The Edit: Bright Ideas Delivered

This week we're appreciating the Squiggly Skills Sprint campaign, speed-reading the hot L&D trends, shifting our leadership mindset and taking a look at the YouTube tricks to stop the scroll.

Why we love the Squiggly Careers Sprint (from an Instructional Design perspective)

Amazing If duo Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis have pressed pause on their usual podcast schedule for August and launched the Squiggly Careers Skills Sprint: 20 mini-podcast episodes, each focusing on a squiggly skill to help you navigate your career with clarity, confidence, and control.?

Now while the content is top notch (we would expect nothing else from the authors of the Sunday Times bestsellers The Squiggly Career and You Coach You) what we at Quadmark love in particular about this campaign is the genius execution. The package includes an Instructional Designer’s dream combination of:

• ? Microlearning — each podcast is less than 7 minutes long.
• ? Blended formats — you have video, audio, live delivery, checklists and PDF downloads.
• ? Consistency — each podcast contains 2 ideas for action, a ‘go-to guru’ recommendation and a link to a more in-depth podcast on the topic.
• ? Automated communication — scheduled?daily emails and social posts.
• ? Community — daily discussion topics posted on their LinkedIn page for followers to engage with, and ‘badges’ for people to use on social to publicise their progress.
• ? Incentives — a competition to win a stack of books and an invite to a free 90-minute virtual workshop when a learner posts their progress with the?#squigglysprint.
• ? Easy tracking — every element above can be digitally tracked, measured and analysed to assess return on investment and identify areas for improvement next time.

All the things we love to play with when it comes to creative learning campaigns.

The top 5 critical L&D tools right now

What‘s hot in workplace L&D right now, you ask? The folks over at Blinkist have it sussed. They used the Global Sentiment Survey by Donald Taylor to identify the current top 5 tools for practitioners to use and explain why they’re essential in L&D this year. Try guessing your top 5 before clicking through to see if you got them right.

The manager mindset shift from service to empowerment

Back in the 1970s, Robert Greenleaf coined the phrase ‘servant-leadership’. A new and, given the traditional command-and-control style of leadership back then, welcomed idea that a manager’s purpose was to put their team’s needs ahead of their own. But 50 years on the world is a different place. Burnout, 24/7 emails, and less hierarchical organisations are the norm, and with that, we need to rethink our leadership styles once again.

Enter ‘noble-purpose’ leadership: a style that empowers your team with responsibilities you might have previously added to your plate. Lisa Earle McLeod, a sales strategist, and Elizabeth Lotardo, a researcher and consultant, look at the 3 areas managers can look at to shift away from a culture of service and move towards one of impact and empowerment.?

YouTube tactics to stop the scroll

We feel it every time we pick up our phones and go on any social platform, our attention is being pulled in a million directions with mere seconds of focus. So what trends are working to make us stop the scroll?

Experts in culture and trends on YouTube, Roya Zeitoune and Nicolas Szmidt, dive deep into the data to see what’s holding our attention. Think multi-language audio, clipping and remixing videos, and getting creative with captions.