In any large institution or organization, programmatic change is often met with resistance. And this is especially true in the tradition-oriented higher education world—and especially when the proposed change is adoption of a new technology platform. This may come from fear of how new systems will impact everything from day-to-day work to policies and procedures…
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We talk a lot about building trust here at Quantified. As communicators, we’re most successful if we can convince our audiences to trust us. They’re more likely to focus on what we’re saying (rather than sifting through our content in search of ulterior motives), more likely to internalize our key points, and more likely to…
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It seems learning and development executives are in a constant struggle to identify and implement programs that are cost-effective, provide measurable ROI, and move the needle in retaining and developing top talent. For example, a 2017 report from LinkedIn found that, while 90 percent of business leaders believe L&D programs are key to closing skills gaps,…
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Whether they’re developing a standalone online course or a digital supplement to a traditional, 300-person seminar, creators of online courses face one critical challenge: how to motivate students to participate fully, internalizing the information and honing the skills these lessons intend to convey.
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One of the privileges of leadership is that, with an executive title comes an executive platform—a reason and a place to establish yourself as a thought leader in your field. Whether you’re writing a corporate blog post or an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, you’re suddenly expected to share your perspective and insights. Why?…
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While geography once defined a business’s boundaries—who it could hire, who it could serve, and who could invest—today it’s almost more common for customers, investors, and often even employees to be scattered across the globe than to be locally situated. Phone and email initially empowered the dissolution of those geographical boundaries, allowing us to communicate quickly,…
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In November, Patagonia announced it was going to donate the entirety of the $10 million it had received in GOP tax cuts to fight global warming. A couple months before that, Nike released an ad featuring Colin Kaepernick (a precursor to its February “Dream Crazier” ad calling out gender-based double standards). And In January, Gilette called out toxic…
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Last year, we predicted that 2018 would be the year of the voice, and in many respects, we were right. Voice-activated virtual assistant usage grew, voice and video continued to explode in social media, and we continued to see evidence that talking may be on its way to winning ground back from typing. But one…
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Here at Quantified, we spend a lot of talking and writing about how to deliver less-than-stellar news. How do you frame it when you have to disappoint investors? How do you keep your message optimistic and future-forward while still being clear and candid about what went wrong? How do you ensure your voice and body…
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Here at Quantified, we take every opportunity we can to remind leaders that what they consider “soft” skills—teamwork, critical thinking, persuasive writing, and (most importantly) communication—aren’t that soft after all. Skills like these may seem, at first, like “nice to haves.” They’re a little wishy washy and hard to measure, but if an employee with…
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