“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.” – Leonardo da Vinci
You might have noticed that I switched up the way I write the news item descriptions a while back—leaning into the Smart Brevity style. Is it working? Do you like it better? Or should I go back to the old, short-and-sweet single-paragraph format? Or (plot twist) does no one actually care, and I should stop overthinking this? 😂 Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts! And while you’re at it, let me know if there’s anything else I can improve. Just hit reply to this email. I appreciate you! 🙏
Also, on Tuesday, I'm sharing six practical, easy-to-implement tips to boost learner engagement. I'd love for you to join me!
that’sIt’sit’sImagine compliance training that’s straightforward and stress-free — keeping you audit-ready without the usual headaches. It’s not just a goal — it’s entirely possible. Join iSpring’s free webinar to discover how a Learning Management System (LMS) can streamline your compliance training. Learn how to automate repetitive tasks, easily deliver courses, and use powerful reporting tools to ensure everything stays on track.
Beyond the Classroom: Creating Engaging Educational Videos
The Rundown: The "Empowering Educators" seminar hosted by UMass featuring Dr. Richard Mayer and Matt Pierce focused on innovative strategies for enhancing student engagement through the creation of effective educational videos.
The Context:
The seminar highlighted the importance of methodology over technology in video creation.
Learn about the significance of a learner-centered approach for effective educational video design.
AI tools were discussed for improving audio quality and engaging video content.
Key strategies included understanding audience preferences and minimizing cognitive overload in videos.
Why it matters: Engaging educational videos can significantly enhance student learning, interaction, and retention. By empowering educators with innovative strategies, the seminar aimed to improve educational outcomes and make learning more accessible and effective for diverse learners.
The rundown: Expert interviews are a powerful content marketing tool. They help extract valuable insights, enhance credibility, and humanize your brand. Amy Woods walks through how to plan ahead and make repurposing simple, so you’re always getting the best return from your expert conversations.
The context:
Authenticity wins – Interviews showcase real voices, making content more engaging.
Repurposing goldmine – One interview can fuel courses, blogs, videos, podcasts, and social style posts.
Stronger connections – Featuring experts boosts trust and authority.
Why it matters: Expert interviews done well provide credible, human-centered content. They deliver fresh insights, drive engagement, and maximize reach in a variety of formats.
The Rundown: This Harvard Business Review working paper looks at how companies waste billions on training because it fails to change behavior or improve performance. True change requires systemic organizational development led by senior leadership, with training as a supporting element, not the primary driver.
The Context:
Organizations spend vast sums on training yet see limited returns.
Traditional training focuses on individual skills, neglecting the powerful influence of organizational systems.
"Silent killers" like unclear strategy and poor leadership hinder the application of learned skills.
HR often prioritizes individual competency development over systemic organizational change.
Why It Matters: Many companies waste money on training that doesn't work. This frustrates employees and blocks real progress. It's like planting seeds in poor soil – even good training fails if the company isn't ready. Leaders need to build a workplace where new skills can be used. This means changing the company culture and getting everyone involved. When this happens, training works better and everyone benefits.
Discover how strategically planned training and development can improve employee tenure. By offering employees opportunities to learn and grow within your organization, it shows your invested in their future, in turn increasing job satisfaction and morale.
Learn how upskilling and reskilling can keep your employees engaged, committed, and reduce costly churn.
Great marketers know how to grab attention. Now it’s L&D’s turn!
What works vs. what flops? Mike Taylor (Learning Experience Strategist, Consultant, and Author of #TrainLikeAMarketer) breaks down attention triggers with loads of real examples.
Stine S. Snekkenes (Senior Instructional Designer @ We Are Learning) then showcases how to bring these to life in We Are: the next-gen course authoring tool for immersive learning.
This is the conversation that caught my ear this week. Check out previous episodes in the Friday Finds podcast playlist.
Will AI Wipe Out L&D?
Robert Guidi explores AI's positive impact on L&D, focusing on practical applications and performance support, detailed in his book "ChatL&D,” rather than dwelling on job displacement.
If you or your event needs a speaker or workshop that is highly interactive and super practical, we should talk.
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