This is my 100th published content piece for the year.
That’s a lot for me. Some would say its too much …
I reclaimed the time I typically spent traveling to share stories and insights through a variety of channels. I reported on the changes taking place on the frontline through the Axonify Blog and The 80 Percent Podcast. I shared my personal experiences as an L&D pro on Learning Solutions Magazine. I worked with publications like TD Magazine, Training Industry, SHRM, Training & Development Magazine, Retail TouchPoints, Chief Learning Officer and Training Magazine to explore topics like artificial intelligence, measurement, personalization, microlearning and frontline training.
The LearnGeek Blog was a mixed bag. It has always been a personal forum that helps me reflect on trending learning and performance concepts. I also try to share content on topics that I think could be of greatest assistance to the professional community or just aren’t being talked about enough.
Here are the 5 most-read articles on LearnGeek in 2020.
#5: 5 questions to ask in response to a training request
This is the most practical post on the list. What L&D pro hasn’t been to a meeting that started with “we need training on …” I shared the questions I use to reframe the conversation and get people thinking about solving performance problems instead of just training.
#4: TikTok is (not) the future of learning
This is the trendy entry (and much more popular than my Quibi post). L&D has a tendency to attempt to wholesale adopt strategies from other industries, including consumer technology. It almost never works. TikTok is the most recent example to come up in repeated conversations. I shared my thoughts on what L&D can actually learn from the most popular social app on the planet.
#3: 5 reasons your employees aren’t sharing their knowledge
This article is four years old but remains popular because so many organizations continue to struggle with shared knowledge, which is the true foundation of workplace learning. I refreshed the post in 2019 with updated practices from the Modern Learning Ecosystem Framework.
#2: 5 principles for improved safety training
Notice how there are always 5 things? Anyway, this is where 2020 clearly impacted reader preferences. Safety should always be the first priority in a workplace, but the concept took an an entirely new meaning this year. It’s no wonder so many L&D pros found this article from 2018. I didn’t write it with a pandemic in mind, but the concepts included (clear goals, personalized training, reinforcement, observation) are still 100% relevant.
#1: How to beat a multiple choice test
This partially tongue-in-cheek article from 2017 was my most-read post in April. It has remained at the top of the list to this day. Somehow, I don’t think its entirely because L&D pros want to write better MCQs. As education went online due to the pandemic, students likely started looking for “help.” In this case, Google seems to have ushered an inordinate number of them to my blog. I added a note at the top of the article to make sure readers understand what they’ve found. Unless they want to design better assessment questions, it’s probably not what many of them were looking for. 🙂
Thank you for reading my LearnGeek Blog. People from 144 countries visited the website over the past 12 months. That’s just amazing, and I’m very grateful for the support. I hope my content has helped you do your best work and provide right-fit support to the people within your organization.
I’ll see you in 2021.
