Would you like to learn how to regulate your emotions? Well, it’s a skill that can be learned with practice. Inspired by Leonard Mlodinow’s book Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking, it starts with understanding how to accept, reframe, and express your feelings. Step 1: ACCEPT Accept your circumstances. Focus on…
In the workplace, there’s a clear-cut difference between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills. Hard skills are the technical, tangible ones: knowing a foreign language, graphic design, bookkeeping etc. Soft skills are abilities that combine interpersonal strengths, common sense, personality and people skills. Although harder to define, measure, quantify, and assess,…
How do you create impactful learning experiences for adults? For a learning designer embarking on the creation of any new training content, your aims are likely to be as follows: To create material that is genuinely helpful to learners To successfully share knowledge and/or skills…and… For the knowledge/skills to…
The power of a crisis The global pandemic has created turmoil for many organisations. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most challenging periods in recent history. But it also presents an opportunity – crises can actually be valuable. “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” said…
‘All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits.’ – William James, 1892 Our habits are fascinating. Even more so, when times are uncertain and ever-changing. In the Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg defines habits as: “The choices that all of us deliberately…
When you think of sales or selling, what’s the first word that comes to mind? Daniel Pink, author of To Sell is Human, surveyed a bunch of people to find out. And the emotional response was overwhelmingly negative. Words like ‘pushy’, ‘smarmy’, ‘aggressive’, ‘ugh’ and ‘yuck’ featured heavily. This…
“Investment in course design can add up to a great deal of time.” – Elaine Biech, ‘The Art and Science of Training’ Many designers of training content might, on occasion, grumble about two things: Designing training content takes a lot of time Other people don’t always appreciate how or…
There’s always a need for training. Because there’s always a need for employees to be learning new skills or information. The quality of your training content is critical – it needs to be relevant, effective and engaging. But it’s the quality (and qualities) of the trainer that can make…
An understanding of personality can mark the beginning of behaviour change. But, with multiple tests and questionnaires out there, it can be confusing to know which personality model to pick. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is popular. Yet many experts in the field of personality psychology remain baffled as…
“To truly facilitate learning for others, trainers must understand their learners.” – Elaine Biech, The Art & Science of Training When it comes to training, having a firm grasp of the subject matter is essential. But you can’t effectively impart knowledge without understanding who your learners are and what…