MWL Newsletter No 31

News and articles about Modern Workplace Learning (MWL) selected by Jane Hart for the week 10-16 September 2017


Article of the Week

Who’s building the infrastructure for lifelong learning?  Lynda Gratton, MIT Sloan Management Review, 8 September 2017

“Part of the challenge of building anticipation and enabling people to engage in lifelong learning is that this is not a single point of intervention. Of course, fundamentally it is the responsibility of each individual to act on the emerging reality that continuous learning is crucial to a productive life. But anticipating jobs and providing access to lifelong learning demands a complex system involving multiple stakeholders: educators that extend the reach of their programs from being front-ended on teenagers and 20-somethings to delivering educational options to students of all ages; governments that commit to helping citizens understand future job markets and the skills they will require, and that realign tax and financial incentives; and corporations that create work environments that support education and enable employees to engage in extended periods of training.”


From around the Web

These Are The Differences Between Mentors, Advisors, and Coaches  Zak Slayback, 8 September 2017

“Once each of these makes sense, you have the opportunity to search out specific people to play each specific role. It’s possible that a mentor can also be a coach or an advisor can also be a mentor but, generally speaking, each of these focuses on their own specific domains in their own specific ways.”


Is It Still Considered ‘Team Building’ If They Force You To Participate?  Liz Ryan, Forbes, 15 September
“HR people are often unsure about how to build a great culture. They don’t understand that the first step in creating a terrific culture is to listen to your employees — not to force your ideas and schemes on them. Team-building activities are only useful when everybody who participates wants to be there. There’s no such things as effective, forced team-building!”


When VR training makes the job look better than it is   Simon Chandler, Wired, 14 September 2017

“VR is an unusually powerful tool, however it’s used. A growing body of scientific research demonstrates that VR can correct delusional beliefs and even reduce discrimination against minorities. Employers who tap VR for recruitment or training may reap benefits. But the pseudo-reality of VR could ultimately mean that an employee’s increased engagement and job satisfaction may stem from things they haven’t experienced for “real.””


Why design thinking in business needs a re-think Martin Kupp, Jamie Anderson, and Jörg Reckhenrich, MIT Sloan Management Review, 12 September 2017

“Innovation is an inherently messy process, made even messier because it conflicts in many ways with established processes, structures, and corporate cultures … The root of most of the problems is the disconnect between design thinking and conventional business processes.”


Top tools 2017  Harold Jarche, 14 September 2017

“Here are my top tools this year, with the past five years shown below. It’s interesting to note that my preferred tools have not changed that much over the years.”


Vote for your Top Tools for Learning 2017

Last chance to vote. Voting closes Friday 22 September 2017. VOTE HERE

Jane Hart will once again be compiling her annual Top Tools for Learning 2017 from the votes of learning professionals worldwide. This year is the 11th Annual Learning Tools survey .


MWL Workshop

Supporting Modern Social Learning in the Workplace

9 October – 3 November 2017

Although “social learning” has become the latest industry buzzword, it is not just about making people interact in courses, but helping teams and groups learn together as they work together, and facilitating learning across the organisation. This is modern social learning. In this 4-week online workshop we look at how to help managers build a successful and effective social team, how to guide social learning experiences, as well as ways to foster networked learning across the organisation.


30 Day Learning Challenges

The 30 day Learning Challenges are now available in two formats:

  • As a daily email programme which you can sign up to at any time. The daily email will keep you on track and point you to the daily task online, where you can share you thoughts on the daily task with others.There is also guidance and support available if required. Cost: £49
  • As a downloadable Taskbook containing all the tasks in a PDF so that you can work through them privately and at you own pace (i.e. quicker or longer than 30 days). Cost: £9.99

The 5 Learning Challenges – suitable for anyone to become a continuous independent modern learner – are:

  1. Learn something new every day – This Challenge will help you build a habit of learning something new every day.
  2. Get the most out of your daily work – This Challenge will help you get the most out of your day job so that you can benefit from your everyday work activities.
  3. Keep up to date with your industry or profession – This Challenge will focus on a variety of digital ways to help you keep up to date in your industry or profession.
  4. Manage your own self-development  This Challenge will help you develop the habit of organising and managing your own self-development.
  5. Grow your professional network – This Challenge will help you build from scratch and/or enhance your existing professional network.

Jane Hart
Director, Centre for Modern Workplace Learning

You may copy, print or forward all or part of this Newsletter to others as long as any use is not for resale or profit and I am attributed.