Every year I save dozens of articles for offline reading in Instapaper. This year I did a review of them for the first time. The best ones are timeless essays from independent online writers that helped me improve my thinking. Here are my top seven to help you decide what to read in 2020 to …
Video-based training is back in a big way. The rise in remote work has necessitated a transition to virtual training. But no one can spend an entire day on a live Zoom training, as was previously the norm with in-person training. There is a greater need for more asynchronous learning. Enter video-based training, which is …
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Have you ever wondered how your brain is processing all the information that gets thrown at it every day? How do we actually learn anything in this age of information overload? To design effective training we must understand first how the human brain processes information. This post covers 8 principles for managing cognitive load when …
Have you ever wanted to know who your parents really were growing up? What stories do they have? What experiences did they enjoy? What memories stuck with them? I set out to do just this. Earlier this year I saw this tweet from Paul Graham: Something I wish I’d done while my mother was still …
I was in Austin recently for the Degreed LENS conference. It’s now officially the only learning conference I go to every year, for two reasons: 1) It’s small (i.e. intimate). 2) It attracts outstanding learning leaders. Because of this, the quality of conversation is beyond anything you can find at any of the bigger conferences. …
Reading Andy Grove’s book High Output Management (great summary here), I came across some excellent thoughts on training, and especially his point that training is one of the highest leverage activities a manager can perform. Leverage, of course, is the idea that the value of your actions can be multiplied thousands of times over. For …
Training Is the Highest Leverage Thing You Can Do Read More »
I waited nervously as we went around the room to introduce ourselves. We were sitting around a large conference table. A room full of founders, CEOs, entrepreneurs. High achievers. I don’t know why I was nervous. I am the founder of two companies. I fit in here. But it got worse as my turn got …
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What happened next made no sense. It was Test match 3 of 5 in a series that decides the oldest rivalry in cricket, England vs Australia. England were 0-1 down. Defeat would make it 0-2, with two to play. Needing to win the series outright to win the trophy back from the Australians, they could …
As the owner of a business creating learning events for individuals and companies, I’m often asked, “How do I teach my people (employees/customers) this topic?” To approach this by comparing forms of media and modes of delivery (a common folly in the learning industry) is to make the mistake Einstein warned us about when he …
To win the hearts and minds of your people is to mobilize your greatest asset, which can help you overcome other competitive disadvantages you may have. In a previous post, I shared a crucial step in the design phase of our learning methodology – our practice of deconstructing everything we’ve learned about a topic in …
Why Embedding Corporate Culture in Training Is So Important Read More »