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“Everything worthwhile is done with others.”
― Mariame Kaba
It’s been surprisingly peaceful around the house this week. Both kids have been at band camp from 1:00 to 9:99 every day. One of the delightful perks? I get full control of the dinner menu! Feel like fish? Absolutely! Craving for some fresh, delicious veggies? Even better. The absence of any culinary critiques or grumbling is the cherry on top. And if you’ve had the joy of raising a few of your own, I bet you can relate to these moments of tranquility. Don’t get the wrong idea, though. I’m still happy to see them when they come home!
As always, thanks for reading.
What I’m Listening To: The Wallows is another discovery that I’ve made courtesy of my “official music consultant” (my daughter)
Last Week’s Most Clicked:
Using Images in Visual Design
📰 News & Notes
Cognitive Bias Cheatsheet
Our brains use cognitive biases as a way to save energy and cognitive resources. The human brain constantly processes an overwhelming amount of information, and using cognitive biases helps us navigate this complexity more efficiently. Instead of analyzing every piece of information from scratch, our brains rely on these mental shortcuts to quickly assess situations, categorize information, and make decisions.
🎯 Take away: This article provides a comprehensive and organized list of cognitive biases, highlighting four key problems our brains have evolved to deal with which can help us improve our understanding of ourselves and our decision-making processes.
Emotional intelligence in the workplace: Why it matters and how to build it
In the age of automation, emotional intelligence (EQ) is increasingly critical, affecting key performance indicators like sales, customer satisfaction, and employee turnover. EQ skills differentiate top performers and contribute to personal and professional growth, as evidenced by productivity improvements and cost savings in companies like Motorola and the U.S. Air Force following EQ training. Organizations can nurture EQ through compassionate leadership, cross-departmental collaboration, and focused training on self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management, supplemented with continuous performance support.
🎯 Take away: In today’s automated world, fostering emotional intelligence in the workplace is a key differentiator for top performance, contributing significantly to personal development and organizational success.
The Power of a Performance-First Mindset
Bob Mosher talks about the shift from a training-first to a performance-first approach significantly reduces training time, accelerates competency, and enables learners to better handle constant changes in skills and business processes. Key design changes suggested include beginning with analyzing the workflow and focusing training efforts on tasks that significantly impact performance, with a digital coach handling the rest.
🎯 Take away: Workflow learning, a performance-first approach that embeds learning within work tasks, can transform L&D by reducing training time, accelerating competency, and enabling continuous adaptation to change.
25 Ways to Support Social Learning
Crafted by Mark Britz of the Learning Guild, this checklist is a handy companion to thriving in today’s dynamic, hybrid work landscapes. Unveil the power of social learning to foster knowledge sharing, continuous growth, and strong team bonds even in distributed settings. Embrace change, conquer challenges, and unlock innovation to revolutionize your organization’s success!
🎯 Take away: Embracing social learning empowers organizations to thrive in rapidly changing work environments, unlocking innovation and connection among dispersed teams.
The Art of Sharing: Getting Your Slide Decks Online
Explore three options for sharing your presentations online: Microsoft PowerPoint Online, reliable but lacking engagement insights; SpeakerDeck, a nice-looking, minimalist and PDF-only option; and DeckLinks, a cutting-edge marvel with interactive features and detailed analytics. Choose your platform, and share your own slide deck gems if you’ve got ’em!
🎯 Take away: Explore three good options for sharing your presentation slides online.
Visit and subscribe to the Neovation Learning Hub for free eLearning resources – L&D superpowers that you can use to improve your eLearning initiatives and help you be more creative, productive, and valuable to your L&D team!
Become a better designer in 5 minute lessons
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Prompt Engineering Daily
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The Knowledge Newsletter
The Knowledge 🧭, is a newsletter helping creators and professionals to think deeper and work smarter.
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🎧 Podcasts
These are the conversations that caught my ear this week.
Check out previous episodes in the Friday Finds podcast playlist.
This user-friendly guide offers a simple checklist of the key questions you should ask potential learning partners, plus tips for what to listen for to evaluate fit. Vet for key traits such as strategic capabilities, innovation, operational excellence, and values alignment. Download for free
🧰 Tech Tools & Tips
If tools are your jam, check out my new Work Smarter newsletter.
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Iconbuddy
100K+ open source icons. Search, download, customize, edit over 100k+ open source icons. SVG, PNG, WEBP & other formats.
Pixelied
This is an image editor and versatile online graphics editor. Perfect for marketing, e-commerce, and social media designs.
Free Vector Illustrations For Your Projects
Hand-drawn, vector, free illustrations. Ideal for websites, web applications, mobile applications, marketing materials, printouts, social media posts, templates, work presentations,
Get live feedback during PowerPoint presentations with Microsoft Forms
Take the pulse of your audience during a presentation by gathering live feedback and fostering active participation.
Discover What Employees Think About Your Current Training
How effective is your training? Do employees find it helpful and engaging? Get the answers easily: download this free survey template and send it to your learners. In it, you’ll find 10 questions handpicked by training professionals. You only need to add your organization’s name and the survey is good to go.
🧳 Where’s Mike?
NASJE
August 28
Columbus, OH
Central Ohio ATD Annual Conference
Sept 12
Columbus, OH
CUNA Learning Live
October 16
San Antonio
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Mike Taylor 