“Be an encourager. The world has plenty of critics already.”
— Dave Willis
Last week for National Password Day, I got to do a live webcast from our new studio. I thought it might be nice but had no idea that it would probably make most of our local television stations jealous. Now I’m going to be searching for every excuse possible to get back in there and do some more. I’m very lucky to have access to such nice facilities and the amazing people who make it all happen.
As always, thanks for reading.
What I’m Listening To: I’ve have liked Landon Conrath’s music for awhile now but never knew who he was – I do now and he’s definitely a favorite.
Last Week’s Most Clicked:
Reducing Information Overload in Your Organization
📰 News & Notes
Cultivating and Connecting Capabilities
John Hagel explores the importance of developing unique capabilities and forming strategic partnerships in a rapidly changing business world. Hagel suggests focusing on a few core capabilities and continuously improving them. He emphasizes the value of connecting capabilities across organizations through collaboration and digital platforms. By cultivating and connecting capabilities, organizations can stay ahead, create sustainable advantage, and drive innovation.
🥡 Take away: In today’s rapidly changing business environment, organizations need to focus on developing unique core capabilities, constantly improving them, and forming strategic partnerships to connect capabilities across organizations.
16 Useful UI Design Rules That Make a Big Impact
While this insightful article is about designing user interfaces, the principles also apply to many other contexts including eLearning and other types of content. Browse his collection of before and after design tips to find a few “stealable” ways you can improve your own design skills.
Take away: With a handful of simple but powerful design guidelines, anyone can glean valuable design tips they can apply to their own work from these examples.
Where do great ideas come from?
There there is evidence that ideas are growing scarcer by the year. A Stanford University study titled “Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find?” detailed how “research effort is rising substantially while research productivity is declining sharply.” The study documents similar slumps in other industries like agriculture and healthcare. This article, looks at seven research studies that reveal the people, incentives, and environments that create innovation.
🥡 Take away: People seeking great ideas should embrace failure, adopt a beginner’s mindset, leverage structural holes, motivate innovation through intrinsic motivations, understand the burden of knowledge, and focus on effectively implementing ideas into actionable situations.
What Can xAPI Do For You?
Check out this insightful podcast with Sarah Mercier on the power of xAPI in #eLearning! She brilliantly explains how xAPI can track and analyze learner data, driving personalized and effective learning experiences.
Take away: Listen in to learn what xAPI is, exactly—and what are all the moving parts involved to make it work along with the biggest barriers to avoid when implementing xAPI.
Ten Great Books on How to Learn Better
Newsletter regular Scott Young has share a list of his 10 favorite approachable and actionable books on learning with a few ‘bonus’ books thrown in for learning specific subjects.
🥡 Take away: The article presents a diverse range of books that cater to different aspects of learning, with the aim of providing readers with practical insights and tools to become better learners.
Say goodbye to manual work and save your brain for the big stuff. In the book, Automate Your Busywork, SaaS CEO and no-code enthusiast Aytekin Tank provides a guide on how to finally have the time to accomplish your most important work. Pre-order today.
Your First Draft, Fast
Looking for some words of inspiration to kickstart your creative process? Magic Write in Canva Docs is your very own AI text generator to help you get out a first draft, fast. Simply start with a prompt and watch as copy, blog outlines, lists, bio captions, content ideas, brainstorms, and more appear in seconds.
Try Magic Write by Canva
Get smarter in 5 minutes with Morning Brew (it’s free)
There’s a reason over 4 million people start their day with Morning Brew – the daily email that delive/rs the latest news from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. Business news doesn’t have to be boring…make your mornings more enjoyable, for free.
Check it out!
Get smarter with Refind
Every day we pick 5 articles that make you smarter, tailored to your interests. Refind is loved by 200,000+ curious minds.
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🎧 Podcasts
These are the podcasts that caught my ear this week.
Are you looking for a webinar about ChatGPT geared toward Learning & Development professionals? You’ve found it! Join us as we explore over 50 practical AI prompts to help your L&D workflow become more efficient and powerful!
Register now to claim your spot.
🧰 Tech, Tools & Tips
If tools are your jam, check out my new WorkSmarter newsletter
Zave
Save your most commonly used websites for personal reference or share them with the world.
Steno
Your favorite podcasts, fully transcribed.
Good Tape
Good Tape is an automatic transcription service that makes it easy to turn audio recordings into text, regardless of language or sound quality.
Rangeen
The tool to create and curate color palettes for your next project
How to Assess Students Online – A Free Guide
Student assessment has changed in the new millennium. Although there’s still something to be said for old-fashioned paper and pencil methods, new technologies are evolving daily.
Download this resource to discover 9 ways to assess student learning using technology and get a step-by-step guide to creating online quizzes.
🧳 Where’s Mike?
Festival Sektor 3.0
May 16
Poland & Online
Learning & Marketing Conference
June 7-8
Online
Friday Finds is an independent publication that I produce in my free-time. You can support my work by sharing it with the world, booking an advertising spot, or by buying me a coffee.
Mike Taylor 