Some people are known for their ability to always think ‘outside the box.’ They seem to know how to approach a situation from different angles and perspectives, consistently solving problems and coming up with innovative solutions. What makes some people better at this than others? Well, it’s likely these individuals have strong lateral thinking skills.

Many creatives, for example, use lateral thinking habits to solve problems, pitch new ideas and produce strong results for their teams. These traits are very valued by employers and managers, as organizations can greatly benefit from individuals who know how to think in this way.

Do you want to know how to develop your own lateral thinking skills? While some people are more naturally gifted when it comes to this area, there are certain things you can do to improve the way you approach problems and offer solutions.

Creative Exercises to Improve Lateral Thinking

Rolestorming – what would you do if you were someone else? Put yourself in someone else’s shoes, or brain, and imagine what they would do in your situation.

Switch on your 5 senses – look at objects around you, analyze their shape and color; listen to sounds in your environment; use the senses of touch and smell. These elements will help you to start generating new ideas.

Create a Mind map – start off with your problem in the center, and branch out to draw the major topics, then sub-topics. This will help you visually organize information and show relationships among pieces of the whole.

Reverse thinking – think about what everyone will typically do, then do the opposite.

Write a 6-word story of your problem – make the language as simple yet imaginative as possible.

Christopher Pappas, founder of the eLearning Industry’s Network, suggests asking your online learners thought-provoking questions – he calls this “identifying limiting cognitions.”

“Maybe a past experience is an obstacle that they must overcome. For example, they naturally assume that this solution is the ONLY solution because it's always worked in the past,” Pappas says.

Asking questions that (respectfully) challenge an individual’s beliefs and assumptions helps to identify whether learners are looking at problems in a particular set frame of mind. People get stuck in the same old ways of thinking – stepping outside the comfort zone helps them to acknowledge these limiting cognitions and move beyond them. Riddles are an example of lateral thinking. Many riddles and puzzles work on assumptions, with the answer being a surprising side-step of the status quo. Lateral thinkers know how to identify clues other people overlook, and ask questions that will lead to the right answer.

Using Collaboration to Improve Lateral Thinking

Pappas also recommends incorporating group activities into your eLearning course, with online learners working together in a culture of collaboration.

As he explains, “every member of your audience has unique insights, experiences, and knowledge that they have to share.” By working as a group, each learner will be able to gain an insight into the problem-solving techniques of other learners. This encourages people to consider things from different perspectives, which Pappas considers “the greatest gift of all.”

“Online group collaboration projects allow them to collectively problem-solve and offer their point-of-view. As a result, every online learner gets to look at the problem from a new angle. They also recognize that there's more than one way to achieve the desired outcome,” he says.

There’s nothing to lose by trying out some of these things in your everyday work life. And by encouraging your online learners to do the same. Doing activities like this regularly will certainly help you become more aware of the way you use your brain to solve problems and approach issues. You may just surprise yourself when you start coming up with some cool solutions from out of left field. You might also find it quite relaxing, to switch your brain over to a different way of thinking throughout the day!

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How to improve your lateral thinking skills

No matter which industry you work in, landing your dream job isn’t easy. Sometimes even the best grades and technical skills aren’t enough to get you further than the first interview round, or noticed for promotion. Sound familiar? You may need to look at the soft skills you can offer an employer – because it’s often skills such as self-awareness, self-control and teamwork that will set you apart from the competition.

Having the right technical skills and knowledge to successfully carry out your job is only one part of being the best you can be in the workplace. In addition to these hard skills, you need a good combination of soft skills to know how to work well with others.

According to a survey by Talent Q, “nine in 10 employers believe that graduates with soft skills will become increasingly important” – yet a massive 80% of employers are struggling to find graduates with the soft skills they need! While this is bad for employers, it's great news for anyone who is willing to put some time and effort into their professional development, because soft skills are something that can be learned and improved upon.

You can even do this online, through soft skills courses that you can complete at your own pace, in your own home. While your employer (hopefully!) offers plenty of training and development in the workplace, learning materials can often be focused more on those hard, technical skills. So it could be up to you to take the initiative and work on your soft skills in your own time, if you really want to get ahead.

In a previous article, we looked at the top 5 soft skills you need and how to get them, highlighting a selection of online courses to improve:

Today, we’re going to look at 3 online courses that offer an overall perspective and introduction to soft skills. This way, you can get more of a ‘crash course’ in soft skill development, while covering all the elements mentioned above.

With the 10 Soft Skills You Need course, you’ll start to understand why it’s so important to develop a set of soft skills – for both personal and professional development.

This course has been created for employees at all levels, including managers and supervisors, so is suitable for any audience. It discusses the 10 key soft skills that contribute most to career success, presenting practical ways to improve interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, communication, self-confidence, and more.

It’s particularly good for anyone looking to work on their communication, problem solving and conflict resolution skills, to build more positive relationships at work. Another great thing about this course is that it encourages learners to have the right mindset and expectations when starting the course, acknowledging that while technical skills can be learned in a short period of time, soft skills on the other hand require a change in habits and self-awareness.

Similar name, different content - The Essential 10 Soft Skills You Need course speaks to a broader audience, making it just as suitable for business owners, startups, and entrepreneurs, as well as employees.

This online course breaks down soft skills to the fundamental perspective that “no matter what your position, organization, or industry, you work with people!” You’ll learn how taking the time to build effective soft skills can contribute to a more efficient, more harmonious, and more productive workplace, as well as to your own overall job happiness and satisfaction.

From this course, you'll gain a better understanding of how to apply soft skills to specific situations in the workplace. There’s a good focus on attitude and work ethic, which can often be overlooked or simply assumed when talking about employee development. You’ll also look at improving your time management skills, flexibility and adaptability to change – all important things for successful employees and entrepreneurs.

You might also like to look back at our previous articles on soft skills:

 The Importance of Soft Skills in Today’s Workforce

 The Top 5 Soft Skills You Need and How to Get Them

How to Write Soft Skills Learning Objectives

Soft skills courses everyone should complete

Let’s not lie to ourselves – we often see problems we don’t want to deal with. Head down, keep walking. That’s the usual decision.

Unfortunately for us, that’s often not the best choice we can make. Sure, no one wants to deal with a hazard as they’re just leaving the office to head home or walking off the site for lunch. Someone else can do it!

Like we discussed earlier, no one really likes to increase their workload when they’re already busy or just about to leave work. The reason for this is usually because we think it’ll be a drawn-out process that will unravel to prove bigger than first expected. And before this course, that might have been true.

But the consequences of not reporting hazards – particularly in workplaces where dangers are already considerate, for example, laboratories or construction sites – can be severe.


We talked recently about the fact that many workers are leaving high-paid corporate positions to pursue a more meaningful career that aligns with their personal values. For these people, it’s often the non-profit sector that provides that important connection between values and job satisfaction. In fact, in today’s workforce, we’re seeing significant growth in the non-profit sector, with not-for-profit (NFP) organisations employing more people than ever before.

Not all non-profit employees are working out in the field for humanitarian aid organisations. The sector encompasses a wide range of roles and positions – from doctors and lawyers, to policy makers, researchers and communication professionals. Employers may indeed be humanitarian organisations, but they can also be social services, aged care providers, or early childhood educators.

According to the 2017 Australian Charities report, not-for-profit organisations account for 10 percent of Australia’s workforce, with non-profits employing more than 1.2 million people – making it Australia's second largest sector for employment. We can see the same trend happening in the United States, with figures from late 2016 showing that over 10 percent of the domestic workforce are employed by registered nonprofit organisations.

For staff working in the non-profit sector, it’s important to receive high levels of training and professional development. NFP employers and managers need to provide tailored training programs that will educate and empower their staff, so they can feel focused and motivated towards their purpose.

Online courses can be a smart solution for training employees in the non-profit sector. Many eLearning courses are designed specifically for NFP staff – covering areas such as management, finance, governance, marketing, leadership and communication. To give you an idea of the high level training materials out there, we’ve hand-picked 5 of the best online courses for non-profit organisations.

Nonprofit Fundamentals is a great course for those involved in, or working towards, leadership and management in a non-profit organisation. Renowned author, Leslie Crutchfield, explains how NFPs are different than for-profits, and the challenges and opportunities that this brings.

Through this course, you’ll get a comprehensive overview of how fundraising, governance, finance, and accounting work within an NFP. This means you’ll learn about fundraising, grants, social media, talent recruiting and working with volunteers. You’ll also gain a better understanding of how to shape your organisation’s vision and strategy, and scale both your organisation and the impact it has on the world.

There are many online courses around that focus on social media strategy for non-profits, but this is our pick of the bunch.

Social Media Strategy is best for anyone who works or volunteers for a non-profit and is responsible for their social media. It’s particularly good for NFPs who only have a small budget to work with. Often, when budget is tight, social media is handed over to anyone who’s willing to get the job done – but that doesn’t mean they have the skills and experience to develop and execute a proper social media strategy.

Through this course, internationally recognised influencer Devin Thorpe will help you identify your goals and develop a simple and effective social media strategy. You’ll learn tips and tricks to raise your non-profit's profile and accelerate its fundraising, including:

Using Twitter and Facebook to build awareness for your cause, attract more followers and foster a community

Optimising your social media posts to expand your mailing list and raise more money.

Use time-saving tools like Hootesuite and Bufferapp to manage your social media channels.

You’ll learn all this in just one hour, so if you’re keen to become better at social media, it’s well worth the time.

Even though your organisation is non-profit, it still requires and uses financial resources to function. In fact, successful financial management is what allows your organisation to continue providing much-needed services to the public. So if you’re working in a management position within a NFP, or aspire to be, it can help to have a good grasp of the world of finance for non-profits.

Financial Management can help you with that. The primary focus of this online course is on providing strategies and tips on analyzing the finances of a non-profit. You’ll learn all about budgets, cash, costs, financial statements, and various financial ratios used to evaluate non-profit finances.

This means you’ll be able to understand and create different types of budgets, analyse financial statements, understand tax filing basics and establish internal controls to combat misuse of funds. With real world practices, this course will leave you feeling more confident and comfortable when it comes to financial management.

Nonprofit grant writers: how to find foundation funding

This is a more niche course, specifically created for those who want to learn more about finding appropriate foundations to approach for funding. Foundations are a major source of funding for most non-profit organisations. But it can often be challenging to find appropriate foundations that are interested in what you have to offer.

The Grant Writers course will help you understand what foundations are and how to find ones that you can successfully apply to for money to assist your non-profit. Presented in one hour, the course presents strategies, through written documents and videos, in a step-by-step manner to help you locate the right foundations to apply to.

The course doesn’t focus on how to write a grant, but how to locate appropriate foundations to apply to – so it’s best for those who are already writing grants for a NFP. You’ll be able to use the information you gain over and over again, as you search for different foundations and write your grants. You’ll also feel a lot more confident and obtain better results when approaching foundations for money.

This is another course designed with a specific audience in mind. Are you interested in using Salesforce within your non-profit organization? The Salesforce course is ideal for NFP managers and directors who want to learn how to administer and develop Salesforce specifically for the non-profit environment.

Hiring a consulting firm for a full-on Salesforce deployment can cost a lot of money. This online course can save you that cost, helping you to set-up Salesforce within your organisation for various uses – donor management, grants, volunteer management, event management, receipting, communications and many more.

Presented by video, this online course will help you to understand and use Salesforce in a cost-efficient, effective way. After completing the course, you’ll be able to perform basic tasks and advanced customisations common to non-profits; use campaigns to manage programs for events and fundraising intitiatives; enter donations related to pledges, recurring donation commitments and campaigns; and much more. Knowing how to use Salesforce within a non-profit environment can be very beneficial for your skill set, giving you a definite advantage in the competitive non-profit sector.

In fact, all of these online courses will help give you that edge when it comes to working within the non-profit sector. And you can complete courses at your own pace, at a time and place that's convenient to you. Get started on improving your skill set today.

Online training for employees in the non-profit sector

One of the best ways to separate the wheat from the chaff, the average Joe from the learner supreme, is the good old quiz.

The nature of the eLearning platform can restrict the avenues that teachers can use to judge a student’s learning as student and teacher aren’t physically in the same space. But learning quizzes provide a means around that.

They’re an integral part of a course and an absolutely vital tool to score the abilities of the student, helping to chart whether they’ve been paying attention.

Problem is, is that they’re not the easiest assessments to write. However, with the helpful tips you’re about to read, and a little bit of practice under your belt, you’ll be firing out online learning quizzes in no time!

Online courses shouldn’t be full of fluff; your students are usually professionals who are short on time and expect to learn the essential pieces of whichever jigsaw you’re teaching. Your course should be kept clean and to the point, so make sure your quiz questions are too.

Don’t waste time asking irrelevant questions about bits and pieces outside of the central points of your course. If you’re asking questions on unimportant topics then the answers probably don’t matter anyway.

Give students a fair crack of the whip by sticking to the topics and learning objectives that have been fundamental to the course.


And like your course, your quiz should offer variety too. Include scenario-based questions, multiple choice, written responses and any more you can think of to provide an even-handed route to assess a learner’s ability.

You could incorporate video into your quiz too, as a way to reflect the medium’s heavy use in most eLearning courses.

However you decide to structure your questions, just make sure to offer a variety so students can show their true learned knowledge.


Keep questions short, sweet and crystal clear

Quizzes are really not the time for the quiz master to show off their writing chops.

To be as fair as possible to students taking your quiz, it’s important to word your questions in a concise, clear manner. If a student doesn’t understand the question then they’re certainly not going to be able to answer it properly.

Use easily understood wording, keep questions short and don’t give to provide too many details to cushion a question. If one of your questions can’t be asked within a sentence, then maybe it’d be better asked as a scenario-based question.


Your students must be challenged. Asking a range of questions forces them to think on their feet, draw nuggets of information and generally feel as though they’re being tested.

Certainly, the aim of a course quiz isn’t to be so hard that students feel inadequate, but a quiz requires students are thoroughly tested.


As most of your students are taking your courses for work-related reasons, it makes sense to include questions that reflect the reality of their working lives. After all, this is where they’re going to be putting their new found knowledge into practice.


Once students have sat the quiz and results have been given, you need to offer some feedback about what they did well on, what they struggled with, and in which areas they should be looking to brush up on their skills.

Regardless of how a student fared, and even if they came top of the class, look for ways to suggest where they could improve their knowledge or performance in some areas. Likewise, if a student has done badly you should attempt to look for positives to encourage them with.

There’s your lot. Some tips and suggestions to help write a well-rounded and useful online learning quiz.

Remember that the quiz should encourage students in their learning and push them to do better. It should be put together in a way that brings everything the course has covered together to be tested, in a practical way.

Though it is a gauge through which to test the learning of students, a quiz shouldn’t be a stick to beat them with. Make sure it’s fair but challenging and you’ll be fine. Good luck!

How to write good online learning quizzes

Following on from our June update we have just completed another round of updates to the Go1 Platform to improve the way that you learn. In this update you will find updates to the way you track your learners progress, sharing your courses externally to Go1, reports for transactions within your portal, improvements to learners management, and more!

If you have have any questions or comment about any of the updates below, please let us know and we’d be happy to help you out.

Publish your course as an LTI, to be used in another LMS

Your courses are no longer limited for use only in the Go1 Platform. With our LTI updates, you can now generate a code for your courses which then enables them to be used in other learning management systems.

Existing users can signup/request to join to another portal as a learner

Update to My Learning to show Course and Award progress on same page

Assessor can see Activities report in My Teaching

Portal admins can set searchable custom tags for shared courses

Portal admins can trigger one-time login email for users in their portal

Sign up for a free trial today and try it out for yourself!

You might have heard of people such as Pat Flynn, Derek Halpern, Jeff Walker, Ramit Sethi and Lewis Howes, all entrepreneurs who are crushing it with their online businesses. They earn millions by selling online products and are the true rockstars in the the marketing world.

How cool would it be to sell your online courses from your home office, generating an income that allows you to be financially independent and live the life that Tim Ferriss showed us in his book “The 4 hour Work Week”? Pretty cool, right?

But is this even possible for us, as normal individuals who want to leave their 9-5 jobs? Who are just starting out and never attended any marketing or business class? Who don't have millions of followers or have $100 000s to spend for ads?

The answer is YES! But as everything in life there is no shortcut and it takes dedication, patience and a willingness to walk a terrain that nobody from your family and friends might have ever walked before.

I am a self taught photographer selling online products such as ebooks, coaching and an online course teaching people how to get started in the concert photography world. I started totally from scratch with no followers, no money to spend for ads and no plan at all.

3 years later and I am rushing towards a 6 figure business, I built a loyal following with an email list of 6000+ subscribers from 100+ countries and 10,000 of followers on my social media channels. I generated a unique hashtag on Instagram which is used almost 100 000 times, I am publishing an online magazine and recently started my own podcast.

In the last years I read literally every book about online marketing, invested into workshops, attended seminars, got a mentor and talked hundreds of hours to other people in this field. I wanted to find a “success formula” that I can use to build my own dream business.

“The Product first” vs. “The Audience first” approach

By trial and error I found out that there are 2 ways on how to build a success online business: The “Product first” approach and the “Audience first” approach. Let me explain in more detail.

This is the approach where you build your online product first and than you´re searching for your clients. However this approach has some serious drawbacks.

Imagine, you got the masterplan. It´s simple, right? Build a course, go online, share it on your social media channels and wait until the money pours in.
Sorry, but you’ll be more than disappointed, because I can guarantee you that nobody will buy your $200-$500 product only because you´re a nice pal.

How do you know if people are interested in your course?

Do people trust you if they have never heard of you?

Can you reach thousands of targeted people through your social media channels?

You see, that there are quite a few challenges right form the start. However there is a solution to all of them: paid advertisement.

With paid ads (most likely Facebook ads) you`ll be able to reach millions of targeted people who might be interested in your products. This sounds awesome in the beginning, but you’ll have to experiment and test to find what works.

In terms to find your target audience you need to know:

And here lies the main problem for me as a small business owner. Unless you have $1000s to spend for ads this approach won´t work. Normally the big marketing stars spend $100,000 - 1 million per month(!) for FB ads. It´s all about driving enough traffic to your site and hopefully get out more benefit than your ads spend is.

Another drawback is that you´re totally dependent on platforms such as Facebook. Facebook is known for changing their algorithms quite often and I have heard stories where your acquired lead jumped from $1 to $10 over night. Ouch.

Even though I have seen some of my friends being successful with this approach, i wouldn´t recommend to go this route when you´re starting your business.

I first heard of this approach from Derek Halpern (Socialtriggers,com, read my success story here). It´s a beautiful yet simple idea which goes like “build an audience first, than sell your products to them”. This was an eye opener for me. Sure, people who know and trust you will become more likely customers, right? Would you rather buy from a friend or a stranger online you have never heard of before (the Product first approach)?

So, I started to build my audience from scratch and the next 3 factors should help you to grow your own community of raving fans.

1. Choose a topic you're passionate about

Do you have a hobby or passion for a specific topic? Is it knitting, painting or cooking? If you start brainstorming you`ll immediately recognise what you're passionate about the most. Sometimes people say „I like relaxing on the couch on Sundays, or I like watching TV in the evening.’ I am not talking about these kind of activities,
Your hobby should be something where you can teach other people what you have achieved over the period of time.

Need some inspirations, which fit perfectly for starting your online business: Photography. Dating. Business. Relationships. Personal Finance. Social skills. Software training. Social media. Marketing. Cooking. Health. Writing. Web Design. Productivity. Networking. Careers. Coding. Music. Photography. Yoga. Fitness. Food.

I read about this phenomenon in the book "Give & Take" from the author Adam Grant. In his book he describes two different kind of people: Takers and Givers.

Takers have a distinct signature: they like to get more than they give. They putting their own interests ahead of others’ need. Takers believe that the world is a competitive, dog-eat-dog place. They feel that to succeed, they need to be better than others.

Givers on the other hand are people who give more than they get. Givers are other-focused and paying more attention to what other people need from them.

Grant concluded in his book that Givers are the ones who profit the most when they find a balance to benefit from their generosity for themselves.

It's no surprise that all the online marketing superstars give most of their content for free in form of blogs, youtube videos or ebooks. Ramit Sethi states on his homage that he is giving away 98% of his content for free and sell his premium products only to those who are willing to pay high prices for it.

Engaging with your followers and let them know you´re there for them is the most important point. Nobody wants to reach out to an expert for help and never get an answer- If you commit to start an online business you need to treat your followers like kings.

Do whatever it takes to help them and make your connection a great experience.

Engaging with your followers can start with a simple Facebook group. Add interested people to the group and start a conversation. Not only do you build trust, but you´ll also learn what they´re struggling with the most. I get emails from people all around the world asking for help. I collected hundreds of questions which served as blueprint for my own online course without ever guessing which topic I should talk about.

Depending on which platform your future clients are also on, try Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest to build your audience there.

Let's build your community of raving fans

It has never been easier to build an online business, where you can reach your raving fans with one click. It always gives my goosebumps when sending out an email to my followers and watch thousands of people reading my latest blog post or listening to my podcast. This will not only give you an energy boost but also show you what your audience is interested in and what they want more of.

The “audience first” strategy is not a „get-my-money-fast“ approach, but it will let you grow organically and sell your products to a profit.

Why do you think everyone who is a successful online entrepreneur has a huge email list? Simply, because building a community first is a proven strategy that works.

Hopefully this article gives you the motivation and help you to start your own online business.

If I can build a worldwide brand without any marketing or business degree you definitely can do it too.

If you want take your sales to the next level and get more tips on how to start selling more courses online, download my free ebook on 4 must-have tools for building your own online community.

Matthias Hombauer is a self taught Rockstar Photographer, Author and Entrepreneur. He built a worldwide community of raving fans with his online project "How to Become A Rockstar Photographer" where he helps people to live their dream as concert photographers. In addition he teaches online marketing and how to build an awesome brand for small business owners. 

The best hidden secrets to selling online courses

As more employers recognize the important link between soft skills and career success, greater emphasis is being placed on the development of non-technical skills in the workplace – skills such as flexibility, leadership and good communication.

If you’ve read our previous article on the importance of soft skills in today’s workforce, you’ll know that employees with high-level soft skills can bring many benefits to an organization. In light of this, hiring managers and HR departments are increasingly keen to attract and retain employees who possess a good mix of hard technical skills and soft interpersonal skills.

However, this does present some challenges. Because while most technical skills can be measured and tested, soft skills such as empathy, resilience and a positive attitude are harder to define and qualify in certain terms. How do you measure someone’s resilience? How can you test the level of compassion a person shows?

Clare Dygert, senior instructional designer at Sweetrush, agrees that the most difficult thing about creating soft skills learning objectives is “the general lack of precision around how you will know if the learner has accomplished the objective.” Usually, managers and HR professionals will establish learning objectives for staff, to clearly define:

and what successful mastery of the objective looks like.

So how do we write learning objectives for soft skills? 

Here are some tips for writing soft skills learning objectives, to help you understand, define and measure employee success in these areas.

Make sure you understand key terms and their context


The first step is to make sure you have a thorough understanding of all key terms that are used in relation to learning objectives. Before you even start writing any objectives, think about how the concepts of empathy, resilience and leadership are used within your organization.

Understanding key terms within the context of your own organization is imperative, as it will help you identify ‘real world’ scenarios that can be used to measure these skills. For example, compassion is an important part of many roles in the non-profit sector, and can be directly linked to the values and culture of that industry. Define each key term in your own words, before you even begin to try and measure them.

As Dygert says, “a well-defined list of knowledge, skills, and abilities for job roles can provide the foundation for learning objectives and help you use keywords in a way that others will understand. It will also help you understand what success looks like.”

Write learning objectives that focus on employee actions 

When you start writing learning objectives, make sure you’re writing them in a way that focuses on the learner. You want to outline actions and behavior of the employee – what they are doing and will be able to do.

Try to avoid vague language – be clear about what an individual is doing and will be able to do in the future once they master the skill. The more specific you can be, the better. For example, talk about employees performing tasks and completing actions, rather than “gaining an understanding of the policy.” Focusing on things that can be observed, not just assumed, make measuring a lot easier.

As we said before, the hardest thing about writing learning objectives for soft skills is knowing whether an employee has actually accomplished the objective or not. Therefore, you need to find an effective way to measure and test each objective.

You can do this by seeing how staff members apply new knowledge to their roles. If employees aren’t able to successfully apply freshly acquired knowledge to a relevant work scenario, you may need to review your learning objectives to make sure they were specific and clear enough. Dygert gives a very good example of a clear, specific learning objective:

“Given a situation, a task to accomplish, and a disruption to the situation, the learner will adjust her plans so as to accomplish the task within the time allowed and at the budget given, in spite of the disruption.”

Here, we can see that the employee’s behavior was observed, within a well-defined, specific situation, where both time and budget outcomes were also measured. With this learning objective, it's clear what is being taught, how it is presented and what successful mastery of the objective looks like.

Consider these guidelines when writing learning objectives for soft skills – they'll help you define, test and measure your employees' success in these areas.

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

Soft skills are essential to success in today’s workplace. In this blog, we will show you how to write learning objectives for these skills.

How to write learning objectives for soft skills

Most companies are made up of employees of various ages, with staff members of different generations working together in the one organization. As an employer or manager, you most likely have a number of Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials across your teams, bringing positive benefits to your organization through different levels of experience, knowledge and diversity.

As beneficial as this is for your company, a multi-generational workforce can sometimes make learning and development programs a little tricky, due to differences in learning styles and technological abilities. While younger team members might prefer high-tech, independent training methods, older staff may need something more traditional and trainer-lead.

So, when it comes to employee training, how do you make sure your learning materials are engaging and effective for all staff – of all ages?

The answer can be found in eLearning – an effective training solution that meets the needs of learners from all generations.

With online learning, you’ll find you can give employees the flexibility, autonomy, customization and engagement they want and need – regardless of age. eLearning courses can be designed to perfectly fit your target audience, allowing you to tailor online courses specifically to your business and workforce. This means you can create the exact courses you need for your staff, whether it’s for onboarding, professional development or compliance testing.

Let’s look at how you can use eLearning courses to successfully train staff of different generations.

eLearning for Millennials – mobile and tech Savvy

The youngest generation to be part of today's workforce, Millennials have been raised with technology and social media as a part of everyday life. Widely experienced in using technology and all form of digital devices, these workers are tech savvy and looking for fast, on-the-go learning.

Millennials expect technology to be an integral part of learning and need to know exactly what they’re going to get out of a training program. For these younger workers, traditional classroom training methods are at risk of leaving them feeling disengaged, distracted, or just plain bored. So how do you make sure Millennial employees are engaging with training materials?

Jeffrey Roth, Vice President of Marketing for Interactyx, points out that distractions such as “social networking sites and gaming apps can be integrated into the learning plan to motivate and connect with learners on a level that they’re more familiar with.” Look for eLearning platforms that allow you to include social learning features into your online courses such as social media channels, instant messaging (IM) and gamification.

When learning, Millennials in particular like to form connections, share ideas and interact with other people in the workplace. These forms of social interaction play a large role in training and are known as the social learning methodology. By encouraging social learning in your eLearning course, Millennial team members will be able to create and share content with workmates, helping them to connect with the materials and one another.

For Millennial staff members, you’ll also want to make sure your training program is available on-the-go. eLearning will allow individuals to access course materials through mobile-friendly apps and devices, making learning more flexible and convenient for users.

eLearning for Gen X – flexibility and autonomy 

Between Millennials and Boomers, we have Generation X – born between 1965 and 1980.

When writing about How to Target the Right Generation in eLearning, Sean Stoker believes that many Gen Xers were “forced to grow up rather quickly and to some extent learn to take care of themselves. For these reasons… this generation is full of independent thinkers, wanting to do things their own way.”

This means Gen X workers thrive when given the freedom to learn independently and at their own pace. In fact, many Gen Xers prefer flexible, autonomous work life and are very successful when working remotely or from home.

eLearning offers this generation flexible learning options that are self-lead and self-governed. Online courses can be accessed at a time and place that’s convenient for the Gen X learner, while allowing them to plan out their study and monitor their own progress.

eLearning for Baby Boomers – intuitive and easy to navigate

A large sector of today's workforce, being middle-aged or older, are from the 1946 to 1964 Baby Boomer generation. It’s unwise to assume that this generation is averse to technology, as many Boomers are very tech savvy. However, unlike Millennials, they haven’t grown up with these devices playing a large role in everyday life, so there is still a different mindset when it comes to learning.

Older workers will embrace eLearning when the online materials are intuitive, user-friendly and easy to navigate. Make sure your course can be navigated easily, without frustration. A good learning management system or eLearning platform will allow you to create custom content, specific to your audience and their training needs. Read through our article on what makes a good online course, for helpful tips on all aspects of eLearning design.

For example, for these employees, you may want to consider making your default font a few points larger. For users who experience age-related problems with their eyes, the option to make text larger on screen can mean a world of difference. However, as Stoker says, “while making these considerations, it’s important to not make the learner feel old. Today’s seniors are more sharp and active than ever before, so it pays not to pander."

As you can see, eLearning allows you to easily tweak and tailor your training materials to perfectly suit your learning audience – whatever age they may be. By following these guidelines, you can provide each employee with the tools and environment they need to succeed in training. As a result, you can expect to see more skilled, productive and connected employees, helping your organization to achieve its business goals. 

eLearning – an effective training solution for all generations

Saying that knowledge can save lives might sound a tad dramatic, but in this case, it’s absolutely true.

Knowing how to administer CPR, or properly carry out the Heimlich maneuver can be the difference between life and death for someone, and the difference between you being able to make a meaningful difference or being powerless to help.

Online courses for emergency and disaster training in the workplace are ideal ways to learn vital skills so that you or a colleague knows how to act in case of an emergency. eLearning continues to be an effective tool for in work training, and its use for emergency response is no different.

In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits of being trained for emergencies so that you’re aware of the huge help that it can be.

The first and most obvious benefit of emergency and disaster training is that it will make your workplace so much safer. Even a relatively easy technique to train, like CPR, can make a huge difference to the safety of the place you work. With over 600,000 people suffering a cardiac arrest each year, the assumption that you’re unlikely to ever use your training isn’t exactly accurate.

In the case of cardiac arrest, every minute counts. As this study states, “Each minute without treatment decreases the likelihood of survival without disability. Without treatment within 10 minutes, the survival rate is almost zero.”

Considering that in a city like New York ambulance response time hovers around the nine minute 20 seconds mark, your training could quite literally decide who lives and who dies.

Response plans to fires, earthquakes and even terrorist attacks are needed to secure the safety of each person working.

Unfortunately, workplaces are often environments that are full of stress, which can potentially increase the chances of an emergency like a cardiac arrest occurring. Make your workplace safer by knowing what to do.

Although eLearning courses for emergency and disaster response will most likely to be given through your employer, the value knowledge that you gain does not stop at the place you work. The understanding of red flags for illnesses or knowing how to deal with a fire are lessons that can be taken anywhere in life.

This extends to your family and friends; all the people you love. Would you know how to treat burns or smoke inhalation if there was a fire at home? Would you know how to compress wounds if a family member injured themselves?

The knowledge you gain from your work life is transferable to your private life and with as serious a subject as the health of those you love at stake, this is a benefit worth its weight in gold.

Online courses in emergency and disaster response training don’t only offer the very direct benefits of knowing how to act in when facing a disaster. The skills that learners acquire along the way – communication, teamwork, and leadership – are all tools that are vital to a successful workplace. Individuals who can demonstrate these skills are always in demand.

In this sense, undertaking an online course in emergency and disaster response training is, as the old saying goes, like killing two birds with one stone. Not only are learners endowed with the know-how to tackle emergency situations head on, but they also dramatically improve the “soft skills” that employers are considering as more important than ever. Not a bad day’s work!

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