Online Training – What Works and What Doesn’t?

In February, I attended the Training 2015 Conference in Atlanta organized by Training Magazine. The conference offered many fascinating learning opportunities. There were classes on eLearning, micro learning, storytelling, learner engagement, best practices, neuropsychology, learning theory, assessment, leadership, and improving retention. In this blog post, I will share what I learned about online training and training videos.

Average Joe and Plain Jane Are Your Most Important Resources

Deloitte’s research paper, published last spring, reveals some staggering numbers: only 8 percent of U.S. companies are satisfied with their performance management process. At the same time, performance management takes too much time in 58 percent of the companies. The figures go hand in hand with the survey results we published in December: there’s something profoundly wrong in the way performance is being managed.

Office Sway Takes Your Presentation to a Whole New Level

In mid-December, Microsoft's new application Office Sway was released to the public. Currently we're talking about a preview version, so more features are to be expected, yet it's already clear how useful Sway is. Some sites and blog posts have compared Sway to PowerPoint and are predicting that it will challenge or even replace PowerPoint as the number one presentation software. I wouldn't go that far; at least I'm not going to give away all my PowerPoints that I use in my trainings. Sway, however, does have its strengths compared to, for example, PowerPoint.

Don’t Just Search – Office Delve Delivers Relevant Information to You

Microsoft published Delve as part of the Office 365 package in September. By spring 2015, also those organizations that are not using the Office First Release option will have it in use. Now is the perfect time to get to know what Delve is all about.

Meaningful Work Environment Is Built Through Discussions and Dialogue

Meaningful work environment is built through shared agenda, which consists of shared discussions. Questions like, how do I perceive the world, how do you perceive the world, and what is the direction were heading together, are being unraveled in the discussions. In my opinion, leader’s central role in building the work environment is to make dialogue and the creation of the shared agenda possible. In order to open the discussion, you have to be aware of and acknowledge the limits of your own understanding and accept that for all of us, even for the managers and leaders, there are questions we do not know the answers to.