Blogs
& Articles
Gain fresh insights on learning and related topics from Sonata’s team.
Sonata Notes: 5 Ways to Help Remote Staff and In-Office Staff Work Better Together
In theory, remote work lets organizations expand their recruiting pool, reduce operating costs, and increase worker happiness. However, in practice, integrating remote workers and in-office staff can be challenging.
Sonata Notes: 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Training Clients
Our company has helped many expert consulting firms, in fields ranging from sales to finance to cybersecurity, create more effective training programs for their clientele.
Sonata Notes: 5 Things Marketers Know that the Training Industry Forgets
Both the marketing and training industries involve connecting with audiences, communicating key messages, driving behavior change, and motivating people to action.
Sonata Notes: Who’s Afraid of (Learning From) Failure?
Different people react to failure in different ways, most of them unhelpful. It’s rare for anyone to honestly and rationally reflect on their own mistakes - which is a shame, as analyzing past failures can help us succeed in the future.
Sonata Notes: Want Compliance Training That Works? Let Your Workers Design It.
Compliance training is necessary to shield organizations from liability and regulatory fines. But is there a better way to deliver compliance training than having workers click through slide after slide of legal disclaimers then answer insultingly basic true/false questions?
Sonata Notes: Is Training Ever “One and Done”? Affordable Ways to Extended Learning
Training usually works best when delivered in small increments over a longer period of time, yet the logistics of in-person training tend to bias organizations towards one-time marathon workshops. How can we affordably extend the learning experience beyond a one-time event?
Sonata Notes: Cancel That Flight: How NGOs Can Stop “Training Tourism”
For many NGOs, the standard training model is to fly people across continents and oceans to attend in-person workshops, but is this approach sustainable? And what are the alternatives?
Sonata Notes: How to Encourage More Learning with Less “Training”
By taking a systematic approach to "informal" learning, you can meet the majority of your organization’s learning needs without a massive capital investment in training.
Sonata Notes: Three “Uncoachable” Skills and How You Can (Sort Of) Coach Them
Sports coaches often describe some qualities - like height, lung capacity and passion - as "uncoachable". Does the same hold true for essential workplace skills like intuition, creativity and systems thinking?
Sonata Notes: Why “Big Data” Requires Small Stories
From predicting the weather to anticipating disease outbreaks, computers enable us to gain useful insights from massive data sets. However, while a skilled analyst can scan a sheet of numbers and spot the important trends, most people do better when data is presented within a simple, logical, compelling narrative.
Sonata Notes: You Can’t Cure Jerks, but You *Can* Stop Workplace Harassment
At this point, there's no denying that workplace sexual harassment and discrimination are serious, pervasive issues. While it’s true that many problems result from the misconduct of a few bad actors, the effect of even a single bully or harasser on your team should not be underestimated.
Sonata Notes: The Secret World of “Shadow IT”
From Google Docs to Slack, cloud-based productivity apps are allowing employees to work from anywhere, get more done and collaborate more effectively in real time. While the convenience of these tools is a welcome improvement over old desktop software, individuals might start using cloud apps without the knowledge or approval of their IT department.
The Rough Guide to Global Capacity Building: Quick Tips to Improve NGO Training
As a learning and knowledge management consultant, I particularly [...]
Sonata Notes: Are Potential Woman Leaders Discouraged By Your Leadership Training?
The way leadership training is typically designed and delivered in most organizations does not favor women’s success. Fortunately, there are steps organizations can take to make leadership training more gender-inclusive:
Sonata Notes: What Can NGOs Do to Help Refugees Acquire Critical Job Skills?
Despite the hysterics of far-right nationalists, influxes of refugees have the potential to positively impact economies all over the world. Yet many refugees find themselves at a disadvantage when compared to native workers, because they did not have the opportunity to develop crucial job skills in their birth countries.
Sonata Notes: Should We Stop Using Facebook for Learning?
Since 2004, Facebook has grown from a networking site for Harvard students to a multibillion-dollar empire encompassing both its flagship platform and newer acquisitions like Instagram and WhatsApp, with billions of users of all ages in every part of the world. But, with the revelation that the personal data of at least 50 million users was secretly harvested by a consulting firm working for the Trump campaign, users are having major doubts about whether Facebook can protect their privacy – or if they’re even trying.
Sonata Notes: How Better Anti-Harassment Training Helps NGOs Avoid Scandal and Promote Gender Equality
The NGOs sector has been embarrassed by multiple news stories regarding sexual misconduct and harassment. What can NGOs do to foster a culture where these things are less likely to happen?
Sonata Notes: Who Needs Formal Training When Google has All the Answers?
The Internet can get anyone up to speed on most any subject instantly. Does that mean we can cancel all our training programs?
Sonata Notes: Trouble Training Millennials? Wait Until You Meet “Gen Z”
“Gen Z” - those born after 1998 - will soon surpass Millennials as the largest segment of the world population. How can we prepare our learning programs for their arrival?
Sonata Notes: As NGOs Promote Life-Improving Technologies, Better Training and Support can Help them Spread Faster
From HIV self-testing to solar electrification and water filtration, NGOs are driving the introduction of life-saving technologies. However, many of these technologies are only useful in the hands of an adequately trained individual. How can NGOs ensure an adequate degree of readily accessible training and user support?
Sonata Notes: Transferring Knowledge – and Power – to the Global South
How learning can address power imbalances between headquarters and the "global south".
5 Tips To Create eLearning Accessible To Learners With Limited Connectivity
Delivering digital learning content to audiences with limited internet bandwidth can be challenging. Here are some simple ways to make your eLearning accessible to learners with limited internet access.
Creating Learner-Centered Training Evaluation Surveys
Why you are probably asking learners the wrong questions... People in the learning industry love training evaluation surveys. Just as you can’t have a birthday party without cake, it seems you can’t end a training session or e-learning module without a lengthy training evaluation form...
Subject Matter Experts vs. Learning Experts
When organizations post RFPs for instructional design or e-learning consultants, they will often list "PhD or Master's Degree" among the requirements. The reasoning behind such requirements seems common sense, however it misses some basic points about the relationship between subject matter experts, instructional designers and learners...
