The NoddleSoft Blog

Redefining collaboration

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 CEST

I have come to the conclusion that I think differently about collaboration. Collaboration seems to be thought of as a group of people working together on a project, which of course is true, but I think theres so much more on offer for the adventurous collaborator that just that.

So what does the dictionary have to say about the matter? Apparently, the word comes from the Latin ‘collaborare’ meaning to work together, and is defined as “the action of working with someone to produce something”.

However, no-where in these definitions does it state that the collaborators have to be working on a single, shared project, and yet the general consensus is exactly that.

Of course, collaboration IS working on the same thing together, but you and I can still be working towards different goals - it could always be the process we have in common, rather than the end result.

Creative borders

There will always be overlap in much of our work, whether it is obvious from the start or not. The simple fact is that when people from different disciplines, with different backgrounds, experience and areas of expertise are brought together, they can help and inspire each other in unforeseen ways - they can introduce each other to different ways of looking at their work. Creativity abounds on the border between disciplines. It is here that assumptions are questioned, horizons are widened and new ideas, creativity and innovation will flourish.

This is still collaboration, even if it might be that what I am working on and what you are working on appear unrelated. We can still help each other out, by bringing a fresh perspective and a new approach.

Parallel working

Entrepreneurs have know this for years. As an entrepreneur, it is simply not possible to know everything you need to know to get your business off the ground. You need to pool your thoughts, ideas and knowledge with others that are going through a similar process to yourself. Around the world you can find co-working spaces where entrepreneurs go to work on their own businesses, together with others that are working on theirs. They are working in parallel - collaborating when their work overlaps, but still staying focused on their goals.

Our ability to collaborate is not limited to scenarios where we are all working together on the same thing. I believe the potential value of collaboration increases as soon as you break this assumption.

I too collaborate with my colleges on shared documents and projects, it is absolutely essential in what I do - but I want more from collaboration!

Expand your horizon beyond this limited view of collaboration. Become an adventurous collaborator, and start recognising the more rewarding prospect of working in parallel.

Noddlepod Animation

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 CEST

This week we launched our new Noddlepod promo animation. It is a short but sweet animation designed to give an introduction to the concept behind Noddlepod.

Let us know what you think!

If you're not part of the solution - an introverts perspective on the shift to social working practices

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:00:00 CEST

As Henry J. Tillman said, ‘If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate’.

Geeky chemistry humor aside, there is an analogy to be had here. For any system, there always seems to be some fallout. A group that gets left by the wayside. If our goal is to set up a system or environment for learning or working together, some will cope very well, and others will get left behind. This is not due to their lack of intelligence, talent or ability, but simply because we all have our strengths and weaknesses, and particular systems will tend to favour certain strengths, and under-appreciate others. Introversion is one of those strengths that tends to get forgotten about. My post here today is about this group, the one to which I feel I belong.

To have a tendency towards introversion is almost a given for a being software developer. But I have recently moved from my pleasantly lonely (I prefer the Norwegian word ‘ensom’ here, having less negative connotations, being more of an actively chosen state than the English word lonely) chair in front of my computer, into the very social world of business. My wife Ollie, coming from a background of learning & development strategy, has always thrived working with others, and when we started own business last year, I started out as the programmer, but necessity has meant my moving more and more into the business and people side of things.

Noddlepod and the new social learning

We decided to build a tool to encourage the informal side of learning in learning networks. With the help and advice of many people in the industry, it evolved into Noddlepod, a tool for parallel working and learning - the idea being that people rarely work or learn in isolation, but tend to be part of a bigger picture. That bigger picture might be a specific process that you and others are working through - it might be the class you are taking at university, or the training programme you are working through at work. It could be a project your team is working on, or even your department in relation to others. The idea being that innovation, discovery and learning tend to arise at the intersection between different disciplines, interests and ideas. Parallel working brings these different disciplines, interests and ideas together.

The more I have worked developing our application, the more I have come to learn about and understand the ideas behind employee/student engagement and the advantages of more social and informal approaches to work and learning.

Much of what we promote focuses on how the network is the future, on how traditional hierarchical approaches to learning and working just aren’t suited to many of todays businesses and universities. Information changes too quickly, and hierarchies not only slow down the decision making process, but by only allowing a small number of individuals the final say, they also greatly restrict their outcomes.

If we can bring people together in their work or learning, seemingly unrelated areas of expertise could trigger an explosion of learning and discovery. It also works equally well looking at it from the other angle - the varied backgrounds and points of view of the individuals in the network make it much more likely that problems are spotted before they become issues.

But how would this shift to more social work practices affect someone like me, who would be much more comfortable and productive working quietly alone? Am I to be the precipitate of the new system that I am working so hard to promote?

There are three issues I see that might cause some people difficulties (and not only the introverted among us). Firstly, theres the issue of communication - how we can encourage the quieter amongst us to work comfortably and to contribute in a more social environment. Secondly, we have the differences between formal and informal approaches, and peoples preference towards one or the other. Finally, there is the fact that in order to fully benefit from this approach, we all have to be more comfortable sharing unfinished ideas.

Encuoraging communication

The first point, encouraging communication, is possibly the easiest to solve. I find am better at communication when I have time to formulate what I want to say. The current trend towards online communication is perfect for this - forums, blogs and other social media allow the more introverted among us to ‘lurk’, getting a feel for the network and the people in it before contributing. In addition, they give the individual time to consider how they might want to word their contribution. Chances are there will still be an strong extrovert bias, but it definitely levels the playing field somewhat.

Of course, our ‘precipitates’ now are those that are not comfortable with computers, those who would rather just pick up the phone or chat face to face. How we might balance the technical and the human approach to communication will have to be discussed in another article. Lets stick with the introverts for now.

Formal vs. Informal

The next point is the formal versus informal aspect. The idea behind more informal approaches to work and learning is to encourage a more relaxed environment where people feel more able to contribute, resulting from the tempering of bureaucracy and a shift from rigid, hierarchical leadership structures to a more flat and democratic approach.

Informal approaches often involve removing structure and putting more of a focus on social interaction, and this can cause minor panic attacks for the more retiring of us - many introvert struggle with open-ended social activities. However, we don’t need to, and in fact we should strive NOT to, abandon all structure in our quest for the informal.

It’s all about balance - too much structure restricts, but not enough leaves people floating aimlessly, with no direction. We need clarity around our roles and our tasks, and we need to understand where we fit in to the overall scheme of things. But we also need freedom - freedom to step outside of and away from our roles and tasks, and opportunities to interact with others sharing those same freedoms.

This balance suits our introvert well - working with others can provide a welcome opportunity for social interaction that might not come very often, or very easily, to the introvert. Doing so in a relaxed and positive environment, with enough structure that people are not feeling uncomfortable or directionless, but at the same time encouraging social exchange, I suspect would suit most people well, not just the introverted.

Making a fool of yourself

The third issue is the fact that in order to get the most benefits from this approach, the participants in the network need to be comfortable sharing unfinished ideas and making mistakes in front of each other. This I think is the biggest hurdle, and again, not just for the quieter among us. As Ollie discusses in a recent article, the majority of us seem to be genetically programmed to try to avoid making fools of ourselves in public. But while I’m sure genetics are involved, culture also plays a big part in this. Of course, we all want to make a good impression and only show our good side, and many of us are afraid of being ridiculed or put down for saying something daft, so how do we encourage people to share not only their polished, finished end product, but also the process they went through, the mistakes they make and the dead ends they came to? (again, see Ollies article for more about why we should be encouraging this).

It’s all about culture. Others need to be seen to be able to voice their opinions and thoughts without repercussions. Encourage those that are comfortable to do so to contribute and share thoughts and ideas, regardless of the state of completion, or the correctness of their contribution. It doesn’t matter if its only a handful of people initially. The more people see others openly exploring and experimenting, and (perhaps more importantly) the more people see the community responding positively to those contributions, the more likely they are to contribute themselves. It is bound to take some time, but then most worthwhile things do.

Introverts and the new social workplace

I was worried when I started writing this article that it would be all too easy to come to the conclusion that this is simply the way of the world - that it is the people that thrive in social situations, people that are unintimidated by others that will dominate, when even the most intelligent and mindful introverted individual struggles to make themselves heard above the often loudly spoken opinions of the extrovert.

However, at least in the field of parallel working and learning, this is certainly doesn’t have to be the case. We can appreciate diversity in all its forms, actively listening to what everyone has to contribute, even if (maybe especially if) they don’t seem to have anything to contribute. It seems we all have an innate need to understand and be understood. The hard part is actually trying to understand other people and what our ideas might mean for them, when they are probably living in very different mental worlds to our own.

New opportunities for communication mean that the more introverted among us have a fresh opportunity to contribute and be heard, and hopefully, be listened to. And with understanding and a bit of planning by the people responsible for the networks, as well as those within them, we could produce richer and more productive, not to mention more representative, communities.

Culture & technology - synergistic in creating valuable Communities of Practice

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:00:00 CEST

Ollie has recently written a guest post over at Nic Laycock’s blog. Check it out!

Culture & technology - synergistic in creating valuable Communities of Practice

A new way of working

Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 CEST

What is this NoddlePod thing, you say?

NoddlePod is a new way of working - a new way of thinking about our work and how it is interconnected.

We are so used to the concept of ‘working in teams’, coordinating our effort to reach a shared goal, it often overshadows the various other ways in which our work might be connected.

And yet our work is connected in so many ways, and every single connection represents an opportunity for mutual support.

Entrepreneurs going through the same generic steps of setting up a business.
Students at university taking the same class, and yet approaching the subject according to their interests and ambitions.
Colleagues of support functions providing consistent service to different areas of a business
Companies figuring out the implications of a change in industry regulation.
Participants of learning and development programmes tackling highly individual, yet connected learning paths.

Limiting our collaboration to situations where we share the same goal is a momentous lost opportunity.

Whether by shared process, challenge or vision, the opportunities for mutual support extend way beyond the work that we do together.

NoddlePod seeks to leverage these connections, whatever they may be, and create an environment of mutual support for people working and learning in parallel.

Noddlepod launched!!!

Fri, 13 May 2011 00:00:00 CEST

Dear early adopters, cheer leaders and guiding stars,

We are proud and excited to announce that NoddlePod is now officially launched.

After what could only be described as a super successful private beta, we are ready to take on the world. But before we do, we would like to express our thanks to all of you.

Without the collective encouragement, advice and constructive criticism of the people we have met along the way, NoddlePod would be but a pale shadow of what is is today - so thank you!

We have had the most amazing (and challenging) journey getting to where we are today and cannot wait to see where this will take us next.

If you haven’t already, please follow us on twitter - @noddlepod and @olliegardener, subscribe to our newsletter and stay in touch - we would love to hear from you!

Until next time,

Ollie and Stephen Gardener =)

proud founders of…

— the next generation collaboration tool for work and learning —

In preparation for the learning technologies conference!

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:00:00 CET

Time is marching on and the learning technologies conference is just around the corner. I’ve actually booked on to attend the conference this time and will hopefully be allowed up on to the exclusive level 1… :)

The schedule is crammed by interesting topics and great speakers, but I am still mostly excited about the opportunity to meet with people face to face - in particular those I am following and have had conversations with on twitter.

Your very first conference, a blog post by @Learninganorak last week, made some really useful suggestions on how to make traveling all that way (I’m currently based in Croatia) a worth-while exercise. My personal favourites:

Introduce yourself to presenters of sessions you’re not attending. There is usually a speakers’ room, so if they have work to do, they’ll take refuge there - if they’re in the common area, they’re fair game. ;o)
Put faces to names. Discover that the person you consider lofty and exalted is just human.

Doing some simple preparations, figuring out who in your existing network are going - might also open your eyes to who you actually have in your network. On twitter in particular, you might follow someone for consistently linking to great content, but have a rather limited view about who they actually are.

Doing a quick search has given me a much better insight into who I am likely to meet next week and - to a degree - the nature of our connection.

@simbeckhampson is a perfect example. Paul must be amongst the most approachable, as well as one of the most prolific bloggers, of all the people in my network - yet I discovered I had a lot more to learn about what he actually does.

Furthermore while exploring my virtual network, I kept coming across value based statements that really resonate with me:

Social Media can humanise the Enterprise. @simbeckhampson
People are the focus of effective change – we work with, not against, the quirks of human spirit and the dynamics of human behaviour. @joningham
I believe [making sure that people and businesses have the skills they need] is best supported by using technology effectively - that is, being realistic and knowing its limitations, rather than being overawed with its undoubted potential. @donaldhtaylor

We need more consultants like you! Living and breathing the values of engagement, trust and openness - and supporting companies address the cultural challenges that technologies cannot..

So in front of a conference, all geared around learning technology - a few words of warning to shopping customers and system providers alike:

Be weary of extensive features-lists. Having every conceivable way in which to communicate does not make for great communication! Less is almost always more.
Be weary of extensive requirement lists (particularly the one you wrote yourself!). Don’t let preconceived ideas about how to solve a problem limit your ability to spot alternatives.
Be clear on who you need to get buy-in from for a purchase in order to bring the results you are looking for. Hint: the CEO might be the gateway to the credit card, but is seldom the gateway to widespread adoption..
Ultimately - it really is all about people, and to quote Lord Puttnam: “Technology can only ever serve as a bridge, never as a destination”.

Work and Learning

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:00:00 CET

In previous blog posts we have discussed the importance of informal, self directed learning in creating an educated, up-to-date workforce. We have also looked at the importance of trust in employee engagement, and how an engaged workforce can result in increased productivity and innovation.

Today I want to bring these two subjects together, and talk the pace of change in modern organisations, about the link between work and learning, and how they interact and affect each other.

Work is learning! But is learning work?

To say that work is learning is nothing new - the idea of on-job learning has been around for a long time, and it’s pretty much universally agreed that the best way to learn something is to do it. But if work is learning, then it should follow that learning is also work. Today I would like to discuss why this is so, the importance it has for work and what organisations can do to encourage effective working AND learning in it’s employees.

The pace of change in organisations, in technology and information has only increased with time. Knowledge becomes obsolete quicker than ever, and work itself has become a constant learning curve. In days long gone, it was enough to turn up at work and do your job according to your job description. The current rate of change means that your job description is likely to be out of date within months of you starting your job. As employees we need to keep on top of this constant change in order to do our work effectively.

“For people engaged in business today, self directed learning is the only way to keep pace with change; it has become a business survival skill”. Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society.

Effective working now requires an employee to recognize what information is required, to know how to seek out that information, evaluate it’s relevance and reliability, and to be able to translate that information into learning and actionable tasks. And this evaluation needs to be done constantly and consistently throughout an individuals career. Employers now have to accept that learning is an essential part of being able to get the job done - learning IS work.

The role of the employer

The traditional top down approach to management was developed during a time when the pace of change in organisations was much slower. Unfortunately, this approach is struggling to adapt to the rapidly changing environments of modern organisations. How much time is wasted in our bureaucratic traditions of job-descriptions - ultimately restricting individuals ability to engage, take initiative and contribute to the business as a whole? Delegation is simply too slow to adapt to the changing needs of an organisation. Instead we need to create an environment where employees are given the freedom to take initiative - an environment where employees can not only adapt to change, but embrace it.

Employees are active partners in, not suppliers of, the success of any business - and the relationship needs to reflect that. Employees’ contributions to the welfare of the business should never be governed by any rule set down in a different time - times change - allow people to change with it.

Learning belongs to the learner

In a recent #lrnchat, one of the questions was ‘Finish this sentence: “With my elearning, I still can’t ____.”’ One respondent said they would like to “…customize the experience down to the individual learner level every time”. While this sounds like a worth while objective, you would be fighting a loosing battle, and you are deluding yourself if you think you will be able to get anywhere near it!

Even if an L&D department had the people, money and time, it simply isn’t possible to gain and maintain sufficient insight into the individual’s evolving learning needs to add sufficient value through customization. Our money is better spent creating the environment in which the individual can build and adapt their own personal learning and working space to reflect their needs at any one time.

The Internet Time Alliance argue in their Working Smarter Field book, that “learning is too important to delegate to the training department”. I would argue that learning cannot be delegated at all, it will always belong to the learner. When we discussed learning and engagement in the post Never Blame the Lettuce, I argued that learning cannot be forced, managed or delivered - motivation and drive for learning have to come from within. And from what we have discussed today, this should apply as much to work as it does to learning.

I think many organizations realize that they are fighting a loosing battle trying to manage learning, yet few seem to understand that their efforts to do so is actively prohibiting learning. In many organizations, “getting out of the way” really could be a HUGE step in the right direction.

As work and learning merge into one, our ability to entrust responsibility to the individual, to recognize our role as enablers of learning, and to connect with the individual’s motivation for learning AND work, is paramount if we are to keep pace with progress in a modern organisation.

A bit of a skive?

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:00:00 CET

“Learning and development” has long been the only label both for my passions and profession, and even though I am still proud to call my self an L&D professional, I often question much of the accepted wisdom within this field.

When I discovered employee engagement a few years ago, I found a movement that encapsulated the values that drive my interest in, and my approach to, L&D.

I have always had a strong belief and trust in people, which has inevitably impacted what I do and how I do it. I believe this attitude to life has also had a major impact on how people relate to me, which of course just ends up reinforcing my belief in the inherent goodness of people.

Unfortunately, this means that I struggle to understand the mentality that makes an organization want to (or even think that they can) control people. Not trusting the people that you have hired seems like a supremely counter productive approach to running a company. The title of a recent BBC news article sums up this rather cynical attitude - Is working from home a skive? The automatic assumption is that if there isn’t someone breathing down your neck, then you are simply not going to put any effort into your work. The article was more balanced than the title suggests, but it’s still voicing a widely held opinion.

I think employers need to ask themselves some important questions - would you willingly work hard for someone that doesn’t trust you? Would you truly put your energy and enthusiasm into a job when your employer doesn’t acknowledge or respect you as an individual?

Simply put - if the company doesn’t care about the individual, the individual cannot be expected to care about the company. If there is an inherent distrust of employees, then any attempt at putting scheme or programme into place to encourage engagement will be like putting lipstick on a pig. Employees are likely to end up even more disillusioned and cynical than before.

A focus on the individual

In my experience people are remarkably like me.. that is to say, different from everyone else. I believe change starts with recognizing that each person is an individual. This has two major benefits.

Firstly, seeing the unique in someone enables you to see how the individual can best contribute. As well as being an infinitely better use of an individual’s talents, it forms the foundation of the development of trust between an employee and employer.

Secondly, there really isn’t anything more powerful than connecting with an individual. If you want engagement, loyalty and enthusiasm from someone, connecting with them as an individual is paramount.

But how does this work in large organisations? Surely it is impossible to connect with such a large and disparate group of people?

I believe the way forward to is to actively encourage and support people in pursuing their own interests, and finding out how they can uniquely contribute to the company. There are various practices and tools that enable this, but perhaps the most powerful and simple are those new social and collaborative technologies that allow companies to recruit their own employees in the support and development of each other.

Used correctly, these new technologies can help encourage the development of an entirely new culture within an organisation. A culture based more on trust and mutual support, rather than control and management. A culture that will result in happier employees. And as we all know, happy employees = happy customers.

The issues discussed in this post are fundamental to the success of an organisation, and yet they are hardly rocket science. If you want engaged employees, connect with your employees on an individual basis. Allow them to be themselves. It really is that simple.

Never Blame the Lettuce

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 00:00:00 CEST

I came across a quote recently that really struck a chord with me:

“The correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.” Plutarch, Greek philosopher

The purpose and value of the L&D is frequently questioned - in a recent blog post by Jane Hart entitled, “Why have a L&D department, revisited” quoted a pretty straight forward answer: “To develop the people so they can increase the competitive advantage and value of the business!”.

It is an answer that is pretty hard to argue with - yet in my mind there is something not quite right here. It is the very first four words that I struggle with. I just simply don’t believe that people can “be developed”.

It is 2010 - and I would agree with Jane that it seems “that not very much has changed except perhaps for the use of different training delivery media”.

So why haven’t things changed?

I think that our stagnation is partly due to our failure to recognise that learning cannot be forced - it is a consequence of each individual learner’s interest and motivation for learning.

It is also tempting to assume that as it is the learners responsibility to learn, our job is to simply deliver content. That way we can get back to where we feel in control - back to things we can more easily measure and manage.

I worry about the affect this approach has on our ability to facilitate learning and engagement. I believe we can take a more valuable role in increasing the competitive advantage and value of the business by ensuring employees are engaged and motivated to learn. And I believe it starts with creating the right environment.

The right environment

In order to provide an environment conducive to learning, we need to change roles from suppliers of training to enablers of learning. This is achieved by creating an environment that supports and nurtures each individual’s learning journey.

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk, summed it up perfectly:

“When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer or more water or less sun. You never blame the lettuce.”

So if our new role in Learning & Development is to produce the optimal “growing conditions” and to tend the fires of employees imagination, how can we do this?

Remove obstacles

Marcia Conner, co-author of The New Social Learning, put it rather nicely:

“Remove the obstacles in people’s paths to do what is hardwired into their DNA—to learn together to grow strong—and you’ll find it creates healthy organizations where social learning is their lifeblood.”

Many organizations choose control over trust in their relationship with employees, and have elaborate structures and procedures to enforce these decisions. Needless to say, some of these decisions are necessary, legally required even, but when you start looking you will also find that many are based on fear, mistrust, status or tradition. The problem is that wherever we restrict individuals control, responsibility and freedom, we also limit their opportunities for learning and engagement.

To take the step from suppliers of training to enablers of learning, we must dare to challenge both our own and others assumptions regarding control vs. trust. Doing so can reveal some very fundamental forces of a company’s culture. Listen carefully and observe - does the current environment encourage or inhibit learning, engagement and initiative? What obstacles can we remove? In what areas would we benefit more from increasing trust than from enforcing control?

Introduce enablers

The next step is to introduce enablers that help to create a supportive environment and increase the organization’s ability to benefit from their people’s ideas, learning and engagement.

Encourage new connections to form - provide meeting places, communication channels, places for collaboration, participation and interaction. Allow different combinations of ideas, knowledge, people and resources to come together in new ways. If you encourage play, engagement and learning will follow.

I have seen an excellent example of an enabling scheme in a Scottish company I visited earlier this year. They had implemented a “license to innovate” - recognition and encouragement straight from the top handed out to people that had ideas they wanted to work on. The license provided the employee with time away from their job and access to experts to help build on the idea, as well as training and support in writing up a business case. The scheme enabled employees to take initiative, and connect their enthusiasm for work with the development opportunities of the organization.

Fitting in to our new role

I think that the main issue we face in L&D is underestimating the role that learners play in their own learning - that we, nearly two millennia later, still see the mind as a vessel that needs filling, rather than fuel that needs igniting.

We have got stuck on delivering - forever improving the quality of our content and the efficiencies of our delivery methods, while ignoring the true needs of the learners themselves.

Where there are people, there are ideas and knowledge and creativity.

Once we understand and acknowledge our responsibility in creating an enabling environment, then the opportunities for increased employee engagement, learning and development are practically limitless.

My Quest for Social Learning

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 00:00:00 CEST

Bilbo’s advice to Frodo rings so true: “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

It is nearly 18 months since this journey begun, starting (as many do) with an idea born out of frustration. I am an entrepreneur and a business owner of small start-up company, about to release our debut product - NoddlePod, a social networking application for learners.

I am well beyond “the step that takes me the farthest away from home I’ve ever been”, so it is time I started a diary of my journey!

Previously I was working with large in-house L&D programmes, talent management and other training initiatives. I absolutely LOVED my job, but I was also hugely frustrated with what I saw as a lost opportunity for engagement and learning that was resulting from traditional, top-down, tutor-centric, LMS run training initiatives.

I have met many people that share my frustrations. To be truly learner centric - supporting each learners individual development path - is a common desire for many people working within L&D. Yet there was just one coordinator, a whole lot of learners and only so many hours in a day.

I believe that large scale, learner centric L&D initiatives are only ‘unrealistic’ if you plan to implement them with the traditional, top-down approach. The world has moved on, and this approach is holding us back to the extent where we cannot see the potential of emerging technologies that might enable exactly what we are striving for.

I had started my journey! I wanted to explore the potential of emerging technologies to enable learner centric initiatives and to act as catalysts for social learning. The goal was to provide a different approach for people that are in the same situation I was in 18 months ago.

NoddlePod (the growing and evolving result) is designed to help individuals plan and reflect on their learning as well as organise their learning notes, resources and evidence. NoddlePod allows participants to follow each other’s progress throughout an L&D programme, suggests resources and activities relevant to the participant’s plan and encourages discussions, sharing of resources and collaboration in the spirit of mutual progress.

I am blogging to track where this journey is taking me, and to reflect on what I learn along the way.

Over the coming months, I will share my take on the happenings in the fields of social learning technologies, employee engagement and organizational development.

This is a journey I would like to share with others who are just as passionate about these things as I am, a journey from which I hope we can all learn and benefit from.