Written by Lauren Waldman, founder of Learning Pirate, and a revolutionary in the discipline of organisational learning and development. With nearly 20 years of experience as a learning professional, complemented by qualifications in neuroscience, Lauren is driving the evolution of the way individuals and organisations learn, approach learning, and join forces with their brains!

A seemingly simple question, but one that can hold great weight when it comes to connecting with ourselves and with others.  

Take a moment now before you continue reading this and ask yourself that question “How am I?”  

“How am I really?” Maybe the answer is the first one that originally came up, but maybe it’s not and that’s ok too. As a matter of fact, that could be better.

Having moments of present self-awareness (like the one you just experienced) are not always easy to do. Things move so fast and can happen before we realise what’s going on at times. It’s a great reason for learning to cultivate the skills of being more self aware - and we have science on our side to help us understand why. 

Naming our feelings and emotional responses has been proven to calm us down and reduce stress. In science it’s known as “affect labelling,” and the process of labelling or naming what we’re feeling allows us to dampen it, and in the case of negative feelings, reduce its saliency. 

Also, taking the time to be present in our self-awareness (like we do when we bother to stop and ask ourselves “how am I?”) allows us to learn to better monitor and regulate ourselves. This can be a huge help in both emotional regulation and response inhibition, which are two of our executive function skills. 

Improving these skills can mean the difference between someone asking you how you are and you instantly falling apart (or exploding!) as all your internal drama pours out unexpectedly, versus you recognising that you’re feeling a little off and doing something about it before you get to that moment.  

During the recent Humanising the Workplace event with myself, Go1, LPI and Thrive, someone in the audience asked this question:

“Can we increase our empathy and emotional intelligence by understanding our brains better?”

The answer is resoundingly, YES! And the benefits of having that understanding, and building those skills, extend well past what we do in the workplace. After all, we’re humans both in and out of our working environments, right?  

So, let’s explore the brain for a moment and begin to build that understanding both of our own behaviours and of others.

Nestled deep in the middle of your brain on both sides, you have two tiny almond shaped pieces called the Amygdala, lovingly nicknamed Amy. Amy is the brain’s alarm system and her primary role is to act as the emotional processing centre in your brain, and sound the alarm when she perceives danger. 

Her distress signal is picked up by the command centre, which then communicates with the rest of the body through the nervous system preparing you for the fight, flight or freeze response. As well as being our danger spotting guard dog, Amy is also involved in the formation, storage, and consolidation of memory.  

Then we have the prefrontal cortex, let’s name it Corey, which governs our executive function. This area of the brain is responsible for things like decision making, problem solving, focusing attention, reasoning, and judgement. In addition to all of that, Corey also has a pretty important role to play when it comes to interacting with Amy - and that’s to regulate her when she gets fired up. 

Here’s the thing; Amy is way quicker off the mark than Corey - four times faster in fact. So if you had to guess, which do you think responds faster to that question we asked earlier, “how are you?”

Answer: Amy, of course. Which means we’re more likely to let our unconscious responses guide our answers, particularly in times of stress or upset.

But how does having this understanding help us? For one, if we know that taking a moment to ask the follow up question (how am I really?) will allow our conscious (Corey) route to engage, we’re more likely to get a clearer sense of what’s going on for us. And this can help us cultivate the skills to be more emotionally intelligent and empathetic to our colleagues, friends, and family.  

When we’re in conversation with one another and we know how to recognise the moments when Amy may be starting to get a bit reactive (in whatever capacity that may be at the time) we can practice techniques that are proven to calm her down before responding in a way that we may regret or feel bad about later. 

In the workplace this could look like conversations about your personal boundaries or where you’re at in terms of feeling safe. For many of us, emerging from the last 19 months of pandemic life has created a burst of new and unexpected emotion. Understanding how and why we react, along with cultivating the skills of self-monitoring and regulating, can even help us in knowing whether or not it’s even a good time to be having those conversations with someone else. Or whether we have the capacity to listen to another share theirs without being emotionally reactive in a way that could upset yourself or the other person.

If we’re going to be looking for ways to humanise the workplace, having an understanding of how humans and our amazing brains operate seems like a good place to start. 

We can’t control our brains per se, but as I like to say, we can join forces with them and build a better working relationship with Amy, Corey and the gang!

So bearing all that in mind, I have to ask... how are you, really?

Keen to hear more insights from Lauren about neuroscience and learning? Watch the full Humanising the Workplace webinar.   

Lauren also appeared recently on the Go1 podcast, diving into how neuroscience can be translated into practical application within L&D, to positively change the way we experience and feel learning. 

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.

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Learning designer and neuroscientist Lauren Waldman explains how joining forces with our brains can help us to be more emotionally intelligent and empathetic to our colleagues, friends, and family.  

How to increase empathy and emotional intelligence - Go1

Learning Scientist Lauren Waldman explains how joining forces with our brains can help us to be more emotionally intelligent and empathetic to our colleagues, friends, and family.  

Can we increase our empathy and emotional intelligence by understanding our brains better?

💡 How suitable is traditional education in building employer capabilities for the future of work? 

In episode 17 of the Learning with Go1 podcast David Blake, former CEO & Cofounder, now Executive Chairman of Degreed joined us to discuss whether universities need to do more to support the lifelong career of their students. 

🎧 Make sure you listen to hear David’s thoughts on: 

The lack of inclusion built into most learning and development programs 

Bridging the skills gap through lifelong learning 

Here are some of our highlights from the conversation.  

As the flow of work changes, learning will change with it. One thing that David has seen over the years is that learner behavior is constantly changing as technology continues to adapt and change the working environment.  

The question is: how can L&D keep up with this pace of change, and what are the risks if they don’t? David begins to dive into this further below.  

The need for lifelong learning

Right now, the skills gap is getting bigger, not smaller. David believes this is only going to get worse and L&D won’t stand a chance unless universities make a change. In the video below, David speaks more about why universities should adopt a lifelong model of learning to make a change for the better. 

Universities need to change

For so many years universities have been the biggest engine of education and upskilling for the workforce around the world. It is becoming increasingly clear however that people are likely to learn more from their companies than they do from universities, and the people who are enabled to do so will be successful. 

David explains that he is starting to see a narrative develop when it comes to regulating how corporate skills training is administered. 

L&D for equity and inclusion

We would like to thank David again for joining us on the Learning with Go1 podcast to share his insights into the evolving world of education both traditionally and in corporate L&D. If you haven’t already, you can listen to the full episode here.   

We look forward to continuing the rest of the series, with L&D professionals already scheduled to join us from Cyprus, Egypt, Oman, Finland, the Netherlands, Australia, the USA, and many more. Stay tuned!  

Want to hear more? Browse the full Learning with Go1 podcast library on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify to help expand your knowledge of all things L&D and hear how other organizations are navigating this ever-evolving landscape. 

In episode 17 of the Learning with Go1 podcast David Blake, former CEO & Cofounder, now Executive Chairman of Degreed, joined us to discuss whether universities need to do more to support the lifelong career of their students. 

The skills gap is increasing faster than we are educating people 

AND THAT’S A WRAP! The Go1 team had an absolute blast at DevLearn 2021, meeting many of you in person and celebrating the future of L&D.  

It was very inspiring to hear about different people's stories, journeys, and challenges. And wonderful to be able to connect on a human level. 

We’d like to send a BIG thank you to all our customers, partners, speakers, and everyone else who made DevLearn 2021 such a positive experience! We are so grateful to be part of a remarkable community of talented professionals. 

Check out some of our highlights from the event below. 

We loved having the opportunity to spend time with our customers, partners, and fellow L&D professionals to chat about all things L&D.  

The Go1 team had many exciting conversations that we will continue to reflect on as we move forward. 

The Go1 DevLearn cocktail reception was a hit!  

We had so much fun connecting with the L&D community and sharing our passion for learning over some canapes and drinks - the perfect way to relax after an eventful first day. 

Solutions session with Go1 customer, EDF Renewables

Sending a big shoutout to Go1 customers, Shawn Fisher and Heather Shimp from EDF Renewables, for leading a wonderful strategic solution session on day two of the event. We loved hearing all about EDF's learning journey and feel honoured to be a part of that. 

While it’s never fun leaving Las Vegas, we hope that as you settle back into work you are feeling excited and energized to implement the new things we’ve learnt from one another - we certainly are! 

Goodbye DevLearn for now; we’ll see you next year! 👋  

The Go1 team had an absolute blast at DevLearn 2021, meeting many of you in person and celebrating the future of L&D. Check out some of our highlights from the event below.

Insights from DevLearn 2021

In an era of YouTube tutorials, smartphones, and world-class digital learning courses — where information is only ever a click away — self-directed learning was an inevitable evolution. With employees asking for more and more control in many facets of life, from remote working to mental health support and beyond, it was only a matter of time before self-directed training took off. 

Recently, we identified self-directed learning as one of the top L&D trends of 2021. And with good reason. The benefits of self-led learning are far-reaching, with 77% of employees saying it is more effective than their company’s training. This should not be seen as a knock on the state of learning, but rather as a glowing endorsement of self-directed training. 

On an intuitive level, this makes plenty of sense. After all, who knows better how you prefer to learn, what you need to learn, and where your skill gaps lie: you, or a generic assigned learning program? Learners no longer want to sit back and be told what to learn, they want the freedom to access tools that facilitate learning. Ideally, at their own pace and on their own schedule. 

With this in mind, we thought self-directed learning merited closer attention. We’ll start by asking ‘what is self-directed learning?’, before moving on to examples and benefits of self-directed training.

Self-directed learning is many things. It’s flexible. It’s decentralised. And it puts the learner first. But most of all, self-directed learning is here to stay. 

On a basic level, self-directed learning is exactly what it sounds like. Sometimes known as self-led learning or self-determined learning, this style of learning gives people control over what they learn, how they learn, and what learning schedule best suits them. Self-led learning takes the onus off a central L&D strategy and puts it into learners’ hands, allowing them to set goals and access training in ways that best complement their unique learning needs.

Most sources attribute Malcolm Knowles, sometimes known as the “father of self-directed learning”, as one of the key pioneers of this concept back in 1975. Knowles believed that adult learners are “mature, responsible individuals who want to take charge of their own learning.” Thus, he defined self-directed learning as a process “in which individuals take the initiative, with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human and material resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating those learning outcomes.”

In a 2008 research paper, Loyens, Magda, and Riker define self-directed training as “knowing what you need to learn, how to learn it, and being able to judge if you’ve learnt it. It assumes that learners have a role in selecting those learning tasks that fit their learning needs.”

Therefore, self-determined learning places a significant amount of trust and responsibility on learners to identify and fulfil their learning needs. However, 360Learning emphasises the distinction between self-directed and unstructured or unsupervised learning. As they put it, “just because self-directed learning makes learners more responsible for those things doesn’t mean it makes them solely responsible.”

L&D teams must still play an active role in facilitating and supporting self-directed learning. For example, L&D teams must ensure learning content is accurate, accessible, and up to date, learning goals are measurable, achievable, relevant, and aligned with broader organisational goals, and learners can access whatever support they require to achieve optimal outcomes. 

Self-led learning may give learners more control, but it should not mean they feel unsupported. 

As more organisations recognise the benefits of self-directed learning, examples of this type of learning abound. And the results are impressive. 

Many of us can probably conjure examples of self-determined learning in daily life. You might want to learn a new language and download an app to guide you on this journey. You might be interested in history and seek out a podcast to learn more. You might see a particularly captivating documentary and start Googling for more information once the final credits roll. These are all examples of informal self-determined learning in day-to-day life. 

In a business context, self-led learning has also been a hit. According to research by Cornerstone, American food and energy drink company Cliff Bar saw a 198% increase in self-directed online training hours when the company began offering more timely and relevant content. To achieve this, the company launched ‘Epiphany Labs’, a company-wide learning hub that allows learners to access live sessions, lunch and learns, on-demand courses, compliance training, and more, all on their own terms. 

Similarly, BNP Paribas saw a 235% increase in self-requested training from 2019 to 2020. With increases like these, it’s clear that self-directed training is on the rise, which brings us to the benefits of this style of learning.

As we’ve alluded to, the primary benefit of self-directed learning is giving learners more control over their development. Ideally, this should lead to more engaged, productive, and skilled learners. 

Already, teams are seeing the benefits of this approach, with self-determined learning growing in popularity across all generations. According to LinkedIn’s 2021 Workplace Learning report, 43% of Gen Z, 42% of Millennials, and 33% of Gen X and Baby Boomers want fully self-directed and independent learning. This report also identified that 74% of learners want the freedom to take training courses during their spare time, at their own pace. Remember, it’s never a bad time to give learners more of what they want.

Accordingly, 96% of L&D professionals say their top priority is increasing self-directed training opportunities. These figures make sense, as 77% of employees believe self-directed learning is more effective than their employer’s training. 

In many ways, a shift-towards formal self-led learning is a natural progression from how employees already learn. eLearning Industry finds that employees spend far more time learning from their own sources than employer-provided training. On average, workers spend 14 hours per month learning on their own, compared to just two to three hours on employer-provided training. Likewise, 23% of workers say they completed a course of any kind in the last two years, whereas more than 70% learned something for their job from an article, video, or book in the past 24 hours. 

Clearly, the demand for self-determined learning is increasing. Now, the onus is on organisations to catch up. While 43% of Gen Z employees want completely self-led learning, only 20% of companies plan to offer this level of freedom. 

Many companies may be asking, ‘why should we switch to self-directed education, what’s in it for us?’. In addition to providing employees with what they want, the benefits are vast. According to Emerald Works, 50% of high-impact learning cultures provide opportunities for self-directed learning, compared to just 13% of ‘average’ organisations. 

Similarly, CIPD’s Towards Maturity report finds that ‘Top Deck’ organisations (defined as companies in the top decile of their Towards Maturity Index) reported a 43% increase in self-directed training opportunities. The message is clear: the more opportunities you provide for self-led learning, the more likely you are to stand out as a top-performing, high-impact team. 

There’s little doubt that self-directed learning is here to stay. Employees crave it, and many organisations are starting to reap the rewards, ranging from improved efficiency to greater job satisfaction, motivation, and retention. Self-directed learning may be one of the top learning trends of 2021, but pretty soon, it won’t just be a trend, it will be a necessity. 

For more insights, be sure to 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.

Recently, we identified self-directed learning as one of the top L&D trends of 2021. Now, it's time to take a closer look at the benefits of self-directed learning.

The benefits of self-directed learning

Which content partners should you check out? 

If you are looking for engaging ways to upskill your employees in personal development (like time management or sending successful emails) or sharpen their sales skills, you should look into Cultivate Advisors in the Go1 content hub.  Their short courses (~20 minutes each) include engaging videos and quizzes, as well as participant guides, job aids, and additional resources to help reinforce objectives and encourage employees to apply their new skills on the job and practice what they have learned.  

Check out their most popular courses below: 

If IT skills are on your radar, dive into content from Simon Sez IT (pronounced Simon Sez “It”). In addition to their wide variety of courses on Microsoft products, they have a whole library on coding and web development, from HTML to React. They take the time to teach the ins and outs of each subject and patiently build your knowledge set through practice exercises. Simon Sez IT courses can be taken as longer courses or broken up into just the relevant topics. 

Explore their new courses in the Go1 content hub: 

What new providers have we added to our hub? 

This Australian provider gives us four courses from health professionals answering a variety of questions about COVID-19 vaccines.   

What’s new from our current content partners? 

Marcom – Updated and new courses covering a wide variety of topics, including scaffolding, hygiene, hazards, and safety 

Packt – ~150 updated and new courses covering IT skills from Kubernetes to Git


180 Skills – A series of manufacturing introduction courses, including topics like machining, metal 3D printing, roll forming, etc.

Entrepreneur NOW – Masterclasses on sales, public speaking, leadership, and communication 

The Learning Rooms – Managing and coaching for managers  

Skillshub – New and updated courses in all things professional and personal development including stress management, storytelling for business, critical thinking, presentations, and more

What’s Shannon’s favorite course right now? 

This month’s course is a bit more tactical than normal. I have been working on building out an internal SharePoint site and needed a little help. Where better to look than in the Go1 content hub? I turned to our provider, tts GmbH. Their interactive SharePoint course walked me through creating a site, building a document library and lists, and adding web parts. Their courses don’t just show you how to do things, they actually provide opportunities to do it, significantly increasing retention. Whether you are looking to build a new site or learn another Microsoft Suite product, you should check out their courses. Plus, they are available in multiple languages. 

The Go1 Content Insider is your first stop for all things new in the Go1 Content Hub. In this October update, find out the latest and greatest in the world of content!

The Go1 Content Insider - October 2021 edition

The Go1 Content Insider — October 2021 edition

Have you recently felt disconnected from feeling joy at work?  

Within the context of the past two years, where organizational focus has been primarily on survival, seeking joy took a backseat for many employees. And now, as companies begin to emerge into post-pandemic life, leaders have limited time to facilitate joy again before their people start looking for more fulfilling opportunities elsewhere. 

Research has shown how vital joy is to a person’s overall wellbeing, cognitive functioning and performance at work, as well as their retention.  

To help us better understand the feeling of joy at work, and how to better facilitate it, we spoke to Thomas Cunningham-Fahie, Consultant and Psychologist at Bailey & French.  

Is it possible to lose joy in a job you love?   

Barbara Fredrickson, currently based at the University of North Carolina, is one of the world’s leading researchers into the psychology of emotions. Her ‘Broaden and Build Theory’ is based upon research showing that experiencing more positive emotions broaden our mindset and encourage us to be more creative, explore new thoughts and reach solutions more readily which overtime builds our skills and resources. 

These emotions can gain momentum, creating positive upward spirals that lead to experiencing even more positive emotions.  

In contrast, negative emotions are linked to the ‘fight or flight’ response, which narrows our cognitive capacity. Therefore, it’s near impossible to solve problems and overcome challenges when we are feeling stressed or frustrated… I’m sure this resonates with many of us! 

There are also negative spirals of emotion.  A big risk for losing joy in a job that you love, is if negative emotions caused by an event outside of work spiral and spill into how you feel at work.  

We might also lose joy in a job we love if we stop playing to our strengths. By ‘strengths’, we’re not just talking about the things that we’re good at, but also the things that we enjoy and that energise us. 

Playing to our strengths when executing tasks at work helps us to get into a state of flow. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist who coined the term flow, defines it as: “the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter”.  

Luckily, we are able to reframe most tasks and skills to use at least one of our top strengths. Therefore, if we do find ourselves losing joy in a job we previously loved, this type of reframing should be our first port of call. 

Whose responsibility is it to facilitate ‘joy’ at work? Leaders or employees? 

We’ve already discussed the Broaden and Build Theory, and how we can find ourselves on upward or downward emotional spirals. In teams and organisations, these upward spirals can spread. This is called emotional contagion, and it has an important impact of people’s wellbeing, resilience, and performance at work. 

There is an old cliché in the management consulting world that ‘culture is everyone’s responsibility’. We would add a nuance to this, and then apply the same thinking to ‘joy’ at work. Doing what you can to make a personal contribution to a positive culture, is everyone’s responsibility. 

Similarly, we are responsible for making the effort to facilitate a more positive, human experience at work. We are not, however, responsible for the emotions themselves of our colleague’s emotions.  

It is about the personal effort we make as an individual within the organization, but ultimately not the outcome.  

Since we know that emotions triggered by events outside of work are likely to spill into how we feel at work, it is not realistic to ask leaders or employees to ensure that their colleagues experience joy in the office.  

What we can, and should, request is that everybody is held responsible for their actions and their intent towards facilitating joy, with the understanding that there will be external factors outside of their control that may ultimately impede the joy their workmates feel daily. 

Taking individual responsibility for contributing to the joyful experience of others can follow two forms: 

By managing our own wellbeing and positive emotions, firstly to help ourselves but also to have a positive knock-on benefit for others through emotional contagion. 

Actively considering how you can help others to experience more positive emotions, through the way you collaborate and interact with them. 

It is everyone’s responsibility to do this, but leaders particularly need to recognise that their position increases the influence that they have over the quality of people’s experiences within an organization. 

Could seeking ‘joy at work’ be considered indulgent or selfish within the context of the last two years? 

Since we have already discussed the benefits of positive emotions for the person experiencing them for their own wellbeing and performance, and for the people around them, the simple answer here is ‘no’.  

More often than not, actively seeking joy and ‘flow’ at work is something that will benefit individuals, the team, and the wider organization, through a variety of different mechanisms. 

One way of mapping out the time we spend at work is by using a Time x Energy Grid. For every task that we perform at work, we can assess how much it benefits us and how much it benefits the organization, then plot it on a 2x2 grid. 

This grid helps us to understand that usually, it is not indulgent or selfish to seek joy at work. The activities in which we are most likely to experience joy falls into either the ‘Peak Performance’ or ‘Booster Time’ quadrants on the Time x Energy Grid. As such, there is either a direct benefit for the organization or an indirect benefit, respectively, since we are keeping our performance and productivity at its best.  

The small caveat here is that, of course, this could become detrimental if too much of our time is spent performing tasks that energize us but are not directly beneficial for the organisation. Nevertheless, these tasks are still a better use of time than those which do not energize us (we would call these ‘Wasted Time’).  

If we are working in a way that is harmful for our colleagues, either by facilitating negative emotions for them or adding to their workload, for example, then we might be considered self-indulgent. However, the antidote to this is an open feedback culture and strengths-based delegation within teams, to maximise the time that each member spends in their own version of peak performance. 

How can we apply these insights to bring more joy to our team? 

With Thomas' insights above we can begin to understand not only the nuances of experiencing joy, but how an organization can help facilitate this emotion for their people. 

Focus your delegations on not only what your team are good at, but also what they enjoy and what energizes them. Playing to these strengths can assist in bringing flow and joy to their work life.  

Rebecca Newton, Organizational and Social Psychologist, finds many of her clients link joyful moments to learning experiences at work. When employees are provided space to pursue learning in subjects that interest or energize them specifically, they can experience more joy at work. 

As Thomas noted as well, home life can easily affect the emotions of employees at work. Looking after your team as ‘whole life employees’ takes empowering levels of empathy (which we delved into in our article Learning to lead with empathy) and involves supporting their overall wellbeing, not just their job performance. 

To assist you and your team in developing a comprehensive workplace wellbeing plan, we have curated a free The search for joy at work playlist of learning resources within the Go1 platform. 

The playlist includes learning content from iAM Learning, Blinkist and Thrive Learning and other mental health providers. If you are already a Go1 customer, you can recreate this playlist in your own LMS or Go1 Platform. If you are not yet a customer, click on the link above to access the playlist. If you're interested in the Go1 Content Hub for your organization's wellbeing and L&D goals, please get in touch with us today. 

Please remember, if you are struggling with your mental health and experiencing significant distress, we encourage you to reach out for immediate support.
Australia: Lifeline 131 114 or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636 
USA: NAMI HelpLine 800-950-6264
UK: Samaritans 116 123 or Shout Crisis Text Line text ‘SHOUT’ to 85258
Global: United for Global Mental Health Regional Directory

In collaboration with Bailey & French we explore joy at work, how it might be lost and ways that leaders can facilitate more joy in their team.

Rediscovering joy at work

… What if the content you shared with your people helped them to be smarter, better, faster?  

… What if people had access to expertise at their fingertips?  

… What if the business saw L&D for what it is - problem solvers, growing efficiencies, and helping people to get unstuck?  

In a recent webinar, Learning Architect Shannon Tipton explored these very questions, sharing expert insights into how L&D professionals can build their curation skills. Ready to move beyond simple aggregation to quality and impactful sharing? 

Check out some of the key takeaways below. 

Today’s modern learner is overwhelmed, distracted, and impatient. They want learning content that is relevant, focused and succinct, timely, mobile, and engaging. Unfortunately, 41% of their time is spent merely trying to find the right content … yep, 41%! 

So, what does that say about your curation efforts, and how can you be helpful? 

According to Shannon, putting your curation efforts together in an organized effort encourages collaboration and communication, a growth mindset, and most importantly, it encourages a level of learning curiosity that will extend itself outward to your organization.  

Why is curation an important skill?

How do you know good content when you see it? 

People within organizations want to be able to access information that will allow them to learn, grow and improve overall skills - making them smarter, better, faster than the day before. The issue for organizations is that there is an overabundance of information. The ability to filter out quality training content is an ever-growing issue. Shannon explains the important difference between aggregation and curation below. 

The "filtering" issue

The point of curating information is for people to be able to take action. This provides employees with the motivation and direction they need to complete the learning, and continue to improve their overall skills within the organization.

Have a call to action

The importance of knowing your audience - communication is key 

“What if the focus shifted from: look, here's something interesting to, look, here's something incredibly useful.” 

Knowing your audience and segmenting where you're sending your content to is a critical part of any curation strategy. As Shannon explains, when communicating with key stakeholders, the communication piece that goes out them needs to be compelling enough to hook them in and help them break away from any previous biases they have.  

The importance of knowing your audience 

The struggle of modern L&D is not getting people to train, it's about giving them effective learning solutions that cut through the noise. To be able to do so, understanding content curation for workplace training and the benefits it can bring to your organization is key. 

Keen to watch the full webinar? Catch up on the recording here. 

You may also be interested in the following articles: 

💡Why content curation is important for staff training

💡Why content curation is effective for workplace learning

Gain expert insights from Learning Strategist Shannon Tiptonon how to build your curation skills, moving beyond simple aggregation to quality and impactful sharing. 

Curating content with meaning and impact with Shannon Tipton

Gain expert insights from Learning Strategist Shannon Tipton on how to build your curation skills, moving beyond simple aggregation to quality and impactful sharing. 

Over the past decade, digital transformation has been a popular topic in business circles. So popular, in fact, that last year, global spending on digital transformation grew by 10.4%, reaching $1.3 trillion. That’s right, trillion. With a T. In other words, digital transformation is a massive global enterprise that will influence the future growth and prosperity of businesses worldwide, regardless of size, industry, or country.  

This enormous level of investment begs the question, what is digital transformation? If you don’t already know, now is the perfect time to familiarise yourself with digital transformation, as it is likely to increase exponentially in both scope and relevance in the coming years. 

Already, 70% of businesses have a digital transformation strategy or are actively developing one, while companies are expected to invest a further $6.8 trillion in digital transformation initiatives between 2020 and 2023.

To ensure your team can keep up, we’ll take you step-by-step through digital transformation. We’ll start by asking ‘what is digital transformation?’ before analysing the key benefits of digital transformation.

Digital transformation means using digital technologies to create new business models and processes to keep up with evolving customer expectations. In fact, 60% of companies with digital transformation initiatives have already created new business models. As such, integrating new technologies is inherent to digital transformation. 

Digital transformation also requires a company-wide culture shift to move on from old, outdated practices to new processes that make the best use of modern technologies. In many ways, it’s a simple case of modernisation. Out with the old, in with the new. Put simply, digital transformation requires a ‘digital-first’ mindset, integrating technology into all levels of business to deliver more value to customers.

According to CIO, digital transformation “marks a rethinking of how an organisation uses technology, people, and processes in pursuit of new business models and new revenue streams, driven by changes in customer expectations around products and services.” 

The Enterprisers Project expands on this definition, adding, “Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers. It's also a cultural change that requires organisations to continually challenge the status quo, experiment, and get comfortable with failure.” 

To provide a concrete example of digital transformation in action, McDonald’s realised that digital transformation could improve their customer experience. To achieve this, the organisation implemented strategies such as mobile ordering apps to reduce wait times, in-store digital ordering kiosks, and even smart-car drive-thru integrations. As The Power MBA explains, “In McDonald’s case, digital technology such as interactive ordering units, AI drive-thrus, and smart mobile app experiences have helped them reduce that customer experience gap.”

This is just one of many examples illustrating successful digital transformation. Other prominent examples include Netflix transforming from a mail-order DVD service to a streaming giant, and Walmart adopting a cloud platform in 2019 that connects the company’s checkout system to nearly 23,000 point-of-sale devices, allowing for advanced insights into store operations and the customer experience.

Now that we've answered the question 'what is digital transformation', it's time to examine the benefits of digital transformation. As mentioned, digital transformation is already a $1.3 trillion industry, meaning the benefits of digital transformation are far-reaching and multi-faceted. 

One of the key benefits of digital transformation is gaining a competitive advantage. According to McKinsey, 70% of executives implement digital transformation to secure a competitive advantage or keep up with competitors. As a result, 38% of executives plan to invest even more in digital technology to gain a competitive advantage. 

These findings should come as little surprise, given 89% of enterprises are planning to adopt or have already adopted a digital business strategy. Thus, digital transformation is now non-negotiable for many organisations. Without a forward-thinking digital transformation strategy, businesses risk being left behind. 27% of companies say digital transformation is a matter of survival, while 59% of companies who have not yet adopted a digital transformation strategy fear it might already be too late. 

It’s easy to see why companies with robust digital transformation strategies gain a competitive advantage, with one study finding that digital-first companies are 64% more likely to achieve their business goals than their peers. What’s more, a survey of the benefits of digital transformation found that more than one-third of businesses say meeting changing customer expectations is the main benefit of digital transformation. Other popular responses included improving operational efficiency (40%), improving new product quality (26%), and introducing new revenue streams (21%). 

Additionally, Deloitte found that implementing digital technologies can accelerate progress towards enterprise goals such as financial returns, workforce diversity, and environmental targets by 22%. Likewise, McKinsey finds that data-driven companies are 23x more likely to acquire new customers. 

If you’re not already convinced that digital transformation is vital, it also plays a significant role in boosting revenue. According to Forbes, 56% of CEOs say digital improvements have increased their revenue, while digitally mature companies are also 23% more profitable. A similar study by Deloitte found that companies with high digital maturity report 45% revenue growth on average, compared to just 15% for lower-maturity companies. 

Accordingly, digital transformation is no longer an optional extra — it is now essential. By adopting digital-first strategies, organisations gain an array of benefits, including increased customer satisfaction, improved operational efficiency, and even a competitive advantage over less digitally mature organisations. In other words, the question is no longer ‘what is digital transformation?’ but rather, ‘how quickly can my team adjust to digital transformation?’ 

Need support on your digital transformation journey? Go1 can help. Start your free trial today to access dedicated courses on Digital transformation basics, Enabling digital transformation, and many more.

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We’ll take you step-by-step through digital transformation, asking ‘what is digital transformation?’ before analysing the key benefits of digital transformation.

What is digital transformation? 

We’ll take you step-by-step through digital transformation, asking ‘what is digital transformation?’ before analysing the key benefits of digital transformation. 

Since the widespread move to remote learning in early 2020, two big questions have been on our minds. Firstly, what have L&D teams learned from this transition? And secondly, how can they apply this knowledge to benefit learners?

In episode 16 of the Learning with Go1 podcast, Training Manager Francesco Cortese joined host Craig Hamill to discuss these and several other pressing questions. With a particular focus on L&D in retail, Francesco had many pertinent insights to share. 

🎧 Make sure you listen to hear Francesco’s thoughts on:

In Episode 16 of the Learning with Go1 podcast, we were joined by Francesco Cortese to discuss how L&D has benefitted from the transition to remote learning. Catch up on some of the highlights from the podcast here.