The 70/20/10 framework is one of the most popular learning and development models used today. The framework breaks down the major avenues for which a learner acquires new job skills. According to this model, 70% of what an employee learns comes from on-the-job training, 20% from peer learning, and 10% from formal learning. Included in the video is practical advice for how you can incorporate the 70/20/10 framework in your organization, but I have summarized it below for you: 10% Formal Learning Decrease the duration of formal training to a minimum Use Formal learning to provide structured learning in a "fail safe" environment 20% Peer Learning Create incentives within the company that support and encourage collaboration Allow social learning to grow organically 70% On-the-Job Learning Provide a structure for immediate and comprehensive feedback Create relevant information that can be consumed at the moment challenges arise For those that have started incorporating the 70/20/10 framework, you would agree the list above is far from exhaustive, but it is a good guidepost for those that are just starting down this path. About the author: Nolan spends the majority of his time performing marketing research in the L&D industry to help understand the most common and pressing challenges of the industry.  He uses this information to help formulate cutting-edge learning solutions that are designed to maximize business performance and return on investment. The post Breaking Down the 70/20/10 Framework appeared first on .

The Power of Stories "Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a king…" "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…" Most of us grew up listening to stories of faraway lands with knights in shining armor rescuing beautiful princesses from monsters and space stations destroying planets. These stories have elements of mystery and intrigue associated with them, which makes them interesting. However, the types of stories we use in trainings are a lot different from fairytales. The theme is never too mysterious and unknown, in fact; the closer the story is to our lives, the more effective its impact on the learner. Elements of an Effective Story The human race has used stories for thousands of years to personalize knowledge. We remember stories much better than content explanation. Research shows that from a very young age, we understand the basic structure (the beginning, middle, and end) of narratives. However, the ability to be a good storyteller is not inborn; you can always learn it. Lead your listeners by creating suspense and curiosity; use verbal pacing through pauses and varied speaking rates; and prepare and plan your stories. Gone are the days when creating ‘forced’ real-life scenarios was considered an effective strategy in making the audience feel connected to the training content. Today, sessions designed for ice breaking, warm-up, wrap-up, and context building are increasingly using suitable stories and anecdotes to engage the learner throughout the instructional process. To ensure the effectiveness of your story, you need to choose one that has a clearly defined single concept, a well-developed plot, and well-formed dramatically appealing characters. Most importantly, the story should be suitable for all your listeners and relevant to your instructional content. While telling the story, it is extremely important to have a proper beginning, which introduces the characters and the conflict; the body, in which the conflict leads to the climax; and the end of the story that shows the resolution of the conflict. Once you finish the story, stop. Do not feel that you have to explain everything. Let your listeners think about the story, and derive their own meaning from it. Presenting with Stories Have you ever wondered why during the majority of presentations you find yourself lost in a sea of content and have to struggle to make sense of PowerPoint slide after slide overflowing with information? Even the most carefully researched and analyzed efforts meet cynicism or dismissal in this form. Yet we could easily engage listeners on a new level if we do away with drab PowerPoint slides and learn to tell good stories instead. Stories are how we remember; we forget bullet lists and graphs. Too often presentations try to sweep all the difficulties, the villains, and the struggle under the carpet. We prefer to present a rosy (in other words, fake and boring) picture of the world. What we should do is position problems in the foreground and then show how we can overcome them. When you tell the story of your struggles against real adversaries, your audience sees you as an exciting, dynamic person or organization. Emotions Move People to Action We need to understand that in order to get a required result or bring about a desired change, we cannot rely on the belief that people are inspired to act by reason alone. Therefore, the most powerful solution is to unite an idea or concept with an emotion. The best way to do this is by telling a gripping story. Essentially, a story expresses how and why life changes. It begins with a situation in which life is in balance and everything is fine. Then, an incident takes place that throws life out of balance for the central character. The story continues to describe how the central character’s expectations clash with an unforgiving reality in an effort to restore balance. Gear Stories to the Audience To ensure that your stories effectively engage participants, it is important that you know your audience. If you do not know you audience, you do not know which stories are appropriate or how to optimize them. Next, try to engage your audience’s emotions by using powerful images and appeal to as many of their senses as possible. You need to teach clearly and directly through the story. If you think about the best inspirational speeches that you have heard, there is a lesson at the end of them. The speaker first draws us in by telling us a story, which uses familiar situations we all understand, and helps the audience relate to the speaker as a human being. Only after hearing the story are we receptive to the lesson entailed. Uses of Storytelling In any learning environment, storytelling can be one of the most powerful instructional techniques in your repertoire. It can help you get learners’ attention and as a result, aid with the retention of course information. You can use storytelling at the beginning of, during, or at the end of training but every time you use it, you need to know the purpose in order to have the greatest impact. Stories at the beginning of a training discourse help set the tone and establish rapport. During the discourse, you can use stories to create a link between the old and the new or complex concepts/ideas and hence, hold the attention of the learners. Finally, you can use stories at the end of your discourse to aid in retention of the information. Another interesting fact about storytelling is that you can use it to not only tell about the past but also, effectively project the future by creating scenarios of possible future events. However, to ensure that your story is not boring and predictable, you should avoid telling a beginning-to-end tale describing how results meet expectations. Instead, display the struggle between expectation and reality, in all of its wickedness. Guidelines for Effective Storytelling There are certain guidelines that you can follow for making your storytelling session as effective as possible: Involve the learner in your storytelling to create a connection. Make sure the story is relevant to the subject matter. If it is not, resist the urge to tell it, however interesting it may seem! Check your story for anything that may make someone uncomfortable (In other words, avoid stories that accidentally make fun of a culture or belief.) Make the story short and to the point. Even an extremely good story that goes on for too long loses steam. With careful thought and planning, storytelling can be a powerful tool to grab learners’ attention, engage them throughout the instructional process, and help with the retention of information. So, start weaving interesting stories to enhance your instructional skills! About the author: Sana Rashid Siddiqui, with a Masters Degree in English, has been working as an Instructional Designer and Training Needs Analyst for more than a decade. She is a British Council certified master trainer and has worked with prestigious elearning and publishing companies to create the most effective learning solutions for different training/teaching delivery media. She firmly believes in free knowledge sharing and is an active volunteer for Times of India’s ‘Teach India’ campaign and Bharat Learn’s curriculum design and implementation. An avid nature and music lover, she gives vent to her innate creative abilities through poetry. The post Storytelling: A Never-Failing Technique appeared first on .

I rarely see my friends.I have aging parents who require a great deal of care, and it's difficult to find the time.I often check email or get calls for work outside of normal business hours.The relationships I have with family, spouse or friends are difficult right now.I don't sleep enough or well, so coffee (or other caffeine) is my best friend all day. Last night we were invited to a basketball game at the last minute. I've been busy and my first thought was how fun it would be to go home and do nothing. When work get's exhausting, we disconnect. I am saddened by people who are unable to walk away from their desk at a reasonable time, and sometimes I'm one of them. Sure, everyone has times when there's an extra load of work, but the 12+ hours of work a day as a norm is not healthy, not productive and always a choice. I had a great time at the game. The Economist looked at the data from OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries and found that the more productive workers were those who spent less time in the office. Lifehacker takes it one stop further and puts an actual number on how many hours we work before we begin to see diminished results - it’s about 30 hours.Who is the Enemy? According to one of my favorite writers Steven Pressfield, in his great little book Do the Work, there are three enemies: Resistance (aka our self): fear, self-doubt, procrastination, addiction, distraction, timidity, ego, self-loathing, perfectionism… okay that's enoughRational thought: using logic to help you hide from your best selfFriends and family who tell you that's just the way it has to be Your Resistance  conversation often goes something like this: Everyone else is working long hours so I have to as well. Why? What will really happen to you? You could get fired... and end up in a more sane place. You could get your work done with more quality and focus and model how to have a life to others.  What if I leave and no one notices? What if I'm not needed? If the work you are doing is irrelevant you are not needed, regardless of how many hours. Better question is what would make you needed in a positive way? What if I lose this job and the awesome salary I have? Trading money for hope and health isn't good for anyone, your place at work or you. Back in my baby programmer days, we didn't work much because it was the acceptable culture. You worked on one project at a time with a dedicated team, and sometimes you waited. You went on half hour breaks twice a day and over one hour lunches. You rushed off to play in softball and bowling leagues, or grabbed a beer with friends. And we were really bored. There wasn't enough to do. Somehow we've swung completely the other way, and we've got to help ourselves and team find the middle. As a leader, I have days that I'm off kilter and unclear, just like you do. It always seems to follow a period of intense activity, not just work stuff but also includes things I love. To stop and listen is a gift I find difficult to practice. My head, heart and health pay me back and stop me when I ignore quiet. As a leader, I must model and help my learners and my team remember to stop, listen and appreciate. I must also model asking for help from others, so I can also see the light of servant leadership driving  hope.  Here are some other ideas: Just like on projects, if I'm clear what my purpose is in my work I am better at weathering the frustration. Why does the job exist? What does it bring to the world? Why does it matter? I teach workshops to people all over the country, but I like to believe I help people get from where they are to where they want to go. I rarely hear how it turned out. When people do share with me what they've kept from our discussions, my heart sings. Better yet, knowing that it is happening can help me handle the insignificant distractions of email, airports and grumpy people. Use a quick email to challenge everyone to reply all with something they've learned from someone else that has improved their sense of purpose.  Steven Pressfield warns us that Resistance is always there, waiting to strike and hold us back. Any act that gets us thinking about our higher work (purpose) will always bring Resistance to us. Ask every one on your team to find a Steven Pressfield quote on the web and post it on their cube somewhere where others can see it and ask about it. Challenge each member of the team to build a Purpose Statement and proudly post that next the  Steven Pressfield quote. The rule is it has to have three verbs and a noun (a few connecting words are okay as well).  Mine is I ignite, affirm and sustain learning in self and others. Share yours as an example before you challenge your team.Schedule our Power of YOU online or live workshop for your team and invite the people you'd like to work more closely with to attend as well.

Is the fact that your organization already developed eLearning content and owns a Learning Management System enough to consider shifting from eLearning to mobile learning? Maybe not, but it’s a good prerequisite and this is normally the case. Very rarely do we encounter organizations that proceed to the development of online training material for mobile learning, without having "passed" through the eLearning experience.

Allison Miller is a member of eWorks’ team of accredited consultants, and a regular contributor to eWorks’ blog. Allison is passionate about providing learners with the knowledge and skills that they need in order to succeed in the world of work. And this means all learners - whether they are straight out of school or […]

Traditionally, sales organizations launched new products at massive sales events. Expensive, onsite events. Lots of travel, time out of the field and lots of easily forgettable brouhaha about new products. This format, while exciting at the time, left many holes in training effectiveness: products change rapidly, new products are formed more than once a year, a single training event does not produce long-term effects. Fortunately, multimodal learning has replaced the single event. While many companies may still have a large annual sales event, the actual learning may be delivered in many ways, continuously over time. All good changes that contribute to better retention, faster time to market and true just-in-time access. We had a client in the Medical Device manufacturing industry who had a complex set of challenges. Their sales teams were distributors, not company employees. They asked them to attend product classroom sessions conducted by product subject matter experts. Sometimes, they had great attendance, other times, not so much. And, the training varied between facilitators in spite of best efforts otherwise. But the biggest challenge was the lag between the introduction of new products and getting a fully trained sales force. Now, we all knew that adding an online multimodal learning program would alleviate most of these concerns. But, the client was concerned about creating custom eLearning that was as effective as the classroom option. They had several hands-on exercises that helped explain the product and they were uncertain that experience could be accomplished in a multimodal learning format. Well, not only did KMI Learning create simulations of these exercises but added additional features to enhance the learning and retention. We also offered a gamification option where sales reps could compete for higher scores and awards. Now, sales reps could take the training whenever it was convenient or necessary for them. The client could see how the learners performed through testing and assessments and could roll-out new product training much more quickly. So, that covered the product training but what the skills needed to sell the product? Sure, understanding the product is a necessary first step in selling that product, but it is not enough. How does that product stand up against competing products, what are your prospects’ pain points, how does your product address those pain points? Obviously, sales skills training is essential to arm your sales teams with the appropriate knowledge to answer these questions. So in collaboration with our client, we created an entire series of courses to align sales positioning skills with each product. These skills modules shared competitive information, common client objections, and solutions to these objections. Multimodal learning provided a unique opportunity for sales reps to "practice" best behaviors without damaging any relationships. Simulations of real-life situations were safely and realistically demonstrated and the sales rep employed the skills learned within these simulations. Practice truly makes perfect. Let KMI Learning help your sales teams become perfect, too. The post Multimodal Learning Always Beats Your Traditional Product Launch appeared first on KMI Learning.

All of us have customers. If you are a freelance writer or instructional design consultant, you know how important it is to keep the customers you have happy. If you are an in-house instructional designer or writer, you have customers too. Even though your customers are internal, it is just as important to keep them happy. If you deliver poorly written manuals or ineffective training, they will not want to spend their budget with you. They may complain to your boss or go outside of the company to hire someone. Regardless if you have your own business or work for a company, it is easier to keep the customers you have instead of finding new customers. MHI Global wrote an article with a few tips on keeping your customers happy: What Do Customers Want? 4 Basic Things.

In the previous post, I mentioned that the way we do collaboration needs to change and become more dynamic and global in its outlook. In the past, collaborative groups were organized "in-house" and involved employee groups tasked with a particular problem. Access to a SME was an important element of the plan and the ID's had the responsibility of establishing a rapport with the SME's so that the designed collaborative plan would have a good chance of producing positive results. At that time, the outreach beyond the walls of the organization might be by teleconference and satellite linkups to branch offices. This was useful for delivering training or sharing important data on which an organization could make sound business decisions.As mentioned in the previous post, the world indeed changed and this change was manifested in two ways:With the growth of technology, especially as it related to doing business using the Internet as a medium, the "in-house walls" came down. The boundaries that previously defined the area of pursuing business were not only removed but the access to important markets and strategic data needed in order to compete in such a medium, accelerated. The natural consequence was an organizational rush to position their organizations to compete in a globally connected collaborative digital economy. The great challenge facing organizations was to overcome organizational inertia and the changing of an entrenched mindset that said:"We have always done things this way" to a mindset that now said: "How can we engage our employees to be effective learners of new online skillsets and thus establish our organization as one that is dynamically focused on innovative thinking?"The second shift or change was the realization that real world problems have become more complex and that we have more immediate access to ongoing information about them in real time than what we were able to accomplish in the past. This means that maintaining a strong relationship with our SME may not be enough for us to be successful. The reason is that working in an online environment highlights the importance of critical thinking skills both in the navigation on the web but also the search, analysis and interpretation of accessed data. Also, the need for more than one skillset derived from a multitude of other disciplines to focus on a tasked problem can not be derived from the skillsets of one individual, especially if you require high quality interpretation of a tasked problem and innovative solutions.Out of necessity in operating in such an environment, the way we collaborate has to change to utilize the great potential that the environment offers. The use of social media as a tool for establishing effective online branding for an organization should not be underestimated. Tools such as Twitter and LinkedIn are global in out reach and can raise the visibility of an organization and establish its brand much more quickly than even many well planned out advertising campaigns that ignore such a tool. Crowd sourcing has also been a useful tool for moving "start-ups" forward on a solid financial footing.How Should Collaboration Change? The following are merely suggestions to promote thoughtful engagement:Importance of an Effective Dynamic Learning Culture: We live and work in an information and learning age that puts a high value on the creation of new knowledge and skillsets. Unlike the past when content was king, something of greater value is learning how to think and use the resources and information that resides on the web. This means that it is better to nurture and reward the learning skills of employees than to expose them to countless hours of PowerPoint content and demand them to memorize it or else. If our goal is to have employees who naturally want to learn more, seek to collaborate with others to solve problems and be innovative to the benefit of the organization, then engagement needs to be fueled by the intrinsic motivation of the individual and not by extrinsic motivators that use the "carrot or the stick" mentality.Hiring Practices: HR departments have followed a tried and true method for new hiring since business organizations have been in existence and had started to grow. However, with the opening up of the World Wide Web to business, competition for talent increased exponentially. This means that the search for talent just took on a new level. It is not enough to post employment opportunities, collect resumes, go through a selection process, conduct preliminary interviews and at some point in time arrive at a decision. CV's and resumes can easily be artificially enhanced. It is important to pay attention to skillsets as they present themselves in the activities of potential candidates in the online environment. It is important for HR departments to be aggressively proactive in searching out talent but in searching out such talent it needs to be remembered that these skillsets will complement the skillsets of others tasked with a given real world problem. The "branding of the individual" is just as important as the branding of an organization when it comes to hiring practices.Ad Hoc Collaborative Groups: The idea of "outsourcing" has enjoyed a great deal of notoriety in the past due to how it can depress the economy of a city, a state and even a country. However, searching and bringing together talent in online collaborative groups tasked in solving real world problems has the potential to enlist not just the talent in "our own back yards" but to use effective global talent seeking to bring together the necessary skillsets required for understanding and solving the problem. On an ad hoc basis such groups could disband after a solution is produced. Unlike outsourcing, protocols should be established to share the benefits with the organizations represented by the collaborators. It does not require the closing down of a business that would result in unemployment and a depressed economy and the ROI for the collaborating organizations could be quite intriguing.Establishment of Collaborative Global Learning Networks: This is a concept that I have mentioned before in previous posts. Essentially it involves setting up 6 collaborative global learning networks that act as forums for organizations to send employees with promising new and innovative ideas to. It is here, in what we might term an "innovation sandbox" that employees may collaborate, receive mentoring, and be able to develop their ideas and present them to a council made up of cross disciplinary specialists. The employees then return to their respective organizations with a report on the potential benefit of the ideas as well as the necessary caveats to be aware of. The concept of proprietary and intellectual ownership should be worked in such a way that it doesn't promote or lead to a "paralyzing protectionism" which defeats the purpose of collaborating in the first place.  There is still a fundamental question that has an impact on such ideas which is: "Will the vision and purpose of education change in order to produce learners who are creators of new knowledge and skillsets or will education continue to be resistant to the necessary changes that prepare the learners to be effective organizational leaders and employees in the real digital world?"Next...Learning Cultures in Education--Breaking Down Barriers

"2016 is the year when we stop talking about what needs to be done. Instead it is the year when we need to make it happen," writes Laura Overton, Founder and CEO of Towards Maturity—and keynote speaker for the 2016 Lectora® User conference. Laura’s expertise on modern learning comes from 30 years of practical experience looking at learning innovation for business advantages. It’s also backed by her independent research since 2003 when she authored "Linking Learning To Business" —one of the first industry benchmark studies with both organizations and learners investigating good practices of successful implementations. She’ll be sharing her expertise at the LUC 2016 using research with over 4,400 L&D leaders and 20,000 learners around the globe, along with practical insights gleaned from the world’s top-performing organizations. A recent Towards Maturity report, The Consumer Learner at Work, showed that: 80% of employees who have invested their own time and resources in learning can see how online learning helps further their career 70% think online learning has had a positive impact on job performance Laura calls this data "a wake-up call for L&D teams." Modern learners want easy access to relevant and practical learning that adds value to their lives. Laura says, "When learners say they are keen, curious and want to easily access relevant content, then organisations [sic] must listen. Clearly, corporate L&D is not providing what motivated learners want. Think about the impact this will be having on those who are less motivated." When business is changing rapidly and learners are under more pressure than ever before, L&D has a unique opportunity to make a real difference to both performance and employee engagement. The future is bright, but L&D needs to adapt—fast. Ready to start building better modern learning cultures in 2016? Register now to reserve your spot at Laura Overton’s keynote presentation at the 2016 Lectora User Conference. Don’t wait—the early bird registration rate expires February 15, 2016. References: http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2015/12/09/make-2016-year-of-LD-action/ http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2016/02/02/corporate-learning-wildly-out-sync-how-individuals/ The post Insights on Modern Learning by Laura Overton: LUC 2016 Keynote Speaker appeared first on .

Kate PettyDirector of Certification ProgramsEdTechTeam Read her blog at thetechclassroom.comImagine being able to tell the parents at your school that your teachers are digitally certified. Not only digitally certified... but certified by Google. We think they'd be impressed!Google’s new certification program helps teachers at all levels get officially certified in a very unique way. Teachers can take the free online curriculum and then register to take the Google Certified Educator Level 1 and/or Level 2 exam for a small fee. Once the exam is passed, Google will email the educator a printable certificate and electronic badge to add to his/her electronic signature. The best part of Google’s new certification program is that it isn’t all about "Google". The new program helps educators understand modern pedagogy, offers digital citizenship resources, provides ideas for coaching models, and helps teachers establish Personal Learning Networks - so important in this world of connectivity.EdTechTeam is proud to announce that we now offer a unique set of Google Certified Educator Bootcamps designed to prepare teachers to start studying for their certifications. Very much in-line with our Google Summits, EdTechTeam Bootcamps are ticketed events. Different from Summits, our Bootcamps are intimate affairs with only 25-30 people in attendance. A school or district can sign up to host one with no risk and market the event to the schools around them. Once the event has reached 20 paid tickets, the host of the event gets three free tickets for the event.EdTechTeam Bootcamps for Google Certified Educator Level 1 and Level 2 offer their participants catered lunch and a voucher to take the respective exam. And the learning doesn’t stop when the teachers walk out of the door of an EdTechTeam Bootcamp. Teachers are invited to our closed Bootcamp community of educators who help each other night and day while providing encouragement as they are preparing to take the exam.   Principals and administrators are finding that teachers walk away from our Bootcamp events energized to become certified and empowered to try new things in their classrooms. We look forward to empowering educators by preparing them for these digital certifications. Bring a Bootcamp to your school by filling out a short request form and email Kate with any questions!

Library of Congress 2016 Summer Teacher Institutes -Teaching with Primary Sources The Library of Congress is now accepting applications for its week-long summer institutes for K-12 educators. Held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., this professional development opportunity provides educators with tools and resources to effectively integrate primary sources into K-12 classroom teaching, with an emphasis on student engagement, critical thinking, and construction of knowledge. The Library is offering five programs this summer.  Four of the programs are open to teachers and librarians across all content areas.  One focuses on primary sources in science, technology and engineering. During each five-day institute, participants work with Library education specialists and subject-matter experts to learn effective practices for using primary sources in the classroom, while exploring some of the millions of digitized historical artifacts and documents available on the Library’s website. General Institutes - open to K-12 educators across all content areas: June 27-July 1 July 11-15 July 18-22 July 25-29 Science, Technology, and Engineering Institute - recommended for K-12 educators who teach science, technology, or engineering, or collaborate with those who do:  June 20-24 Tuition and materials are provided at no cost. Participants will be responsible for transportation to and from Washington, D.C., and any required overnight accommodations. Applications are due February 29 and require a letter of recommendation. Read more and apply now ! The post Library of Congress 2016 Summer Teacher Institutes appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

[Post by Justin Hearn, President of GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.] Most of our customers have customized our GeoTalent and TrainingPartner learning management systems in one way or another—not because there’s anything wrong with our products, but because the organizations had unique requirements that no commercial LMS could meet. It may come as a surprise to some software developers, but not all businesses are the same. Even organizations in the same industry operate differently, sometimes only slightly but occasionally massively. And while we’ve tried to cover every possible requirement of every potential process in every prospective organization, the reality is that we can’t—no one can. We learned this early on (and when I say early, I mean back in the 1990s.) Instead, we built our software with tailoring in mind. We made it easy to modify the system to meet unique processes. We include a range of built-in tools for creating custom reports and designing new web functionality. And we designed it so that most changes are held outside the core and won’t affect upgrades. We also sell a suite of APIs, and, of course, we offer customization services for all our products. But you might be asking, if you need to make changes to a commercial LMS, why wouldn’t you have a custom system designed to your exact specifications? There are several critical reasons why developing complex software, such as a learning management system, from the ground up is impractical. The first is that while many organizations require some modifications, the majority of the features and functionality involved in managing learning are similar from organization to organization. Wouldn’t it be easier to tweak an existing system than to re-invent the wheel? The second is that in our experience, custom-developed software fails, miserably, more often than not. We’ve had years and years (more than two decades, in fact) to perfect our products. Our LMS works and we can prove it because it exists now. Custom software might look good on paper, but making it work might be more difficult than first imagined. Do the programmers really understand how learning management works? The third is time. Our software is ready to go right now. It might take a few weeks to complete any changes required to meet your needs, but a custom-developed system can take years to build and test. How long are you willing to wait for your new LMS? The final reason is cost. Even a custom system that appears reasonably priced at the start can become prohibitively expensive over time. Has the development team missed specifications that will need to be added later outside the original quote? Will it work with other applications or require custom integration not included in the price? Can it comply with regulatory standards or will further development be needed at additional cost? Were security and privacy taken into account or will there be costly consequences down the road? The list could go on and on. We’ve already dealt with those issues for you, and because we sell our system over and over, the cost of developing (and testing) it is shared by all our customers. Those accumulated purchases also support us while we enhance, improve and update to meet industry changes. This also means you won’t be left out in the cold as you might be when your custom developers move on to a new project.

Up to this day many industries don't understand or misinterpret social learning, even though the theory of social learning was introduced in 1960's. Want to hear something funny? The first iPhone was introduced in 2007, what means that the social learning theory is almost 7 times older than an iPhone. And believe me, I haven't met a person, who wouldn't know how to use an iPhone. So what is stopping everyone from applying social learning in their industries? Why do corporations provide people with smartphones, iPhones, iPads etc. and forget to provide the aspects of social learning in their organisation? To answer these questions I would like to define the social learning theory. As A. Bandura laid down in his research: "Learning is a cognitive process that takes place in social context and can occur purely from observation or direct instruction even without direct reinforcement". Sounds easy, doesn't it? You observe, learn and apply. But there is something more, something that might scare your manager: no direct reinforcement. Social learning becomes an observable but not easily enforceable cycle. Though I want to put your mind to rest and explain on how social learning process can enhance your team's performance and advance your organisation. Step 1: Ask - social learning? Whenever I Google social learning platforms, I immediately get directed to heavy learning management system (LMS) pages. Either social learning platforms label themselves as LMS's, or we just really don't have that many social learning tools. I think that it's rather first option than the later. Everyone is just so scared of the aspect 'social' that we rather hide this word from our glossaries. For most of the big organisations 'social' might entail slacking, something unknown, non fitting into the current (outdated) organisational structure and loss of control. But as I said this thinking is outdated. Social learnings is not the future, it's the present, and if you will fail to innovate from your Google Docs system you might miss out on a lot of potential success. Let's ask why social learning is so important? The biggest potential hides within your employees and teammates. To empower your team and your company you must tap into the human knowledge and resources. It is the easies, result breeding and the most cost efficient way to focus your teamwork and learning efforts. Learning and locking in (expanding) your internal knowledge will pave the path for further goal creation, connectedness and creation of all round experts. How awesome would it be to have a team of developers, who know how to pitch or sell and have the sales people, who can explain most of the technical aspects of the product? This leads us to the 2nd step: Observing the success Step 2: Observe success Don't know whether social aspect of learning is your cup of tea? Research 10 most innovational companies and reach out: do your tweeting and 'facebooking'. Contact the managers and ask for their opinions and experiences with social learning. You would be surprised by the variety of success stories. Check out some products and read the testimonies. Most of the products provide you with explanations and ways of usage within their webpage. Observation, mutual brainstorm sessions and asking might lead you to the feeling of comfort with the idea of social learning within your company. Step 3: Getting it You might ask: what's next? A training and education 'smartcut'. Allow your team to teach each other and materialise their knowledge transfer. The social learning cycle might not be easily 'top-down' controllable, but it's well observable. What is more, the cycle isn't too difficult to point to a certain direction. There is nothing to fear when we are talking about the social learning. What we all have to understand is that, if you have a great and professional team, there is no need to reenforce a heavy LMS. Human beings are always striving to expand their knowledge and create pleasurable working environments. Decision to implement social learning into your daily organisational life has to be built on the trust in your teams capabilities and eagerness to learn. Keep in mind that Today and Social are to inseparable subjects. You already opened the floodgate by providing your employees and teammates with the means to pursue social in the organisation. Now lead them to social ways of knowledge sharing! Have any questions? Drop me a tweet @learningspaces. Tell me about your fears and expectations towards social learning? What are you using for internal knowledge sharing?

The key to developing expertise is deliberate practice. While some of this can happen during formal instruction, expertise has to be developed outside the classroom, as that is where most of us spend our time. Expertise takes time to develop, but how can organizations support novices as they go through their journeys to expertise? Tom Gram has three posts that cover the research and application of deliberate practice based on the work of Dr. Anders Ericsson. Practice & Development of Expertise: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 Tom Gram has synthesized some of this research with an image that shows how low-performing novices and high-performing experts differ. To focus on deliberate practice, we need to put it into all aspects of workplace learning. This means instruction based on action, not content, such as Cathy Moore’s action mapping approach. It also requires cognitive apprenticeship, especially within communities of practice. Using the 70:20:10 principle, a good practice would be to include deliberate practice into all aspects of workplace learning, whether in education programs, coaching and exposure, or through everyday experience. In this way, new patterns can be sensed, especially through exposure to external social networks. New mental models can be developed through the practice of PK Mastery. To promote deliberate practice, the organization has to reduce barriers to sharing tacit (implicit) knowledge and encourage informal learning while working. Deliberate practice is a key part of social learning.

I recently presented at a local conference called iTeach808 and my plan was to introduce teachers to Google tools that expose students to the world beyond their physical reach: Cultural Institute, My Maps, and Google Cardboard. Let's just say I never got around to Cultural Institute and My Maps. Teachers were just blown away by the potential of Google Cardboard! Here's what I shared with them!I'm going to share a few of my favorite Google Cardboard resources below. But for a more comprehensive guide visit my resource page! Favorite Cardboard OptionsAlthough these are the most expensive Cardboard options ($19.95+), what I love about unofficialcardboard.com is that you can customize with your own logos and images. This might be a great option for schools looking to brand their sets of Cardboard.The coolest option I found is to laser cut your own out of wood, cardboard, or other materials.Find the files on Thingiverse.Want to know what the cheapest Cardboard option is? Check out the Google Cardboard in Education resource page!Favorite Apps for CardboardDiscover VRfor Android & iOSThis app doesn't just have amazing 360° and Google Cardboard content, but it can be extremely useful in the classroom as well! Take students on a safari as elephants swim and play or learn about how we're protecting Costa Rica's rainforests, all in an amazing VR experience!Vrsefor Android & iOSVrse is another great app that provides cinematic virtual reality content. Think of a news story you may watch on TV, and then imagine immersing yourself right in the middle of that story! Vrse does that! For example, check out "Clouds Over Sidra", a story about 12-year old Sidra who has spent 18 months in Zaatari, a Syrian refugee camp. This will definitely change your students perspective on the Syrian civil war.Favorite 360° ContentIf you can't get your hands on enough Google Cardboard and devices for your class, you could always check out the 360° content that doesn't require Cardboard. My favorite place to visit is the #360video YouTube channel. This is an extensive collection of 360° video content that you can play on a mobile device or tablet.Take your students on a deep dive into a shark infested shipwreck!For even more great Google Cardboard content and a constantly updated list of resources, visit my Google Cardboard in Education resource page!

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on Fast Company and shares the insights of today’s top entrepreneurs and innovators.Good leaders are contagious. They enable us to forge our own paths, but are also there to coach us when we stumble. They inspire us to dream big and act on the possible. They also have a significant impact on an organization’s bottom line. A recent study by a Fortune 500 bank revealed that great leadership is proven to double an organization’s bottom line.But what separates the extraordinary leaders from the rest? "Look at the things that everyone else believes to be a bad idea. If you’re chasing something that everybody else believes to be a good idea, there are probably a hell of a lot of other people chasing that same thing."Read the articleThe post Fierce Resource: Lessons of Leadership from Fast Company’s Innovation Festival appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

It is common for organizations and teams to lean on their all-stars to take them to new levels. That is to be expected. However, we often see that in organizations, the all-stars burn out the quickest. They are also the ones most poached, and they leave for bigger opportunities.We understand that, because the all-stars are the employees you want to replicate. The all-stars are the ones that will always do the extra work. They take on that one extra project. They do one more client engagement. They go above and beyond.It is important to recognize the value all-stars bring to your team and organization. I once worked with a vendor at Microsoft who was famous for burning out his top talent. He would just keep piling on more projects, more engagements, more talks, while leaving other team members who needed more help and development room to have work-life balance. It never took long for the all-stars to catch on, and eventually, another organization would whisk them away. It was common for the all-star to say: That was a great experience, and now I need more balance and control over what I work on.I know for a fact that he wished more employees would stay and grow in different ways and bigger capacities, and yet, the conversations didn’t happen. So I ask: How do you treat your all-stars? Do they feel they have the balance they desire? Do they have time to reflect and grow the way they want to? Are you having the conversation?This week’s tip is to celebrate the all-stars on your team. To get started, who shows up every day with a stellar attitude? Who always chips in when others are slammed? Who brings new and inventive ideas to the table? Those are the people you want to recognize.Here are some ideas:Ask what specific recognition they would most appreciate. Don’t assume that they want the verbal announcement. They may want some extra cash or the support to take some time off.Take them out to lunch. Pause and take time to talk about how they are doing as individuals. Although work will most likely be discussed, try to turn the focus on more personal goals and ask more about how they are.Give positive feedback. Take the time to give impactful feedback to the individual. Many people will give more superficial feedback like you are doing great or you rocked that project. Create more value by giving specific examples and share how they have personally and organizationally made a difference.  Who are you celebrating this week? And how?The post Fierce Tip of the Week: Celebrate Your All-Stars appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

As we get closer to Super Bowl Sunday, there is a lot of talk about teams. Who will win? Who will have their head in the game?Just like in athletics, building a high-performing team in your organization requires effort and heart. When you are part of one, you feel it. Some people call it "being in the flow".All-star teams do not happen by luck. To build them, they take practice, discipline, and the ability to learn from mistakes.The difference between an A team and an A+ team is the difference between a million in revenue and a billion in revenue." - Paul English, Kayak  Say Thank You The reality is that many people do not spend enough time appreciating one another. A great exercise that we have used internally at Fierce requires each individual to sit at the front of the room in a chair for two minutes and listen to positive feedback from team members, saying nothing but thank you in response. Instead of hollow expressions, like, "You’re fun," they need to be specific, like, "I appreciate the way you greet me every morning. You really start my day off well." The person gets to hear how they’re unique, and it provides an opportunity for fellow team members to give positive feedback and ensure that it’s heard.If you don’t have time to do this exercise, you can create a "shout-out" time in some of your regular standing meetings. As the leader, make sure to set the tone by giving well-thought out feedback to kick it off.Set Aside Time and LearnYour job as a leader is to continue to develop and grow your team and the individuals. As John Kotter stated in Leading Change, "Ongoing training and development for the team members is critical. Some high performance teams spend as much as 30 percent of their time in training on such subjects as team building, leadership, communication, coaching, technical knowledge, and computer skills, problem-solving, budget process, conflict resolution, critical thinking, and writing. This systematic training breeds a feeling of ‘esprit de corps.’"Invest in creating learning experiences for your team. Your team members will recognize their importance within the group, as well as improve overall. The benefits don’t stop there. After each training experience, your team is more skilled and will add more value to the organization.Get Out of the WayRegularly check-in with your team members and ask how you, as the leader, can support each individual. When you ask, take the time to listen and ask really good questions - draw out the real issues. Leave your expert hat off, and really dive into the conversation. Oftentimes, people do want their leader to step away more, to give more autonomy.In order for you to get out of the way productively, go through a decision tree exercise. At Fierce, we use the analogy of a tree to facilitate these conversations. You can be delegated responsibilities at four different levels: Root, Trunk, Branch and Leaf. Each level has a clear and concise definition of what is expected for the area or project and how they interact with you, the leader. This type of clarity allows decisiveness and creates more autonomy, even if there is still approval or oversight needed.Any other tips? The post Three Tips to Build an All-Star Team appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on Ted.com and provides one activity that will uncover everything that is holding your team back.In theory, teamwork should bring organizations together, produce better results, and increase organizational adaptability. But in reality, most team projects start with individuals jockeying for power. And that’s where the team dynamic needs to shift. In his 2010 TedTalk: Build a Tower, Build a Team, Tom Wujec shared that we all need to stop trying to be the CEO of ‘X’ project.Can your team handle the marshmallow challenge? Read the complete transcript here. The post Fierce Resource: Tom Wujec - Build a Tower, Build a Team appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

This is the week of love in the United States. Valentine’s Day turns to the personal sides of our lives more than the professional, and to some, that may seem inappropriate for the workplace.However, I argue, with greater significance than ever, we must care about our employees’ relationships outside of the workplace. Gone are the days that our personal lives don’t intertwine with our workplace conversations. In fact, it is directly related to personal satisfaction at work. Last year, we surveyed 1,000 working women about work/life balance, and 82.6% shared that having a fulfilling relationship with their partner was the primary attribute of having it all.In Fierce Conversations, Susan Scott shares that we must discard the idea that our home and office conversations are quite different. She says, "When you squeeze an orange, what comes out of it? Orange juice. Why? Because that’s what’s inside it…When we get squeezed-when things aren’t going well for us-what comes out of us? Whatever’s inside us." The point is that if your conversations at work are creating disappointing results, it is likely that you are getting the same at home. Or vice versa.This week’s tip is to share appreciation with someone you love at home. While Valentine’s Day is portrayed as a time to give chocolates, jewelry, or nice gifts, use the occasion to share the gift of deep connection. Set aside some time to really connect with the person, and be specific with what you appreciate and give concrete examples. Warning: Warm and fuzzies may ensue. That’s why it is called the week of love.So, I ask: Who will you talk with this week? What do you appreciate?The post Fierce Tip of the Week: It’s the Week of Love - Share Appreciation at Home appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

More than 1,000 Google employees are playing whack-a-mole with crummy and dangerous ads.It's no wonder that use of ad blockers is taking off, given that online ads are often annoying at best and illegal and dangerous at worst. Google today put some big numbers behind the bad-ad epidemic by reporting that, in the past year, it blocked more than 780 million of the very worst from getting through its ad network. Among the offenders: malware, links to data-stealing phishing sites, and those ads on mobile web browsers and apps that are almost impossible to not click on.Read Full Story

Airbnb argues that cities are missing out by not working with the startup to collect hotel, tourist, and occupancy taxes.Airbnb wants U.S. mayors to know that their cities could profit from the home-rental business.Read Full Story

After yanking hoverboards from its site, Amazon said it will refund customers who purchased the devices.After pulling so-called hoverboards from its site in December, Amazon is going another step further and granting refunds to any customer who purchased the two-wheeled electric scooters. The device was yanked from Amazon in response to reports that the hoverboards were exploding and causing fires.Read Full Story