With tons of devices in varied screen sizes being used by the trainees and employees, there is a dire need to make the content available on different devices. Thankfully Adobe Captivate 8 allows you to create responsive eLearning courses that can fit perfectly in different device sizes in both horizontal and vertical orientations. You can […]

When I’m writing material for a book, and specifically when I’m using an iPad, I normally find myself mainly in Evernote typing away … but because I like to sketch things out as well I also spend some time on an app called Bamboo Paper. Think of the app as a digital sketch pad or whiteboard where you can use your finger or a stylus to draw, doodle or sketch the coolest stick figures ever. Maybe that’s simply the extent of my artistic abilities, but I digress. I use Bamboo Paper enough that there are over 150 pages of scribbles, diagrams, word messes and so on. After a stroll through night-time Vienna, I returned to the hotel and began writing. Yet again, I found myself in Bamboo Paper scribbling and ideating away when I fell into the procrastination pit — more so now since I’m writing this post instead of a book — and I began scrolling through the various drawings, etc. I made for Flat Army. Interestingly, I forgot I had mapped out the entire book early on in the writing process … on a single page! Here it is for your amusement: Dan's Related Posts:I Wrote a 90,000 Word Book Entirely in EvernoteIn Defense of Alexandra SamuelOur Three Young Children Blog … Here’s WhyOmni Hotels & Resorts in Dallas Demonstrate Great Customer ServicePuppetry of the Meanest

Here is your chance to establish a one-on-one relationship with the Adobe product teams and help us make your product experience better. If you are currently an Adobe Presenter user or have been one in the past, we would love to hear your thoughts in this 5-minute usage survey.  

Summary thoughts of the Drucker Forum 2013. 9 total views, 9 views today Dan's Related Posts:Drucker Forum - Video Update #3 - Day 1 Afternoon/Evening UpdateDrucker Forum - Video Update #1 - Conference OverviewDrucker Forum - Video Update #2 - Day 1 Morning KeynotesRethinking the Work of LeadershipLearning by Osmosis

With hundreds of people joining live for last weeks online seminar about the new Adobe Captivate 8 it’s clear that the eLearning industry is abuzz with excitement. I understand why. The ease of creating great mobile learning with the new Adobe Captivate is pretty astonishing. Here’s the link and description for last week’s online seminar […]

My (video) thoughts on the 5th Annual Global Drucker Forum (2013) held in Vienna, Austria. In a word "excellent" … in a tagline tweet "The Drucker Forum 2013 was the TED of all Leadership Management Conferences #GPDF13″. Dan's Related Posts:Drucker Forum - Video Update #1 - Conference OverviewDrucker Forum - Video Update #3 - Day 1 Afternoon/Evening UpdateDrucker Forum - Video Update #2 - Day 1 Morning KeynotesIn 2014, I Will …Favourite Posts of 2013 That I Wrote & Published

Check out this new case study - it explores how ThinkBuzan expanded their business opportunities by creating engaging eLearning an mLearning with the new Adobe Captivate 8. Rapidly producing visually compelling e-learning content is helping a pioneer in visual thinking sell its innovative software applications. ThinkBuzan uses Adobe Captivate to educate potential customers about its […]

Once in a while, you get inspired by events in your life that seem to be a precursor to real societal change. A hopeful change. A needed change. An evolutionary change. The Drucker Forum 2013 edition that was recently held in Vienna, Austria -14 and 15, November — was one of those moments for me. Over the course of two action packed days and nights, I left feeling not only inspired but personally validated — we might even suggest vindicated — that there is sufficient wind in our change sails to affect the desperately needed improvements in leadership and management practices that engulf our organizations across the globe. Think of the following words as but a snapshot of the intellectual neurons that fired throughout the glorious Federation of Austrian Industries building that housed the event in central Vienna. The conference theme was entitled "Managing Complexity" yet I don’t think it did justice to the presentations, banter and discussions that transpired. It might have been coined "Inspiring a Sense of Purpose". We can thank Charles Handy for that. He helped kick off the conference with a cutting observation that set the tone for almost all interactions thereafter. He remarked early on in his keynote, "People, profit and passion. They’re all important but so too is the order." (And he wasn’t referring to profit being number one) Needless to say, he had me at hello. He also made a sharp observation about helicopter parenting suggesting it doesn’t work at home, so don’t expect it to work in the organization. It inhibits trust and the center will ultimately fight back. Not only did he accept a copy of Flat Army from me, he signed a copy of his book Beyond Certainty for me as well. "Purpose before profit," as Handy told us, is akin to my own personal mantra of "we’re not here to see through each other; we’re here to see each other through." What an absolute thrill for someone like me to be inspired, yet again, by this Thinkers 50 Hall of Fame member. You shouldn’t be surprised then that the word "purpose" was recanted over and over again during the conference. It also had personal relevance to me as the follow-up book to Flat Army (It’s Work Not Jail) contains considerable weight towards the concept of a ‘career with purpose’. In the end, I gave Charles a big hug on behalf of civilization. I believe he used the word "nutter" to describe me. Another highlight was finally getting to meet John Hagel and to hear him rip into the inane way we treat organizational culture and workplace design. I’ve been an admirer of his groundbreaking work for years — read anything he and/or his Deloitte Center for the Edge colleagues have written — so to shake his hand was a bit like my Dad meeting John Lennon. To hear him provocatively cut through the malaise that is today’s organization in his 15 minute soliloquy, channeling the audience to remember "organizational complexity isn’t going away, in fact it’s increasing in a linear world full of non-linear needs and actions" was sublime. John further argued that our organizations are institutions, made for the purpose of institutional innovation not modern-day innovation and that they operate today (as they have done for decades) as models of uber efficiency. He doesn’t believe there is room for innovation in today’s organizational model — no room for tinkering he says — thus we need to redesign the work environment to create what he calls "scalable learning". John summoned inspiration from Bill Joy who once said, "No matter how many smart people in your organization, there are a lot more outside of it." If only 11% of employees are passionate about their work, ‘scalable learning’ can instill this sense of passion to drive innovation and creativity. It can drive risk taking. He wants us to shift from scalable institutional efficiency to scalable learning. In other words, the reprehensible way in which organizations are currently designed (and I argue leadership is leading) exacerbates this innovation malaise. The current design of the organization, therefore, is causing an unnatural complexity in an age that needs stimulation and simplicity. John stuck around the entire conference as well, taking in all of the sessions proving he is a genuine lifelong scalable learner and not some hoity toity American strategist. Tammy Erickson offered a sage piece of advice when she said, "So much of what we do today, what we learn, is based on discovery." She went on to suggest leaders should help employees "build networks, providing a paradigm for questioning" and "to get people out of the classroom" further advocating that leaders should be providing time and guidance to let everyone connect and to network. It gave credence to the earlier points brought up by Handy and Hagel. I gave Tammy a copy of Flat Army letting her know employee engagement at TELUS now sat at 83%, up considerably from the time we brought her in to speak to TELUS leaders in 2009. Needless to say she was delighted to know of the improvement. I mentioned to her the talk reminded me of Chapter 7 — The Participative Leader Framework — where leaders must demonstrate CARE (continuous, authentic, reciprocal and educating) in an aim to build networks and knowledge. She smiled and said she looked forward to reviewing the book. A for awesome. A couple of other talks stood out for me as well, although that may be as a result of my Canadian passport. There’s nothing wrong with national nepotism when one is glowingly referring and referring to Roger Martin and Don Tapscott (numbers 3 and 4 on the 2013 version of the Thinkers 50 list) while being 8000 kilometers from home. After all, Canada is the reigning Gold Medal Olympic Champion for both women’s and men’s ice hockey and we’re slowly getting better at demonstrating pride in a more public way. Congratulations Roger and Don on your ranking. Roger’s take on complexity was spot on. He doesn’t believe the world is getting more complex, per se, rather our organizations are simply ill-equipped to handle the transformation away from deep-rooted silos. He called our somewhat pervasive organizational system of fiefdoms as "inter-domain complexity." It’s this siloed nature of working and operating that is causing the complexity in the first place. He wants us to push for a meta-domain; the integration of knowledge across all domains thus removing the inhibitors of what I personally call ‘organizational stovepipes’. His aspiration is for future leaders to have the ability to be integrative thinkers and that it actually begins in academic circles. It reminded me of my TEDxTalk from a few years ago when I had the audience chanting, "tear down these walls". Needless to say I was smitten by his overarching thesis. Roger’s Toronto neighbour — the digital futurist and author of what seems like 100 books, Don Tapscott — took a slightly different approach to complexity. He believes complexity is reduced when multi-stakeholder networks are increased and improved upon. Don coins this "Global Solution Networks". There are ten different types which include: Knowledge Networks (Wikipedia, TED Talks, Galaxy Zoo) Operational Delivery Networks (Kiva) Policy Networks (International Competition Network) Advocacy Networks (Avaaz, Kony, Invisible Children) Watchdog Networks (Sunlight Foundation) Platforms (Ushahidi, Sojo) Global Standards Networks (W3C, Global Footprint Network) Governance Networks (ICANN) Network Institutions (WEF) Diasporas (onevietnam.org) Concluding with video footage of starling birds filmed in England — who self form a vast ever-changing network when in the air to protect themselves from predators and the elements — Don emphasized that as we have shifted from feudalism to the printing press to capitalism to the internet to the age of networked intelligence, we can seek out less complex organizations through the power of the Don defined "Global Solution Networks". He concluded with an absolutely brilliant anecdote, "The future is not something to be predicted. It is something to be achieved." The final session of the Forum was entitled "What Would Drucker Say Now?". To be frank, while reviewing the agenda in detail on the airplane odyssey between Vancouver and Vienna I thought this might be some strange form of worship with Drucker appearing as a shimmering larger than life sized hologram as audience members and panelists paid homage with chants in unison of "let’s increase the productivity of knowledge work and the knowledge workers". Thankfully, I was proven wrong. The panel consisted of Rick Wartzman (of the California-based Drucker Institute) and Steve Denning (Washington-based author and Forbes columnist extraordinaire), moderated by Pierre Hessler (the Forum’s chair delegate and senior leader at Cap Gemini). Rick reminded us that Drucker felt the top-down structures in organizations would eventually perish in favour of self-forming teams. Drucker suggested this in … wait for it … 1954. For those paying attention and able to perform rudimentary math, that’s almost 60 years ago begging the question from yours truly, ‘what the hell happened?" Rick later amused the audience by regaling us of the answer Drucker provided a student who asked what it would take to become a better manager to which Drucker replied, "play violin". Thank God my children are already on the right path. Leave it to Steve Denning though to bring home the underlying subliminal theme to the conference. Steve recalled it was Drucker in 1973 who said "if an organization’s mission is to target profit and not purpose, things will definitively end badly." The purpose of the organization is to provide purpose for its employees; to provide value for the very people who inhabit the walls of its organizational mission. My only regret is I didn’t get the chance to shake Steve’s hand afterward. Overall, the 5th Annual Drucker Forum was a wonderful gallop through brain candyland for me. My synapses were constantly firing whether through the affirmation of my way of organizational leadership thinking or through the growth of new ideas and knowledge. This review only skims the surface of speakers, discussions and ideas. The combination of academics, practitioners, authors and rock stars permitted the sessions to be highly relevant for a cerebral Canadian like me. No one keynote was more than 20 minutes, which further fuelled the amount of content that was at the ready. Audience participation through Q&A was prevalent across all sessions. The gala dinner on Thursday night was world-class and I had the fantastic good fortune of sitting next to Thierry Grange of the Grenoble School of Management where he and I gabbed about the state of the world for 60 minutes straight. (Apologies to those sitting next to us) The networking time was superb, giving ample chance for conference attendees to mix and mingle. I had the chance to not only meet and chat with the likes of Lynda Gratton, Julia Kirby and David Hurst — who I had never met before — it gave me a chance to meet Twitterati folks like Kenneth Mikkelsen and Stelio Versera where our previous relationship respectively had solely been through 140 characters at a time. My hat is tipped to Drucker Forum chef de mission Richard Straub. He and the entire organizing team did a remarkable job. In 2013 I participated in over 30 separate conference and learning related events and none can match the vibe, talent and knowledge gain that transpired in Vienna. I’ll coin it "the TED of all leadership management conferences". See you next year. Promise. Dan's Related Posts:Video Review of Drucker Forum 2013Favourite Books of 2013 That I ReadReflecting on the State of Enterprise 2.0 as an Organizational Culture Change AgentFavourite Posts and Articles of 2013 That I ReadFavourite Posts of 2013 That I Wrote & Published

It’s that time of the year again, when we showcase the best and innovative Adobe ideas to help learning professionals take the lead and explore new frontiers. The Seventh Annual Adobe Learning Summit is scheduled for October 27, 2014 at Bellagio Las Vegas; and is co-located with DevLearn 2014 conference and expo. At this event, […]

There are a lot of uber smart people out there. It’s a collective intelligence of infinite proportions. Without their vast and often timely contributions, I personally would be left fumbling for answers. The trips as a wee child to the massive toy store — where I could peruse for hours the array of colourful boxes and bins yearning for my attention and my parent’s wallet — reminds me of those internet enabled humans willingly writing posts and articles for the enjoyment (and learning) of all. I don’t know about you, but I’m a kid at the toy store each and every day as I stumble down the aisles of the internet playing with toys masked as articles and posts, thinking to myself, "Which one can I bring home and use in my life forever?" Which is to say I was struck by many pieces of thought leadership in 2013, but the ones outlined below in particular are the toys I played with more than once and that brought a smile to my face whether as a formal published article or as a blog post. Thank you to all for your contributions to society’s ongoing collective intelligence. Farewell Guru, Hello Awesome by Jonathan Anthony How To Break Through a Career Impasse by Herminia Ibarra Technology and corporate culture: a combination that can drive bottom line results by Marc Jadoul Collaborate to Grow Says Deloitte Global CEO Barry Salzberg by Bruce Rogers Hierarchy is Overrated by Tim Kastelle 8 steps to promoting collaboration in your company by Joanne Graf Six Drucker Questions that Simplify a Complex Age by Rick Wartzman Social apps reintroduce personality at work by Valentina Craft Networks are the new companies by Harold Jarche Leading in complex times by Lynda Gratton The Sound of Social Business by Celine Schillinger Organizational Heartbeat by Jean Russell Did Ronald Coase Get Economics Wrong? by Steve Denning Culture, Collaboration and Nerd Confessions by Jillian Walker Consulting on the Cusp of Disruption by Clay Christensen et al The Constant Customer by JP Rangaswami The Two Choices to Make in Strategy by Roger Martin (video) Leadership in enterprise technology must come from all organizational functions by Ross Dawson Why Do Only 7% Of Managers Consider Social Media Skills Important For Employees? by Dan Schawbel Social Business Held Back by Corporate Culture, Not Technology by David Roe Time to Join the Work Revolution by Stowe Boyd From Sewing to Analyzing: The Historical Shift in Urban Work by Richard Florida Three lessons about talent from Tibetan Buddhist monks by John Hagel III Command and control leadership doesn’t cut it anymore by Jim Fisher and Rose Patten Want to Change Culture? Do Not Start A Culture Change Project! by Eugen Oetringer Social Business Needs Culture Of Open Leadership by Kristen Corpolongo Douglas Engelbart’s Unfinished Revolution by Howard Rheingold How Corporate Culture Drives Competitive Advantage by Tim Clark Are You Leading Like It’s 1980? by Susan Cramm The Unbearable Wearable: Google Glass is Brilliant, Loathsome and Not Inevitable (or "Take Those off before I Punch You in the Face!") by Jason Calacanis Social Networking in the 1600′s by Tom Standage "Perhaps Culture is Now the Counterculture" A Defense of the Humanities by Leon Wieseltier If you’re trying to change how your company works, you probably won’t by John Stepper The Management Revolution That’s Already Happening by Steve Denning The Internet is an energy management system by Euan Semple We’re Living Through A Rare Economic Transformation by Charles Hugh-Smith The Decline but Not Fall of Hierarchy — What Young People Really Want by Karl Moore Givers take all: The hidden dimension of corporate culture by Adam Grant What Organizations Really Need To Succeed And Thrive by Tanveer Naseer The Kids Are Not Alright. Stop Measuring Them All the Time by Jonathan Fowler and Elizabeth Rodd I hope you continue writing in 2014. Coming next, my favourite books.   Dan's Related Posts:Steve Denning Nails It on Forbes: Paradigm Shift in Leadership and ManagementFavourite Posts of 2013 That I Wrote & PublishedReflecting on the State of Enterprise 2.0 as an Organizational Culture Change AgentSocial as a Weapon of Class DestructionThe TED of all Leadership Management Conferences - A Review of the Drucker Forum…

I like to read. As it turns out I like to eat Pecan Pie as well, but that’s not why you’re here. In a previous post this week I outlined a compendium of articles and write-ups from 2013 that I thought were truly brain candy for a cerebral Canadian like me. This particular entry focuses on literary works (aka. Books - remember those?) that are longer than a post or article. In no particular order, these are the books I read in 2013 that caught my attention: Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now by Douglas Rushkoff Written within the lens of a futurist who laments some of today’s technology and social inanities, Rushkoff reveals his disdain for a world that has all gone behaviorally Type A through his self described pillars of the Narrative Collapse (the loss of stories and longer thoughts in general), Digiphrenia (multiple technologies being used in multiple places), Overwinding (compacting services, goods, thoughts, etc. into one),  Fractalnoia (the connection of things), and Apocalypto (self explanatory really). This was not an easy read, but it went deep into the psyche of our society and its fixation on impulses, distractedness, attention span disorder or deficits in parallel with the rising tide of technology interruptions and advances. In other words, I couldn’t put it down because it was so fascinating and poignant. Disrupt! Think Epic. Be Epic. by Bill Jensen I can honestly say it is an ‘epic’ book. I didn’t do as he suggests and pick habits at will, I read Bill’s book back to front to see if it made a difference. (and to be a disruptive reader) I don’t think it did, which I suppose is a testament to what he has crafted. Bill might have coined this book "I’m a Master Curator of Listening: Here are 25 Epic Habits For You To Be Disruptive and Successful". What the book provides is story after story, anecdote after anecdote, and example after example of people doing their thing in a world gone mad … sorry, disruptive. Page after page is filled with the thoughts of people Bill has listened to, whilst curating and crafting his 25 Successful Habits. It’s unlike a book I’ve read before in that there is probably more external quotes than internal writing. That is not to say Bill’s thoughts aren’t in the book. On the contrary indeed, Bill has done such a fantastic job at listening and then curating, it’s a marvelous example of Habit 23 "Your Power is Your Network" and Habit 25 "It’s Not About You". On Managing Yourself by Harvard Business Review Ok, it’s not really a book rather a collection of eleven articles across some twenty years from the likes of Peter Drucker, Clay Christensen, Daniel Goleman, Robert Kaplan and Diane Coutu. My favourite pieces were Managing Oneself by Peter F. Drucker, Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey? by William Oncken, Jr., and Donald L. Wass, How Resilience Works by Diane L. Coutu, What to Ask the Person in the Mirror by Robert S. Kaplan, Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance by Daniel Goleman and the bonus article How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clay Christensen. It was nice to have these articles in one spot, particularly during some of my research for the "It’s Work Not Jail" book project. Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure by Tim Harford Adapt isn’t a light read nor is it for the faint of heart but it straps you in on a roller coaster of complexity based observations — be it individual, organizational or societal — stopping from time to time to provide potential remedies and future-proof solutions. He takes you to the Galápagos, Netflix, Liberia, CAFE, Google, Royal Air Force, US Military, Baghdad amongst countless other places, references and anecdotes illustrating with zeal and precision why we over complicate our lives and processes. His ultimate point lies in a lack of courage and risk taking for the ‘trial and error’ approach to solving many of today’s problems. Problems that, ironically, we develop with perfect complexity. Beyond Certainty: The Changing Worlds of Organisations by Charles Handy Alongside Peter Drucker, Handy should be considered a workplace change pioneer and visionary. The mindset of hierarchical thinking for the sake of hierarchy structures is something Handy has written about for years. Seeing as he was keynoting at the Global Peter Drucker Forum 2013 I took the opportunity to re-read Beyond Certainty before hearing from him live and in person for the first time in my own life. (Sidebar, I received a signed copy of the book from Charles as well while at the Forum - what a thrill) Why I like this particular book is that it’s a collection of essays written over several years where he delves into his thoughts on a ‘flatter’ organization where workers employ themselves in several positions over time (versus a singular job and which he coined ‘portfolio people’) learning and gaining experience along the journey. He sees the organization becoming more federal in operation than hierarchical. If you’ve never read Beyond Certainty, it’s time for you to remedy that oversight. Igniting the Invisible Tribe: Designing An Organization That Doesn’t Suck by Josh Allan Dykstra Josh provides us with a conversation in leadership and organizational change in this 272 page book. I use the word ‘conversation’ because that’s how it felt when I read the book. It felt as though Josh and I were having a conversation … one that intends to shake up the way work works. He builds his thesis around five key sections: New Answers; New World; New Problems; New Rules; and New Tools. At the end of many sections, Josh provides what he calls an "Ignition Point" - helpful workplace questions we must ask of ourselves and of our organizations. The book is a quick read (at least for me) with comments and thoughts that run parallel to Flat Army. One of my favourite passages is: This lack of hierarchy will be difficult for most of us. We’ve been thoroughly conditioned to only think in competitive terminology. But like so many items from the reductionist "old world", this is a zero-sum game - one person wins only when someone else loses. We no longer have to work this way, and frankly, this mindset has reached its limit in terms of productivity. The emerging economy demands that we re-think the way we structure, and language is a perfect tool to help us get started. How To Be Interesting (In 10 Simple Steps) by Jessica Hagy Jessica’s tact in this very intriguing book is to mix short, specific sentences — often witty, always pertinent, sometimes provocative — with touching, comedic and thoughtful graphics, alongside some larger size bumper sticker-esque slogans in an attempt to persuade you to be more interesting. It’s doodling life lessons. The book was full not only of sage advice but of a-ha moments. I thought I might already be performing many of her suggestions so perhaps it was more of a needed affirmation due to the past few years of tough change management actions I’ve encountered and initiated both personally and professionally. It’s not only a wise piece of prose, it’s got gumption. It’s got punch. It makes you think. It inspires you to think differently. That’s what a good book should deliver. It needs to make you do things differently. It at least needs to be contemplative. The Good Life: What Makes a Life Worth Living by Hugh Mackay I suppose in preparation (and research) for my next book, I read Hugh’s brilliant take on what I might call a purposeful life and was with him every step of the way. He starts off by stating the book is not "about how to feel good, how to find happiness or how to reap some reward for your goodness" rather if we mindful humans "set out to be good or to do good because of what’s in it for you, then you’ll have missed the whole point of the journey." He had me hooked from the very first page. The Chapter titles give away his thesis rather well, including 1 The Utopia complex, 2 How the pursuit of happiness can make you miserable, 3 Seven false leads, 4 A good life or a good time?, 5 Do unto others, 6   Living the good life and 7 A good death. Mackay’s The Good Life is as profound as it is accurate, and it was a timely read for my next book. He concludes with, "You need only to treat people with kindness, compassion and respect, knowing they will have been enriched by their encounters with you." #loveit The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg I liked Charles’ book for two reasons. One, he situated the reader through vivid storytelling. I’m a big Rosa Parks fan and was delighted to come across this story in the book. The introductory story of Eugene Pauly was also fabulous. The second reason I liked the book was it was cut into three key ‘habits’ sections, namely individuals, organizations and societies. In other words, there was a little bit for everyone, no matter where your interests lie with respect to the formation of habits. I even reached out to Charles via electronic mail (per his website, where he guarantees a response) and lo and behold, Charles responded. He truly puts his habitual behaviours where his writing is. Out Think: How Innovative Leaders Drive Exceptional Outcomes by Shawn Hunter Is it cliché to say Out Think got me thinking? The link between fantastic leadership and innovation is (somewhat) undeniable but Shawn has effectively crystallized the behaviours required of leaders to actually improve levels of innovation in an organization. He aims to change the current mindset of the singular owner of ideas and innovation. As he states, "Creativity, mental flexibility, and collaboration have displaced one-dimensional intelligence and isolated determination as core ingredients of competitive advantage. But these methods and mindsets needed to drive innovation are only found by tapping into the discretionary levels of passion, creativity and initiative within us." As someone who truly believes in the collaborative organization as a way in which to ‘get good things done’, Shawn exemplifies my own tendencies to change leadership practices but does so in a quest to also improve the level of creativity and output of the organization itself. I loved how he incorporated the behaviour terms ‘marketquake’ as well as ‘mash-up’ in a couple of his chapters — in putting forth a solid argument that we need to rethink how we are treating the term and action of innovation. In an interesting bit of author trivia, Shawn and I shared the same publisher and editor. Accelerating Leadership Development: Practical Solutions For Building Your Organization’s Potential by Jocelyn Berard Jocelyn is Vice-President Leadership and Business Solutions, International at Global Knowledge and this particular book is part Global Knowledge insight and part storytelling of Jocelyn. Drawing upon interactions, interviews and research with clients, alongside Jocelyn’s expertise and experience from his multifaceted career, the book aims to solve the riddle of actually developing leaders into high performing (and high potential) employees of tomorrow. The book begins with something called the Business Performance Framework — a model that effectively grounds the reader into the books three main parts: leadership and succession, leadership in action and leadership best practices. The book is deep, running 291 pages, and it doesn’t skim on thoughts and opinions of leaders across many different verticals whether it’s Jack Kitts, CEO of The Ottawa Hospital, Colleen Johnston, CFO at TD Bank, or John Duncan, HR Director at Royal Mail. My favourite model was the Priority Quadrant from Chapter 12 which was built to help leaders determine "whether a particular task is urgent or important" through the quadrants of eliminate, delegate, plan to do (or delegate) and do. It was simple and something I plan on using personally going forward. Accelerating Leadership Development is a guide more than it’s a book, something you can refer to several times. You may want to utilize it in your organization’s leadership development programs if you’re interested in changing the way you actually are developing leaders. In an interesting bit of author trivia, Jocelyn and I also shared the same publisher and editor.  Awaken Your Authentic Leadership: Lead with Inner Clarity and Purpose by Tana Heminsley One of my favourite parts of Tana’s book surfaced on page 15, "The Four C’s of an Authentic Leader". Maybe that’s because I use the letter C in the 6 C’s of the Collaborative Leader Action Model (CLAM) in Flat Army … or perhaps because Denise and I named our three goats with the letter C … or perhaps it’s simply due to the fact it’s ‘authentic’. I know, too much. The four C’s of Tana’s Authentic Leader model are clear, choiceful (yes, she created a new word), consistent and caring. Later on in Chapter 8, Tana defines the Authentic You Personal Planning System — a nine step system that "can be used annually or whenever it feels like time to step back and reflect" such that you are taking very specific and personal actions such as ‘articulating your values’, assessing your work-life balance, setting your goals and creating an inner development plan in an attempt to gain balance back in your life. It’s a self-reflection book as well as an action-intensive discovery book. There are, for example,  63 pages of action worksheets found at the end of the book, which align to the Authentic You Personal Planning System detailed in the book itself. It really is a personal journey book, aiding you along the way of self-improvement. The Lens of Leadership: Being The Leader Others Want To Follow by Cory Bouck Cory is a fascinating character. With a military background as a Naval Flight Officer, coupled by years of instructing leadership at the U.S. Naval Academy massaged by corporate roles at General Mills, Rubbermaid and now Johnsonville Sausage as the Director of Organizational Development and Learning, he can draw on his many experiences to deliver his overarching thesis in this book … serve, build and inspire. The ‘Serve’ section focuses on the table stakes of leadership. How do you give away your power? How do you embody integrity? What is nobility? I loved his story about SERE - survival, evasion, resistance and escape from the prisoner-of-war training. The ‘Build’ section delves into behaviours such as teaching, conversations, networking and change management. And finally, the ‘Inspire’ section was -as you guessed it - about inspiring and motivating your team and the organization. My affinity for the book and the ‘serve, build and inspire’ model stems from its unique parallels to the Connected Leader Attributes of Flat Army — where I believe we have the roots in the ground, the trunk of a tree and the foliage above that represents metaphorically a great leader. Cory’s three sections made that same connection for me. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman It’s hard to beat the intelligence, insight and research of a Nobel Prize Winner like Daniel Kahneman … and Thinking, Fast and Slow places this rare thinker and cultural anthropologist (disguised as a psychologist) in a league of his own. Based on the many studies and conversations with his now deceased colleague Amos Tversky, this book is as much an entertaining ride through the annals of humanity as it is his relationship with Tversky, where Kahneman says, "The pleasure we found in working together made us exceptionally patient; it is much easier to strive for perfection when you are never bored." The running theme of System 1 and System 2 — and when one system is triggered over another — was fascinating. Who is in charge? System 1 or System 2? It’s an exploration around our decision making, aided and abetted by countless examples, experiments and citations. If you’re into research and knowing more about the ‘why’ of our human make-up, this book is an absolute must. I read a few more in 2013 (and re-read or skim read several others) but I won’t bore you with the details in this space. You can take me out for a beer one day if you like. Happy to share.   Dan's Related Posts:A Review of "How To Be Interesting" While Sitting Beside a Drunk on an…the FLAT ARMY cheat sheetFavourite Posts of 2013 That I Wrote & PublishedThe TED of all Leadership Management Conferences - A Review of the Drucker Forum…The 10 Winners of Flat Army Copies Are …

This is an exciting time for eLearning developers. After what seems like an eternity of anticipation, mLearning is finally taking off, and now is the perfect time to hone up on the new skills you’ll need to bring your eLearning content to your mobile learners. While Adobe Captivate 8 has made authoring genuine mLearning for […]

If you haven’t noticed, I’m on a bit of a bender. No, not that kind … although it is Christmas Scotchalicious season. I’m referring to a recent post where I highlighted many interesting articles and posts in 2013 that I read … and another post where I highlighted several long-form books I found to be quite intriguing. This post turns the mirror toward my own writing in 2013. The following are what I deem my most interesting posts (on this site — not published elsewhere or excerpts from my book Flat Army) in 2013. There were no judges. Mostly because I couldn’t coax any of the three goats (Claire, Cole and Cate) to read any of my gibberish. The TED of all Leadership Management Conferences - A Review of the Drucker Forum 2013 I had the fortune of participating in the Global Peter Drucker Forum in 2013 and this post takes you through some of the highlights — at least from my vantage point. After Five Years In My Role We’re Hiring My Replacement. Are You Interested? I thought it to be somewhat innovative to announce my new role and retirement from the old role at TELUS through my blog. After more than 6,000 views of the post, perhaps people out there felt the same? A Review of SAP Jam I’m a big fan of SAP Jam — and yes, for transparency purposes we implemented it at TELUS — so this post captures what I like about it … and what my friend Sameer Patel needs to do with it in the future. Is Facebook a Narcissistic Walled Garden? An open question really. The comments (totaling 18 at press time) were more entertaining perhaps than the post itself. Should Employees Schedule Time To Be Social? Yes. Lessons in Leadership From Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis Need we say more? (oh, you don’t know who these two chaps are? former co-CEO’s of Research in Motion — now BlackBerry — perhaps could have done things somewhat differently) Apparently, Organizational Culture is Crap One of those posts that I didn’t expect huge traffic from, but it now sits at over 10,000 views. Employee Engagement is Still Poor but it Does Drive Bottom Line Results In case you fell off a turnip truck and hit your head, I have a particular disdain for disengagement in an organization and equal rage when people scoff at employee engagement and suggest it doesn’t have a bottom line impact. 42-24 … I’m 42 Today: What I’d Say to a 24 Year Old Me 18-year-old hindsight … although an 18 year-old Scotch might have been better Our Three Young Children Blog … Here’s Why For those that wonder why we have a 10, 8 and 6 year-old publicly blogging The Star Wars Mentoring Program I’m a Star Wars fan … don’t judge Did I Just Spam My Entire LinkedIn Network? Someone freaked out on me because I sent one email to my entire LinkedIn network asking for their assistance with the launch of my book. So, I responded. (and in the end, I think he unfollowed me everywhere) Flexible Working Works There should be no more debate Yahoo! or HP or Best Buy …. flexible working works. Period. I’m Not Scared of Email; I Developed a System called DADDIO A system I devised to help with the onslaught of electronic mail. Luis Suarez would be so proud. Should Companies Allow Facebook at Work? Yes. 5 Use Cases for a Corporate YouTube in Organizations Don’t get me started. Autotelic: The Word of 2013 A tradition I started several years ago. There you have it. The selected list of formidable posts from this site in 2013 — curated and selected by yours truly — that might help you in your life, work or working life. Thanks again for dropping by. Even though there isn’t a lot of commenting going on, at least I know you’re lurking. Dan's Related Posts:Is Facebook a Narcissistic Walled Garden?Interlocutors of 2012 (the goats are better for it)After Five Years In My Role We’re Hiring My Replacement. Are You Interested?Video Review of Drucker Forum 2013Our Three Young Children Blog … Here’s Why

We’ve just released a free update for Adobe Captivate 8 with some great new enhancements and bug fixes. To get the new update, open Adobe Captivate 8, and click Help > Updates and install the new update. You can also directly download and install the update from here. Once the update is installed, your new […]

2013 was brilliant. It was so much fun, I decided to develop an infographic that depicts (some of) the year. Thanks for dropping by. My network is my net worth. See you in 2014. Ancora Imparo. If you’d like to share the infographic, feel free to. Embed Link <img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/255255/dpyearinreview/image.jpg" alt="dpyearinreview title="easel.ly" /> easel.ly Web Link https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/255255/dpyearinreview/image.jpg   Dan's Related Posts:An Infographic Depicting Learning & Collaboration in ActionThere is Nothing More to Say in 2011 … but ThanksEnter to WIN a Free Signed Copy of Flat ArmyThe Remarkable Leadership Story of Conner & Cayden LongMy Network is my Net Worth - Part II

Lynda.com has announced an Essential Training course on Adobe Captivate 8 by Aaron Quigley. It’s a great course for beginners and intermediate users to explore the Captivate authoring workflow and capabilities, and learn how to use the new features introduced in Adobe Captivate 8. This course is also very useful for folks who want to […]

In 2014, I will … Write a better book Find a new publisher (that believes in me) Convince HBR to feature me more than once Re-read more Handy and Drucker Be invited to speak at the Drucker Forum Visit Europe at least three times Reach out to those I’ve dearly missed Respond to more tweets without including the original one (ie. just converse) Reveal more of my true personality publicly Stop using 2.0 after anything Become more conscious of where I buy things from Continue donating money and time to those in need Accept my weaknesses & celebrate my natural strengths Temper my ‘quick to judge’ tendencies Enjoy the opportunity of launching a start-up consulting outfit in an $11 billion company Read at least twelve books Tell better stories when I’m speaking Shift ten pounds of weight around Learn to take stunning photographs Pay it Forward more than I did in 2013 Answer every comment on this blog Assist Denise through her career decisions Support the goats through yet another transition "Live well, love always and laugh out loud every day" (© Brian Reid) Dan's Related Posts:Video Review of Drucker Forum 2013Whose Your Brian Reid?Our Three Young Children Blog … Here’s WhyLessons Learned From a First Time AuthorInterlocutors of 2012 (the goats are better for it)

Personalized therapies for dementia patients can help elevate their moods and cognitive function, which leads to improved quality of live while it reduces caregiver burdens and the risk of acute incidents. With this in mind, Ceresti Health uses Adobe Creative Cloud for individuals and Adobe Captivate to create and deliver personalized web experiences that trigger […]

We aren’t even close. It doesn’t matter what report you read, what research you cite or what anecdote you dig up … the problems remain. Our organizations are being crippled by a combination of gale force winds and tectonic plate drifting. The leadership floor in our organizations is full of useless friction — arguably akin to continental drift — while employees continue to be blown over by colossal gusts of organizational ineptness. This has to stop. The time has come for harmony in our workplace. The time has come for Communitas. But before Communitas — my Word for 2014 — we need to discuss ‘liminality’. Derived from Latin for "a threshold", liminal stems from the work of Arnold van Gennep, a noted anthropologist from France. In 1909, while researching and penning his most famous book ‘The Rites of Passage‘, van Gennep argued rituals as part of any rite of passage were demarcated into three stages: preliminary, liminality and post-liminality. He wrote that the liminal stage was "a gap between the ordered worlds where almost anything could happen." In plain English, liminal can be thought of as a transition from one state to another. But that’s what I want to see in our organizations in 2014. I want to see "almost anything happen" and in particular I want leaders in today’s organizations to begin the shift of leading differently. I want leaders to enter the organizational culture equivalence of liminality. I want us to finally achieve a state of transition between today’s useless friction and leadership ineptness to one of organizational harmony and achievement. It doesn’t have to be (and won’t be) solved in 2014. And the ‘it’ I refer to is the woeful state of the disengaged and/or not engaged employee.  Organizational engagement simply has to enter into a stage of transition. We might coin this stage "organizational leadership liminality". And that’s where we pick up the ‘Word of the Year‘ trail again by introducing Victor Turner. A British anthropologist who applied his trade as a professor at the University of Chicago, Turner delved deep into van Gennep’s work on liminality. Spending legions of his time and testing his theories with the Ndembu tribe in Zambia, Turner believed the liminal stage was a separation from ‘normal social roles’ to contemplate, reinterpret and in fact embrace alternatives to the current status quo. Turner’s definition of liminality includes the following: During liminal periods of all kinds, social hierarchies may be reversed or temporarily dissolved, continuity of tradition may become uncertain, and future outcomes once taken for granted may be thrown into doubt.The dissolution of order during liminality creates a fluid, malleable situation that enables new institutions and customs to become established. At its core, Turner argues that liminality represents the opportunity for a group to strip down existing structural status and customs to create new ones through both intellect and spirit. It reminds me of the "Hitachi Spirit", something I wrote about in Flat Army.  The core values Hitachi developed at a point of organizational culture inflection were: Wa (Harmony, Trust and Respect); Makoto (Sincerity, Fairness, Honesty and Integrity); and Kaitakusha-Seishin (Pioneering Spirit and Challenge). But what does liminality have to do with Communitas — my 2014 Word of the Year? Turner developed the notion of communitas as a way to define what happens to people when entering the stage of liminality. He believes a sense of solidarity emerges at the liminality stage, backed by feelings of equality, spirit, joy, belonging and overall well-being. These feelings — shared by all — lead to a better future. These feelings permit a shift to the status quo. These feelings dissolve any prior rigid obligations of the old world in favour of a new and authentic manner of behaviour in the new world. These feelings are social. These feelings are cooperative. Communitas, for 2014 at least, will bring people together to bridge their differences into a singular, common organizational leadership framework. It demystifies hierarchy for the sake of hierarchy and reintroduces humanity into the shared values of one another and the organization. Whilst Turner argues communitas is spontaneous, I argue our organizations must enter into the liminality stage with a preordained might of those gale force winds, to eventually define and achieve a communitas state of organizational culture. In 2014, our organizations can arrive at communitas such that the organization works as one to define how it can become more humane, more engaged, more soulful, more spirited and more productive. If it does work harmoniously as one to define the manner in which it should be operating, internal employee engagement should begin ticking upward throughout 2015 and beyond. (it might take all of 2014 to get to a state of communitas) 2014 is a transition year for the organization and leadership in general. Limanility is the stage our organizations should be entering. By doing so, we force ourselves to achieve communitas. With communitas, we act as one organization devoid of classes and hierarchies as we define a healthier way in which our organizations should be operating. It’s something Charles Handy would be proud of. While German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies may have coined the term Gemeinschaft — where one’s social network is built by one’s own values, beliefs and role in society — communitas is something bigger. It is our chance to bridge the gap for those that either don’t believe in organizational engagement or who are ambivalent to such a concept. Communitas is what we ought to strive for in 2014. Communitas is my Word for 2014. PS. You may be interested in prior Words of the Year: 2013 - Autotelic 2012 - Interlocutor 2011 - Reciprocity Dan's Related Posts:Steer Clear of Organizational Leadership TurbulenceHolacracy Is Not The Answer To Your Employee Disengagement IssuesKudos Jacques Godin, an Engaged Air Canada EmployeeAutotelic: The Word of 2013Flat Army Book Excerpt: Organizational Learned Helplessness

I recently published an interactive eBook for creating responsive eLearning courses using Adobe Captivate 8. It was showcased during the DevLearn DemoFest 2014 event and I received a Best of Show - Vendor Entry award for it. To read the eBook, follow this link on your iPad to download and install the Interactive eBooks app: […]

If you’re located in parts of North America where it’s been too cold to even blink your eyes lately, you may not have seen the news. Holacracy is the new black. Holacracy? In a nutshell, Holacracy is an organizational structure — initially devised by self-described "recovering CEO" Brian Robertson of HolacracyOne — that purports to do the following: Holacracy is a distributed authority system - a set of "rules of the game" that bake empowerment into the core of the organization. Unlike conventional top-down or progressive bottom-up approaches, it integrates the benefits of both without relying on parental heroic leaders. Everyone becomes a leader of their roles and a follower of others’, processing tensions with real authority and real responsibility, through dynamic governance and transparent operations. In a nutshell? Holacracy is a way to operate without the classic ‘command and control’ dogma found in many of today’s organizations. It even has a constitution you are urged to follow. Where Did Holacracy Come From? Holacracy burst on the Twitter water cooler scene in early 2014 mostly as a result of Zappos. At the end of 2013, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (never one to remain stagnant with his organization) held a town hall meeting to inform the fine folks who work there that their current organizational structure was being tossed in favour of holacracy by the end of 2014. Apparently they were running a pilot in 2013 with 150 or so employees. It worked so well Tony decided to (eventually) scrap his CEO title and all Zappos employees would do the same under holacracy . Even Twitter co-founder Evan Williams has implemented Holacracy® at his new venture Medium. (and Alexia Bowers does a fine job defining the misconceptions of Holacracy) And the mainstream media and bloggers then went wild for holacracy. It became the new black. Lost in the shuffle (I believe) is the origin of the term holacracy. I didn’t interview Brian, but I’d bet one of my Canucks tickets holacracy got its start back in 1967 when author Arthur Koestler penned the book "The Ghost in the Machine" and where he introduced the term holarchy. An ‘archy’ (as a suffix) is a rule or a government and a holon is both a part and a whole. Put them together and you get a connection of holons equating to what Koestler called a holarchy. Holacracy — at least how I view it — is a connection of roles and tasks (a part and a whole) in an attempt to get whatever matters accomplished in as efficient a manner as possible without the rigidity of bosses, hierarchy and other organizational infractions. Holacracy — and what I think is its originating parent, holarchy — however will not solve your organizational disengagement issues. Don’t be fooled. Getting rid of titles, managers/bosses and spraying empowerment across your employees doesn’t fix the core issue of today particularly in long-standing organizations with a history of disengagement. Some might say it’s pouring water on a tire fire. The core issues in today’s organization don’t require the eradication of bosses per holacracy or the creation of overlapping, self-governing circles. (ie. the holons) What it requires is for employees — bosses or not — to simply become humane. That’s it. Employees of any stripe, rank and colour ought to behave better with one another. But behaviour change for any level of employee is extremely difficult when both ‘manager and subordinate’ (wow, do I loathe those terms) have been so used to the classic ‘command and control’ way of operating. No one ever said change was easy. Just ask President Obama about the Affordable Healthcare Act in America. Yes, holacracy as a principle is a very cool concept — who isn’t for a healthier organization team and structure — but I wouldn’t want you to think it’s the silver bullet for you and/or your organization. (Alexia says as much in her Holacracy misconceptions post) In particular, I don’t think you should go near Holacracy if your organization is large and/or disengaged. Debating Holacracy One example I’ll surface is debating what the fine folks at HolacracyOne (the ‘owners’ of Holacracy®) market on their website: This graphic suggests to me that holacracy is the aforementioned silver bullet built to completely eradicate bad leadership and arguably poor management. Really? If an organization implements holacracy will employees (and thus human beings) suddenly forget that they were once territorial, anti-collaborative, close-minded and less than humane in their behaviour with other employees/humans? I really don’t think so. Organizations suck (and disengagement is so prevalent) because both managers and employees have forgotten what it is to be human. We don’t know how to be humane in the organization. And it really isn’t getting any better. Let’s professionally debunk each of the four points from the graphic above: Can meetings be less painful without holacracy? Yes of course, and they can be led by anyone on a team if the right behaviours have been instilled into the organization on the whole to be open and transparent. Can fiefdoms and silos be broken down without holacracy? Yes of course, but it takes organizational behaviours like collaborating, learning, sharing, participating and reciprocity for it to occur. Can work patterns be improved across an organization outside of a CEO dominated structure without holacracy? Yes of course, if the perfect balance of push and pull, give and take or perhaps ‘flat army’ are deployed as a type of ethos that everyone adheres to. Can managers as decision-making bottlenecks become cured without holacracy? Yes of course, and one way is to implement the Collaborative Leader Action Model from the Flat Army framework. Connect, Consider, Communicate, Create, Confirm and Congratulate … six key actions (in that order) that will lead even the most disengaged workforce into the highly engaged ranks. I know this first-hand based on the results of where I ply my trade during the day. In Conclusion To be clear, I’m not against the good work that has come of the holacracy movement or what Medium or Zappos are both undertaking. I am certainly not having a go at the fine folks at HolacracyOne either. Having this type of discussion in the open is refreshing and somewhat surreal compared to the decades of prose written about top-down, rigid hierarchical management structures as the ‘way to manage’. If you’ve made it this far, I simply wanted to get alongside the holacracy movement and suggest it may not be for your own organization. It’s my belief organizations are disengaged today because they do not possess the open and collaborative types of participative behaviours that are necessary in today’s society. Holacracy might work for some but it doesn’t address the root issue for a disengaged employee or organization, which is … how can you and your organization become more humane? What behaviours need to be instilled across your organization at any and all levels such that work can become a ‘work of art’. Work can feel good even with bosses. It requires, however, a radical behaviour change for all. Dan's Related Posts:Flat Army Book Excerpt: Organizational Learned HelplessnessApparently, Organizational Culture is CrapFuture Of Work: A Flat Army Of Open Leadership via A.G. LafleyRethinking the Work of LeadershipMy Employee Engagement Advice to a Stranger

Description: Responsive is what responsive does! Join Dr. Pooja Jaisingh to get an insight into authoring responsive eLearning without programming. Author once using Adobe Captivate 8 and see the content rearrange itself for the tablet and mobile views. Now you don’t need to worry which device your learner will view your eLearning course on. Use the […]

I had the chance to sit down and be interviewed by Michael Bungay Stanier, Senior Partner of Box of Crayons, a company that helps organizations do less Good Work and more Great Work. I know, how cool is that tagline? Michael asked if he could interview me as part of his Great Work interview series. We had a blast. Take a look below at Michael’s overview, thoughts and of course an audio version of the interview itself. Enjoy! ______________________________________ My guest today is Dan Pontefract, who’s Head of Learning of TELUS. Dan has a lot of really practical experience thinking about how to get people aligned in doing meaningful work that makes a difference. He’s also speaking at the upcoming HRPA Conference. His new book, Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization, is a really powerful read that introduces five or six of Dan’s original models on how he sees the world. So we’re going to uncover some of the real issues around employee engagement and how to do things differently. In this interview, Dan and I discuss: The fundamental error in treating employees like numbers (or gladiators) The need for connected leaders who are equally involved in "becoming, being and going beyond" Why trust is crucial to organizational success How to increase people’s capacity to trust The role of collaboration in creating employee engagement The 3-33 learning model (Scroll down for more in-depth podcast notes.) Listen to my interview with Dan Pontefract. 0:00:00: Dan outlines his background in education, and explains that one of the main things he works to change in organizations is their tendency to treat employees like mere numbers - or "gladiators" in a Roman army. 0:05:02: Michael and Dan discuss some of the few positive examples of organizational change, and note that many people are afraid to change. Dan introduces the notion of the "connected leader." 0:10:03: Dan explains that a connected leader must be equal parts "becoming, being and going beyond." They don’t just focus on execution, but also on the foundation that leads to execution, and the results of having executed. Michael asks about crucial foundational behaviours, and Dan explains that trust is at the root of organizational success. They discuss how to increase people’s capacity to trust. 0:15:00: Expanding on the importance of establishing trust within an organization, Dan and Michael discuss the need for collaboration and looking beyond the manager-subordinate relationship. 0:20:05: Dan and Michael talk about why leaders should focus on engaging people who actively want a purposeful career, rather than those who are disenfranchised by the system. 0:25:02: In response to Michael’s question about the 70-20-10 learning model, Dan explains his own 3-33 learning model. Michael wraps up by directing listeners to additional resources on Dan and his work. Dan's Related Posts:The Simple Act of TrustingThe Flat Army Interview with Dan Pontefract’s Three Young Childrenthe FLAT ARMY cheat sheetApparently, Organizational Culture is CrapThe Fifteen Habits of a Connected Leader

I just heard that Project Expresso is now available for beta testing. Project Expresso is an awesome iPad app which allows you to create engaging and appealing whiteboard explainer videos using the most basic pointing device - your finger and that ubiquitous surface - the iPad tablet. Project Expresso is very simple to use. The […]