Engaging learners

Information is not the answer

/ Susan Hendrich / 3 Comments

Design experiences, not information…

Every learning leader has faced the dilemma of being asked to cram too much information into a training course because of a customer’s belief that “more information is better learning.”  You know the drill, and it usually starts something like this, “Hey Jim, thanks for designing that course for us. I was thinking, we should also add…[insert 438 data points, factoids, and might-use administrivia here] to our course.” 

It’s the data dump. The fact frenzy. The overview overkill.  It’s just difficult sometimes for folks to believe that less information could lead to more (and better) learning. 

Well, today we’re going to make the case for shifting the focus away from information altogether. Here, designing guru Cathy Moore makes a powerfully simple case for shifting from designing information to designing experiences.

Can’t access YouTube? Here’s a Flash version.

Maven, ninja, or guru. Which one are you?

/ Susan Hendrich / 7 Comments

Attention-grabbing Job Seekers…

You know the job market has become increasingly competitive. A standard resume or CV won’t really cut it these days. To stand out, there are ever-more random lengths people will go to in order to secure a job or even get noticed by potential employers. Take a look at some of the best job applications around.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/remarkable-hiring-stories.html

Freebie fun: Create word clouds with Wordle

/ Susan Hendrich / 1 Comment

Wordle is one of the coolest free toys I’ve seen in a while.  I’ll let author  Jonathan Feinberg‘s  description speak for itself and get out your way so you can read it then start Wordling…

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Here’s one I made for my colleague, Susan Jacobs, as a birthday surprise for her office door:

Wordle Cloud

So, what words will you use to create your own Wordle cloud?

Leadership quotes for today

/ Susan Hendrich / Leave a comment

Leadership

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.”   — General Colin Powell

 “Leadership is the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate where people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long term constructive goals, in a participatory environment of mutual respect, compatible with personal values.”  — Mike Vance

“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”  — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A good manager doesn’t try to eliminate conflict; he tries to keep it from wasting the energies of his people. If you’re the boss and your people fight you openly when they think that you are wrong – that’s healthy.”  – Robert Townsend