It’s been nearly eight months since I left work and I don’t miss it at all as I’ve kept myself occupied with more meaningful endeavours. Lots of sleep, golf, knitting, reading and learning French mainly. Exploring writing, catching up with friends and family, playing with the cat. Everything but work. In some way, I feel […]
Community Manager Burnout
It’s a thing. I’m sure of it. After being in the field of Learning and Development and spending most of my work life in the social learning space helping people build communities of practice, using enterprise social networks (like Yammer) to help them build authentic and trusted relationships and networks in their organisation, helping people […]
Microsoft Viva Engage: It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Facebook
I had to squint my eyes and shake my head to scrutinise the user interface of Microsoft’s rebranded Yammer which they’re calling Viva Engage (through the Microsoft Teams app). Whoa! 😲 Look how similar it is to Facebook or Meta or whatever you want to call it. 😂 I really do hope (!) that this […]
Microsoft Asked Me To Present on How To Use Storylines (and Stories) for Business
This morning I presented to Microsoft’s Yammer Customer Community on How to Use Storylines (and Stories) for Business. Viva Engage is the new employee engagement platform (well, it’s the newly branded Yammer which is sitting in Microsoft Teams as the Viva Engage app). Currently Storylines (aka ‘blog’) is live in Yammer and the Stories feature […]
Shall I Quote Virginia Woolf in a Work Presentation?
Yesterday I was thinking about a scene in a recent book I read by Virginia Woolf. The novel is To The Light House written in 1927 and considered to be one of her best novels at the height of her exceptional writing. It’s about a family and their guests at a holiday house on the […]
Posting Prompts For Enterprise Social Networks, Yay or Nay?
What daily habit do you do that improves your quality of life? Mmm. 🤔 Good question. For me my daily habit that improves my quality of life is my reading habit. I need to read every day – and not on screens but I mean, physical books. The time I sit or lie down is […]
How to Use Stories in Viva Engage for Business
Recently Microsoft announced the rebranding of Yammer (Microsoft’s Enterprise Social Network) to Viva Engage and I wrote my thoughts about this in my blog post Yammer & Viva Engage: Same? Same? The Stand Out New Features are Storyline and Stories Although early days yet, two of the stand out features in this platform are Storyline […]
Yammer & Viva Engage: Same? Same?
Yes. Okay you can stop reading now. Seriously, it didn’t take long for the new announcement by Microsoft for people to start pinging me at work and on the phone (thankfully, I’m off social media or else my notifications would have been out of control). “Helen, you’re a Yammer fan, what do you make of […]
This Week’s Snap Stories of Personal Learning Week of 13 November 2017
Here are this week’s snap stories of personal learning commencing 13 November 2017 – It’s WORK OUT LOUD WEEK! Monday 13 November 2017 Today I talk about moderating the Fishbowl Event on Learning Technologies and how I’m preparing for it. I talk about multitasking on Facebook, talk about undertaking an assessment on purpose and values […]
This Week’s Snap Stories of Personal Learning Week of 25 September 2017
Here are this week’s snap stories of personal learning commencing 25 September 2017. Monday 25 September 2017 Today I talked about Link Rot which was a new concept I had discovered in my research for my curation presentation. I go through my process for how I plan my presentation and redo my mind map opting […]
Why We Post
Some years ago on Facebook, I made an intriguing observation on why we post. On my feed, I saw a variety of different types of posts. Ignoring the sponsored posts and paid advertisements, I looked at what posts seemed to have more discussion and engagement with my family, friends and peers. I noticed that posts […]
There’s A Hole In My Bucket…Or You’ve Reached Your Email Limit
Last week my husband excitedly told me to stop what I was doing and to listen to a clip he had found on YouTube with Harry Belafonte and Odetta singing the song, “There’s a Hole in My Bucket”. If you haven’t heard it, it’s well worth a listen and a chuckle… As music […]
Part 2 of Social Onboarding…A Case Study
On 4 September I wrote the first part of a project I was the lead developer (okay, the only developer) for a Social Onboarding Program for Retail Store Managers for my previous organisation. The first part of the blog series covered the background, the problem, the needs analysis, stakeholder engagement and recommendations that were part […]
Part 1 of A Social Onboarding: A Case Study…
(Please note that I will provide this case study over a series of parts over time. The project took me 3 months and it had a lot of “moving parts” and stakeholders. This is the first part which covers the background, the business problem and the analysis). Background A few months before I left my previous […]
How Do You Explain Yammer and Other Stories
[View the story “How Do You Explain Yammer And Other Stories” on Storify]
Does Learning & Working Out Loud Help Graduates?
Well I guess we’ll find out soon enough…. Last week I had the pleasure of presenting to our graduates on Yammer. I was asked by the Graduate Committee to run a virtual classroom for our graduates to encourage their use of Yammer. The committee wanted graduates to learn how to use the tool so that they had a way […]
How to Use Yammer to Capture Reflections of Programs or Events
With all this talk of ‘Show My Work’, I decided to go on another tangent (as I normally do) and show another’s work! Shock, horror! Rest assured, with full attribution and with a profusion of thanks and gratitude to my good friend and colleague Paul Batfay (@freefacilitator) who has kindly agreed for me to show HIS […]
Championing Change with Yammer
Over the last few weeks I have felt that I have left my ‘real blogging’ by the wayside. By that I mean I didn’t have any observations made from various activity, comments and experiences that made me sit up, think and reflect. That’s because I have been closed up in a small 1-person meeting room […]
Serendipitous Connections Lead You To a Better World
It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks since my last post. I think that I should scribble notes into my note pad every time I have an engaging and mentally stimulating encounter with people so I don’t forget what we talked about. Even better, I wish I could bottle their passion, enthusiasm and explosion of […]
How Do You Explain Yammer?
Last week I was put through my paces at work. A colleague who I had worked with a couple of years ago to create Role Based Proficiency Pathways for the retail arm of her business came back from maternity leave and she sat next to me at work. We caught up with the “goss” and […]