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Connection. Perhaps a year and a half ago it wasn’t something that you were thinking about on a regular basis. Fast forward to the present time and it’s something we’re all looking to do more of and learn how to do better in order to connect with our fellow humans, both in and out of the working environment. 

In a session hosted by the LPI, Edmunk Monk, David Hastings and I had, what I think is safe to say a beautiful exchange of trust, vulnerability and empathy with all the attendees as we shared and learned from one another over the course of the hour. We went in with questions of curiosity and came out with valuable suggestions, practices and insights to move forward with, some of which I’m happy to share with you all reading. 

So what sparked all this great conversation? Well learning of course! And the first part of our time together had us talking about our environments. So let’s explore that a little. 

One of the primary jobs of our brains is to keep us alive and it does so by constantly scanning our environments (both external and internal) but a lot of our working environments changed when we had to work from home. 

Some of these new working environments came with co-workers who needed snacks, diaper changes, help with school, others were pets who needed to be taken out for walks and sometimes insisted on being part of your meetings.  

“The cat made sure to let me know when it was time to stop working and worship him.”

For others, it was quiet, too quiet actually, which came with its own set of new challenges as reintegration back into the workplace began.   

“I've been reluctant to return to busy overcrowded places even though we can”

This is something that is important to stop and acknowledge especially when it comes to how the brain is processing and expending energy.  

While some of the brains above were putting their attentional networks to the test in order to focus and get work done amongst a more chaotic home working environment, other brains had these networks dimmed down. 

Think about that in the contrast of one’s experience. The person with the chaotic environment might be craving the office with different people to engage and socialize with, welcoming that back into their worlds. 

On the other side though are people who went from a less distracted, quieter environment back to a seemingly normal office, only to discover that the brain was going to be processing much more sensory data again. People walking around, having social chats, meetings going on, the sounds of copiers, music, other people working etc. After little to no time amongst people, socializing has become exhausting and, in many cases, overwhelming.  

A hug or a handshake that hadn’t been felt after a year of no physical contact, can flood the system with the neurotransmitter oxytocin, sometimes referred to as the “love hormone” but also is released during social functions as it impacts our bonding behaviour. 

An experience like that, as lovely and welcoming as it is, can also leave one feeling quite tired, as you now understand how much more the brain and body is processing.  

With all this in mind, and knowing that work still needed to get done, I asked the question to our participants, which I’ll encourage you to now take a moment to ask yourself before you continue reading...  

What were some of the biggest adjustments (if any) that you had to make in the environments that you’re working from to maintain productivity?  

When you stop to really think about it, unless this was your normal before, you probably made more accommodations than you realise.  Here are some of the ones which were shared in the session, perhaps you did some of the same:

Created specific spaces which were meant solely for work

Prioritised time to catch up with colleagues, to say hi and talk about things other than work

Taking intentional breaks to get outside for fresh air

Making more time to exercise, eat, and nourish the mind and body

It seems like we all did a pretty good job, and some great learning, so what can we learn more of?

“I have more patience than I could ever imagined!”

It’s amazing but it’s within the simplicity of our human skills that great value is found, but we can’t make the assumption that we all have those skills yet, hence we learn.

As we move forward to humanising the workplace, it’s the skills of empathy, meaningful listening/conscious communication, self-monitoring and regulation both on the emotional and cognitive fronts, which will help us move forward in our work and our relationships. And that’s only a drip in the pond of what we can learn, which I will take the time right now to emphasize TAKES TIME.  

Recognising that we need to give space and time for people to develop on their own as well as time to learn to bring the skills to our interactions with one another, will be a key in learning how to co-regulate. But remember change/learning means that the brain needs to make literal physical adjustments to accommodate for that and we do that with replication and practice.  

Now, just before we ended the online session I did ask one thing of everyone which I will ask of all of you reading this now, and that’s to come back.

Often people look at learning as a one and done. You attend a webinar for an hour, a workshop for half a day, watch a couple of hours of e-learning and never return to it.  

It was a delight to see people in the audience who have joined us before and wanted to continue sharing and learning with one another.  So I invite you as well to come back, join in our next live sessions, come say hi at a conference, anything to keep the learning going! 

I'll leave you with a message that came from a participant in the chatbox as we wrapped up our time together

“Thank you everyone, keep enjoying everything that challenges you :)”

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How, when, and where do we learn the skills to humanise the workplace?

Creating an environment of connection in a post-pandemic world

There are countless things content creators need to think about when designing and developing learning content. In particular, the intended audience for the content and what their needs are in relation the content that’s created. 

With these things to consider, content creation certainly doesn't come without its challenges. A number of these challenges come up even after the actual content has been created. 

You might be thinking, “surely there’s something that can be done to make this less difficult for content creators”, and there is!  

For instance, at Go1, we’re so excited to be launching a new content distribution solution that attempts to tackle some of these challenges faced by content creators, after the content is created: Go1 Connect. As the leader in online learning, Go1 has access to invaluable industry insights and Go1 Connect allows us to offer those insights to our customers so they can assess performance and establish benchmarks for their content. 

 The L&D industry is not the only one facing these content creating obstacles though. Similar challenges apply all across the workforce. Let’s talk about it. Here’s a look at five of the most common challenges talked about by learning content creators and some ways they can be tackled.

Many in the marketing world will be familiar with the term ‘engagement’ but for those outside of the industry that may not be, ‘engagement’ refers to the concept of having as many of your audience as possible interact with the content you create.  

In the case of learning content, this could come in the form of users signing up for a course, sharing a link with their social media network, or completing a course. 

At Go1, we take pride in constantly being in conversation with our customers to ensure that our products and processes are working in the best way possible. Something we’ve found when it comes to content creation is that the relationship between customer and creator ends once the content is handed over to the customer.  

As a result, it’s more difficult for creators to see how their content is being used. From an engagement perspective, this means the content creator is pouring significant time and resources into something without knowing what works and what doesn’t. Having the ability to track engagement and see the results saves the creators all this uncertainty. More than that, having tangible engagement results provides motivation to creators; either to change what they’ve been doing or to reassure them that they’ve been doing the right thing. 

With Go1 Connect, all content creators can access all-important stats like enrolment numbers, course completion rates, as well as insights into the most popular and least popular content that learners are accessing. 

An increasing number of companies are placing a stronger emphasis on security when it comes to their online content, and in today’s world, that’s absolutely understandable.  

One of the scarier challenges of content creation is that it can feel extremely difficult to control who gets a hold of your content as well as what they choose to do with it.  

Digital Rights Management systems are one of the most important ways that companies can reduce the risk of their content being misused. They allow for the restriction of use of digital copyrighted material. Digital Rights Management systems may not an accessible solution for all businesses, particularly small ones, but through Go1 Connect you can access this functionality, with a range of other tools.

It’s human nature that when we see somebody or a company that we know well collaborate with or speak fondly of something, that we tend to place more legitimacy on that thing. So of course, when trying to reach new audiences and increase engagement, it helps to work with trusted names that are either in the industry you’re currently in or that are in the industry you’re trying to target with your content.  

For example, in the space of eLearning, Go1 Connect offers the opportunity for businesses to develop that trust with us as the industry leader and further their reputations in a positive way. The comfort of knowing that your company’s goals are supported by a committed company with ongoing commitment to your success cannot be underestimated.

When we say that one of the biggest challenges is ‘reducing costs’, you may think about it in a purely monetary sense. While that definitely is important, something that’s arguably even more important is time. Time is a cost as well. Things like manual processes and doubling handling can add significant time costs that can stop you from getting other things done like that unexpected task that popped up or even making yourself a well-deserved extra cup of tea.  

Rather than spending half the day trying to complete a single task due to complex, unrefined procedures, wouldn’t you rather spend an hour or two completing that same task thanks to more efficient strategies? Of course you would! 

Thankfully, Go1 Connect has been specially designed to give content creators back some of their time and therefore money. Being a centralised solution, Go1 Connect is easier to use which means less people costs. Along the same vein, we’ve also managed to improve upon alternatives by reducing the need for manual processes and double handling. 

While the challenge of finding creative freedom is definitely prominent in the world of learning and development (especially when working in collaboration with other brands), the beauty of this particular challenge is that by tackling the other challenges we’ve talked about today, a pathway to that creative freedom we all crave starts to become clear.  

To put it simply, when you have less things to worry about, you can put more of your energy into creativity. We all know that work is way more fun when you feel free to create what you want. It also aligns with the principle of “work smarter, not harder”, something that is becoming increasingly prominent in the modern workforce. 

Looking back at some of these challenges, it’s easy to see how they quite often crossover and share commonalities. The good news with that is that when we actively participate in the solutions to these challenges, we start to see multiple of these challenges begin to solve themselves.  

Using Go1 Connect to store, deliver and manage your content could be an amazing first step towards reducing the impact of these challenges on your content creation. If you'd like to learn more about our latest solution for content creators, you can register your interest here.

There are countless things content creators need to think about when designing and developing learning content. In particular, the intended audience for the content and what their needs are in relation the content we might create.

The Go1 Content Insider - November 2021 edition

Go1 invited senior HR leaders from across Europe to participate in a series of virtual workshops and panel discussions focused on humanising the workplace. As part of the day-long event, Go1 convened a roundtable session, co-mediated by Lauren Waldman, founder of Learning Pirate, and Go1 Head of Content Partnerships, David Hastings. Together, they led attendees in a spirited, interactive discussion centered on how we learn inside organisations. 

Sharing learnings & recapping earlier sessions 

As a Scientific Learning Designer, Lauren Waldman’s expertise is focused on the brain, looking specifically at operational models of cognitive and emotional function in the world of learning and learning design. To begin the roundtable, Lauren asked attendees to share broadly about any experiences, feelings or discoveries that came out of their day of workshop sessions.  

“What came up in those sessions? What did you guys learn?” - Lauren Waldman, Learning Pirate 

Attendees contributed in different ways - some offering summaries of sessions they attended, others zeroing in on specific insights, and a few relating personal anecdotes from inside their organisations.  

In one lively exchange, attendees discussed how employee experience impacts customers, and the important role HR can play in helping bridge the emotional experience between employees and customers at critical touchpoints. 

“[HR professionals] can't just be focused on employees; they need to understand how the employee experience impacts customers.” - Contributor 

Attendees generally agreed that HR delivers value to all stakeholders, not only to employees and managers. One contributor wondered if there might be a related mindset emerging within HR to view employees as customers, and if so, how such a view might impact HR’s approach to talent and learning.  

Another attendee spoke at length about the different ways HR could inspire and support employees inside organisations to deliver value that extends beyond an individual’s formal position or training. Co-mediator, David Hastings, agreed, noting that in the aftermath of Covid employees need a dedicated space to foster creativity, build skills, and make relationships from wherever they are working. 

“It's not just the yoga class, the remote coaching thing, or the wellness days. Some people would just really like to understand themselves better.” - David Hastings, Go1 

An experiment to illustrate the foundational model of memory 

Moving the session along, Lauren Waldman returned to the conversation to explain how this 10-15 minute recap discussion was actually a demonstration of the encoding process that’s fundamental to making long-term memories and learning. 

The foundational model of memory teaches that in order to remember something you need to encode it, you need to store it, and you need to retrieve. During the encoding process, as Lauren explains, your brain is working hard, expending quite a bit of energy. Reaching a memory, or retrieving it, requires moving it from a working or short term memory to a long term memory.  

Time is critical to this process, which means after a day of workshop sessions, organisations should think about giving their teams the time and space required to properly reflect, revisit (and ultimately store) what was covered. 

Some organisations may be rushing through learning, not realising that creating a space for conversation and reflection is essential to the process. When it comes to digital learning, therefore, organisations shouldn’t only consider the utility of the information being shared, but also whether it’s being delivered in a way that adds value and supports learning. 

“How do we deliver training to people so they can find it, explore it, access it and get themselves on a pathway?”  - David Hastings, Go1 

One attendee wondered if pandemic constraints may be contributing to a more rushed approach to learning. Another shared that within their own organisation, external challenges actually became a unique opportunity for fostering community. In their experience, team members saw special value in connecting with their colleagues during a crisis, giving HR trainings and webinars renewed appeal as an avenue for bringing team members together. 

“It was more about making sure they knew we were around and there was something happening within the HR community - a safe place to actually talk about topics or just to listen.” - Contributor 

Upskilling, reskilling and decision fatigue 

As self-directed learning becomes more prominent inside the workplace, employees may find themselves with increasing autonomy when it comes to when, where, and how they take in new information. At the same time, many organisations are moving away from role-based learning to skill-based approaches, which means rather than limiting learning opportunities within a single career pathway, there’s been a growing effort to expand into areas that fall outside of an employee’s traditional work silo. In order to help support and guide employees, coaching and mentoring can play a key role in upskilling and reskilling efforts.   

Lauren rejoined the conversation to talk about decision fatigue, especially in the wake of the tremendous emotional and cognitive stress brought on by the global pandemic. The human brain, she explained, is a kind of “prediction making machine,” so when individuals can’t predict what’s going to happen next, many enter a hyperactive mode where emotional processing centers are highly activated. As we consider the functionality of learning in our current landscape (still very much influenced by the uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis i.e. “pandemic brain”), we should remember to be gentle with ourselves and with our expectations of those around us.  

As a continuation of the discussion around upskilling and reskilling, Lauren asked the group if anyone ever taught them how to learn. The model of rote memorisation many of us grew up with, she explained, though outdated, is one that unfortunately persists in our workspaces.  

To illustrate just how differently we learn as individuals, and how each of us maintain our own learning preferences, Lauren facilitated another neuropsychological exercise with the group. Through a series of images shared with the attendees, this classic Stroop experiment ultimately revealed that cognitive function slows when one’s brain is asked to process too many inputs or tasks at the same time. 

“Our brains are incredibly expensive and their currency is energy.” - Lauren Waldman, Learning Pirate 

Stressful episodes are generally characterised by emotional reactivity, hyperactivity, obsessiveness, and over-engagement - all of which deplete an individual’s energy stores. When an employee is burned out, it means they have already pushed themselves past their reasonable limit of stress.  

“If stress is about having too much, then burnout is about not having enough.” - Lauren Waldman, Learning Pirate 

In addition to getting adequate sleep, to recharge an exhausted brain, Lauren suggests conserving energy by eliminating unnecessary stimuli. “Don’t work against your operational system,” she cautions. Instead, consider what a person needs to optimally perform - frequent breaks, adequate hydration, and moderate physical activity. Doing breathwork (like meditation) can also help calm the central nervous system.  

As a curator of the world’s learning content, the conversation around how individuals learn inside organisations will continue at Go1. Customer feedback, expert insight and other research combine to help us iterate and improve upon both the quality of learning inside organisations and the way it's being delivered to our providers, customers, and partners. 

“All of the feedback, all of the information you share with us, all of that gets fed back into how we do this better.” - David Hastings, Go1 

Go1 convened a roundtable session, co-mediated by Lauren Waldman, founder of Learning Pirate, and Go1 Head of Content Partnerships, David Hastings. Together, they led attendees in a spirited, interactive discussion centered on how we learn inside organisations. 

Developing people and organizations through learning

Developing people and organisations through learning

As technologies advance and AI becomes more refined, analysis has become integral to many industries. Movie studios conduct market analysis to ascertain the most in-demand and profitable films. Social media creators rely on detailed analytics to determine which content draws the highest engagement. And many professional athletes hire analysts to gain an extra 0.01% advantage over their competitors that might make the difference between a world record and an also-ran.

Without these valuable insights, we are left in the dark, guessing how to improve our performance. Digital learning content should be no different. To make informed, forward-thinking decisions, detailed insights are essential. As a learning content provider, you want to know what content your learners are engaging with, what they’re avoiding, how and when they’re engaging with content, and what they will need in the future. With this data, you can offer more relevant and tailored content to your learners. Unfortunately, these insights aren’t always available.

With this in mind, we’ll look at how analytics can improve your learning content and how Go1 Connect can help learning content creators access the insights they need. 

As mentioned, sophisticated analytics are now the norm in many industries. These insights help us improve output and plan for the future. Yet, many L&D teams are left in the dark, unable to make informed decisions. 

Through extensive conversations with our partners and Customer Success Managers, we know that the following is an all too common scenario. You release a new piece of learning content, hand it over to your customers, and…that’s that. You have no idea what’s working and what isn't. What content are your learners engaging with? Are they using it at all? It makes it nearly impossible to accurately assess how to improve the content and user experience, let alone discern what areas to invest in for future content planning.

As Training Industry explains in a recent article exploring the benefits of learning analytics, “By leveraging learning data and analytics, organisations can better understand if their programs drive desired business outcomes...learning analytics provide the opportunity and insights necessary to better meet learner expectations. Leveraging learning data properly will reveal their learners’ preferences, including which modalities and design features they value. This data can also be used to uncover poor training programs and segments by evaluating whether the learning has been understood or even consumed by the learner.”

Put simply, pouring so much time, effort, and resources into creating something and then not having any insight into how learners are consuming it is a significant pain point for many learning content providers. 

Understandably, most L&D teams want to know how to optimise their content to make it more effective. So far, so good. Unfortunately, good intentions only get you so far. A disconnect arises when organisations either don’t have access to the appropriate data or don’t have the necessary analysis skills within their teams. 

According to Emerald Works’ Back to the Future Report, 98% of L&D teams say that data analytics is a high priority, but just 18% currently have this capability in-house, down from 30% in 2018. Here, the disconnect between aspiration and reality is stark — L&D teams see how impactful learning data can be but can’t implement this data effectively. 

Similarly, 26% of L&D teams say they lack the analytical skills to use learning data effectively. This figure is trending in the wrong direction, up from 18% in 2019. Accordingly, L&D is lagging behind many other industries. While most L&D teams know how powerful learning insights can be, few teams have the necessary skills and tools to access — let alone utilise — these insights.

Most alarmingly, only 10% of L&D teams use performance data to measure the impact of learning programs. In comparison, this number skyrockets to 68% among high-impact L&D teams (defined as the top 10% of surveyed organisations). Likewise, only 6% of high-impact teams lack the analytical skills to use learning data effectively. 

These statistics tell a story: there is a clear correlation between accessing learning insights and improved performance as an L&D team. Effective use of analytics can drastically improve the performance of your L&D content, taking you from an average team to a high-impact team faster than you can say ‘content insights’. 

L&D professionals are problem solvers at heart, so it was only a matter of time until these issues were addressed, allowing learning content creators to access insights in a timely and digestible manner. 

As a leader in online learning, Go1 has access to invaluable content consumption insights. That’s why we’re so excited to launch Go1 Connect, the most efficient way for learning creators to deliver their content to customers. It’s a solution designed specifically for content creators which provides access to engagement data for all customers.

Go1 Connect offers insights to customers to help them assess performance and establish benchmarks for their content. Most importantly, you’ll have access to a wealth of sophisticated, easy-to-understand insights, such as:

Real-time dashboards and reports to assess performance and establish content benchmarks 

The ability to compare content usage for different customers

By making all aspects of content distribution and management simple, Go1 Connect empowers learning providers to focus on what they do best: creating impactful content for customers and users. 

If you’re ready to learn more about Go1 Connect or have any questions, you can find out more here, or, reach out to register your interest.

We’ll look at how analytics can improve your learning content and how Go1 Connect can help learning content providers access the insights they need. 

Accessing insights to improve your L&D content

We’ll look at how analytics can improve your learning content and how Go1 Connect can help learning content creators access the insights they need. 

The Emerging Stronger team combines the expertise of Michelle Ockers, Shannon Tipton and Laura Overton, award winning L&D industry analysts and strategists who have been working together to empower L&D leaders to take bold action to positively influence business value. 

Over the past 18 months, Emerging Stronger has established a reputation for independent evidence based thinking through their global masterclasses, podcast and resources designed to support the post pandemic world of L&D.

Andrew Barnes, CEO of Go1, said: “We have been working with the Emerging Stronger team over the past year and we value the team’s independent evidence informed perspective.”  

“We are pleased to be involved in this publishing partnership as it aligns with our mission to bring independent content to learners around the globe, including individuals and leaders responsible for the learning of others so that individuals, teams and organisations are better equipped to adapt and grow,” Barnes said.

As a result of this partnership, the Emerging Stronger team will develop a range of resources including eBooks, tools, and research reports to support L&D leaders as they upskill their workforces today to address the challenges of tomorrow

The Emerging Stronger Team will begin their publishing partnership with Go1 with a focus on:

Developing a range of evidence-based resources (eBooks and tools)

Hosting community events that explore collective wisdom and uncover actions to increase business value

Sharing evidence informed insight to encourage and build a future proofed L&D

All to support the mission of both to support L&D leaders as they continue the work to upskill and reskill their workforces. 

Laura Overton (UK market), Shannon Tipton (USA market), Michelle Ockers (APAC market), say:

"Our sole focus is to help L&D take the bold action needed to drive better business value. We love working with Go1’s energetic teams around the globe as they realise their vision. This partnership demonstrates their commitment to independent thinking and making useful, accessible content available to those who need it."

The partnership also demonstrates Go1’s ongoing support of the Emerging Stronger Masterclass which provides an opportunity for L&D leaders to adopt transformational perspectives to drive business value. The agreement not only allows the creation of new resources to educate and inform L&D globally but also provides financial support to participants who enter the programme as a scholarship holder.

Emerging Stronger has announced a publishing partnership with Go1, the world's largest corporate education content hub for on-demand training and resources, aimed at supporting learning and development leaders to drive better business value in the changing workplace.