Topic: eLearning 101; A Quick Start for eLearning First Timers Date and time: Wednesday, 2nd October, 2013 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM US/Pacific Description: Every Year More and More Companies are joining the online learning movement. Whether it’s a late realization that online courses can save your institution money or eLearning is just ‘new to you,’ it […]

A short, personal message of thanks one week after the release of Flat Army. 44 total views, 4 views today Related Posts:Flat Army: Chapter 11 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 12 OverviewFlat Army: Afterword OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 10 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 9 Overview

Apple accounts for fewer than one in five smartphone sales worldwide. But when it comes to making money, it pretty much has the whole pie. The post Apple Doesn’t Sell All the Phones. But It Makes All the Money appeared first on WIRED.

For years, the teachers were given the role of collector of information and disseminating that information through a sage-on-a-stage classroom. However, with the rapid increase in the reach of Internet, information is now freely and easily accessible. The classroom is no longer the single source of information, thought it remains a very important one. Voice […]

As promised, it’s April 1, 2013 and I’m taking the opportunity in this post to announce the ten winners who receive copies of Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization. If you recall, I asked people to surface their beliefs concerning "the biggest culture issue facing our organizations today and why?" There were 39 responses. Wow. Judging was not easy. I’d like to thank everyone for participating. Your passion and consternation mixed with analysis and detail was both insightful and at times alarming. I wish I could give each of you a copy. The winners … with a brief explanation as to why are as follows: @Cindy Jensen Your use of the word vulnerable was key. I too believe leaders need to manage (it’s unavoidable) but they need to be vulnerable … opening themselves up to this concept called humanity. Well done. @Josh Alter  I believe you are spot on. Although I don’t think an all-face-to-face edict should be forced (ahem, Yahoo!) we need to find the proper balance between F2F and digital. It’s critical for the next few years. @Rob Your succinct entry caught my attention as did the point about inertia itself. It reminded of a quote I live by, "To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often." (Churchill) @Jennifer Lee Your comment was as though you’ve already read the book. Nicely written. @Leisa Johnson Resting on past success or the laurels of a good job will do nothing for the Flat Army organization of tomorrow. I enjoyed your point about complacency immensely. @Erik Korsvik Østergaard I couldn’t have said it better, "To acknowledge, understand and exploit the fact, that the network based organisation is far superior to the traditional one." @Steve You really made me think about your argument of ‘tradition versus trust’. I hadn’t thought of it that way before. Thank you. @Mark You make a strong case for what I wrote in Chapters 2 and Chapters 3. Engrained past ‘management’ and ‘training’ practice needs to give way to the ‘connected leader’. @Geoff Wonderful point about time. It may take longer to collaborate and think, but in the end, it will result in a healthier result and organization. @Stacey You blew my mind away with the term ‘They’sayers’ and the argument depicted therein. I’d like to quote you in my next book if I can. @Jeanette Cefre Two thumbs up. A learning culture is essential in today’s Flat Army organizational quest, and is the thesis around Chapters 9 and 10. Again, thanks to everyone for contributing. In doing so, you already demonstrated to me you are a Flat Army leader. For those 10 names above, I have your email address and will forward them off to Wiley who will be in touch with you directly about shipping instructions. Ancora Imparo 42 total views, 3 views today Related Posts:10 Free Copies of Flat Army … Participate to Winthe FLAT ARMY cheat sheetWHY I Wrote Flat Army: The Flat Army Golden CircleFlat Army: Chapter 10 OverviewAnnouncing the Full Book Cover Jacket of Flat Army

Adobe Master Class trainer Robert Farrell has been teaching Adobe users how to effectively use our software for the past 25 years. We are offering his courses for $10, slashed from $39. Offer ends September 23. Here is the Complete Course List on Adobe KnowHow. He teaches Edge Reflow, Illustrator, Indesign, After Effects, Dreamweaver and Responsive Web Design on Adobe […]

On the afternoon of Sunday, March 24, 2013 I sent a generic email to my entire LinkedIn network. Close to 1800 people received this email. Its overarching intent was to ‘ask’ for their support. (click here to read it) As some of you might know, I recently published my first book. Excited doesn’t begin to describe how I feel about both the book and becoming a rookie published author. My Dad told me a story once when I was a wee lad about his aspirations to become either an author or a journalist. Back in the day, and the day being the 1950′s in England, my father wasn’t given the choice to choose his career. His own father — the town mayor no less — informed my Dad he was to become an electrical engineer and to forget about a career using Gutenberg’s device of wonder. Of course when it was time for me to decide what to do with my life, my father acted as a sounding board not the actual speaker of selection. He was a true ‘guide on the side’ not a ‘parental drone with a megaphone’. Which brings me back to my decision to release an email to 1800 LinkedIn contacts informing them of the availability of Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization. I debated whether to do it. I truly did. I knew there would be people who simply deleted it and said to themselves, "whatever." I took that risk. I knew there would be people who might even get annoyed with what they might brand as ‘spam’. I also hoped there would be those that saw the intent of the message which was to simply consider my ask to make others aware of the book. I got a truckload of positive emails, texts, DM’s and even phone calls and face-to-face high fives to last a lifetime. Many from people I haven’t directly heard from in years. Since the beginning of 2013, I have tried to do things ‘differently’ with the launch of the book. For example, I created a self-made video for each of the 13 chapters — and released one per week — as a way to provide additional insight into the book. I forbid the back cover to include any recommendations or quotations from others. I didn’t even want an official launch party. There are reasons to my author idiosyncrasies. And then on March 24th I sent a direct email to anyone in my LinkedIn network. There were other actions planned — including press releases / interviews / articles / reviews — but I still believe the direct email to my LinkedIn network was an act of communication and not SPAM. But there were going to be some who disagreed with me. I’m not naïve; it was inevitable. This included an individual who is both in the acknowledgments and showcased in the book itself. I consider this individual a true interlocutor and an intellect. The email I received from this individual started out, in my opinion, as an attack but it swiftly and gently moved into a "here is what I’ve learned from my experience" to a "I think you can do better" denouement. The attack was as follows: I feel that spamming me and others with a generic message sent via LinkedIn, in the hopes of getting help with spreading word about the book is the wrong tone considering you’re promoting a body of work you’ve created that dares to help organizations understand "social" for use inside the organization. As an act, this message feels so much like a violation of that. At first, I said to myself, "Where is the unLinkedIn button" but then I read on. The email concluded with the following: I don’t think you really want people to spread awareness of your book. I think you want to build a motivated, self-directed army of fans who feel a kinship with what you have to say, Dan, find it empowering and useful… and ultimately see it as a vehicle to move whatever big rocks they have forward. Don’t give into the seduction of what’s easy. Get personal, where it’s messy, complicated and hard. And it’s there where I really appreciated the advice, feedback and experience. For those that believed I may have overstepped email boundaries with a direct yet generic email informing you of the release of Flat Army and asking you to inform your network, I don’t apologize. That’s right, I don’t. I asked my entire LinkedIn network for help. I see nothing wrong with that. Aren’t we connected in the first place to support one another? LinkedIn, at least in my opinion, is the new business card networking machine in our professional world and I would have done the same in 1995 if LinkedIn were around then. Where I erred, however, was the cadence in which I sent my email communication notices. What you don’t know is that I had always intended to send a personal note of appreciation and thanks to everyone (and there are over 150 people I signal out in the acknowledgments) a few weeks into the launch of the book. My rationale was to give them some time to see I actually put them in the book versus spoiling the surprise. So, in rookie author honesty, I think I messed up with those in my network whom actually make up my ‘direct professional ties’. For even sweeter irony, Chapter 7 — The Participative Leader Framework — is written with the point of direct network ties throughout. Ouch. Those direct and personalized notes were always coming but I now agree with my friend who sent me the response which, in part, you read above. I should have sent those notes earlier and personalized the launch of Flat Army for this important audience. I even sent the acknowledgments to Jane Bozarth in advance of the launch for her to read only to realize I forgot to include her. It turns out "to err is human" is one of my finer qualities or I’m simply an arse. But for the rest of my LinkedIn network … my excitement was (and continues to be) over the moon hence my generic email to you inquiring about an ask. If there is a better way, I’m all ears. My Dad never had the chance to be an author. Now that I am and I have vanquished what I believe was a parental mistake on the part of my Granddad, I couldn’t contain my excitement. Equally important was my belief in the thesis of the book that I was comfortable enough asking 1800 people for their help. My ask remains my ask. My thanks to the many who did something about my ask. (Flat Army reached #3 in Canada and #8 in the USA last week in the Amazon Kindle charts for Leadership. There is no way that happens unless the network is spreading the news.) But, as I often say, Ancora Imparo. 77 total views, 3 views today Related Posts:Flat Army Book Launch Party … A Sea of HumanityMy Network is my Net Worth - Part IIAnnouncing the Full Book Cover Jacket of Flat ArmyMy 1800+ LinkedIn Network Graphically Mappedthe FLAT ARMY cheat sheet

Whoever pirated bootleg trailers for Suicide Squad, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, and Deadpool is ruining it for everyone. The post Dear Idiots, Stop Leaking Comic-Con Trailers appeared first on WIRED.

Corporate bullies. I’m fed up with them. In 2006, Sarah J. Tracy, Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik and Jess K. Alberts published an influential paper entitled "Metaphors of Workplace Bullying: Nightmares, Demons, and Slaves: Exploring the Painful" in the Management Communication Quarterly. In it the authors note: Based on qualitative data gathered from focus groups, narrative interviews, and target drawings, the analysis describes how bullying can feel like a battle, water torture, nightmare, or noxious substance. Abused workers frame bullies as narcissistic dictators, two-faced actors, and devil figures. Employees targeted with workplace bullying liken themselves to vulnerable children, slaves, prisoners, animals, and heartbroken lovers. I hope you weren’t drinking tea when you read that as it might now be all over your laptop or device. Seven years later, I’m not all that certain our workplaces have completely eliminated - or even partially eliminated - workplace bullying. To me, it’s another term for ‘command and control’. Leaders who believe it’s their managerial right to flash the "I have a more senior title than you" card in favour of getting a decision to go in their favour are in fact corporate bullies. Leaders who poach internal employees from your team without being proactive and discussing the opportunity or situation in advance with you are corporate bullies. Leaders who ridicule or berate employees in open meetings - whether on a conference call or face-to-face - are corporate bullies. Leaders who make impossible demands on deadlines, who set up their staff for inevitable failure, are corporate bullies. Leaders who take credit for the positive results an individual or team created without said leaders involvement, are corporate bullies. I’m in the midst of writing the second book. You can see where this is going. Corporate bullying is a problem. We might coin these types of leaders as ‘Puppetry of the Meanest’. 60 total views, 1 views today Related Posts:The Mysterium Tremendum LeaderWHY I Wrote Flat Army: The Flat Army Golden CircleVirtual Worlds in an Organization are not a Time Waster (andMy Network is my Net Worth - Part IIMicro-blogging can help build your organisational culture

Guest Blog by: Joanne Nichols, Adobe Certified Trainer and an Adobe Certified Expert in Adobe Captivate When creating eLearning it is important to ensure you keep the user engaged.  By nature we are inquisitive, so why not create eLearning to capture the learner’s interest using this to our advantage. Rollovers are a great way to […]

Are you looking for a little insight into the 90,000 word version of my new book Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization? Perhaps a ‘try before you buy’ approach? Fair enough. Let me do my best and help you out in 559 words. First off, Flat Army is aimed at three audiences: Those in charge of the organization on the whole Leaders with direct teams and/or teams of indirect teams Individual contributors looking to make the leap into leadership Second, it is a manifesto to change both the culture of your organization or team as well as the habits of leaders and teams. It aims to drive up overall employee engagement by connecting the dots between increased levels of collaboration, empowerment and participation coupled by new ways to lead, learn and share. When employee engagement increases in your organization or team, when everyone feels as though they have both a say and an influential part to play in the objectives of the organization, productivity will increase and results will improve. It’s a fact. The book is broken down into seven sections: Chapters 1, 2 and 3 are the setup. It discusses the horrific state of employee engagement, culture and command and control tactics on display in today’s organizations. It investigates why we got this way in the first place, and it outlines at a high level what we have to change in order to improve the health of our workplaces. From there it’s a journey into the Flat Army philosophy aided by 5 key models. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 revolves around the first of those 5 models; the Connected Leader Attributes. Think of a tree with its roots, trunk and branches. A Connected Leader is one who is becoming, being and going beyond through fifteen specific leadership attributes that will ensure you become a very engaging leader, helping your team and organization do the same along the way. Chapter 7 surfaces what I call the Participative Leader Framework which requires leaders to employ the CARE principle (continuous, authentic, reciprocal and educating) as well as being able to both consume and contribute knowledge, ideas and content with the organization. This is coupled by the need to build out both your direct personal and professional network. Chapter 8 is all about a daily leadership habit called the CLAM. It’s my belief that any Flat Army leader in today’s engaged organization must connect, consider, communicate, create, confirm and congratulate through all actions and initiatives. Chapter 9 highlights the Pervasive Learning model. Quite simply, leadership and learning should always be thought of as part formal, informal and social and this chapter explains how to make it happen. Chapter 10 cements the new Flat Army style of a leader and organization through Collaborative Technologies. Leaders need to converse, create content and provide context (the 3 C’s) to effectively become Flat. The final and seventh component to the book (Chapters 11, 12 and the Afterword) details how each of the five models can be put into practice (individually, as a team and through the organization) such that everyone in the organization is singing from the same choir sheet, engaged and being a very productive member of the mission. You can read Chapter 1 for free or if this has whetted your appetite enough, you can grab a copy of the book over here. (hardcover and ebook versions) There is also a one-page Flat Army Cheat Sheet you may have interest downloading. (PDF) Thanks for reading. Hopefully this was enough of a cheat sheet to get you somewhat interested. 253 total views, 4 views today Related Posts:Download Chapter 1 for Free - Flat Army: Creating a…Flat Army: Chapter 11 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 6 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 10 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 5 Overview

Twitter crunched the numbers following Comic-Con and found out what was the most popular. The post Twitter Says Star Wars Wasn’t the Most Popular Thing at Comic-Con appeared first on WIRED.

Adobe Captivate 7 is shipped with some great looking themes to help you get started with your eLearning course creation easily. These themes help you save a lot of time that you would otherwise have to spend in creating graphical assets for your eLearning courses. These themes are bundled with multiple eLearning screen layouts to […]

Far too often I come across stories or direct examples of a leader who has surrounded herself with the same general characteristics and behaviours of the leader herself. And not in a ‘geez, this beer tastes great’ way. The trait I see that causes the most damage or stagnates a team and indirect teams into an endless pit of debate is the ‘no’ trait. No, that will never work. No, I don’t think we should pursue that. No, it’s not something we would ever do. These are lines a leader might say, but leaders are equally influenced by the team she is surrounded by and it’s highly likely she might be fed the ‘no’ ingredient well in advance. It’s the ‘no’ seed planting approach. Some may call it sabotage. A member of the team — who reports directly into the leader — is fully aware the leader is more apt to listen to the reasons why something shouldn’t be done (ie. the ‘no’) and therefore begins a proactive campaign of ‘no’ to help solidify the decision that the project should not move forward. Stakeholders from outside the team are blindsided, hurt and confused. Those external members trying to partner on the project thought things were going smoothly until the ‘no’ seed planting took shape and the leader (inevitably you might say) decried the opportunity was wrong. "No, we won’t proceed." It’s a knot of no’s. If a leader is aware of her own personal tendency to say ‘no’ more often than ‘yes’ or heaven forbid ‘maybe’, might she think about hiring a team (or at least a few) who can think in the spectrum of ‘yes’? I know, I know … 123 total views, no views today Related Posts:The Platonic Leader: Stage 3 of 5 in the Leadership Tonic…the FLAT ARMY cheat sheetThe Ironic Leader: Stage 2 of 5 in the Leadership Tonic…The 4 Traits of a High Performing TeamThe Harmonic Leader: Stage 5 of 5 in the Leadership Tonic…

How much cash does Apple have on hand? About as much as the value of Romania's GDP. And enough to bail Greece out---twice. The post Apple Could Have Bailed Out Greece—Twice appeared first on WIRED.

You may never see video creation the same way. Just one click to record both your desktop and your webcam and minutes later you could be publishing professional quality videos on YouTube, to mobile devices or just about anywhere you’d like. Better yet, it’s free, it’s an App for Mac, and it’s available worldwide. Creating […]

Flat Army revolves around five key frameworks that leaders and organizations need to consider if they want to improve employee engagement and business results. They are: Connected Leader Attributes Participative Leader Framework Collaborative Leader Action Model Pervasive Learning Collaboration Technologies Each of the five frameworks has an associated graphic that helps depict what they’re about. I’ve made available a short presentation on Slideshare where each of those five frameworks and the corresponding graphics are available for you to review. (You can see it below as well) What is a FLAT ARMY? from Dan Pontefract 215 total views, 3 views today Related Posts:It’s Time to Revolutionize Corporate LearningFlat Army: An Overview of the BookFlat Army: Chapter 4 Overviewflat army bookFlat Army: Chapter 3 Overview

There are a lot of fools in our organizations today. Why else is employee engagement at deplorable levels? Why else do we see senior leaders failing to adopt social collaborative technologies inside (or outside) the organization? Why else do we see authoritative, autocratic, fear mongering and controlling leaders still operating in vast numbers? Why do we see information and knowledge hoarding? It’s because the people who act this way are fools. They have a fear of open leadership. They are the FOOL. (It’s an acronym) Work with me. In my book Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization I define open leadership as follows: "the act of engaging others to influence and execute a coordinated and harmonious conclusion" There are some key words and phrases in my definition that FOOL’s don’t understand nor do they action. 1) engaging others Engage with others? Why would a FOOL like me do that? The easier thing to do is to command others and to tell others specifically what to do and by when. I don’t have time to spare, I’m important you know. 2) influence Influence? That takes too long and it requires me to slow down my assault on my next career move up the ladder. Forget influencing, I’m going to control everything about this employee, team and any objectives that are currently in flight. I’m a lot like tupperware; I control and prevent the contents from escaping. 3) coordinated Coordinated? You mean, like, me and the team have to be on the same page? We have to coordinate our ideas, opportunities and actions before we get anything done? I’d rather stick my tongue on frozen monkey bars. That’s what I think of coordinating. 4) harmonious Harmonious? I’m a FOOL; I can’t even spell harmonious let alone define it for you. If you’re in an organization replete with FOOL’s — or worse — you have a direct leader who is a FOOL, you may want to rethink your current role and place of work. If you are a FOOL, drop me a line. I’d be happy to chat about the book with you and get you operating in a flat, open manner. 189 total views, 4 views today Related Posts:The Harmonic Leader: Stage 5 of 5 in the Leadership Tonic…WHY I Wrote Flat Army: The Flat Army Golden Circle10 Free Copies of Flat Army … Participate to Winthe FLAT ARMY cheat sheetdan pontefract

I’m busy prepping for my concurrent session at Adobe Learning Summit on Monday, 21st October. During this session, I’ll be sharing some cool tips on how to use the drag and drop interaction in Adobe Captivate 7. And guess what… It’s becoming really difficult to wait until Monday to share all these amazing tips, so […]

This season's biggest problem: It insists on hitting the same bleak notes for each character, never offering a counterweight to despair. The post True Detective Recap: This Plot Is Getting Hard to Follow appeared first on WIRED.

I’m not a very political man. You may even call me apolitical. I always vote, but I often vote based on the issues versus being tied to a political party. I’m politically Neapolitan. But that doesn’t mean I can’t tell you about a good story that involves Government, regardless of your or my political stripes. In my home province of British Columbia, Canada, there has been a program in place now — called IDEAS2ACTION — where citizens have been asked to get involved, submit ideas and help shape opportunities for skills development across the entire province. The process the Provincial Government followed is best summarized by the graphic found below: There have been over 125 ideas submitted and vetted, with a fantastic accompanying dashboard that depicts the ideas (who they came from) and the action that has been taken by the Government. There are some fantastic submissions such as: Give Students More Exposure to the Trades in Earlier Grades Encourage More Tradespeople to Become Teachers Invest in Facilities and Equipment for K-12 These ideas are coupled by the actions that have since been taken by the Government. This got me thinking about Chapter 8 of Flat Army: The Collaborative Leader Action Model which suggests the following: Implementing Flat Army and the CLAM starts with the principal tenet that we need to open our doors, tear down the cubicles, and invite the entire organization to the table before making decisions or inventing the next new shiny object. Collaboration isn’t easy; in fact, it’s quite difficult. Through this chapter, please root yourself in the know-how that collaboration—as good as it is—always takes longer, but in the end, your leadership style, growth, team unity and organizational prosperity are better off . The cyclical stages of the Collaborative Leader Action Model are as follows: connect (with others) consider (all options) communicate (the decision and action plan) create (the result) confirm (the result met the target) congratulate (through feedback and recognition) My hat is tipped to Tanya Twynstra, Executive Director of Citizen Engagement in the British Columbia Government for spearheading the deployment of the CLAM in the province whilst (perhaps) not knowing that she actually was utilizing the CLAM itself. Tanya works for whatever Government is in power; she only looks out for the betterment of the province and its citizens. In my opinion it’s a great story, regardless of your political affiliation. Mine included. Visit the IDEAS2ACTION site for more information. It’s a good example of Government 2.0. (if you’re still into those 2.0 monikers)   209 total views, 5 views today Related Posts:Virtual Worlds in an Organization are not a Time Waster (andMy Network is my Net Worth - Part IIFlat Army: Chapter 8 OverviewFlat Army Graphics on SlideshareWHY I Wrote Flat Army: The Flat Army Golden Circle

The latest image of Pluto from New Horizons shows the dwarf planet's heart-shaped feature rotating into view. The post Pluto Will Send Earth a Love Letter Tomorrow appeared first on WIRED.

This warning could have come in sooner apologies for the same. Captivate 7 or earlier version customers are not recommended to upgrade to new version of Mac OS as Captivate doesn’t launch . Please hold on your upgrade until we release a patch for CP 7 in next couple of weeks . Customers running earlier […]

"The wind Daddy, it’s so cold," says the 6 year-old boy at the park. "Don’t worry Son," replied the Dad. "I’ll get your jacket from the car." Boom. "I’ll have an extra-hot double-shot latte please," Jenny pleads to the barista as she struggles to pull herself together for the 7am start-time in her job. "No trouble at all Ma’am," the barista joyfully responds. "Coming right up." Boom. Mark thinks to himself as he strolls down the sidewalk, "what time do I have to be at the gala tonight?" He notices and marvels at a hummingbird family approaching a beatific Trumpet Vine and continues his thought. "Oh right, it’s a 7:30pm start." Boom. Trees in the forest are much like humans on earth. For the most part, we humans crave sunshine, water, the accompaniment of others, a calming breeze against our face, and most of all, peace. The recent events in Boston, MIT and Watertown go against the wood grain of any tree in any forest in any land on any part of Earth. It’s as though the force of all evil manifested in an axe and our sturdy, trusty, peaceful forest was hacked down tree after tree after tree. Deforestation of the human spirit - of the human soul - is deplorable, maleficent if not pernicious. But the human spirit is akin to the trees in the forest. Strong. Resilient. Magnificent. There too is rebirth, regrowth and regeneration. There are forests among you. Rather sadly, there are those armed with the aforementioned axes willing and able to chop away. They want to see the ‘boom’. They are the axis of axes. With set-your-watch consistency the forest will be there tomorrow. It’s your forest. It’s your life. You must own it. We must own it. Let us not leave it to kismet. Let us bleed courage as sap does from a tree. Let us remember, We Are All Boston.   230 total views, 4 views today Related Posts:Flat Army DedicationEmail, A Love StoryCredo of the Collaboration CanoeWeb 3.0: It Should Be About Transferrable IdentityInterlocutors of 2012 (the goats are better for it)