The Danger of Describe If you’ve worked with me recently and turned in performance or learning objectives starting with “Describe…” you’ve most definitely gotten feedback from me questioning your choice. If you work with me sometime soon, you’ll know this is one of my pet peeves and be prepared for the questions! Yes, I do […]
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A Reflection on my Career in Learning It was 1980-something when I graduated college with a business degree, prepared for a career in marketing. After several attempts to get a job in a tough employment market, I landed a position doing something I could’ve never imagined — writing proposals for a custom training consultancy in […]
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Hitting the Mark for Learning Project Success: Quality-Schedule-Budget I’m famous in my family for finding a recipe, customizing the ingredients, and ending up with a delicious dish. The bigger trick, however, always seems to be, can I make it again? Pulling together a project can be like cooking the perfect recipe. You have to get […]
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Using Chatbots in Learning Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, computers were often pictured in popular media as being a technology that (usually) wanted to help mankind. Characters would interact with these machines by simply talking, and the computers were able to talk back and hold entire conversations. At the time, real computers didn’t […]
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Eight Components to Cultivate a Robust Learning Experience It’s gardening season where I live, one of my favorite times of the year. Waiting for perennials to come up, watching for buds and leaves to appear, moving plants to more favorable locations in the yard, deciding what vegetables to plant where, all bring me joy. I’m […]
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A Closer Look at Four Learning Tools In many projects, my role is to serve as a learning technology consultant to help organizations choose the best learning tool to support their needs. In most cases, these organizations are trying to find one system that does everything. Sometimes, this just isn’t possible. There are multiple categories […]
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Using Tools Differently for Different Projects Frequently when I share my screen during Zoom meetings, I get quite a reaction. The reaction isn’t about the amazing desktop background picture of me climbing Everest (Kidding! It’s just a stock image.); it’s from people who catch a glimpse of my email inbox. “Where’s everything?!” coworkers seem to […]
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Teaching the Why, What, and How of DEI There’s been a lot written and said in recent days about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. Like most “soft” skills, the goal is to steer the culture of an organization toward a more desired set of complex and nuanced behaviors. And, similar to emotional […]
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Tips to design Role-Specific Systems Training Picture this — you’re meeting with a business services client who wants to develop a custom-learning course to walk learners through the functionality of a time sheet system. You think to yourself, sure, we can do that! But then the client adds that this training must cover the requirements […]
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From Relationship Managers to Business Consultants Many Moons Ago… …I began working with a great team at Amway on transitioning its global sales account managers from administrative/relationship-building roles to strategic, business consultants or trusted advisors. This revolutionary change in position and perspective prompted the global sales learning and development team to also radically evolve its […]
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