At Velsoft, Intrapreneurship Works!
Earlier this year I posted a blog about Velsoft’s MicroLearning HipChat Experiment. The experiment was to introduce some concepts of leadership and to hopefully lead into a conversation about intrapreneurship to empower everyone in the company to come…
Becoming a Progressive Employer Quick Reference Guide
Many people like to think of themselves as progressive in some fashion, but is this usually the case? Employers can be considered progressive for numerous reasons, from the way they treat their staff to their approach to technology.…
What are Velsoftians Reading Right Now?
At a tech company like Velsoft you would imagine everyone would be reading CHIP, Computer Power User, WIRED or other top technology magazines. It turns out that this is not the case at Velsoft. The staff here seems…
Measuring Training Results Quick Reference Guide
There are lots of good reasons to offer training, and even more reasons to participate and take training. But there is also an accountability element requiring measuring training results. We need to ask ask ourselves: What was the…
Michael Welton: Dialogue and Adult Education
Education professor Michael Welton, true to his Habermasian roots, sees society through a ‘learning lens’ and puts dialogue at the centre of his critical perspectives of adult education. Unlike the traditionalists who emphasized specific content knowledge learned in institutional…
A workplace challenge for the International Day of Happiness
Are you happy when you’re at work? Because today is the International Day of Happiness, I’m writing about how to increase contentment in your job. If you haven’t heard of the Day of Happiness before (I hadn’t until…
Favorite Green Things at Velsoft
Planning to wear green to celebrate St. Patrick's Day? While that's what most people do (legend has it that wearing green makes a person invisible to leprechauns that will pinch someone if they see them), the patron saint of…
A little girl’s determination, other inspiring athletes
When Ava Foote lost part of her right hand in a household accident last June, it looked like her hockey playing days were in jeopardy. But fast forward nine months, and the now eight-year-old is back on the…
Velsoft eCourse Design and Development Process
Managing Customers' eCourse Expectations The Velsoft eCourse Design and Development Process ensures the sales, production and project management departments work together to manage internal and external expectations. Establishing a collaborative relationship from the beginning ensures we build a…
Body language, Outlander and delivering your message
In the Outlander book series, written by Diana Gabaldon, Jamie Fraser has the ability to hide his feelings behind an impassive face. However, the heroine of the story — Claire — doesn’t share that particular skill. “He gave…
Taking a trip with Sway
I’m planning a trip to England for later in the spring, and as I was researching Microsoft’s Sway application, I decided I have to use it during my vacation. I’m an avid photographer and scrapbooker, documenting special occasions…
When the Cat’s Away the Mice Will Play
Jim is heading out for a much-needed weeklong vacation in a climate much better than ours. The usual thought is that when the cat's away, the mice will play. Obviously, whoever coined this phrase did not know Velsoft!…
Empowering women leaders
Young women are raised to think they don't have the natural skills to succeed in a “man’s world,” writes Reshma Saujani. But the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code says she’s hopeful that this will change, and…
The Benefits of In-House Training
When we stop learning, we start to stand still. It’s true in both our personal lives and careers. But we can avoid inactivity and keep our momentum with training. What better place to experience training than in your…
Creating Cards in a Microsoft Sway Project
This is an excerpt from Velsoft's March computer course release: Sway. Create Cards In the last section, we learned that a Microsoft Sway project is made up of cards. These cards provide an easy way to create, organize,…
Nonverbal Communication: Eight tips to rock a business presentation
You are confident. You have rehearsed. You have a powerful, logical argument. You are ready to take on the task of presenting your points in a way that does not distract from your argument. In business presentations, the…
Celebrate Your Name! What’s in a Velsoftian Name?
What's in a name? March 4-10 is International Celebrate Your Name Week, established by American onomatology hobbyist Jerry Hill in 1997. He suggested reserving the first week of March for people worldwide to celebrate their names. Each day…
Stephen Brookfield – Critical Analysis
In Engaging Practitioners in Critical Analysis of Adult Education Literature, Stephen Brookfield is trying to “...encourage students to acquire the habit of asking certain critical questions each time they are confronted with a piece of published academic writing.”…
Olympic Team 2024 Paris!
Two weeks ago, I outlined the Olympic sports that the various Velsoft Head Office personnel could compete in at the Winter Games, which will wrap up for 2018 in PyeongChang on Sunday. Well, I received a great deal…
What’s new in web writing
Confession: This is my first attempt at writing a blog. While conducting research on how to accomplish this, I read blogs from numerous websites. Many of the pieces were interesting and entertaining reads, but a few I didn’t…
9 Secrets to Creating Open Communication in the Workplace
In any organization, open communication is the most important single factor for success. This is also essential in creating a positive work environment. Open communication begins by letting everyone in the company know how the company is doing,…
How to Spot a Good Training Program
The gold painted letters on the frosted-glass door read, “A. Trainer, Private Eye,” and told her she was in the right place. She knocked. “It’s open,” a whiskey-soaked voice called. She entered and stared at the lanky figure…
Olympic inspiration
What great moments do you remember from past Winter Olympic Games? Several specific instances stick in my mind, and like me, they’re Canadian as well: Brad Gushue talking to his mother (who wasn’t able to attend the Olympics…
Diversity Quick Reference Guide
More than ever, a workplace is a diverse collection of individuals proud of who they are: their gender, their sexual orientation, their religion, their ethnic background, and all the other components that make an individual unique. One of…
Racism From the Eyes of a Child
Dr. Mathew Knowles hopes his new book begins conversations about racism. “It takes you through some interesting dialogue and that’s what I want, I want folks to really dialogue about this.” Released on Feb. 12, Knowles wrote Racism…
Velsoft at the Winter Olympics
The 2018 Winter Olympics start in South Korea today, and this got me thinking about what it takes to be an elite athlete. These individuals have to be resilient, selfless and patriotic, along with possessing a sense of…
Four essential steps to supporting diversity in your workplace
Diversity is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as the condition of having or being composed of differing elements: variety; especially: the inclusion of different types of people (such as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization. But…
Training Trends for 2018
Because of my work in online education, my students asked me about my thoughts regarding training trends and continuous learning for this year. This is what I shared with them: People prefer training in small pieces they can…
Help end workplace sexual harassment
Oprah Winfrey summed it up succinctly in her Golden Globe Awards speech as she accepted the Cecil B. de Mille Award for Lifetime Achievement at this year’s gala. “Their time is up.” The global media leader, philanthropist, producer…
Groundhog Day at Velsoft Head Office
Surprisingly, Groundhog Day has been around since 1887! It started from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow and sees its shadow that it will go back in its burrow and we will…