Last week, we had Team Week at our company and it’s a chance for us to get together (either physically if there’s no COVID or online, if there is! 😂) to discuss different aspects of our work and plan for the quarter ahead. I look forward to these because it’s an opportunity to see the […]
From Training to Learning to Knowledge to What?
(This is a collection of rambled thoughts – I’m still formulating what the question is in my mind so please humour me and go with the flow. I will find my way soon). I’ve been working on some interesting projects at Adopt & Embrace, a Microsoft Partner and where I work three days a week […]
A Way To Improve Vocabulary in Language Learning
Many years ago, a girlfriend gave me an old French picture dictionary and I’ve wondered how I could use it as all the definitions of the words are in French too. She had bought it thinking that it would help her learn the language but as she was a complete beginner, the definitions weren’t much […]
Updating my YouTube Channel
For the last week or so, I’ve been trying to put some semblance of order on my YouTube channel and in frustration, I’ve realised it’s a MASSIVE job. There are over 400 videos on the site and as it’s a channel that is used as a record of work and learning, a portfolio if you […]
Adopt & Embrace Microsoft Teams – A Live Read
I don’t know if you caught the live reading on the Adopt & Embrace YouTube channel on Friday where founder, (and my boss) Paul Woods (@paulwoods) read from the first chapter of our book Microsoft Teams: A Manager’s Guide to Communication, Collaboration and Co-ordination with Microsoft Teams. We wrote the book as a team, using […]
Spaces for Listening
Yesterday I attended Spaces for Listening which was an hour-long facilitated session with Meredith Lewis (@DangerousMere) on Zoom. If you don’t follow Meredith on Twitter, then you should do yourself a favour and do so because she is not only creative and clever but she has a calmness about her that always gets you opening […]
What Would You Do If You Didn’t Have to Work
Recently I asked this question on Twitter because I was inspired by some of the arguments presented in Daniel Susskind’s new book, A World Without Work. I’ll have a video review of this available soon as I am still collecting notes and also asking questions to others about this. In the book, he argues that […]
Foster & Build Lifelong Learning Practices in Your Day-to-Day Job
I’m excited to announce that our work at Adopt & Embrace will have a new book out some time in the new year that will be slightly different to our first published book called Microsoft Team: A Manager’s Guide to Communication, Collaboration and Co-ordination with Microsoft Teams. Although it will be a surprise, the focus […]
Lifelong Learning as a Human Right
I’m reading a book by Daniel Susskind called A World Without Work and it makes for some fascinating reading. Once I finish it and have a chance to put some thoughts on paper about it, I’ll share a video review on YouTube. This year I’ve been reflecting on a lot of things namely, trying to […]
Learning Uncut Podcast
Recently I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Michelle Ockers (@MichelleOckers) who has the Learning Uncut podcast. New #LearningUncut Ep 67 explores #Collaboration & #SocialLearning, reducing reliance on “go-to” people in organisations, supporting people to connect, work and learn in digital spaces & so much more. For full Ep highlights click here: https://t.co/gceygOPIgh #Podcast […]
Discover 2 Learn
In the early days of COVID when countries all around the world were going into lockdown, I was approached by Jane Hart (@C4LPT) who I have long since admired and respected in the field of learning to be part of her idea to create a website of curated learning activities for people in lockdown. This […]
Flip The Way You Think About Work
One of the things that has been surprising to me during this period of isolation with COVID19 and working with companies who are moving their operations and teamwork to an online format into MS Teams and other collaboration software is this MYTH that you can easily move what was delivered face-to-face BC (Before Corona) automatically […]
Are Competency Frameworks A Thing Anymore?
Back when I was working in corporate learning and development, when the mere mention of the two words “competency frameworks” in any team meeting, there was an audible groan. My experience of these have always been negative. Although I’ve never been involved in creating one, it seemed that I was always in departments that had […]
My Top 10 Tools for Learning
Well it’s that time of the year again when Jane Hart (@C4LPT) creates the annual survey collating the top 10 tools that people use for learning. Every year, I submit my results and I have to say that over the years, there have been some that remain the same – the stalwarts, if you will. […]
Learn a New Skill by Learning An Endangered Craft with New & Modern Twist
Some years ago, I was surfing through my Facebook feed and Ann McCrossen @annemcx who writes about the emergent organisation shared a PDF called The Radcliffe Red List of Endangered Crafts. Ann is also a wonderful ceramic artist when she’s not writing about organisations and in her website, she shares that part of herself, the […]
Reading Books as Sense Making
Many of you already know about my return to fiction reading after becoming so frustrated with reading only what other people were reading in the area of Learning and Development, Marketing, Business and Entrepreneurship. I think I reached a saturation point with those because it was the same people talking about the same books, talking […]
Learning in the Modern Workplace
In my recent blog post titled Drawing as Thinking…and a Treasure Map about #MadMapMarch, I wrote how I delved into some journal articles that explained the benefits of using different ways to express ourselves as a challenge to the way we think. In this case, it was comic books. That is, drawing our thoughts in a comic book format […]
Learning Through Making
On Friday, I headed over to my parents and walked into my father’s art studio to check out what he was up to. He had been watching YouTube videos on how to do book binding and was on a roll with creating these for himself. As an artist, he had a lot of loose leaf […]
Microsoft Service Adoption Course on EdX
This month I started another MOOC on EdX designed by Microsoft’s Principal PM Manager Karuana Gatimu and Content Developer Brandon Neeb called Microsoft Service Adoption Course. The course was published this year and had been shared across social media through many Microsoft consultants who are responsible for programs that involve the adoption of collaborative systems. […]
A New Way to Use Social Media Video as a Coaching Tool
Many of you know how much I love Snapchat as I have written much about it on this blog. Out of all the social networks I have used, it’s the one that has provided me with most personal development (storytelling, video creation and public speaking), as well as connected me to a global audience of […]