach to employee training. With so many new hires to keep up-to-date, such a model appeals because it’s easy to share with as wide a range of people as needed. However, research shows that what’s gained in convenience is actually lost down the road in engagement, comprehension and, ultimately, results for your business. The key to achieving the best results is efficiency - providing your employees with exactly what they need, when they need it, without bogging them down with unnecessary or unhelpful information. This is the linchpin around which personalized learning revolves, as it provides key benefits over more conventional static models Better results. Personalized learning gives employees the chance to spend more time on areas that they find more difficult, offering more opportunity to improve results. This pattern of continuous learning, testing and retesting encourages retrieval practice, which has been demonstrated to strengthen neural connections and lead to better learning.  Higher engagement. Offering trainees more of a directorial role in learning lets them focus on areas that they find most interesting. Brain science research presented by Personalize Learning revealed that when employees are actively engaged, their brains actually learn better and retain more information. Lower cost. By focusing training efforts solely on areas that each employee needs, companies can avoid wasteful spending on broadly applicable training programs that produce comparatively fewer results. Learning that hones in on the most effective and widely used training modules means employers aren’t wasting time or money on materials that staff members don’t find valuable. Incorporating personalized learning into your company is easier than you’d think The best thing about personalized learning approaches is that they mirror ways we already interact with information in our daily lives. Knowledge is power, and by collecting data on specific usage patterns and habits, employers can track how employees are engaging with training material on an individual level. Our brains are unique, and they adapt even as we learn. By keeping track of each worker’s training history, assessment patterns and learning habits, companies can continue to provide digestible, bite-sized chunks of information that are specifically tailored to each individual. This is how employees will receive the best training and companies will see the best results.  Written by Carol Leaman The post Facts and Benefits to Personalized Learning appeared first on Axonify.

Blog Preview: Gamification has become widely acknowledged as a valuable tool in engaging employees more fully in corporate learning programs.  But many people say you only need certain aspects of gamification - like leaderboards and badges.  They say that using games to deliver eLearning is counter-productive. It distracts people from their jobs. They don’t learn enough. We say don’t be so hasty!  Game play isn’t just about fun.  There’s some serious brain science at work behind the game that’s integrated with learning chunks.  Before you dismiss the idea of integrating game play with learning, take a look at 3 reasons we think it’s a powerful method for delivering learning for the long term. FACT #1: Science says "Game play improves retention of learning" By integrating learning right into game play, we are generating an increased level of arousal in the brain.  At some point, we’ve all fought to stay awake during a training session: that’s a distinct lack of arousal. Likewise, we’ve all experienced something so interesting that we sit forward in our chair, and pay attention. That’s arousal, and it’s something you find when people play games they enjoy. Now, here’s the science! The Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) is the region of the brain that directs and sustains attention. To function effectively, researchers including Dr. Amy F.T. Arnsten, Professor of Neurobiology and Psychology at Yale University, have identified that the PFC needs the right amount of arousal to allow it to increase attention on relevant information, and filter out distractions. Emotionally arousing information can lead to better memory encoding, therefore influencing better retention and retrieval of information. Game play increases arousal. So when today’s workers sit down to participate in an eLearning session woven through a game, their Prefrontal Cortex becomes aroused. They’re captivated, and fully engaged. And primed to learn. FACT #2:  It gives people the time out they need To learn, we need to focus our attention. But the PreFrontal Cortex can only take so much before it needs a time out. It gets tired. We get distracted.  Researchers have recently established that even brief diversions from a task can dramatically improve your ability to focus on that task for prolonged periods.  Their research established that switching from a main task to a second task could significantly improve performance in the main task.  In Axonify, we integrate learning in bite-sized pieces right into the midst of game play.  So while learners focus on the learning module, they complete it and jump back into game play before they get an information overload.  This gives them break they need from learning, while focusing on game play that doesn’t require laser focus, and may even allow for a bit of daydreaming.  FACT #3:  Game play increases learning participation & effectiveness When people equate learning with fun, they’re far more likely to participate. In fact, "game play" is Axonify’s most popular game mechanic and we have a ton of competition when it comes to popular game mechanics like our leaderboard, rewards and avatars!  67% of learners choose to take their learning from within one of the many games that Axonify offers them. In other words, 2/3 of our learners prefer to play a game while learning. And here’s one more staggering statistic for you:  data pulled from our community of hundreds of thousands of daily users indicates that Axonify learners who play games participate 20% more than those who don’t. The more they participate, they more they learn. Game play in eLearning isn’t just about fun. It’s about harnessing the power of brain science to deliver more effective learning.  It’s about improving knowledge retention. And job performance. Want to know more?  Stay tuned for our upcoming white paper! Written by Laura Martin The post 3 Facts That say Game Play Should Never be Ignored in eLearning appeared first on Axonify.

Check out our video summary: On Tuesday November 4th, our CEO Carol Leaman had the distinct pleasure of being joined by Dr. Alice Kim from York University to co-present a webinar titled: Leveraging the Latest in Brain Science to Deliver the Next Generation of eLearning (the webinar is now available on-demand). Over the course of the webinar, Alice discussed some of the latest research in brain science and Carol explored how global organizations are leveraging this research to deliver more effective eLearning. Here are our top three takeaways from the webinar: 1. Pick a principle to start with. During the webinar, Alice discussed three major principles in brain science: Spacing (also known as interval reinforcement): This idea is basically the opposite of cramming, which is a concept that I am sure is familiar to a lot of us. By spacing out the repetition of content, studies show that the that long-term retention of that content is increased. What this means for you as a reader … forget the ‘firehose’ approach and instead, bite-size your learning and deliver it in digestible pieces over time.  Repeated retrieval: This principle focuses on getting learners to repeatedly recall information, which thereby solidifies the information in memory. A practical application here would be, as opposed to simply studying information multiple times, study it once and then ask learners a series of questions related to the information. During the webinar, Alice mentioned that repeated retrieval works best when it is followed by immediate feedback and requires effort (i.e. the more challenging the questions, the better for memory).  Deep encoding: The idea here is that the more deeply and meaningfully you process information, the more likely you are to remember it. Again here a practical idea would be to deliver learning in bite-sized chunks so that it can be more meaningfully processed. 2. For best results, combine all the principles. This was probably the biggest takeaway from the webinar. Through her own research, Alice found that when you combine retrieval practice with spacing, recall increased from 78% to 97% (get more details in our brain science datasheet). By practicing repeated retrieval in a spaced manner, you are also allowing employees the chance to more deeply encode the information, which - as we mentioned earlier - leads to greater retention.  3. Brain science is the way to sustainment.  During Carol’s portion of the webinar, she discuss how global organizations are leveraging brain science in eLearning programs across a variety of industries. She mentioned a common problem across all of these organizations, is that employees are just not remembering and applying what they need to know to do their jobs effectively. What this ultimately comes down to is a lack of sustainment in training. Carol identified how the principles that Alice discussed can help significantly increase the sustainment of training; therefore, leading to powerful business results such as a 54% decrease in safety incidents at Walmart or a 66% reduction in error rates at Capital BlueCross. Did you have a chance to watch the webinar? What were your thoughts? If you’re leveraging brain science in your work, we’d love to know the impact it’s having for you. Share your thoughts with us in the comments below or tweet us.  Written by Shum Attygalle The post Webinar Summary:Leveraging Brain Science in eLearning appeared first on Axonify.

The following post was written by guest blogger: Tracy Lowrance. The link between learning and an organization’s ability to adapt in a competitive environment has been clearly documented. Though equally important, the strategic value of organizational forgetting is less prolific in industry research. Organizational forgetting is loss of information, whether intentional or unintentional, that results in a change in an organization’s capabilities. Unlearning is the process of intentionally removing existing knowledge in order to replace it with new knowledge to create or maintain a competitive advantage. In my article, The Implications of Organizational Forgetting in the Summer 2014 issue of Training Industry Magazine, I explored the four modes of forgetting, which are categorized by the source of the knowledge (new or existing) and the type of loss (intentional or accidental). In this two part blog series I will explore how companies can benefit from strategically forgetting and the pitfalls they may encounter. This first blog post will focus on unlearning; the intentional forgetting of existing knowledge. A Case of Unlearning In the mid 1800s, a mining engineer established a wood pulp mill near a chain of rapids in southern Finland. Over the years, the company evolved its product and service offering based on the needs of the local community, and eventually the global market. The company produced rubber goods including tires and galoshes, provided electricity and communications cables, and went on to build televisions, personal computers and other consumer electronics.  How could an organization be innovative enough to successfully reinvent itself across such a broad range of industries?  They had to strategically forget what they knew in order to make room for new information.  What is Unlearning? Unlearning is the process of intentionally removing existing knowledge in order to replace it with new knowledge to create or maintain a competitive advantage. In an organization, existing knowledge is stored in the structures, routines and values of the organization.  For an organization to stay relevant and continually reinvent itself it must master unlearning.  Often it is those robust systems of embedded knowledge - daily processes and ingrained operational procedures - that inhibit an organization’s ability to innovate.  The existing stocks of knowledge can actually act as barriers to new learning.  Unlearning and Your Organization In an organization trying to maintain or create a competitive advantage access to new knowledge is critical for solving new problems and solving old problems in a new way.  When history is the hero in an organization it can be difficult to move past "the way we’ve always done it" mentality.  One technique for assuring new knowledge is allowed to surface is to include new or different individuals in the problem solving/innovation process.  Inviting new individuals to participate in the process can prevent incumbents from relying too heavily on their entrenched knowledge; instead of focusing on "how things are done around here", they are encouraged to consider exciting alternative possibilities.    Conclusion The company that started out as a wood pulp mill in the 1800s and evolved to become a global technology icon in the 1990s and early 2000s was Nokia.  Since that time, however, Nokia has experienced a steady market decline - perhaps revealing a hampered ability to unlearn as they’d done successfully many times before.  While at first blush, organizational forgetting may seem detrimental to an organization, it is often the process of forgetting that helps an organization maintain its competitive advantage. In part two of this series, I will explore the intentional loss of new knowledge that can lead to a reduction in quality or productivity. About the Author Tracy Lowrance has spent over 15 years working with organizations in higher education, financial services, healthcare, retail and government on change management and leadership development initiatives. Tracy is currently working on her dissertation on Organizational Forgetting in The George Washington University’s Executive Leadership Program. Her passion for learning, coupled with her scholarly and professional interests drive her to help organizations continually and effectively adapt and change in a complex world. Tracy is the Manager of OD and Professional Development at Clarkston Consulting, a management and technology consulting firm located in Raleigh, NC.  The post When Forgetting is Good appeared first on Axonify.

A recent research study conducted by Software Advice, a Gartner company that reviews learning management systems, revealed which features and incentives would encourage employees to use their company’s LMS more often. The full article written by Brian Westfall, reveals all of the data as well as the methodology used to conduct the study. Based on the findings of the study, here are three big questions you need to answer about your LMS:  According to the study, "Micro-learning was one key feature—breaking up learning content into lots of short, five- to seven-minute lessons, as opposed to a few hour-long lessons. Fifty-eight percent of full-time employees in our survey said they would be more likely to use their company’s online learning tools if the content was broken up in this way."  Bite-sizing learning is something we’ve been advocating for a very long time. Scientifically, bite-sized learning allows for a process of deep encoding, which can help improve the long-term retention of knowledge; therefore, making learning more effective.  According to the study, "Thirty-five percent of respondents said real-life rewards, such as gift cards or personal electronics, based on learning progress would get them to use these tools more as well."  Gamification is not something that’s going away anytime soon and can truly be a powerful tool to help engage your employees in eLearning. Have you created a gamified learning experience for your employees? We’ve written before about the power that game play can have in eLearning and understanding how to motivate employees by leveraging rewards in game play is a huge part of delivering a successful gamified learning experience. One of the final pieces of the study found that 48% of respondents would be "more likely" to use an LMS with smartphone or tablet access. More and more data shows that people are turning to mobile devices as their screen of choice. In fact a very recent study from Business Insider reveals that for the first time ever, Americans spend more time using mobile devices than televisions. What does your LMS experience look like on a mobile device? Is it optimized? Has the content been designed with a mobile user in mind?  As you continue to plan out your learning initiatives for 2015, finding answers to these three big questions is going to be vital to your success. What are your thoughts on the statistics revealed in this study? Do you think there are features that might be more important to encourage engagement? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below or via Twitter.  Written by Shum Attygalle The post Three Questions You Need to Answer About Your LMS appeared first on Axonify.

The following post was written by guest blogger: Tracy Lowrance. Whether it’s new or existing knowledge, the deliberate removal of information from an organization’s stocks of knowledge can create a competitive advantage. The first blog in this series, When Forgetting is Good, explored the concept of unlearning and how intentionally forgetting existing knowledge can provide a strategic advantage to organizations. In the second part of this series I will explore another aspect of organizational forgetting: avoiding bad habits. Avoiding bad habits is the intentional forgetting of new knowledge. Simply put it’s an organization’s ability to swiftly forget those behaviors considered counterproductive before they become embedded in the organization and thereby adversely impact competitiveness. The Double Edged Sword of Learning While learning in general is thought to be a good thing, there is a downside; routines, processes, and values can all be bad habits an organization learns. Organizations must be able to distinguish between the knowledge that is useful and would-be bad habits. Identifying and intentionally forgetting counterproductive knowledge before it becomes entrenched in the organization’s memory requires the ability to make this distinction and to be diligent regarding its removal.  Collaboration and apprenticeship is commonly considered an essential process for transferring and enhancing knowledge throughout an organization. There is an inherent assumption the knowledge being shared is both useful and accurate. In fact, this may not be the case at all.  For example, new employees in a call center spend time job shadowing existing agents. To prevent bad habits from taking hold in these new employees the facilitator does a robust debrief about their experiences, addresses any issues or anomalies and reinforces the correct way of doing things. There is a fallacy in the assumption that collaboration only transfers expertise; with multiple touch points the likelihood of transferring unfavorable knowledge increases. Organizations must work tirelessly to reject bad habits before they become woven into the fabric of the organization. Innovation and Forgetting Innovation is defined as the introduction of something new or a new idea, method or device.  As part of the innovation process organizations need to be able to distinguish between the causes of success and failure. Success and failure are two sides of the same innovation coin.  On one side of the coin organizations lacking insight as to why they failed may never truly identify their capabilities. On the other side of the coin, if the positive elements that led to success can’t be separated from those that impeded it, those negative elements become part of the organizational bad habits.  The story of Kingfisher Beer led by Vijay Mallya is an example of an organization that was unable to make this distinction. Kingfisher is the flagship beer of United Breweries Limited; as a premium lager Kingfisher has won many international awards. Mallya wanted to run an airline and started Kingfisher Airlines in 2005.  Similar to Kingfisher Beer, Kingfisher Airlines was a premium brand airline. The values associated with running a company of premium brands had become part of the organizational habits. A few years later Mallya’s troubles began when he acquired a low-cost airline that was on the ropes financially. Mallya tried to apply his premium brand philosophy to a low-cost carrier. Unable to separate the positive and negative causes of their prior success led Mallya to expand Kingfisher beyond its core business and dilute the brand. As a result of this brand extension the company was unable to pay employees for months and eventually went bankrupt. Conclusion Organizations that can become skilled at continuous learning also need to increase their capacity for forgetting. Successfully adapting to a changing environment requires an organization to move away from archaic technology, flawed corporate cultures, and outdated assumptions about the markets in which they work. They must work painstakingly to remove counterproductive knowledge from the organization in order to prevent bad habits from becoming the norm. Only by doing this can an organization create and maintain a competitive advantage. About the Author Tracy Lowrance has spent over 15 years working with organizations in higher education, financial services, healthcare, retail and government on change management and leadership development initiatives. Tracy is currently working on her dissertation on Organizational Forgetting in The George Washington University’s Executive Leadership Program. Her passion for learning, coupled with her scholarly and professional interests drive her to help organizations continually and effectively adapt and change in a complex world. Tracy is the Manager of OD and Professional Development at Clarkston Consulting, a management and technology consulting firm located in Raleigh, NC.  The post It’s Easier to Prevent Than Break appeared first on Axonify.

To close out our blog for 2014, we’ve decided to share our top 7 most read blog posts from the past year. Our posts on gamification were particularly popular (which is partially what lead us to create our latest workbook); however, there were a few others in the mix as well.  Here are the posts in order:  7: Maybe the Millennials are Doing it Right Summary: Unceremoniously dubbed ‘Generation Me’ by skeptics, the millennials are often criticized for needing constant affirmation and easy success. But I like to think that the millennial generation brings fresh perspective to the work environment.  Read the full post. 6: The New Learning Manifesto Summary: We have put up with traditional learning for too long. It’s time we re-write the rules and usher in a new era of learning. To help guide us along, here is the new learning manifesto: Learning will be continuous and woven into the workday as opposed to being a one-time, event-based session. Read the full post. 5: The Impact of Bite-Sized Learning Summary: Discover an infographic which depicts the impact that bite-sized learning is having on leading global-organizations. Is your learning bite-sized? If not, find out why it should be. Read the full post. 4: Enterprise Gamification Ain’t Going Anywhere Summary: From sales and conversion rates to safety and compliance, gamification is becoming too big to ignore and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.  Read the full post. 3: The Importance of Confidence Based Learning Summary: Confidence Based Learning takes your employees from Uninformed to Mastery, and from Paralysis to Informed Action. Discover how it can help you today… Read the full post. 2: 7 Key Learning Points on Gamification Summary: Discover what we’ve learned about the gamification of corporate learning after accumulating data from over 100,000 employees in world-class organizations. Read the full post. 1: 5 Trends in the Gamification of Corporate Learning Summary: Find out where the gamification of corporate learning is heading in 2014 with these five trends, taken from our latest webinar with Karl Kapp. Read the full post. We hope your 2014 was filled with a ton of tremendous learning opportunities and wish for even more in 2015. See you in the new year!  Written by Shum Attygalle The post Our Top 7 Posts From 2014 appeared first on Axonify.

An article in the November 2014 Oprah magazine titled "The Morality Workout" got me thinking about ethics at work, and how as employers we have an obligation to help our people develop their integrity, which in turn helps us create an ethical organization. At one point or another, we all experience situations at work that push our ethical boundaries.  For some people, the line is very clear and will never be crossed. For others, they look for opportunities to cross the line - which leads to everything from petty pilfering to industrial espionage. But it’s the people in the middle - those whose ethics haven’t yet been tested, or who don’t have a strong moral compass - that we can most effectively impact in a positive way. In the article, the author talks about "strengthening your moral muscle."  She says that scientists and ethics researchers have identified that people’s values can be improved and "…they believe that you can train to be more ethical, much as you’d train for a 5K race." Many organizations regularly implement ethics training workshops. But ethics learning is also susceptible to the same drawbacks as all other corporate learning: regardless of whether in-class or via eLearning, it’s a one-time event, with no consistent, repetitive reinforcement. The result: people generally forget as much as 90% of what they learned within 30 days. The solution is to implement a continuous reinforcement model for ethics training, in which specific situations and responses can be kept top of mind, so that when employees are confronted with a dilemma, they know the appropriate response. It’s one of those topics that will benefit from daily training delivered in small and gentle training bites that aren’t overpowering, but persuasive - and pervasive! After all, we’re not just trying to instill knowledge, we’re trying to shift attitudes and beliefs; and help people develop skills so they can hold on to their ethics even during stressful situations. In fact, our customers are having a lot of success delivering this kind of information via the Axonify platform. An example of this is Pep Boys, who were able to reduce their employee theft and increase calls to their Integrity Pays (employee theft) hotline by 60%! This is not only due to the everyday nature of the "reminder" to act ethically, but the fact that the gamified learning experience is fun and engaging.   Gamified learning gives you the ability to tie ethics development to the pleasurable activity of games - so when people recall the information they’ve learned, it triggers a pleasant emotional response. Linking integrity to a pleasant feeling is one of the surest methods of shifting attitudes and ingraining ethical responses to challenging situations. By creating a continuous learning environment that constantly reminds employees about the right thing to do, what’s tolerable in the organization, and why it’s important; employees will embrace these concepts, helping create a more ethical organization. Written by Laura Martin The post Crossing the Line at Work: Helping Employees Become More Ethical appeared first on Axonify.

Dear Training & Development Professional, I’m really happy that our organization provides us with such great employee training. It gives me a chance to learn how to do my job better, and I feel like I’m building my career skills. You already know that as an adult learner I want to know why I need to learn something, as it helps me relate it to my job, and get more engaged in the learning. But I’m sure you also know that I want to be responsible for my own learning - you call it being "self-directed." I’d love to be even more involved in my learning. Is there some way you could let me see under the covers and expose some of your key learning analytics to me? There are a number of things I’d really like to know about the training I’m taking and my overall levels of knowledge. I like that I can look at my learning dashboard and see how much of a topic I’ve got left to learn, or even what my scores were on tests. But I’d like more: Which subjects am I strongest in, and in which subjects do I really need to work harder? What is my baseline knowledge in the subjects I’m learning about, and how does my current knowledge level compare to my baseline?  That might help me understand how training is helping improve my job performance, based on my performance metrics. What’s my overall knowledge growth in critical subjects?  It would be good to see that on a monthly basis, so I can see if I’m maintaining my learning momentum. How often am I participating in learning?  I’d like to see how my level of learning participation compares to my improvement in knowledge. I know this is a lot, but I really think these types of metrics will help me be an even stronger employee. Oh, and can I see my analytics on my smartphone please? I’d like to be able to view them when I have the time to focus. And can you make these same analytics available to my supervisor? I’d like to make sure that I’m learning the right things, and that my learning success is being recognized. Sincerely, Me. The post Learning Analytics…from the Learner’s Perspective appeared first on Axonify.