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This Week’s Snap Stories of Personal Learning Week of 3 April 2017

So Snapchat is proving to be a handy tool to capture my thoughts and reflections while I’m back at work full-time and don’t have time to blog.

However, don’t be under any illusion that I’ve left my blogging and will take on vlogging – far from it.

Think of the vlog as a temporary measure to “park” my ideas and at some later date to review the video and recall the thinking behind what I was saying.  Simply looking back through my snaps, I recall the instances WHY I was having issues, WHY I was feeling that way and WHAT I was actually thinking (although I may not have outwardly expressed it for whatever reason).

I’ve been noticing that I have a lot more followers now which is wonderful – and even better, they’re names I recognise from my field in learning and development.  Some people are getting on and experimenting however, I have absolutely no qualm in saying that the majority of people will not try this medium. That’s okay as it’s not for everyone and it is a time suck.  For me, it’s simply a quick way to capture and share my thoughts every day.  If it provides value to people, then I’m happy (and thank you to those who have sent personal video, audio or text messages saying that they like to watch them because they’re always learning something).  It’s the best thing I could aim for.

So what happened this week?

At work, I’m continuing to work on a Content Curation Framework, Governance and Principles to support our team to build the processes behind how the new content curation platform is going to be used and deployed by the team and the company.  Although I cannot say more on this, much of the work in the last four weeks was getting out into the business and learning the ‘state of play’ of current capabilities and where people are finding their information to do their job as well as the systems they are currently using.  It’s been informative and educational and it’s highlighted opportunities for development of this important capability for employees.  As always, I get edgy when I sit within the L&D team and speak with Learning or HR people only.   I like to start by getting out into the business to understand the current tools, platforms, behaviours, patterns and pain points so that I can identify potential gaps and be able to at least, have some contingencies in place.  I’m mindful of not ‘pushing’ the content curation platform instead more exploring where the performance gaps are and then considering, how the new platform can close those gaps.  It’s still early days yet.

This week has been an exhausting one for me and it’s evident in my snaps.  I’m amazed when I watch myself through them and see the difference in my energy through the day – the ups and the downs.

So here’s what happened this week.

Monday 3 April 2017

Over the weekend prior I played around with Facebook Direct or Facebook Stories which is a direct copycat of Snapchat.  I was notified by a friend that she was muting my feed because there was no way to remove the application from the top of the mobile feed.  (She has since advised that by turning off Video Notifications in Facebook, you won’t see these Stories).  This was a key lesson for me that just because you like Snapchat, your friends on Facebook may not appreciate you sharing short video stories of yourself.  Certainly, if they cannot control the feed (thanks Facebook algorithms!), it can get quite annoying.

After trying it out, the Facebook story stays live for 24 hours (surprise, surprise, like Snapchat) and disappears from the timeline – that is, until another one of your Facebook friend shares their story.  Needless to say, it’s a quick way to make enemies fast.  If your friends don’t understand Snapchat, it’s likely they’ll find Facebook Stories annoying.  Let’s just say it’s not popular…

So in today’s snap story I share what happened with this Facebook Story debacle and then weave in a couple of other points about my new post on You Have a Voice in the Organisation (inspired by various conversations with people).


Tuesday 4 April 2017

Today I talk about the need to curate content – what is curation and how it adds value to what we are learning before I was momentarily distracted that it was Tuesday Book Club!

I shared two points I learned from David Rock’s book Your Brain at Work which was namely simplifying and chunking.  I have been making a concerted effort not to get bogged with too many details anymore (although it’s proving exceptionally difficult).  I shared how I used simplifying for good effect in a recent case where I had to market the concept of curation to the company and used a metaphor to explain it so that people ‘got it’.

One of my biggest lessons is that I really need to simplify my message – make it basic that it is understood by everyone.  In some way, I need to think (and talk) like a marketer – NOT a learning and development person.

Wednesday 5 April 2017

I was watching Chelsea Peitz (@ChelseaPeitz) snaps this week and she was talking about Social Selling and I recount a story some time ago about servicing the needs of our internal salespeople who wanted some LinkedIn training.  The penny dropped for me when I realised that I was “socially selling” to people in our own company – both the Learning and Development team AND other business units.  I was influencing them to consider how working and learning from each other and with each other help serve their own individual as well as company needs.  Sometimes (okay, many times) it’s an ongoing and uphill battle.  However, there are wins along the way.

Thursday 6 April 2017

Today I continue to talk about curation and it’s the day I was going to present my findings and research.  Settling into corporate life again admittedly has been a struggle for me with a number of distractions and noise which seem to do my head in.  I work myself up in a tizzy sometimes if I don’t feel my time is productive enough and my energy scattered.  This is something I need to manage.

Friday 7 April 2017

So things take a turn for the worse on this day (or so I initially thought) when my scope gets changed to focus only on mapping the process of how certain roles within the team will work with business requests for curated content – and to develop tools, templates and checklists to help streamline the process.  I was thinking about it too strategically so I now need to think of the tactical day-to-day stuff.   Momentarily, I consider that my research may not be useful or used to consider the performance gaps however, it’s not the case at all.  If anything, it will come in handy – maybe not just yet.

Great Feedback!

I’m always chuffed when people send me their feedback about how they’re working out loud or experimenting with different ways to capture and share their learning processes.

This week, Simon R.J. Fogg is someone I greatly admire and who actively works out loud and shares his abundant resource and links to a diverse array of material.  Simon found some value in my snaps and for that, I’m grateful!

And then there’s Charlie Puddicombe who I had the pleasure of meeting at the International Auditors Conference in Brisbane last year when I presented a session on “Building Networks Using Twitter”.   It’s when I get feedback like this that I think that what I do to help others is all worth it.

Sharing and showing my work has opened so many opportunities for me and linked me with people all around the world that it’s only fair that we help others to do the same to support their own personal and professional development.  

Last of all, it’s great to see Mike Shaw another Learning and Development professional on Snapchat too!  This week, he shared his own snaps around what is Digital Curation and how important it is for our own learning.  If you’re on Snapchat, please add Mike’s snapcode and engage with him online!

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