The best L&D resources of October 2021
Lavinia Mehedin?u
Co-Founder & Learning Architect @ Offbeat | Learning & Development ??
October was as busy as always for Offbeat.
For this article, enjoy the best resources we've shared this month in the newsletter.
Stay safe and healthy!
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
An amazing step-by-step guide on how to implement performance reviews, that takes you through defining the purpose of the process, doing an inclusion check, designing the system, training everyone, getting buy-in, and reviewing the system.?
Source: LifeLabs Learning
BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE
The more you learn, this is what I thought at the end of this article. Authors introduce here an alternative to nudges, called boosts. The main difference between the two is that nudges aim to change behavior through changing the environment, while boosts aim to empower individuals to better exert their own agency.
In contrast to nudges, which aim to change behavior through changing the environment, boosts aim to empower individuals to better exert their own agency.
Discovering this resource felt like discovering another planet! Well, you get the exaggeration, but this is actually so cool. A list of behavior change tactics, each of them having a short description and a list of research papers you can further study.
Another really interesting resource about behavior change. This framework splits the process into three steps (decision, action, and continuation), and assumes that each step has some conditions for change. Each condition is closely looked at, which I found?really helpful!
Source: Sparkwave.tech
L&D STRATEGY
The authors define traditional apprenticeship as "a relationship-driven learning model, based on actual day-to-day work, in which a novice gains hands-on knowledge from an expert to grow skills and act with increasing independence. " But the model they propose is a bit more modern. Instead of looking only at senior people and managers as the ones able to teach, they say that any colleague with domain expertise can be empowered to teach key skills, model behaviors, and transfer skills.
But to succeed in doing so, there are a couple of factors we should pay attention to: (1) Create a clear organizational expectation for both learning and teaching through role modeling, supporting learner agency, and creating incentives to encourage individuals to both teach and learn, (2) build apprenticeship skills in every employee. Help everyone model, scaffold, coach, and fade to support others in their learning process while also observing, articulating, and acting to learn from others, (3) identify the skills that individuals need to build, (4) be broad, and inclusive about who can apprentice.?
We haven't tackled mentoring in a while, but I found this interesting article about the most common setbacks in implementing a mentorship program and some solutions you can test, and thought I should share it. I went through those challenges in the past and would have needed some solutions like these ones as well.
If you feel your commitment waning, firstly try to get to the route of why. Are you stressed from work and having trouble keeping up with the sessions or goals? Are you struggling to contribute in the sessions? Are there feelings of worry or embarrassment? Are you not getting what you expected from the relationship?
I learned about reverse mentoring about a year ago and I was so impressed by what it could do for people and organizations. The main idea of such a project is that senior team members can learn from more junior ones about how they see the world, consumer behaviors of younger generations, and in the end, their experiences.
For many companies, reverse mentoring is an effective way to refresh the skills of senior employees, as well as create a leadership pipeline for junior employees.
No, this is not yet another resource talking about the importance of psychological safety. At least not just that. It also introduces the personal user manual. A personal user manual is a short document outlining how you like to work, collaborate, communicate, and receive feedback.
I loved exploring how Airbnb Tech built this small universe of learning initiatives with the purpose of fostering a culture of learning and of course upskilling and reskilling their team members!?
This Reboot resource talks about how important peer support is in an unpredictable world, and how we can build a safe space for such groups from the ground up. Really detailed and really helpful for those looking to explore this method.
Peer Coaching Groups are a tool to support participants in discovering their own agency in situations where they might normally feel helpless, while maintaining their dignity and humanity.?
I think this is the most compelling resource I ever found on building communities of practice. It doesn't only explore the theory behind each step of community building but also gives some amazing templates you can use in your own efforts.
I learned so many interesting concepts from such a short article. Great to be shared with people managers, as it offers actionable advice such as: (1) share your setbacks and winds with the team and ask them to do the same, or (2) take notes after 1:1s to offer team members space for deep-dive.
As humans, we crave both structure and freedom — a phenomenon known as?prospect-refuge theory. We need the openness of possibility with the promise of safety, like an open field that?feels?endless, but still has a fence to keep out intruders.
CULTURE
Although I've been using Mentimeter together with my team in the past year, I never took the time to read more about their culture. This article talks about their train of thought when deciding their new way of working. Really interesting to go through!
When we look back on our lives, we want the years at Mentimeter to stand out. As formative years. As strong memories. As a period in our lives where we built relationships that lasted a lifetime and had a blast while doing it.
Great ideas and questions were posed in this article. It gives culture a broader meaning and brings to the table some pretty interesting questions we should explore in our efforts to design our workplace culture.
A really interesting case study on how Applied used team canvas workshops to redefine their values and working principles, and how they deployed the result throughout the organization and employee lifecycle.
The newest Digital HR Leaders Podcast hosted Maarten van Beek, HR Director for Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg at ING, who talked about how HR should focus more on the employee journey, the employee experience, and less on the responsibilities and confines of rigid traditional L&D roles.
A great report covering six essential elements that define thriving cultures, the hybrid workplace, engagement, peak experiences, recognition, and connection. So if you're currently working on any of those topics, this might be a great source of inspiration.
This month we looked at how Applied built their company values, the difference between values and operating principles, and how Blackbird built their operating principles, by engaging everyone in the company individually, followed by group workshops.?
领英推荐
A big list of culture decks and employee handbooks from different companies: from Netflix to HubSpot, Patreon, or Trello. The article highlights the best features of each deck/ handbook. A great source of inspiration if you're thinking of building one for your company.
FUTURE OF WORK
Although not L&D-focused I found this article really interesting. If you have colleagues working on crafting the return to the office messages, policies, guidelines, it can definitely be useful. This resource talks about how to make the communication less transactional by keeping in mind the way of working hybrid, acknowledging the impact on work-life balance, and engaging people at all levels to communicate and listen.
While there is no singular right way to communicate return-to-office announcements, there are many wrong ways. By leveraging these five strategies, leaders are more likely to land on a better answer that will inspire and engage their people throughout the process—emphasizing the relational, rather than the transactional, aspect of working together.?
Now, this is a comprehensive guide! Some things you'll find: hybrid readiness audit tool, hybrid challenges, and solutions, a guide for managers, a guide for hybrid employees. Great resource if you're thinking about developing your own guide!
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
A great resource you can share with people managers! It takes you through the steps of having difficult conversations, something we all know can be hard, especially for first-time managers. Very interesting and full of examples on how to approach this.
If we design for feelings, sharing hard truths can be something that moves our people forward leaps and bounds. Both towards better solutions out in the world and towards stronger relationships that will allow us to continue to engage constructively, creatively, and empathetically when things are difficult.?
Numerous research studies showed over the years how important is the relationship team members have with their people managers. In a world where burnout and stress reach new levels, we should invest more in showing people managers the impact they have and continuously preparing them for the role.
Research shows that as people gain power, they lose the ability to judge a situation accurately and to empathize with people in positions of less relative power.?
What I like about this article is that it doesn't propose a pill to fix the flaws different leaders might have, rather than admit they are there and that there are some things we could do to keep them in check for the health of our teams. A good share for your people managers!
Great interview with Tania Luna on the chat around the great resignation, how working remotely might mean lower employer attachment although it doesn't have to, what organizations can do to avoid it, and a great tool I've just learned about: the stay interview.
I can definitely vouch for that! And basically, those are my lessons learned in two years of people management, and they are all about being a better human being as well. Great read to share with all your people managers on how empathy, compassion, gratitude, positivity, awareness, and self-care can make them better managers.
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
I always felt there might be something missing with career paths. Throughout this year, exploring resources like this helped me expand my view on what career development could look like, and this one in particular talks about career lattices as an alternative to traditional career paths.
We've covered career development in the past in Offbeat?and I've stated my opinion that career paths might be a bit outdated. This month, though, I came across an idea I found fascinating:?building your career portfolio.?
At the heart of career paths, there's this idea that you should choose one discipline and think about how you can grow and learn throughout the years to reach higher levels of understanding of it, maybe become a manager or a senior in the team. But the reality right now is looking quite different. Various reports state that in our lifetime, we might jump between disciplines, and I've seen this happening with my own eyes.?
So instead of building career paths for ourselves and our colleagues, we should have a broader look at the various twists and turns our careers might?take. This resource suggests that to build your career portfolio you should try mapping your various roles and draw connections between them. It comes with an example as well, so you can better understand the concept.
After reading this, I'm left with the question of how we might scale this at an organizational level to empower people to own their careers and help them stay relevant for many years, instead of following the traditional script.
This article came out of very interesting research that looked high-level at which career advice was most rewarding and which one should be approached with caution. Spoiler alert, taking your career into your own hands seems to be the most rewarding out of the four examples.
ABOUT OFFBEAT
In the past couple of years, the learning industry started transforming. We are now in the middle of acquiring new technology, working agile, looking closely at measuring the L&D impact and so much more. Offbeat takes all these conversations and gives them a fresh, actionable twist so that learning professionals can learn more from what they read.
If you want to get curated L&D resources every week straight to your inbox, subscribe to Offbeat -?https://www.offbeat.works.?I'm putting all my passion into making this newsletter great for L&D peers, so any feedback is more than welcomed.
OFFBEAT PROGRAMS
In Fundamentals of Learning Experience Design, we’ll go through all the steps of designing a learning program, from research to prototyping. You’ll better understand your potential participants, how adults learn, how to set goals for your programs, and structure the learning experience to reach those goals.?
Throughout the program, you’ll get to practice and receive feedback in a safe space, share lessons learned and challenges with the community, and explore multiple learning methods.?All this to ensure you are going to remember what you learn not just for a week, but along your L&D career journey.
OFFBEAT - THE ACTIONABLE L&D NEWSLETTER
OFFBEAT - THE QUARTERLY DIGITAL L&D PUBLICATION
As Offbeat grows, we get to explore more diverse topics and dig deeper into impactful practices. Together with some amazing collaborators, in this edition of the digital publication, we take a look at linking L&D with business results, and the employee journey, how peer-coaching can boost learning engagement, why training alone is not enough, and how gamification can help with boosting motivation in hybrid workplaces. Enjoy!
In May 2021, Offbeat turned 1 year old. We already sent over 50 newsletter issues, and with this edition, we’re completing the cycle of 4 digital publication issues throughout this year. We put this one together with the help of some people who either encouraged Offbeat right from the start or were fond of the project once they discovered it. It’s full of lessons learned, experiments, and know-how for all L&Ds out there.
For the first time since Offbeat was launched, we invited people to take over. Instead of intentionally going towards those we knew we wanted to share their perspectives, we asked everyone to join as Contributors. The cool thing? People responded amazingly. So here we are now, at the third issue of Offbeat, the digital publication, enjoying topics such as automation, mentorship, communities of practice, all the way to stakeholder management, onboarding, and learning needs assessment. All in all, this is the result of the love people showed to Offbeat and to sharing their knowledge with peers.
2020 was crazy. It pushed us. Sometimes maybe right on the edge. But the most important thing we got out of it? Different perspectives about our impact, ways of learning, and using technology. This is exactly what this issue is about. Some things we got out of 2020 in terms of lessons learned and resources.
Prologue is the first issue of Offbeat, the quarterly digital publication dedicated to L&D professionals. We brought together L&D pros from big and small companies, an L&D consultant, and one start-up founder to kick off a new way of helping peers grow through actionable advice. We bet you will find useful their advice on building leadership development programs, designing the L&D strategy, or transitioning from learning to performance.
Last month, Offbeat turned 1 year old. We already sent over 50 newsletter issues, and with this edition, we’re completing the cycle of 4 digital publication issues throughout this year. We put this one together with the help of some people who either encouraged Offbeat right from the start or were fond of the project once they discovered it. It’s full of lessons learned, experiments, and know-how for all L&Ds out there.
HR Senior Manager | Talent & Culture Strategist | Leadership Development | Change Management | I help companies to shape Talent and Culture according business goals
3 年Beatriz Dosset Fernández María Nolla José García Rodríguez Have a look ??!