It’s been busy week on Training Zone, and we’ve enjoyed hearing some of your thoughts on the bigger discussions in the L&D community at the moment.

We’ve rounded up a few key topics from the week along with some of the responses we had from our readers, if you’d like to throw your opinion into the mix you can leave a comment on the articles, or chat to us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Google+.

How to build positivity at work - anyone heard of a Chief Emotions Officer?

In this feature we explored the link between positivity and productivity, in particular the creation of roles such as ‘Chief Emotions Officer’, whose job it is to instil positive emotions and belief in their team and hopefully drive engagement along with both the quality and quantity of work produced. We had a lot of feedback to the article, including:

“My job title is Corporate Trainer/Happiness Hero...As our business stretches across 6 counties and 2 states, there can easily be a disconnect with staff who feel that they are far from the hub and feel that communication doesn't always reach them in a timely manner. I take it upon myself to job shadow, travel, and help to support engagement and build understanding as we move forward in new and exciting directions.” - Heather Allen

Do trainers need to adapt their approach for millenials? How much changes between generations?

This feature on the Axonify blog suggests that a new approach is needed in training millenials - but is the shift in training needs down to the changing requirements of a generation, or a change in the workforce in general?

Andrew Jacobs (LinkedIn) - "I'm definitely not a millennial but I don't want hours of training with a test. This isn't an age or generation issue - it's a people issue and we're doing it wrong."

Jon Le Breton (LinkedIn) - "Lectures and information-dumping is well over...There are so many ways to help people learn but I've found that this group is ready for collaboration and sharing ideas during workshops that run for a max of 4-5 hours plus breaks."

Preparing employees for remote working

Does working away from the office lead to a drop in productivity and motivation? Some responses we had didn’t think so...

@ItaWaller - real trust is needed, but ultimately the work will speak for itself. Regular reviews are a must to ensure expectations are set/met...we have [seen an increase in remoter working], especially with the flexible working changes. Interestingly the productivity has not decreased, engagement seems better!

@SandersonSDevs - Leadership seems to struggle (but needs to) purely measure output, they still feel the need to scrutinise the input.

Other popular articles this week were...

Does L&D need a seat at the top table?

https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/feature/training-cycle/does-ld-need-seat-top-table/188254

An insightful feature on the changing role and importance of evaluation for Learning & Development.

Infographic: The 2014 TrainingZone poll results

https://www.canva.com/design/DABIg87MEII/LLDa6FbMsCg6R2bu-mhV_g/view

The results are in, and what did you all have to say?

Download: A Leader’s Guide to Creating Employee Engagement

https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/downloads/leader%E2%80%99s-guide-creating-employee-engagement/188338

A Wilson Learning article to help leaders create an organisation of fully engaged employees.

What were the big discussions or hot topics for you this week? Do you have anything to say about the articles we’ve mentioned?