Learn. Show. Repeat.

27 Apr

My Experience as a Design Thinking Newbie (part 1)

Posted by Matt Guyan | Design Thinking, Learning and Development, Show Your Work |

This is the first in a series of posts documenting how I’m applying a design thinking approach to a project I’m working on. “Design thinking is a problem-solving methodology that focuses heavily on involving users of a solution in its design” (Boller and Fletcher, 2020). This definition comes from the book ‘Design Thinking for Training and Development’ by Sharon Boller and Laura Fletcher. It’s the first (that I know of) that frames design thinking in the context of learning and development. It’s a valuable source of ideas and templates and if you’d like to incorporate design thinking into your projects,...
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15 Dec

5 books for all learning professionals

Posted by Matt Guyan | Learning and Development, Show Your Work |

A few years ago, I wrote a blog post where I shared 5 books every eLearning professional should read. I still stand by those suggestions but I’m adding this new selection for all learning professionals. The reason I’ve selected each of these books is because they’ve contributed to the evolution of the way I work. Here they are in no particular order: Innovative Performance Support by Conrad Gottfredson and Bob Mosher This book first introduced me to the five moments of learning need: New (learning something for the first time), More (expanding learning), Apply (when actually doing something), Solve (when...
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23 Aug

Can I take your order?

Posted by Matt Guyan | Learning and Development, Reflections |

This is a question that you might hear in a fast food restaurant. However, when a request for training comes to the L&D team and we provide it - we're effectively asking the same thing. Do we want to be thought of as the people who create training or design content? Or do we want to be known as the people who solve problems in our organisations? If it's the second question, then we need to really determine the problem we are trying to solve. This means starting with curiosity and not content. Here's some ideas about how that can...
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18 Feb

The Use Framework for performance solutions

Posted by Matt Guyan | Reflections |

Recently, I’ve been thinking about the work that we do within in the field of L&D. Usually, we add up all the 'things' we've produced and tell others within our organisations about all the work we’ve done. Unfortunately, many L&D teams talk in terms of outputs instead of outcomes. But what’s the point of making more 'things' if they don’t make a difference in terms of performance? A big part of the problem is that the starting point and consequently the focus of our activities is on content. There must be a better way. In my previous two posts (One...
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30 Jan

One more ‘Use’ word for L&D

Posted by Matt Guyan | Reflections |

Not long after publishing my previous post Three ‘Use’ words for L&D, it occurred to me that while these words relate to the learning solutions itself, there’s a fourth ‘use’ word that I neglected to include. User. It’s by understanding the context of the user that we can create something useful. Something that has a purpose and solves a problem for them. It’s by testing with users that we can determine the usability (and make changes from feedback). We can discover if it can be located when needed and if it’s uncomplicated to use. It’s by collecting and analysing data...
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Learn. Show. Repeat.

My Experience as a Design Thinking Newbie (part 1)

5 books for all learning professionals

Can I take your order?

The Use Framework for performance solutions

One more ‘Use’ word for L&D

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