Elearning blog: Learning re-imagined

Exploring SkillPort® 8: Community Features

 

Last week, we focused on the “search” functionality within SkillPort® 8 — a revolutionary cloud-based learning experience that delivers targeted learning — when and where people want to learn. Today, we’ll explore the “community” features of SkillPort 8.

One of the highlights of SkillPort 8 is the integrated collaborative and social learning features. In fact, according to a 2010 ASTD study, workers see the value of using social media for learning and development. More than 80 percent of the survey respondents expect social tools to be adopted by their organization’s learning group within the next three years and nearly 100 percent of the respondents use social tools in their personal lives.

Community and collaboration is woven throughout the learner interface, encouraging participation and bringing organizational context across a wide range of learning content. The community features in SkillPort 8 leverage the 2+ years of experience we have deploying our award-winning social learning feature set, inGenius®, into the programs of over 350 clients around the world.

How to Process Email and Keep Your Inbox Empty

We are pleased to bring you a guest blog post today from Laura Stack, a well-known time management and productivity expert that works with international leaders, entrepreneurs, salespeople, and professional services firms on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in the workplace. As the founder and president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., she helps individuals, leaders, teams, and organizations achieve Maximum Results in Minimum Time®. She has implemented productivity-improvement programs at companies such as Wal-Mart, Cisco Systems, UBS, Aramark, and Bank of America. Laura is the bestselling author of five books, including “What to Do When There’s Too Much to Do” and “SuperCompetent.”

By Laura Stack

Undoubtedly, your email is probably the biggest organizational challenge you deal with today. Make no mistake: Email actually IS your work, as all those messages represent something you need to do and decisions you need to make. But many people are paralyzed by the sheer volume of messages or don’t have a systematic way of pulling action from email. So most people leave messages in their inboxes to languish and get buried by the onslaught of new incoming emails.

Instead, force yourself to make one of six decisions from my 6-D Information Management System™:

Exploring SkillPort® 8: The Newest Addition to SkillSoft’s Cloud-Based Platform

Since the announcement of SkillPort® 8 at the Perspectives conference a few weeks ago, our customers have been buzzing with excitement! SkillPort 8, a revolutionary cloud-based learning experience, delivers targeted learning —when and where people want to learn. By connecting formal, informal, and collaborative learning, it transforms web-based learning from a solitary event to a richer, continuous community-oriented experience. Over the next few weeks, stay tuned for posts that focus on specific SkillPort 8 features and functionality such as search, catalog and community. Today, we’ll cover SkillPort 8’s “search functionality.”

To build the search functionality for SkillPort 8, we studied the world-class sites where users already know how to find and buy:

The Shift in Training

Your business may well be investing in training but has it taken “The Shift “into account? In her book The Shift: The Future of Work is Already Here, acclaimed author and global authority on the people implications of strategies Lynda Gratton says, there have been three shifts that businesses need to embrace in order to be a success.

The first shift manifests itself in a change from a generalized to specialized approach. As the world becomes increasingly connected in the 21st Century, having a small amount of knowledge about a lot of subjects gives next to no competitive edge to a business. In contrast, a workforce with a depth of knowledge on a specific area will be able to offer insights and points of view which will keep them ahead of the rest of the field.

People who can become serial masters are well-equipped to be both happy and successful in their careers. Serial masters’ working lives can revolve around a core of highly valuable skills that they love. These can be used as a gateway to rediscovering lost passions, reforming initial ideas into new mastery or spinning off into new paths.

Last year one of the most interesting ideas that came out of the Future of Work Consortium was that by 2020, five billion people will be connected with each other through their handheld devices.

The second shift, which sees a move from an individual outlook to connected networks means people who share information are far more likely to succeed than those who soldier on alone.

In the future, “swarms” of people will work together on things they are passionate about. A well-connected company will be prepared to work as a team to sting competitors and dominate the market.

Books24x7 Book Review: Transformative HR: How Great Companies Use Evidence-Based Change for Sustainable Advantage

By Pam Boiros

The “evidence-based” approach has its roots in medicine.  The evidence-based medicine movement encouraged medical professionals to determine, using available evidence, the most effective treatment path for a particular disease was and to apply that treatment.  While this might seem like a common sense approach, many doctors had become accustomed using their own treatments even when scientific evidence indicated that other treatments were more effective.

In certain areas of human resources and people management, decisions are also often made without full use of the evidence available.  For example, in some organizations the interview process can be unstructured and hiring decisions made primarily based on the manager or recruiting committee’s instinct about a candidate.  

"Five Fallacies About the Role of Learning Content in Talent Management" Explores How Learning Can Help Solve the Global Talent Crisis

While the industry is beginning to develop a better understanding of how learning impacts talent management, a number of false perceptions still exist. The greatest myth is that learning exists separate from the other components of an organization’s talent management strategy. But to have an impact, learning content needs to be in the workflow, not locked in a hidden system.

At Bersin IMPACT 2012, Josh Bersin, chief executive officer and president, Bersin & Associates, said, “The workplace is undergoing dramatic change. Companies operate on a global basis and jobs are far more specialized, creating a global talent gap. SkillSoft’s solutions address these evolving needs, and offer an expanded portfolio of resources that includes social, on-demand, mobile, storytelling and other next-generation methods. Such solutions go a long way to address the global talent crisis at all levels globally, and to equip employees with 21^st-century skills.”

Leadership development, performance management, onboarding—even talent sourcing and recruiting—can all benefit from having learning content firmly embedded into the process. SkillSoft’s new white paper, Five Fallacies About the Role of Learning Content in Talent Management, explores the misperceptions about learning’s role in a talent management strategy and reveals truths about how learning can help solve the global talent crisis. Download the paper here to learn more.  

Delivering IT Training to Those in Need

Earning IT certifications can help individuals do their jobs more effectively and keep IT operations running smoothly. While this may be a great value-add for some, for others it can actually be life changing!  SkillSoft customer CompTIA helps individuals at risk of falling below the poverty line—as well as candidates under-represented in the IT industry such as minorities, women, veterans and displaced workers—to prepare for, secure, and succeed in IT careers by offering  free IT certification training.

CompTIA is a non-profit IT trade association that provides IT education and certification as well as advocacy on behalf of the IT industry. Part of the group’s focus includes giving back through their charity, the Creating IT Futures Foundation. CompTIA turned to SkillSoft for donations; SkillSoft contributed the IT courseware collection and access to the SkillPort® at no cost. Learners in the foundation’s training program used SkillPort to access content from the IT Skills course­ware collection. Once through the training, the participants were invited to sit for IT certification exams such as the CompTIA A+ certification.

Center for Creative Leadership’s 50th Guidebook in the Ideas Into Action Leadership Development Series Now in Books24x7

By Pam Boiros

We’re excited to give our customers access to titles from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL^®). In partnership with CCL, we have incorporated the 50^th guidebook from CCL’s Ideas Into Action leadership development series.  The series supports managers and executives who are concerned improving their own leadership development – as well as the development for others in their organization. Each guidebook in the series, which is delivered through the SkillSoft Books24x7 Platform in the BusinessPro collection, gives specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership problem.

The 50^th guidebook in the Ideas Into Action leadership development series, Developing Political Savvy, discusses how political savvy is about using your skills, behaviors, and qualities to be effective. Sincerity is vital to successful leaders! The ideas and exercises in the guidebook will help managers and executives become more politically savvy leaders and build their capacity to lead effectively in their organizations.

We are also commemorating more than 10 years of a content distribution and licensing partnership between SkillSoft and CCL. CCL is a global provider of executive education, focused on leadership education and solving leadership challenges for individuals and organizations.

About Books24x7
In partnership with industry's foremost publishers, industry vendors, analyst firms, business thought leaders and senior executives of Fortune 500 companies, as well as CCL, the SkillSoft Books24x7 product line offers instant access to the complete text of tens-of-thousands of best-in-class books, book summaries, videos, audios, research reports and best practices.

Leadership Skills Training Lesson: Applaud Effort and Grit, not Talent

By Shawn Hunter

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”
- Stephen King, Author

Carol Dweck led a fascinating study back in 1998 in which she and her colleagues worked with four hundred 5th graders and gave them a series of tests, mostly puzzles, and then praised them in two different ways with these six little words.

With half of the group they said, “You must be smart at this.”
With the other half of the group they said, “You must have tried really hard.”

The first word set awarded intelligence, and innate talent, similar to how many parents and coaches (myself included) get trapped into talking about, and to, our kids. We say how smart they are, or how naturally gifted they are. The second word set praised effort, determination, preparation, grit. What the researchers were interested in, was how the kids would view their abilities, as fixed and unchanging or as malleable and able to grow and change with work.

In the next round of puzzles, the kids were offered a choice. They could try harder problems or easier ones. You guessed right, the kids praised for effort choose to attempt the harder problems. The kids praised for talent selected the easier problems because then you praise for innate talent, you create a form of status. If someone believes they have special talent and they are expected to perform well, then the thought of failing expectations becomes a liability. So to protect yourself as a “gifted and talented” individual we will choose easier tasks to ensure we have high performance.

SkillPort 8: A Revolution in Learning

 SkillPort 8 is easy to implement, easy to navigate and easy to manage. Whether you're deploying courseware only or designing fully customized, multi-modal curricula, SkillPort can be up and running in as little as a few weeks!