I was working on a combined post with two distinct parts. One part a reflection on my new Udemy course called Catapult Your Career: Building Your Website Portfolio. The second part a reflection of all my posts from the past year. Well, I decided to split them into two posts for the final few days of 2014 with just one day to spare. I’ve done a lot this year and learned a lot. I’m closing out 2014 with a bang after working tirelessly for a month trying to put out the highest quality Udemy course I could. It was a lot of content but I wouldn’t say I rushed it, I just pushed myself hard. Many days I would get done with my 9-5 and within 30 minutes be back at it for another eight hours. Not only that but many weekends I was doing 16 hours days. This isn’t my ideal situation and I’m the first to admit I don’t do well past a 40 hour week (I’m a believer in the 35 or less hour week). I made an exception because I was driven to get this course done. What drove me? Quite a small thing possibly. For new instructors on Udemy publishing their course within 30 days of signing up, Udemy will publicize it for you on their social media accounts. I think most people would have done a small course in their spare time of around 30 minutes, but I had an idea and wanted to bulldoze through it. It was exhausting to say the least, but it was worth it. I got it done, worked through it, and now won’t be rushing anything like that for a long time. I’ve written about it, shared portions of it, and talked about it the past month on Twitter, chat2lrn, PKMchat, and elsewhere. But I’m sure many still don’t know what it’s about because my social media reach is still small. Here’s my brief explanation: At its root it’s a how-to setup a WordPress website but it goes into so much more detail on how to create it to benefit your personal brand. It’s Alive I published it for review Friday evening just past midnight my time (GMT -8) and Udemy opens the course at that point, they just don’t put it on their marketplace until final review. Now it’s time to begin promoting the course and I’ve done several things to do that and will continue to do more. During my creating of some of the lectures I had some content that wasn’t well explained in the typical screencast method of the course. I wanted try out an online application called Powtoons that had been circulating the eLearning world a while back. I created a few videos which in the end I’m satisfied with, but they came at the price of dealing with the shortcomings of Powtoons. It’s not an application I’d recommend. I was able to create a promo spot for Udemy and have also posted it on YouTube to later use in Twitter and Linkedin. It was fun to work on and I got my messages fine tuned down to less than 30 seconds, which is not that easy. I’ve ended up with three videos as a preview of the course, two being animated. I’m also going to use the second video as a promotional video, it explains my top three reasons to set up a self hosted WordPress site. I also wrote this on the homepage of the website I created in the course (Nick Leffler’s Portfolio & Blog) Those reasons are as follows: One You’ll be in control of your website and personal brand from beginning to end. WordPress.com, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. can’t offer that to you. Two The power of customization. You can customize your website however you want without limitations. You get to choose your theme, your content, and your plugins. Three You will never have an ad on your website unless you choose to have one. No ads, ever. Those are my three big reasons, although there are many more I’m sure. I’m hoping the video I created for my reasons aren’t too long because it clocks in at a minute and a half. I may revisit it soon to shorten it a bit for another promo video though. I’m starting out more basic on promoting my course with a few videos, Tweets, and the normal social media stuff. I may venture out a bit further as time goes on and I’m able to refine my course a bit. Try It Udemy is a great platform and it’s been a great experience. While I know courses aren’t the answer for a lot of things, there still is a place for them. As far as it goes with Learned Helplessness of Learning, I’m not sure how it fits in. I feel like it fits into the part of people wanting to help themselves and find the answers to their problems though. So, if you want to stay relevant in your career, promote yourself, and seek ways to push your industry forward, create a website to promote your personal brand! It’s worth the investment. Check out the course. Up Next Tomorrow I’ll finish my reflection post where I revisit each of my past year’s posts and write a small blurb about them. It should be interesting to recall what I wrote about and see what has come of that at this point down the road. I do know I’m still aware of #ResolutionNow and making those small leaps forward, or perhaps they’re just a small step. Either way I’m moving forward. Learning, evolving, and changing the way I think every day to make my work just a little bit better one day at a time. The post Closing Out 2014 With A Bang appeared first on Nick Leffler's Portfolio & Learning Insights. You might also enjoy: Rethinking The Holiday Rush Work Out Loud - Don’t Just Share What You Did Learned Helplessness of Learning #chat2lrn

ABOUT THE EXPERT Steve Willis is a Master Trainer and Vice President of Professional Services at VitalSmarts. READ MORE I was recently reviewing a training industry report for 2012. There were all kinds of bar, pie, and other hunger inducing graphs serving up all kinds of information. It highlighted overall spending (≅ $55.8 billion), the average amount spent per employee ($1059), how many hours the average employee spent in learning and development activities (41 hours per employee), the types of training products and services (too many to name here), and even who was receiving training by level in the organization. Wading through all this data got me thinking about my own 2012 year in review: How many sessions I conducted, the number of organizations I worked with, the different countries I had trained in, and the mix of programs I delivered. And while all these numbers are interesting and useful, the number that caused the most meaningful introspection was the percentage of people who walked away from my sessions having had a meaningful (dare I say life-changing) learning experience. This last one got me thinking of what it would take to increase that percentage in 2013. What should I improve about the way I prepare for each session? Which delivery skills would be highest leverage to practice? Do I need to do more in order to master the skills from the programs I deliver? So I want to leave you with the question that’s been on my mind, "What will you do to increase the percentage of people who have a meaningful learning experience?" You have the opportunity to positively impact lives with each session you conduct. Now, go get em! Related posts: From the Road: So Much Training From the Road: The Importance of Propinquity From the Road: What Happens in Training, Stays in Training

This post was originally combined with yesterday’s post, could you imagine? Too much. It has been an eventful year though, so it’s only fitting that I have two eventful posts. On With The Show I’ve made the last two months of the year an extremely prolific writing two months (for me). The reason I made it more prolific? I was well behind where I wanted to be for number of posts for the year. My goal was to write at least every two weeks which would have put me at 26 posts for the year. I wouldn’t have done 26 but my last minute decision to split these final two posts into two did it. Really they should have been separated to begin with though. I didn’t make that number last year although making small steps towards it has helped me get there. Twenty-six posts is a hard number, but one post every two weeks isn’t so bad even though they’re the same thing. I did have a large gap in posting of over a month but I will make it a goal next year to not let that happen again. If I foresee a problem with my next post due to scheduling of events then I’ll have to write it ahead of time. Now for reflecting. I’m going to link to each of my posts then write a brief summary of what I remember of that post and the key highlights for it. I’ll try to stay brief and simple. Second Screen Revolution - January 6 I’d had this idea on my list of things to write about for a long time and I started out the year with it. Good way to start the year really. I’m still using two screens, sometimes three and dealing with distractions is still part of everyday life. Rather than fighting the screens and failing, embrace them and find a way to work with them. Tweet Your Way to Conference Success - January 20 I’ve been an advocate for live-Tweeting and such for a long time. No surprise I had to write about it. There’s nothing better than to instantly take notes, share with the world, and teach back to co-workers than to live-Tweet a conference. It’s a win-win if you go about it the right way and then there’s no loss of information. I can’t think of a better way to spend a conference experience. Mobile Performance Support - Make It Simple! - February 24 As I was trying to gain traction with mobile help overlays in my organization, I also was thinking about their importance in the overall L&D community. Beyond mobile performance support, I think there’s a clear message everywhere that everyone should be doing everything they can to simplify everyone else’s job. If L&D can have a part in bringing clarity to the workplace, a great service has been done. Stop Trying To Predict Mobile Users Needs - March 12 The initial move to a broader mobile audience had a lot of research saying that mobile apps and sites should only cover the most likely information to be used while mobile. I say that’s impossible. Mobile Life is huge now and there is a vast audience of people that don’t just want to do certain tasks in mobile, they want to do it all. I’m one of those users and there’s nothing more annoying than having to go to a computer. if there’s a competitor that offers me everything right on my smartphone, I’m going there. Search Is The Center Of Learning - March 25 When I want to learn something new, I don’t go hunting through topics, or categories, or web pages. I immediately open that page with a great big search box on it and type something in. Whether it’s YouTube or Google I want to find it quick and easy without erroneous results. That almost definitely rules out the SharePoint search functionality. Where Do We Go From Here? - April 8 I remember this one very well. I was on a mini-vacation and read Jonathan Kettleborough’s post about alignment requiring clarity. It brought a vivid image of a steering committee in a dark room coming out and telling their reports to move forward and spread their word. The problem is there is no clarity in that way of sending a message through the company. It becomes a game of telephone and sometimes the lines above you never even call! An enterprise social network is a great way to send a message forward immediately to everybody and without the loss of clarity. So, it’s leaders responsibility to make sure everybody knows what the goals are so that everybody can align. Nobody can separate themselves from the business goals, especially L&D. Reflecting on the National eXtension Conference (#nexconf) - May 16 This was a great experience at the conference, and an even better one going over my Twitter notes and rehashing them into a great reflection piece on my experience. I still have an idea on my list to explain my process on how live-Tweeting these events is the absolute best way to take notes, spread the message, and share with others all at the same time. I have my whole workflow worked out and it worked flawlessly here at this conference. A Self Imposed Barrier - May 21 Writing is a challenging thing when there are no deadlines and it’s up to you to do it. I wanted to bring forward some of my barriers that I’ve consciously recognized and try to help myself recognize others. This was recently brought back front and center to my mind by Tanya Lau who recently commented on it and some good discussion occurred on those things that keep us from doing the things that help us the most. First step is to recognize a self imposed barrier, second step is to find ways to remove that habit and keep pushing forward. MOOCs Have a Long Way To Go - June 23 After completing my second MOOC, I decided I needed to document my thoughts on the experience. While there’s some great information in MOOCs and much to be learned, it’s also easy to get lost in the sea of information and lack of motivation. More interaction is needed to increase motivation and give MOOCs a more personal touch. It’s too easy to skate through them without ever coming into contact with anybody which also makes it easy to skate right out of it and drop the course. How I Got Here - June 30 We all have our story of how we got to be an Instructional Designer, eLearning developer, etc. This is my tale of how I made it to where I am and got interested in doing what I love every day. I’ll keep pushing forward and innovating in any way I can. Innovating is just taking each thing you see everyday that can be improved and making it a little bit better. That’s how I see it. Expand Your Skills - August 14 Just coming off my month hiatus with not a single post in July, I started back up with something that’s been on my mind a while. How can you stay inside a silo and not look to external influence and still do good work? I don’t think it’s possible. These are some of the places I look to for inspiration, although I also keep myself open on social media to people of all types of backgrounds and interests. The Biggest Fad of L&D - August 20 I could talk about the topic of MOOCs forever. There’s so much there and it’s always irked me that the "creator" of the modern MOOC said they were a failure. Well, maybe for his goal but to say they’re a failure is the biggest lie of the century. Who cares if people drop out? They get what they want! Companies will start picking them up as a viable option for workplace learning too! They’ve been an amazing success and while there’s much to be desired, they’re a great start. Work Out Loud on Colors Storyline Template - August 25 The post brought my highest traffic to my website ever due entirely to Articulate being such an active community. While not an all time high traffic post, it’s done well over time. Nothing much here but a template I created in Storyline and shared it with the community. I enjoy sharing my work. There’s no joy in keeping it all locked away. I’m even sad when a course goes into an LMS, it seems like such a waste. Mobile Help Overlays - Ultimate Performance Support for Mobile Apps - September 22 I still hope to see L&D become a larger part of this type of performance support. UX Design is the big owner of this currently and I think L&D given research and thought and not doing the same-old is well positioned to bring this to more apps and do greater things with it. I hope the many bad examples I’ve seen doesn’t have L&D behind it. Although to be fair I don’t think the great examples have L&D behind it either. This is something that seems a bit too cutting edge for your typical L&D department today. What Will Learning Look Like In 2024? - October 6 We will have super brains that we can plug information into sort of like the Matrix. Okay, not what was meant. I saw this in reality of how things probably will be, and the way I’d like to see it look, they’re very different. People will still be calling people who took a course their learners though! Sad. First Thoughts on Learned Helplessness - October 16 The topic that has been dwelling on my mind ever since had to originate somewhere! Here it is. I recalled a story that I still recall to this day about at teacher who sadly never even tried to learn or play to learn. This was the norm rather than the exception. I’m still mulling on these ideas and how L&D can play a role in empowering people to learn and explore rather than controlling it. Ten Things That Make Me Cringe - October 29 L&D is a great place to be for me, but a backwards place at times too. This was an answer to an eLearning Challenge posed on the Articulate eLearning Heroes challenge. The most important thing that I think annoys everyone? Compliance training! It’s absolutely useless and isn’t going to save your butt in the case of a lawsuit anyway. Everyone’s time is wasted and upper management (the one’s who really need to take it) don’t take it. Social and Learned Helplessness in Learning - November 3 Along with all the thoughts on how Learned Helplessness is a disease of learning as much as anything else. I also thought about how L&D was helping to promote that disease rather than cure it by controlling the learning experience. Being social and sharing experiences seemed to be a great way to become less reliant on the training event and more self directed in seeking out answers from others. They’re not learners, they’re people - November 12 This post was based off of a Tweet I made a while ago after seeing excessive use of the word learner and the phrase "my learners". People learn, everyone learns, nobody belongs to you and you can’t assume they will learn anything from what you’ve done. So, I still see learners everywhere but this remains one of my favorite posts. Recipe For Disaster - November 20 It’s impossible not to see the obvious mistakes of the process an application (usually enterprise) was created using. It usually ends with a product that’s IT centered, not human centered. Well, I had to recreate the process that leads to these horrible applications, courses, anything really. It’s usually the same process of silos, miscommunication, lack of information sharing, withholding the product until the end (or alpha), then being stuck with it until an attempt is made to fix it then the process happens all over again. Generation Mobile - November 26 This one somewhat stems from a post earlier in the year about predicting mobile users needs. Stop it! Still. There’s no such thing as gen X, Y, Z, etc. and all the wrong that goes with that. There’s a generation that’s going mobile and it crosses all age groups, financial groups, and cultures. Turn The Curiosity Back On - December 10 Thinking back on my experience in the DevLearn backchannel this year and my new interest in Learned Helplessness of Learning. Neil Degrasse Tyson spoke a little bit about kids being scientists before we steal the curiosity from them. Well, everybody has had every bit of curiosity taken from them through years of being bombarded by formal learning. You can only learn in a classroom between these hours, that’s what we’re told. I wanted to put a name to this and understand that it’s L&D’s role to turn the curiosity back on, not lock it behind bars. Learned Helplessness of Learning #chat2lrn - December 17 This was my first experience into the other side of #chat2lrn which I have been participating in for almost two years. It was a great experience and one I will not soon forget. Also, on a topic that I will not soon stop writing about. Who knows, it may end up being its own category on my blog I like it so much! Rethinking The Holiday Rush - December 22 I don’t know if this one requires too much reflecting on as it was so recent, but I’m still going to make this my last one. Just before the big end of year holiday rush happens I changed gear and was in a different type of rush. I was finishing up my course on Udemy called Catapult Your Career: Building Your Website Portfolio. It’s done and up and I’m proud to say I did it all in less than 30 days while still maintaining at least a slight amount of quality See You In 2015! It’s been a great year and I’m proud to say I’ve accomplished more than I could imagine. There’s still a lot of work to be done though. I look forward to 26+ posts next year and I’m already trying to think of my next topic for a Udemy course, how I can improve my current one, and what great things this year will bring into my life. The post Closing Out 2014 With Learning Reflection appeared first on Nick Leffler's Portfolio & Learning Insights. You might also enjoy: Closing Out 2014 With A Bang Reflecting On The Year - 2013 Learned Helplessness of Learning #chat2lrn

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kerry Patterson is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Accountability, Influencer, and Change Anything. READ MORE Listen to Kerrying On via MP3 Listen to Kerrying On via iTunes During the month of July, we publish "best of" content. The following article was first published on May 21, 2008. When I woke up that bright and sunny morning, I never suspected that I’d burn down my bedroom. But some days just don’t go as planned. It was a Sunday morning and this meant that later that evening the entire Patterson clan would plop down in front of their fifteen-inch black-and-white DuMont TV and worship at the altar of the Ed Sullivan Theater. For those of us living at the far edge of the U.S.—and at the far corner of Puget Sound to boot—Ed Sullivan provided a lifeline to the bigger world of hip happenings and top-notch entertainment. Who knew what menagerie of singers, dancers, acrobats, and comedians Mr. Sullivan would bring us! Would it be Elvis or even the Beatles? Surely the ventriloquist Señor Wences or the puppet Topo Gigio would grace the stage. It was Sunday, it was sunny, and all was well. And then came the bomb. Mom sat me down and explained that she and Dad would be attending a volunteer meeting that evening and that I’d have to chaperone in their stead. Chaperone? I was a fourteen-year-old kid. Whom was I supposed to chaperone? It turns out that a friend’s daughter, who was attending the local college, wanted to buy her first life insurance policy, and Mom had volunteered our living room for the sales presentation. Unfortunately, since Mom and Dad would be gone, I’d have to hang around. Without my dampening presence, who knows what lecherous shenanigans the insurance agent might attempt? And, as if listening to an insurance salesman wasn’t going to be bad enough, the meeting was to take place during the sacred time slot of the Ed Sullivan show! When the appointed hour finally rolled around, I squirmed impatiently while the insurance fellow yammered on about "contingencies" and "risk aversion" until I could take it no longer. With one swift move, I slipped unnoticed into my bedroom adjacent to the living room. This put me out of range of the insurance talk, but left me with nothing to do. After carefully studying the skin on my elbow for a couple of minutes, it hit me. Under my desk was a large bowl of rocket fuel I had recently concocted and set aside. Now would be the perfect time to turn it from a dry powder into a solid mass by melting it down and then letting it solidify. I had never performed this operation before, nor did I have the necessary equipment on hand, but I had heard that transforming the powdered fuel into a solid block gave it more stability. I quickly fashioned a Bunsen burner out of materials I found in the bathroom. A Vaseline lid, a wad of cotton, and a couple of jiggers of my dad’s aftershave lotion—and voila! I was ready to cook. Next, I poured a generous portion of the fuel into a Pioneer chemical container that consisted of a cardboard tube with a flat metal bottom and a pop-out metal top. The cardboard would provide me with a safe place to grip the container, while the metal bottom would take the flame and melt the fuel. Within minutes, I gingerly held the jury-rigged beaker above the Aqua Velva flame and was merrily melting the powder. Sure, I’d be missing Ed Sullivan’s guest star, Richard Burton, as he performed a number from Camelot, but I was advancing science. What could be more important? Then, with no warning whatsoever, the powder hit its ignition point and burst into a frightening torrent of smoke and flames, scorching the wallpaper above my desk and burning a hole in the ten-foot ceiling. I couldn’t drop the blazing tube or it would have careened around the room and set the drapes and other flammables on fire. So I gritted my teeth and held the flame-spitting cylinder firmly through its entire burn. For a full minute, the fiery tube charred the wall and ceiling while dropping blazing bits of debris on my arms and legs—burning holes in my shirt and pants and leaving behind pea-sized scars. The rest is a blur. When it was finally safe to set the container down I bolted from my bedroom and threw open the front door to vent the house. A fire truck loaded with highly animated fire fighters rolled into our driveway and it wasn’t long until several of them were screaming at me for being so stupid as to—well, cook rocket fuel in my bedroom. Apparently, not being able to swing their axes or shoot a single drop of water into our home had really ticked them off. One angrily threw open the parlor windows when I asked him what I could do to get rid of the smoke. Another glumly stared at my bedroom and shook his head while muttering, "Boy, are you going to get it when your folks come home!" And then my folks came home. As the fire crew backed out of our driveway and the insurance salesman and frightened college girl bolted from the scene, Mom and Dad slowly approached. Watching a fire crew pull away from your home is never a good sign when you’re the parent of a teenage boy; however, it did give my folks a hint as to what lay ahead. As the two walked stoically into my bedroom and surveyed the damage, Mom stated, "You realize, of course, that you’re going to have to set this right." I did. I paid for the repairs out of my college savings. And then, Mom said something that was so quintessential "Mom" that I’ve never forgotten it: "What did you learn from this adventure?" Most parents, when faced with the smoldering shell of a bedroom would have grounded their careless son through social security. Or maybe they would have hurled threats, pulled out their hair, or perhaps guilt-tripped their soon-to-be-jailed juvenile delinquent into years of therapy. But Mom simply wanted to know what I had learned from the incident. It wasn’t a trick on her part; it was how Mom treated debacles. For her, every calamity was a learning opportunity, every mishap a chance to glean one more morsel of truth from the infinitely instructive universe. So I talked to Mom and Dad about ignition points, research design, precautions, and adult supervision. I meant most of what I said. I even followed my own advice and avoided catching any more rooms on fire. In fact, save for one minor screw-up a few months later during a routine rocket test where I accidentally blew off my eyebrows (leading to an embarrassing few days where I was forced to darken my remaining forehead hairs with eyebrow pencil—not cool for a guy in high school), I averted further disasters of all types. But what I didn’t avert was the bigger message. Mom wanted me and my brother to be full-time learners—ambulant scholars if you like. It was her central mission in life to turn us into responsible adults who learned at every turn. While the masses might bump into the world, take the occasional licking, and then endlessly complain, she wanted us to bounce back with the question: What does this teach us? While others carped about effects, she wanted us to find the causes. Our classroom was to extend beyond the halls of academia and down any path our journey took us—even into the occasional charred bedroom. The implication of this message to parents and leaders alike is profound. It’s the adult’s or leader’s job to establish an environment where their charges can learn and grow (even experiment) without fear of being grounded through social security. This isn’t to suggest that either the home or the corporate learning environment should allow individuals to run about willy-nilly—heating up rocket fuel without a single thought as to what might go wrong. I had been irresponsible, and I was held accountable. But I had also been experimenting with rocket science, and Mom didn’t want to stifle this part of me. She wanted me to experiment, and this called for calculated risks. She saw it as her job to teach me how to make the calculations, not to set aside my test tubes and chemicals. So let’s take our lead from the ambulant scholar. Should our best-laid plans run afoul, may we have the wisdom to pause, take a deep breath, and ask: What did we learn from this?

The Challenge Something was missing. That’s what Wanda Hayes determined when she sought input from the faculty and staff of Emory University after arriving as the university’s new director of learning and organizational development. She was looking to enhance the university’s training offerings, and one topic kept coming up. "I talked with a lot of our key stakeholders and it was clear people wanted more around conflict management," she says. A formal needs assessment survey yielded the same result. So did feedback about an existing leadership program run in partnership with the university’s highly ranked business school. "At every level, people said conflict management is what we need," Hayes remembers. So she and her team started looking for a training component to add to the management and leadership development programs and to anchor the new general education curriculum they would soon launch. Human resource staffers had used VitalSmarts Crucial Conversations Training at a previous healthcare employer and Hayes was pleased to bring the course to Emory University. "There are a couple of things that make Crucial Conversations stand out more than others," she says. "It’s very action-oriented, not just information about conflict. And there’s a lot of skill practice in a safe environment." She was also impressed that the content, while hitting conflict management head on, doesn’t stop there. It was a perfect companion to the university’s year-long training program for new and experienced managers and supervisors, which covers setting objectives, performance reviews, performance problems, collaborating, and holding others accountable. "Crucial Conversations addresses all of those topics, teaching people how to have effective conversations, stay engaged, and get results," she says. Emory began including the course in the new Manager and Supervisor Development Programs, then proceeded to roll out additional programs that included Crucial Conversations for administrative professionals. Later, Crucial Conversations was added to the existing leadership program for high-potential, high-level administrative staff. Ultimately, it was also included in a new year-long leadership program for faculty leaders. The course has become a cornerstone for programs that are designed for intact teams, as well as for general enrollment. To build excitement for the new offering, the university brought in Crucial Conversations coauthor Ron McMillan, who conducted separate sessions with senior leaders across campus, human resource leaders, and faculty leaders. With the course embedded in the University’s learning offerings, three members of Hayes’ team were certified to deliver the training. They teach the two-day course with seven to ten days in between to practice and complete assignments. By the end of 2012, close to 1,000 Emory employees had completed Crucial Conversations. The Results Read our case study to learn how Wanda Hayes used Crucial Conversations Training to increase employees’ and managers’ ability to better manage conflict, hold the right conversations, and get the right results. Related posts: Success Story: VitalSmarts Training Helps Canadian Hospital Transform Its Culture Success Story: Crucial Conversations Training Improves Nurses’ Ability to Address Disruptive Physician Behavior Avoiding Conflict is Killing Your Bottom Line

Over a year ago I began to share what I am learning at the moment. I did this through the hashtag #LrnToday which I also encouraged others to do. It’s been a while since I’ve reflected on how well it has worked and how I’ve updated it. A while being since I first posted about the hashtag and then later created a page for #LrnToday. Forced Reflection As I think over the times I’ve used the hashtag, I realize I still have a long way to go to make it a habit. I need to start thinking about and sharing when I’m learning something new. It’s easy to learn something new and have it melt into my mind quickly becoming part of the knowledge that’s already there. It’s easy to forget who I learned something from or where it fits into the broader picture. How do you attribute to someone’s inspiration and influence when you have no idea where it came from in your mind? Not only that, but if I share what I’m learning about at that moment, I get feedback instantly from others if they already know or have interest in the topic. If you asked me how I learned something specifically I wouldn’t be able to answer. I’ve learned over time by doing different things and playing around. LrnToday is meant to force me to be more conscientious about from whom and about what I’m learning. Joining In Over the past year and handful of months a few others have joined in sharing what they learned through the #LrnToday hashtag, although it’s been inconsistent at best. It’s easy to start sharing the learning with others but then forget the next time. I even have a hard time myself remembering to Tweet what I’ve learned recently. It’s common for Twitter chats to begin with everybody sharing what they’ve learned today, this week, etc. The idea of creating #LrnToday was born out of this practice. Twitter chats occur weekly or every other week though and learning never stops. If you only reflect on what you learned weekly, it’ll either be lost or melt into the rest. Sharing and reflecting on what’s been learned recently is a daily activity, if not hourly. Reflection & Research For the times I have remembered to use the #LrnToday hashtag, I now have a documented time and topic of what I learned. If I couldn’t learn in as much detail as I’d liked the first time around, I have all those Tweets to refer back to. I now have a permanent memory of a topic that I’d love to dive deeper into but wasn’t able to the first time I learned about it. I will for one be spending some time researching and learning about the topic Cynefin. I in fact just did a quick search for #LrnToday Cynefin and found when and from whom I was introduced to the topic from. I can now take that topic and the conversation that occurred around it and have a better jumping off point for my research. Failure or Success I’ve been thinking if I would consider #LrnToday a failure or a success. Only a small handful of people have used #LrnToday and I’ve been introduced to some interesting topics, and words, but the hashtag remains mostly me. So, if the hashtag going viral is a sign of success, it’s been a failure. Having something go viral isn’t success for me though. In fact it would make it unusable and overwhelming noise if it was used too much. Success for me is the hashtag providing a place for me and others to share about what’s being learned at the moment. Giving a place to reflect, learn, share what’s learned with the ability to retrieve the information later. It’s done that successfully for me, so in my eyes it has been a success. I’ve learned new things, shared what I’m learning and will continue to do so. I hope others join in the reflection and gain something for themselves from #LrnToday. In the end it doesn’t really matter if it’s a failure or success as seen by others, it’s what it has brought to those who take advantage of it including myself. I’m still to this day finding it useful and still hope to learn more from others as they bring topics they’re learning to #LrnToday. #ResolutionNow I don’t believe in huge leaping New Year’s Resolutions so as I began last year with a resolution now, I shall begin this year. I’m going to make a greater effort to continue sharing on #LrnToday and make it a point to reflect daily on anything new I’ve learned. I also want to make a greater effort to share the #LrnToday love with others so I can learn more about those things I have no idea I’m interested in learning about. My resolution is to have on great big learning party the entire year whether I know I want to know more or not. Your Turn I’m eager to learn more about everything but I have no idea what (ok I have a few ideas). Take the time and join in the discussion on Twitter with #LrnToday. Just a quick sentence to reflect on what you’ve learned or what you hope to learn more about, that’s all it takes. It’s your turn to join in the learning and sharing and perhaps learning something you had no idea you wanted to learn. The beauty of #LrnToday is that it’s open to anybody on any topic to enhance the diversity of life and learning. Inspiration and innovation come from diversity, and #LrnToday provides diversity of learning. The post Learning From Others appeared first on Nick Leffler's Portfolio & Learning Insights. You might also enjoy: Share What You’ve Learned Today: #LrnToday Reflecting On The Year - 2013 Learned Helplessness of Learning #chat2lrn

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ron McMillan is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Accountability, Influencer, and Change Anything. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, My mother-in-law refuses to accept me as part of the family. She talks badly about me behind my back and even refuses to look at me when I walk into a room. For the eight years my husband and I have been together, she has never accepted me for who I am. The one time he tried to talk to her about the situation, she yelled at him, told him she would stay away from him, and hung up the phone. Now that my husband and I are expecting our first child, I would like all of this childish nonsense to stop. Please help! Mentally Exhausted Dear Exhausted, Thank you for your question. Though this is already a difficult and painful situation, I feel I should begin with the bad news. If you do everything we tell you in our books, exactly the way we tell you and the other person does not want to dialogue, you won’t dialogue. Don’t you just hate that? The crucial conversations skills are not a way to compel or control others—they don’t work to manipulate or deceive. The other person still has a choice as to how they will respond to you and you cannot control them. So it may be that your mother-in-law will never respond to you in the way you desire. Sorry! That said, often if we initiate a conversation using effective principles and skills and are consistent in our use of them over time, the other person will come around. Though the effective use of these principles and skills do not guarantee the outcome you desire, they increase the probability of mutually beneficial results. There are a lot of things to work through to make the relationship with your mother-in-law work. She has been silent and withdrawn for a long time. It seems you are not clear on her reasons and what problems might need addressing. You also need to create clear expectations between you and your husband to make sure you are both on the same page. There’s some heavy lifting that needs to be done. But your toughest challenge will be beginning this crucial conversation in a way that engages your mother-in-law in dialogue, so you have the best chance of working things out. Rather than hash through the wounds of the past, I would recommend focusing on the relationship you want going forward. The principles you want to utilize are Start with Heart, Mutual Purpose, and Mutual Respect. Start with Heart. Get clear about what you really want. Let’s assume you want a respectful, caring relationship with your mother-in-law, and you want her to be involved in the life of your new child. Getting clear about your motives for having this crucial conversation helps you act on your most noble intentions. These good motives and intentions will guide what you say and do in a helpful way. Build Mutual Respect. I would suggest you next build Mutual Respect by asking her permission to talk with her. This is best done in person. If that would be too difficult, you could do it over the phone, but your mother-in-law will not be able to see your non-verbal actions or your facial expressions in order to gauge your sincerity. If you talk over the phone, you will have to emphasize your real intent and check her intent frequently. You might say something like this "As you know, we will be having a baby soon and I want to talk to you about our family. Would that be alright?" If she says "no" to your invitation, leave it open for your next conversation by saying something like "Okay. When you are ready to discuss this please let me know" and disengage. Give her some time before you try again. Build Mutual Purpose. If she is open to the discussion or gives a vague reply, you are ready to continue the conversation. Build Mutual Purpose by sharing your good intentions. Recall what you "really want" and share it with her. Perhaps you could say "I really want you to be a part of my family and a part of my baby’s life. Also, I would like a respectful relationship between you and I. Is this something we can talk about?" By proposing the Mutual Purpose of "being part of my family and part of my baby’s life" you give her an opportunity to consider whether that is what she really wants. Your demonstration of respect (inviting her into your family, disclosing that you want a relationship with her, and asking if she’s willing to talk about it) should soften her heart and lower her defenses. This approach increases the likelihood of being able to talk about these difficult issues. If she rebukes your efforts, realize this is just your first effort to have this crucial conversation. Look for openings in the future and create opportunities to revisit the conversation. Remember to consistently look for Mutual Purpose and always show respect. If she responds positively to your efforts and shows a willingness to discuss her role in your family, you have begun this crucial conversation on a firm, safe footing. You now have an opportunity to create a new relationship and open up a new, better chapter in your family’s story. All the best, Ron Related posts: How to Mend Relationships after Years of Silence Improving Relationships with In-laws Before and After: Smoking Conversations by Connie Smock

I noticed a ReTweet from Shannon Tipton yesterday morning where she was disagreeing with the flop part of the following blog post: What eLearning Trends Will Pop, Flop and Flip in 2015? Predictably, I disagree w/"Flop" - you? RT @Interactyx: Do you agree with these eLearning trends for 2015? http://t.co/lsnzV2LlIb #Lrnchat — Shannon Tipton (@stipton) January 19, 2015 That caught my attention and I had to explore further.  Things get a bit murky when you combine eLearning with anything, especially social learning. After skimming some of the article but reading thoroughly about the flop, I naturally disagreed with it also. In what world could social learning be waning? It’s the way humans have always learned, even back to prehistoric times. The post isn’t that simple though. It’s not saying social learning is fizzling, it’s saying social learning in the context of eLearning is. At least that’s what I think it’s talking about, really it’s not well-defined in the post, not nearly well enough to say what is flopping. What are Social Media-styled eLearning Tools? I don’t know. Does anybody? My first thought is the fad several years ago where rapid development tools were shoving in ways to Tweet from within a course and calling it social learning. I’m not necessarily against that, it could further discussions if it was used. The link to Sharon Boller’s post doesn’t fit the description of  what’s being discussed either (and frankly I don’t understand how it relates to the conclusion of them flopping). What Sharon discusses has nothing to do with eLearning in the traditional sense. Sharon’s post is at least easier to disagree with and know exactly what you’re disagreeing with My only conclusion is that the post has no conclusion (or knowledge) about what is meant by social media-styled eLearning tools. So, since this isn’t very clear, I’m going to assume it has something to do with social learning and eLearning, in which case if either of those is going to be a flop, it’s eLearning. Social Learning Social learning surely can’t be dying, or flopping, or fizzling. It’s not. It’s a natural progression of how people really learn, not a fad that’s only 10 years old (or . People have learned socially for thousands of years and since computers and social media it has merely taken a modern turn. Since the beginning of social media social learning has taken off. People have used it to: Develop their professional knowledge. Learn about their hobbies. Learn how to be more efficient at a job task. Learn about what they didn’t know they didn’t know. Learn about what they knew they didn’t know. And more! People have done all of this without L&D even being involved and the messiness and slowness that training and courses brings along with it. Social learning will only grow, and L&D will have to catch up the further it falls behind. Weaving social learning into eLearning was only the first attempt of L&D mainstream to deal with social learning that inevitably happens. L&D has the unfortunate craving to control the experience and make everything pass through their gates. L&D will fail at controlling, just as IT has failed at controlling. People are going to learn socially just as they are going to bring their own IT equipment to the office. It’s up to L&D to figure how to work WITH social learning and empower people to use it even more effectively to learn, not fight it and control it and make it go through their gates. Pop or Flop? If social learning flops, then L&D and the organization will also flop with it because it’s the only way for an organization to stay relevant. L&D will become a dinosaur if it doesn’t recognize this and will become obsolete. eLearning will have a limited effect on the modern organization. Training can only go so far, and is used unnecessarily more than it isn’t. My only conclusion is that social learning will pop. It will become more relevant than eLearning ever was. Just because throwing a Twitter hashtag inside a course doesn’t work well doesn’t mean social learning is a flop, or even social media-styled eLearning tools (whatever that is!). My conclusion is that eLearning will eventually flop, but social learning will indeed pop and continue to pop. It will be recognized as the most important way forward in learning and the tools that support it will grow in importance to organizations who want to thrive. Social Learning Tools There are tons of great tools out there to accommodate social learning, but they aren’t social learning tools, they are social tools. There’s no such thing as a tool out there that can be used for only learning. Be it a LMS, rapid development tools, or whatever. These tools have a limited use and will have a limited lifespan. Think more along the lines of Yammer or Chatter. These are not social learning tools, they are social tools to enable people to connect and learn from each other. Social learning is something that happens within these tools among a myriad of other things. eLearning has a limited purpose and limited life. Social learning has been around before eLearning and will continue to thrive well after the fad of eLearning has faded away. I’m Hungry I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry for information, hungry to learn, and hungry to learn from the best of the best. Social is the only way for me to do this. I’ve heard again and again that employees of organizations around the globe are hungry to learn and they’re going to find a way to do it with or without L&D. Employees are hungry for information and they are hungry for a place to socially learn, collaborate, and share which all go hand in hand. eLearning will continue to keep its niche for some time but it will by no means enter the mainstream and stay there. Social on the other hand has broken into the mainstream a long time ago and with it has brought social learning, wider collaboration, tearing down of silos, and all kinds of other great things. Social learning has been around forever, but we’ve entered a new era where we can now learn and share on a global scale with no boundaries of the organization. Even from within the organization we can share knowledge at speeds previously unknown. What do you say? is modern social learning the best thing since sliced bread or is it bound to unravel and fail? The post Social Learning Has Never Been About a Single Tool appeared first on Nick Leffler's Portfolio & Learning Insights. 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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joseph Grenny is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Accountability, Influencer, and Change Anything. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, I manage a group of more than thirty employees at six different locations, and my office is at yet another location. Needless to say, I do not see or speak to each person every day. I have set the expectation—with multiple reminders—that everyone needs to be in the office by a specific time, but I have heard that some employees don’t meet this expectation. I don’t have someone to report to me when someone is late—chronically or otherwise—and I have no way of knowing when a person arrives at work because these are salaried employees who do not punch a time clock.

 How can I hold my employees accountable to my expected arrival time or any other unmeasurable performance expectations when I manage from afar? Long-Distance Manager Dear Manager, It’s time for you to ask "What do I really want?" More on that in a moment. For the sake of discussion, I’m going to assume your employees are, in fact, frequently showing up late. Obviously, that’s an open question since you seem to be dealing with rumor here, but let’s just say for the moment it’s true. I worry that you’re putting yourself into the same position the renowned psychologist Phil Zimbardo put subjects into at Stanford a few decades ago. In Zimbardo’s "Stanford Prison Experiment," he randomly assigned subjects to play the role of either guard or prisoner in the basement of the psych building. Within hours, those assigned to be guards were donning dark glasses, carrying pseudo truncheons, and referring to "prisoners" as though they were some lower form of life. Similarly, those assigned the role of prisoner began to act powerless and resentful and plot ways of provoking and rebelling against the "guards." Now, I don’t picture you sporting a night stick and wearing shades. But you could be unintentionally putting yourself in the role of "guard" by asking for commitment to a behavior that a) they don’t buy into; and b) you can’t naturally inspect. If you continue down this path, you might get increasingly resentful and they might get increasingly rebellious because, in a sense, you’ve cast yourselves in the roles of guard and prisoners. I worry about that as well because you used the phrase, "I have set the expectation—with multiple reminders—that everyone needs to be in the office by a specific time." It doesn’t sound like they agree that this is a reasonable requirement, only that you expect it of them. Once again, you’re the guard and they’re the prisoners. The only way out of this mess is dialogue. And dialogue means that they come in open to have their minds changed—and that you do the same. The conversation you need to have is, "What results are we trying to achieve?" and "How will we measure our success?" Answering these two questions is the first of the three keys to influence we write about in Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change. If you don’t have clarity and commitment to the answers to these two questions, you will spend your life herding cats. So, in anticipation of this crucial conversation, let me play the role of thought partner. What do you really want? What results do these offices really need to achieve? If you want people to be on time because these are customer service locations—and you know customer wait times are unacceptably long from 8-9 a.m., then stop focusing on punctuality and start focusing on customer wait times. If you believe these salaried folks are just not working hard enough, then what is your evidence? Is it that they take longer to produce an engineering drawing than industry standards? If so, then talk with them about productivity or cycle time measures. Punctuality is likely a means to an end—not the end itself that you really want. So clarify that end and how you’ll measure success or failure. Then let go of trying to control the means and hold people accountable for the real goals. If it turns out that they can saunter in at 9:30 a.m. and achieve everything you say you want—at a stellar level—will you be okay with that? If not, then you have one of two problems. Either you haven’t specified what you really want—i.e. there are some other results you haven’t put into words yet—or you are trying to impose your own idiosyncrasies on others and need to let go of that desire. If you start dictating methods, you undermine engagement. When people behave badly, it’s often a sign of a deeper problem—such as a lack of commitment to results. Spend some time clarifying the results you care about. Engage others in dialogue to develop a shared commitment to those results. Agree on valid ways of measuring how you’re doing. Then let your people find their own best way to succeed. Or, you can buy some dark glasses! Joseph Related posts: Managing Without Authority Influencing Unprofessional Dress