My Top 10 Tools For Learning

I am a fan of Jane Hart and her annual survey for the Top 100 learning tools got me thinking about our L>C2. In this world of rapid change and increasing complexity the winners will be those how can keep their rate of learning greater than the rate of change and greater than the competition. This is true for organizations as well as individuals.

A few weeks ago I was asked to talk about maximizing the career trajectories of emerging leaders and young professionals at the AICPA EDGE Conference in New Orleans (see AICPA recap Big Ideas from the Big Easy). In that presentation I stressed the need for every professional to manage the brand called you and work ot align that brand to your organization's brand.

In order to manage Brand You in today's rapidly changing world you need five things:

  1. Context (outside and inside, external and internal)
  2. Connections - Your network is your value!
  3. Communication and the ability to make your thinking visible
  4. Collaboration - the # 1 skill in demand. Period.
  5. Computers and the ability to leverage technology

In addition you need to think about what Tom Peters calls, Radical Personal Development or RPD.

That is where Jane's list and thinking comes into play.

Jane defines a learning tool as, "any software or online tool or service that you use either for your own personal or professional learning, for teaching or training, or for creating e-learning."

My preso from the AICPA EDGE Conference:

[slideshare id="37759158"] the BOUNCE - Maximizing Your Career Trajectory - AICPA EDGE Conference from Tom Hood

In order to keep Brand You on top, you need to create your own personal learning network and begin your RPD to keep your L>C.

That was my message to the room full of millenials and Gen Xers at the AICPA EDGE Conference.

So here are my Top 10 Learning Tools:

  1. Twitter
  2. Linked-In - Pulse and Influencers
  3. Blogs
  4. Slideshare
  5. Evernote (for archival and organizing)
  6. Tweetdeck & Hootsuite to "manage" twitter
  7. Zite (scanning)
  8. Flipboard (scanning)
  9. Kindle (reading and notes)
  10. Youtube

and I would add other social and collaboration tools like dropbox, google hangouts, google drive, google docs,and powerpoint/keynote if I could go to fifteen tools :)

See Jane's 2013 List of the Top 100 Tools for Learning on slideshare.

To quote Tom Peters from his first tweet of 2014, "#RPD Radical Persoanl Development. Starte Date: TODAY. Tomorrow. TOO LATE. Do Something Now!"

Here is to keeping your L>C2!

One way to start your RPD is to subsribe to BLI's Leadership Express (50+ hours for $17/month).

Post your comments in your top 10 learning tools below.

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Tom Hood