Gamification is another HR buzzword; in fact nowadays everything is being gamified. It is big business; gamification vendors abound, and there are plenty of gamification conferences too. But does it actually work? First of all, let’s be clear what is meant by the term gamification.  It is not the same as games (or even game-based […]

L&D’s traditional role has been to organise, track, monitor and otherwise manage training – firstly as it took place in the classroom and more recently in the form of e-learning. However, now that it is generally recognised that modern professionals learn in many different ways, it is not just a matter of force-fitting these new […]

Now that social learning is a hot topic, many organizations are beginning to consider how they can implement or operationalize it.  However, “social learning”  is a very different type of learning from traditional training, because it is natural phenomenon (that takes place when people share and collaborate with one another) rather than something that is […]

    I have been running the Learning in the Workplace survey for 5 years now, and after over 5,000 responses from 63 countries worldwide the results are clear: Company training is the least valued way of learning in the workplace. In this article I want to look at what the survey tells us and […]

There is a lot of talk about lifelong learning – but most of it focuses on lifelong education – that is continuously taking courses throughout your life. For instance, the recent Economist article, Lifelong learning is becoming an economic imperative, explained how “Technological change demands stronger and more continuous connections between education and employment”. This […]

“Any man who reads too much and uses his brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” — Albert Einstein Is reflection solely the realm of sitting and thinking on one’s own? Or is it the ebb and flow of conversations and making meaning through discourse? Time for silent reflection is undoubtedly beneficial, but […]

“If you were an employee on Henry Ford’s assembly line in Detroit in the 1920s, you received a high degree of training and preparation before you ever set foot in the factory. You learned what your role was, and were given all the tools you needed to accomplish your job from Day One. From then […]

Learning is more than just asking questions and getting answers (whether through social media or a search engine), there’s an active component to learning that is too often forgotten. When I look at the tools in the Top 100 tools for learning, I see some reflective tools, e.g. writing, but I may be one of […]

There is a lot of interest in the behaviour of the Modern Learner, but in the context of work it is more appropriate to talk about the Modern Professional Learner. The Modern Professional Learner learns for, at and through work in many different ways – i.e. not just in formal training or e-learning, but through […]

I don’t know about you but it’s rare that any mandated traditional training inspires me anymore. Whether it’s completing annual compliance e-learning programs sitting on an LMS or being told by a manager that I have to attend an event to learn about a new service or product that may or may not be relevant […]