Hey gang – If you’ve got a quick sec, can you share your favorite e-learning tip or advice you've ever received?
I'm at a workshop this week and we're discussing career tips and advice. I'm also asking participants to jump into this thread to post what they shared in today's workshop.
Here are a couple of my personal favorites:
Change is always coming
Don't listen to the experts
Learn to use your tools
If you share your wisdom on Twitter, would you use #AGDN14? Thanks!
Include stakeholders on the entire journey. Those riding in the balloon with you are less likely to try to shoot it down.
Strike while the iron is hot. Energy management has a lot to do with success. Letting things cool too far by ignoring the audience, a stakeholder group, or part of the team will make the entire process more difficult.
Make progress visible. Revealing the skyscraper from behind the stage curtain at the end of the project is risky, arrogant, goofy, and common.
Networking with others is the key to learning, finding solutions and growing your career.
Never take problems to your boss. Always take solutions.
Make sure you understand and solve the problem; otherwise, you will spend your entire career solving symptoms. Symptoms vs. Problems... there is a big difference!
When working with SMEs, tell them how much you appreciate their work with you. Also, send their managers a nice email about how great the work is and CC the SME. That's always worked for me on those projects where the SME is kind of forced to support it.
With small budgets, don't settle for suboptimal, dead-end learning solutions.
Instead, promote the idea of "imagineering" a long-term, "grand-vision buildout" of the desired learning system. The first budgeted piece would then be a lean, elegant, self-contained building block that sets the foundation for the long-term goal. Each subsequent phase adds value, but works independently of as well interdependently with the others. It's a great way to achieve a complex result with only a fraction of the budget available at the start!
Never take problems to your boss. Always take solutions.
This is a good one! One of my earlier managers taught me to always advise what the problem is, what the possible solutions are (preferably more than 2) and what my recommendation is...
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The best, (somewhat strangely for someone that makes their living out of it...), "Do we REALLY need to build this, or is there a simpler way?
LOVE those 2 :)
Networking with others is the key to learning, finding solutions and growing your career.
Never take problems to your boss. Always take solutions.
Make sure you understand and solve the problem; otherwise, you will spend your entire career solving symptoms. Symptoms vs. Problems... there is a big difference!
When working with SMEs, tell them how much you appreciate their work with you. Also, send their managers a nice email about how great the work is and CC the SME. That's always worked for me on those projects where the SME is kind of forced to support it.
Ditto this - and to be clear: KISS - with the last S being Sam/Sally *pet peeve*.
"Never put on the screen what you are going to say, and never say what you put on the screen."
P.S I've been here for only a week and already I am repeating a previous post ;~)) (See under Redundancy Principle: Should You Duplicate Narrated Text On-Screen? if into it.
With small budgets, don't settle for suboptimal, dead-end learning solutions.
Instead, promote the idea of "imagineering" a long-term, "grand-vision buildout" of the desired learning system. The first budgeted piece would then be a lean, elegant, self-contained building block that sets the foundation for the long-term goal. Each subsequent phase adds value, but works independently of as well interdependently with the others. It's a great way to achieve a complex result with only a fraction of the budget available at the start!
Always get someone else to proof your work before you publish it to your LMS.
My advice is - if your are stuck for inspiration check out Tim Slade's work, his ideas have saved me hundreds of hours of work, thanks Tim.
This is a good one! One of my earlier managers taught me to always advise what the problem is, what the possible solutions are (preferably more than 2) and what my recommendation is...
The real old school ideo:
Thanks, Bruno! It was great seeing you again this year. Hopefully we'll swing by Belgium next time.
I know because of my past mistakes.
Less is more
"I’d rather be an employed elearning compromiser than an unemployed elearning purist." -- Tom Kuhlmann
LOL @ David's post :)
Always enjoy watching reactions when Tom says that. Some folks applaud... others bristle:-)
I think the word I have heard him, (and you?) use is "pragmatist" ;)
It's a core competency if you want to be always working :)
ABW - Always Be Working
ABI
Always be invoicing !
Favorite e-learning advice?
"Test early, test often."
In terms of just career advice, it was
"the answer is always YES, how you do it is negotiable"
The best advice I received was to put myself in the shoes of the learner. This occurs through analysis of the learner and learning environment.
No effort is ever solo. Stakeholders, SMEs, IT/Media and management champions all help you move toward your goal. "We" did this is always true.
My dad always said "Plant your corn early." I guess this has nothing to do with elearning - oh well!
Don't build the Taj Mahal when a yurt will do :)
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