#learning & development

[earlystepsbilingual]

Emotional intelligence is foundational in a child’s early years, influencing their ability to form relationships, manage feelings, and navigate the world. One way to encourage this growth is through programs emphasizing diverse learning, such as those offering bilingual education in Virginia. Exposing children to different languages and cultural perspectives, these programs help build empathy and adaptability, essential components of emotional intelligence.

[eidesignlearning]

Driving FMCG Growth with Innovative L&D Strategies

AI-driven innovative L&D strategies in the FMCG industry are improving employee satisfaction, by nearly 20%, and helping organizations address challenges such as high attrition, skill gaps, and low employee engagement that the industry faces.

Rethinking L&D to Meet FMCG’s Evolving Workforce Needs

Being fiercely competitive, the Fast Moving Consumer Goods, FMCG industry, is constantly evolving. Technology, especially Generative AI, has caused industry disruption, and will likely automate or augment nearly 60% of all activities. This break-neck digitization of the FMCG industry, changing consumer behavior, and the rise of hybrid work models, have necessitated rethinking L&D to efficiently upskill employees, foster agility, attract talent, address global market challenges, and stay competitive.

Here are strategies to develop a flexible, tech-driven, and continuous L&D approach that equips FMCG employees to thrive in future challenges:

Adapting to Rapid Technological Change – In an increasingly tech-driven environment where FMCG companies are adopting AI and automation at scale and employees require specific digital skills, traditional training methods can’t keep pace. A more tech-focused, on-demand and continuous training on new digital tools, automation, and AI integration can help employees stay relevant and drive innovation in their roles.

Responding to Market Volatility and Consumer Expectations – With greater market volatility and ever-evolving consumer expectations, employees require real-time learning and adaptive problem-solving skills. L&D must, therefore, focus on flexible and responsive L&D programs on consumer trends, data analysis, and agile methodologies, enabling employees to anticipate and respond to evolving customer demands while staying competitive in a dynamic environment.

Breaking Down Organizational Silos – In the FMCG industry, lack of cross-functional communication across departments can hinder collaboration. L&D can reduce cross-departmental barriers through especially curated training programs that foster teamwork, problem-solving, and understanding the different areas of the business for greater cohesion and improved business strategies.

Addressing Talent and Productivity Gaps – As the needs of the FMCG industry evolve and cost pressures escalate, L&D can bridge the skill gaps with targeted and tailored training in digital competencies, leadership, and operational efficiency to improve organizational agility and stay competitive.

Upskilling a Multigenerational Workforce – With personalized and flexible learning approaches, L&D can address diverse learning preferences and technological familiarity of a multigenerational workforce, ensuring greater adaptability and collaboration across age groups.

Reimagining Training in FMCG Industry Through Innovative Learning Strategies

Transforming training in the FMCG sector with innovative learning strategies is essential for developing a skilled workforce ready for digital transformation and automation. This approach boosts competitiveness and supports generational learning, ultimately enhancing talent retention in a dynamic landscape.

Some learning strategies that can be useful for the FMCG industry include:

Transforming Product Training: Use immersive simulations and interactive eLearning, such as in TalentLMS, to allow employees to engage with new products in a realistic, hands-on environment, solve problems, and apply the learnings immediately in practical settings.

Revolutionizing Merchandising Training: Incorporate VR environments, such as virtual store simulations, in combination with AI-driven analytics and mobile learning platforms, where employees can practice merchandising strategies in dynamic, real-world scenarios to improve their ability to respond to consumer behaviors and adapt quickly to changing retail environments. Example VioletLMS.

Modernizing Sales Training: On-the-go access to eLearning on mobile devices can enable sales teams to practice customer interactions through industry-specific interactive simulations, update their skills for diverse situations, and apply the learnings immediately in real-time, improving the overall sales effectiveness. Platforms to check out include Skill to Will.

Innovating Compliance Training: The FMCG industry must adhere to regulations such as those by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in the USA, Packaging and Labeling Regulations in the European Union (EU), and so forth. Platforms such as ComplianceWave, Kallidus, and SafetySkills use gamified learning, scenario-based learning, role plays, and microlearning to help learners stay informed and compliant with the existing and evolving regulatory standards in day-to-day operations.

Scaling L&D: FMCG organizations operating across geographical locations can ensure workforce readiness for new product launches, technologies, or regulatory changes by leveraging digital learning platforms such as Moodle and Docebo to scale up L&D and reach a large, geographically dispersed workforce. Scalable eLearning platforms with analytics allow FMCG companies to deliver consistent, high-quality training, support continuous learning and enable rapid upskilling or reskilling to efficiently meet evolving market needs.

Enhancing Leadership Development: Strategic thinking and decision making in the FMCG industry, require specific skills such as emotional intelligence, change management, and leading cross-functional teams, among others. With personalized learning pathways, virtual workshops, and experiential learning, L&D can equip future leaders, in real-time, with the agility and resilience needed to navigate the fast-paced, dynamic nature of the FMCG sector. Some platforms include Degreed, Korn Ferry, and MindGym.

Streamlining Onboarding Training: Interactive onboarding programs such as Workday, Sapling, and Talmundo, can be used to accelerate new hires’ integration into company culture and roles. In the fast-paced environment of the FMCG industry, new hires must quickly integrate with the company culture and familiarize themselves with the product knowledge and operational processes. Interactive tools, such as virtual tours and simulations, can accelerate the learning curve, enabling new hires to swiftly integrate into their roles and become productive faster.

Unlocking Business Value in FMCG Industry Through L&D

Through continuous upskilling and reskilling of employees, L&D plays a crucial role in augmenting employee productivity, improving adaptability to market changes, enhancing operational efficiency, boosting sales performance, and gaining a competitive edge.

Some ways L&D helps unlock business value in the FMCG industry include:

Increased Flexibility: Through personalized, on-demand learning, allow employees in the fast-paced FMCG industry to quickly adapt to new technologies, remain agile, and respond effectively to changes in consumer trends and market conditions.

Higher Engagement and Retention: Using interactive, training methods such as gamification and mobile learning to provide employees with meaningful development opportunities, personalized career growth paths, and upskilling programs that help improve employee engagement and retention in an industry otherwise known for high turnover rates.

Cost-Effective Scalability: Rapid training of large numbers of employees simultaneously, deployed across geographical locations, such as to ensure consistent in-store customer interactions. Use of digital training solutions such as eLearning platforms and virtual classrooms for efficient, consistent, and simultaneous upskilling, but without the need for costly in-person sessions, travel, or logistical expenses.

Real-Time Skill Development: On-demand training resources, mobile learning options, virtual environments, and role-specific simulations with instant feedback can facilitate employee upskilling and reskilling to address immediate business challenges, such as new product launches or market changes, while also enabling employees to apply skills immediately and refine their performance in real-time.

Data-Driven Insights: As with any other industry, L&D in the FMCG industry can harness data-driven insights to analyze employee performance, identify skill gaps, optimize L&D strategies, and curate future training initiatives that are aligned with overall business goals.

Faster Onboarding and Integration: Remote, role-specific, and interactive onboarding programs to streamline the onboarding process, enhance confidence and engagement, facilitate quick grasp of essential company/product/operational knowledge, thereby accelerating their integration and reducing the time-to-competence right from the outset.

Case Study – Leadership Training for Enhanced EHS Strategy Implementation

Objective: For one the largest global FMCG companies, the goal of designing a leadership program is to train organizational leaders on the Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) strategy. The goal is to get EHS into the organization’s activities for an environmentally friendly, healthy, and safe business. At the same time, it should align with current legislation and benefit the employees.

Solution: For the leaders to fill existing gaps in their knowledge about EHS, we created targeted online modules on the EHS vision, its main risks, and behaviors that the leaders should adopt. Interactive elements and engaging content were used in each course to build an engaging learning experience.

Key Features:

Self-Paced Learning: The program was designed to fit leaders’ schedules.

Curated Content: Topics such as EHS hazards, compliance, and safety promotion practices that reflect the current industry standards.

Interactive Elements: Engaging scenarios and knowledge checks reinforce learning and application of concepts.

Leadership Insights: Videos and quotes from senior leadership demonstrate commitment and promote a culture of safety.

Implementation: The training program was developed and launched through the company’s Learning Management System (LMS) following a successful pilot test. Communication strategies included step-by-step instructions and reminders, ensuring that leaders focus on completing the training and the application of EHS principles on their respective teams.

Impact: More than 1,900 leaders have completed the EHS Leadership Program, which received an excellent average rating of 4.75 out of 5. After the training, leaders showed marked improvement in the comprehension of EHS obligations, which also included improved skills in risk management and compliance with set regulations.

[muffinlance]

Consider: Post-canon Zuko wakes up in the body of his childhood self, the morning of That War Meeting. Would he still speak against the plans, knowing his fate? What do you think he would do differently the second time around?

"Turned away at the doors, Zuzu?"

"Shut up, Azula," her brother sulked. But sulked weirdly, after staring at her too long and too wide-eyed, not like she'd surprised him but--

But like he hadn't expected her to be there. At all.

He turned away. ...He turned back. "Hey, Lala? Do you think you could help me practice that one set?"

He didn't meet her eyes.

She narrowed hers. "Which set?"

"The one I'm bad at."

She scoffed. Pushed away from the wall she'd been leaning against. "That's all of them, Dum-Dum."

He didn't shout or stomp or yell about the nickname. His lips twitched.

"It's okay," he said. "If you're afraid you won't be a better teacher that my instructor..."

It was the most obvious manipulation ever.

Perhaps if he proved an adequate firebending student, she'd work on his courtly survival skills next. Honestly, it was good that not even Uncle Gets-Cousins-Killed had been fool enough to take Zuko into that war meeting. She could only imagine how terribly that could have gone.

"Keep up," she said, and turned her steps towards the training grounds.

He did. There, and during the katas she ran him through.

Azula kept her eyes narrowed.

"Hey," he asked, "do you know how to bend lightning yet?"

As if he could have missed it, if she'd been able to get more than sparks. "I will soon," she said.

"You will," he agreed, and flowed through his next set. The one she'd only just mastered.

Father didn't notice how weird Zuzu was being. Uncle never noticed anything. Zuko ate dinner and asked a servant for seconds and didn't stutter or flinch or lose his appetite when father asked, coolly, what he'd done with his day. Azula's shoulders tensed, because one mention of how she'd squandered her own training time teaching him--

"Azula hogged the training grounds. For hours," Zuzu scowled, exactly like a petulant thirteen year old.

Exactly like he hadn't been acting all day.

By the time Father was looking her way, Azula had her usual smirk in place. "I'm sure there would be room for both of us," she said, "you're not afraid of a little friendly fire, are you, brother?"

Zuko sulked. And ate his seconds, like he was enjoying each bite. There was something in his eyes, like a joke no one else was getting.

---

Father died that night. A heart attack. There were the faintest of burns to either side of the treacherous organ; the royal physician hypothesized that he'd grabbed at his chest, fingers burning hot in his final moments; so hot they'd only exacerbated the problem.

The royal physician would never have been brought any victims of lighting strikes. Those that occurred in the capital did not generally require a doctor in the aftermath.

Zuzu ate a hearty breakfast.

He didn't order seconds. Azula gave him points, at least, for not being tacky.

---

The sages named Iroh as regent.

They named Zuko as Fire Lord.

"No," the tiny Fire Lord in his perfectly miniaturized Fire Lord robes said, sitting at the head of his war council. "We're not doing that. And I'll be reviewing all recent battle plans, as well. What's this I hear about a division of new recruits being deployed to the front?"

He did not mention how he'd heard of the 41st Division. No one asked.

"Prince Iroh, surely--" one of the generals tried to appeal.

The young Fire Lord's regent was looking as startled as the rest of them, for a moment. Then he sipped his tea, and smiled.

"Your Fire Lord is correct, of course. A change in our leadership--a change the other nations may mistakenly view as weakness--will necessitate a change in our strategy."

"Now," said their lord, "what, exactly, is our overall objective in this war?"

War, the new Fire Lord decreed, was not an end unto itself.

---

The new Fire Lord continued to have time, to pretend to be trained by her. Azula watched him. Adjusted her footwork. Did not tolerate, and was not offered, any commentary on who was teaching who.

"What did you do with my brother?" she asked, as they flowed from one set to the next. As her hands, poised to throw fire, just so happened to be pointed his way.

He missed a step. It didn't look like an act.

"I'm, uh. Right here?"

She didn't bother to dignify that.

He didn't bother to look worried about her hands, one movement off from a true attack.

He looked around, then grabbed her sleeve, and tugged her further from any walls that may hide ears. The royal family's private training grounds were wonderfully large, and wonderfully open.

"It's me," he said. "It's still me. Just. More of me? Longer of me?"

She narrowed her eyes. A familiar expression, by this point. "Explain."

"...I found the Avatar," he said. "And this is definitely his fault, but--but I guess it started at a war meeting, when I was thirteen."

Azula listened. It was a very Dum-Dum story.

[jclementi]

True leadership starts with the realization that “I can only change me.” #coachjoe #curiousleader

👉🏼📌 This profound insight redirects our energy from trying to alter others to transforming ourselves. 🧐📚 By committing to personal growth and self-improvement, we set a powerful example, inspiring those around us to follow suit. 💯💪🏼 Embrace the change within, and watch as it sparks transformation in your world.

[canterbury-bell]

Should we maybe resolve that first?

[demigods-posts]

percy doing better than annabeth in college is one my favorite developments in the rrverse. if we reflect on percy and annabeth's academic upbringing. annabeth living at camp allowed her to receive accommodations for her adhd and dyslexia and surround herself with like-minded campers who had the same limitations. whereas percy was ridiculed, belittled, and routinely humiliated because of his adhd and dyslexia. even more so, percy's friends and family leave him out of the loop on so many important issue (no chb orientation film, no information about the great prophecy) which perpetuates his subpar confidence and self-esteem in his skills as a student and a demigod. but going to college at NRU changes his mindset because he receives the accommodations he should have gotten years ago and fucking thrives to the point of getting higher grades than annabeth — a person he deems way smarter and more prepared than him in every way. the most important thing percy is learning now is that a supportive environment makes all the difference, and he is more capable than he initially thought.

[tibli]

i have been trying to figure out why the whole 'fae god' and katniss everdeen things with kendrick lamar on here were bothering me, and i think i finally put it into words.

most posts like that are probably coming from well-meaning white people (i am also partially a White People, to be clear), who otherwise dont really listen to rap. they cannot find a way to 'relate' to this black man who sings largely about issues that affect the black community– and rather than try and meet him where he is, they have to fit him into these little tumblr cultural boxes before he can be 'palatable' to them.

they have to shave off the rougher/more abrasive aspects of his work and activism because it makes them uncomfortable, that way they can pigeonhole him into something that allows them to enjoy his work without the critical analysis that MUST come with it

he is not your fae god, he is not a YA protagonist, he is not a little gremlin or a cinnamon roll or a blorbo. He is a human being with opinions and beliefs that deeply permeate his work, and to ignore that truth is to ignore the entire point. PLEASE try to engage with artists' work outside of the lens of tumblr fandom, and i mean that as nicely as possible. you are doing YOURSELF a disservice

[chloesimaginationthings]

Vanny has a FNAF game question for Michael..

[hollisartsblog]

Bill did nothing wrong, he just wanted a human puppet! But I don't think Stanford was aware of that...

[deenereliteeducationalservice]

It’s no secret that most children do not find enjoyment when doing homework. Homework is a staple in every learning system, especially in elementary education.

[whump-in-the-closet]

characters who’s identity revolves around their purpose, defined by something or someone else. By the prophecies, by their service; the lapdog, the weapon, the chosen one. And then there’s a moment of softness, a complete breach and utterly human— they cradle their head in their hands, they bend to pick up a cat and hold it tight, they slump against someone’s shoulder, completely trusting for the first time

thank you that’s it. exits stage and screams.

[tommygotwrittenoff]

i literally do not care about big emergencies on abc's 911. i want to see my characters talk to each other and have stories that are parallels to small, everyday (everyday for first responders) emergencies

[cosmic--dandelion]

Stolas makes it absolutely, crystal clear that he is going to give Blitzø the Asmodean crystal, no strings attatched, and step out of his life forever if that's what Blitzø truly wants.

No matter how much it pains him, no matter if he has to spend the rest of eternity alone, he is willing to let Blitzø go.

He knows that a huge part of what's driving them apart and hurting Blitzø is himself and his actions.

Even though he vows to make amends, to be better, to try to understand Blitzø's pain, he acknowledges the possibility that there's nothing he can do to mend the rift between them.

He knows that the choice to stay by his side is ultimately Blitzø's to make. Even if it destroys him, he's not going to take that choice away from him.

[bumblebeeappletree]

Soooo I went and watched some video compilations of teachers saying kids can’t read or spell. And it feels obvious that these are the iPad babies who’re finally getting older. You know, the iPad babies who didn’t develop their fine motor skills to actually hold a pencil. Because all they know is tapping on an iPad.

Parents you need to realize you are your children’s first educator. You read picture books to them. You sing ABC’s with them. You do not give them a screen to watch that will shorten their attention span no matter how much you think it will help you.

Because it will not help your kids in the long run. It’s already harming them. Take them to the library. Get together with your neighbors for play dates. Your family members. Find people to babysit. Find events to take your kids to like an arts and crafts festival.

And give your kid a flip phone when they reach middle school if they absolutely need a phone. Talk shop about iPhones when they’re in high school. If the school provides your kids with an iPad or a Chromebook, set boundaries that the device is for school only.

It can be hard, especially when you’re a first time parent. There’s a reason why they say “it takes a village to raise a child.” Build connections to your community, and you’ll be able to raise your child to the best they could possibly be.

[thesophistiicate]

the more interested you become in a wide variety of things (and people), the more interesting you become. there is nothing more tedious than a person with narrow taste and an arrogant attitude about anything that falls outside of it. good taste means finding the beauty and interest and wonder everywhere.