Practical Guidance for Embracing Our Not-So-New Normal

April 13, 2020 | Activate Learning | 3 min read

As a strategic marketer, my job is to understand what's most important to our customers and to deliver against this. One of the most valuable tools at my disposal is our intelligent learning experience platform, Percipio, where my team and I can review usage data and analyze top search terms to understand what is top-of-mind for our learners. Typically, we observe topics like Python, Azure, Agile, and AWS bubble to the top. But as might be expected in today’s environment, things are changing quickly.

From our most recent search data (beginning March 1st), we’re finding that people are looking for very different types of training—related, mostly, to business continuity and addressing our remote workforce. In fact, we have found that business continuity and remote work have surged into the top-10 during the month of March.

We're all in the same boat.

Here at Skillsoft, we’ve asked almost our entire workforce to pick up and move away from their physical office locations. So, we recognize the extraordinary change management and leadership agility required to do this. I listened to a Gartner panel discussion a couple of days ago that underscored this very point. In a survey they conducted, respondents indicated that they were unprepared for a large part of the organization to move to a remote location. Team members either lacked the equipment or digital tools to enable and foster a remote work environment or, frankly, they preferred not to work at home.

Many of us find ourselves in that same situation. To help people navigate these new waters, here at Skillsoft, we’ve put together a Business Continuity Learning Center, housing a collection of courses, videos and books that cover a range of topics from "Leading Remotely" to "Managing Stress Triggers" and from "Designing for Resilience" to "Leading through COVID-19." We’ve included exclusive content from MIT Sloan Management Review, with whom we’ve joined forces to deliver leadership development programs designed to deliver a competitive edge in our fast-moving digital world.

But we also recognize that short, iconographic job aids in a highly visual format can sometimes be more powerful in the flow of life. It’s why we’ve just added these two pieces to our library: The Working from Home Handbook and The Remote Manager’s Handbook, both of which offer practical guidance for embracing our new normal.

In each helpful volume, we've provided expert tips and practical tools to help remote workers and leaders alike. Scannable sections include "Dressing Your Desk for Success," "The Long-Distance Relationship: Communication is Key," "Keeping the Social in Social Distancing," "Process and Performance" and more. We've included an overview of the various digital tools available to remote team members and leaders. And, in case readers want to dive deeper into a particular subject, there are links to informative articles and videos throughout each handbook.

Our hope is that the two new handbooks—and all the various content in the Business Continuity Learning Center—will be valuable to our customers, our employees, and the business community as we all find ways to continue working and growing in the weeks to come.

Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek is the Chief Marketing Officer at Skillsoft.

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