Lean In To Learn - Your Skills for Success Podcast

Lean In to Learn Ep.20: The Thousand Tool Toolkit with guest Ruby Orunta

• Workplace Education Manitoba • Season 2 • Episode 20

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 22:06

Join Jessica Soodeen as she discusses The Thousand Tool Toolkit on Lean In To Learn with guest Ruby Orunta.

In partnership with Workplace Education Manitoba and thank you to our funder, the Government of Canada Skills for Success Program. 

Joignez-vous à Jessica Soodeen qui discute La boîte à mille outils avec son invitée Ruby Orunta.

On tiens à reconnaître Éducation en milieu de travail Manitoba et à remercier notre bailleur de fonds, le programme Compétences pour réussir du gouvernement du Canada.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Lean In to Learn, your Skills for Success podcast. I'm Jessica Soudine, spokesperson for Workplace Connections, Master Certified Relational Skills Practitioner, and advocate of skills for success at work. Lean in to Learn is a series focused on insightful approaches and forward-thinking topics related to relational skills, which many of us refer to as soft skills. I'd like to acknowledge Workplace Education Manitoba and thank our funder, the Government of Canada's Skills for Success program. I, and carefully curated subject matter experts, will introduce you to an array of tools, resources, and personal journeys that will educate and empower to solve people-related issues at work as well as build individual skills for success. So settle in and open up your hearts and minds as we lean in to learn. Welcome to Lean In to Learn, your skills for success podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Soudin, certified master level relational skills practitioner and certified skills for success practitioner. And today we will be discussing the Thousand Tool Toolkit with Ruby Arunta. As training coordinator for the Pan-Canadian Skills for Success Workplace Connections Initiative, Ruby drives national workforce development through certification pathways and digital learning. With an academic background in education, she specializes in virtual delivery, microlearning, and digital credentials. Ruby's expertise in streamlining complex training operations ensures practitioners and organizations across Canada stay connected, skilled, and ready for success. Welcome, Ruby, to lean in to learn.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you, Jessica. It's so great to be here.

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent. I'm very stoked about this, Ruby. It's it's been a pleasure interacting with you over the last, say, two years. Yeah, two years now. And you also have the same designations for the uh Skills for Success and Relational Skills Practitioner designations, right? Nice. So, Ruby, I always like to start with a bit of a human connection. So as I was, you know, reading a little bit about you and looking up on LinkedIn and such, what could be something that I won't find there?

SPEAKER_00:

Now I have to think about my LinkedIn profile. Okay, you probably won't find that I sing.

SPEAKER_01:

Fabulous. Tell me about this.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so I sing. And then also I I read a lot because I'm a continuous learner, so I read everything. There's no particular genre of um literature or books that I love to read. I read everything. If I find a newspaper, I would read it. Like I read everything, and then I also write. I write short fiction. Yeah, you won't find out on my LinkedIn. Wow! This is so interesting. I write short fiction, I also write quotes. I like to call what I write Ruby's Thoughts, because sometimes I just write about what I think about and just put nine's ring to it.

SPEAKER_01:

Very cool. I love this. Very cool. Writer, author, singer. This is good. Okay, let's dig in to this toolkit, the thousand tool toolkit. So, what is this toolkit that's designed to help trainers and facilitators? What does it do? Tell us.

SPEAKER_00:

So the toolkits, we have two set of toolkits in um like for the Workplace Connections project. We have the Skills for Success Toolkit, and then we have the Relational Skills Toolkit. Now, these toolkits are a set of tools, set of training materials that are meant to help facilitators and trainers plan, deliver, and adapt engaging learning experiences. And the toolkits, it provides practical tools, practical activities and frameworks, lesson plans that help, or lessons, not necessarily lesson plans, but lessons that help trainers have meaningful dialogue, meaningful conversations, and meaningful trainings. We have um different tools for different different different relational skills, different tools for different uh skills for success skills. And then also different kinds of tools. We have assessments, we have activities, we have books, not the whole books, of course, but like book summaries and all of that. It's just a comprehensive toolkit both of over 1,000 comprehensive tools or materials that will be useful for trainers.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice. I really like how you touched on this. And I know whenever I've looked at these spreadsheets, I think it's so rich that you can sort by tool type. And like you said, like assessments on every topic and multiple some of those and the worksheets and the articles, like it's really comprehensive. And this is something that I also like the organization of it. So, aside from the comprehensivity and the organization, how does this toolkit differ from, say, traditional training resources or facilitation guides, even?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. So, unlike traditional training resources, the toolkit streamlines experiences, it is flexible, it is practical. So, unlike many traditional training resources, I would say it's just more of theory-based. Unlike the toolkit that we have that sort of gives you practical scenarios, and then we have toolkit for different industries. So depending on what the trainer is training on or facilitating on, we have toolkits for manufacturing, we have toolkits for customer service. So these toolkits are designed in a way that it is streamlined to suit the particular skill or the particular industry or examples of practical experiences, practical people, practical workplaces that the trainer would be facilitating in.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Wow. It's very niche set out, the way it's structured and stuff. So it's very easy for the practitioners to be able to, as well as the users. All of these resources, I know that us as practitioners have access to these, obviously, and the other practitioners who are listening. So for other corporations, nonprofit organizations, maybe startup companies, new companies that are, you know, with uh founder type or cooperatives, let's say, how would they be able to access these toolkits?

SPEAKER_00:

If you check on our LinkedIn, you would see that we are letting workplaces use our toolkit till March 31st. So if anyone's interested in seeing what the toolkit looks like, they just have to send us an email, use the details on the LinkedIn page, and then we would let you know what the some terms and conditions may apply. So we just let you know what those terms and conditions are.

SPEAKER_01:

Very cool. So I've also have access to the app and I've downloaded it, I've used it, I've taken the self-assessments. It's really quite advanced in the way of how it curates these learnings into your feed based on the results of your assessments and how you can take the assessments again. Why do you think this app, the Relational Skills app, is particularly relevant for Canadian workplaces right now? That's a fantastic question.

SPEAKER_00:

I would say that a Relational Skills app also complements the toolkit. This is because with the Relational Skills app, you're able to take learning beyond workshops, beyond the office trainings, beyond the classroom. And then you're able to learn from the comfort of your home. You're on a bus, you're going to work, you're able to pick up your phone and just go through what microlearning content you have today. So the app helps not just workplaces, but Canadians in general to actually learn. Because as the world evolves, we also want to be able to build not just other aspects of ourselves, but also relational skills in terms of workplaces. So we want to be able to continually learn. And that's what the app is here to do. You're able to take learning everywhere. You're at home, you're in the kitchen, and you're cooking, and you just want to take a break from cooking. You pick up your phone and then you just see what microlearning content you have today. And then the app is so fantastic that it gives you content every day that's different from the content that you had yesterday. And there's also a feature in the app that lets you save. Say you're going through 10 contents today, and you're so interested in that. You're interested in two out of them. You're able to save to your feedback, to your library, two of the content. You're able to save. You can save all 10, but on the app, we have over 8,000 microlearning content. And then the app just keeps feeding you content based off on your skills. So, well, how the app works is after you take your assessment, the app lets you know your three lowest skills according to the assessment. And then the app gives you these three content relating to the three skills, and they're so small. This content is so small. So it's not like you're reading, you're reading for the next two hours. Some of the content read for two minutes, and then there are also clips, their YouTube videos, their podcasts, their quotes. Quotes is just something you just see in like two minutes, depending on how fast you read. And then you just have access to all of these amazing microlearning content. So I think that it's really helpful to Canadians, and then workplaces as a whole.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And I think um the world now is so much more open, especially with open language towards mental health and things like this. Personal development is probably the highest that it's been in a long time. And workplaces taking taking these things a lot more seriously. So I think it's it's I didn't even know actually about the the saving feature. And I could see this actually for organizations going so much deeper. Like, let's say you're an executive leader listening today, and you're like, well, how could I use this? And if I put my VP or Director of Engineering hat back on, I would be like, okay, well, here's some issues that I'm that I'm having with my team. And as I find these micro learnings, it's almost a nice little bookmark for some future training plans. Yeah, very cool. And then so how do you think trainers and organizations typically use the app after a workshop or a program?

SPEAKER_00:

So with what we've done so far with the app, because we've had some organizations use the app, we also had trainers who use the app for like during your workshops. So I think, or I know that after workshops, trainers and organizations are able to monitor the growth of their like trainers, practitioners, and organization employees by constantly asking them to probably do another assessment. So there's a tool in the app that lets you do another assessment after 30 days. So initially, I said that if you log into the app as a first-time user, you're to do an assessment, and then the app feeds you resources based upon your three lowest skills. So after 30 days, you would get a notification on the app that you can do the assessment again. And then you do another assessment, and then maybe your three lowest skills are no more your lowest skills. And maybe even your lowest skills are just like maybe you scored between say zero to 50, and now it's like 59 or 69 to 100. You have evolved, you have grown in that aspect. It would still give you content based upon that skill. On those lower skills, however, these will now be advanced tools, advanced micro-learning content. So I believe that trainers are able to check on the progress of their practitioners, and then workplaces are also able to check on the progress of their staff or their employees. And this helps to like sustain momentum and then turn learning into a long-lasted behavioral challenge.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that's really what workplaces are looking for, that that long, long-term behavioral changes. So when you were talking about the different skills in the app, so the app has different levels of these microlearnings as well. Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00:

So we have the low level and then the advanced level. So say I do one of the so initially, as a first-time user, you're asked to do assessments based upon the eight skills that are available on the app. And depending on how I answer the questions, or of course, I assume you'd answer honestly. So depending on how I answer the question, the app gives me my score. Say out of 100%, I score 40%. The app gives me microlearning content. Say my three lowest skills are collaboration, change, and continuous learning, and maybe social intelligence. The app, and say I score 30, 40, and 31 in these three skills. The app gives me content based on these skills, and then it's the lower level just because of my score. And then say I do the assessment again, and then these three skills are still my three lowest skills, and now instead of 30, 31, and 40, I score 80, 82, and 90, but they're still my lowest skills because maybe for the other five skills, I score above 90. The app still gives me content based upon these lowest skills, but then they're now advanced content because now a lot more knowledge, and then it's just given me. I've probably even applied these skills. And when I do the assessment again, I now have answers that make my assessment go up. So the app still gives me those um content, but now advanced content.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, right, right. That's excellent. And if we go back, switch gears for a second, and we go back to the toolkit. So that toolkit index, people are able to actually look through their app results and go through like the skills. There's a column that has the relational skills as well, correct?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. If you log into the app, you'll be able to even see the toolkit. But if you don't originally have access to the toolkit, you will not be able to access it. But it tells you who to contact if you will need access to the toolkit. So based on your lowest skills, you can go to the toolkit index and find assessments or activities or books, whatever it is that you need or that appeals to you, and then you just want to learn a lot more. So the app doesn't exactly replace training, it just helps.

SPEAKER_01:

That's wild. It's almost like a full suite service, you know, to be able to have that as well. So, what impact are you hoping that the toolkit and the app will have on the culture of a workplace?

SPEAKER_00:

So the goal for the toolkit and the app is to help create healthier and more relational workplace, workplace and workplace cultures. So by strengthening communication, trust, interpersonal skills. I mean, that's what the app is there for, because we have all of these skills, right? I mentioned three, and there are other skills. There are eight skills in total. And then people are able to develop a lot more on these skills. And then we are able to create a workplace in the Canadian workspace where people feel more respected, people feel valued, and people feel engaged, and people just feel more confident that they're able to address challenges constructively. So it's just another means of learning that I believe it's beneficial to individuals and also the workplaces and then to Canada as a whole.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because I could see how, you know, like um some of those specific toolkit in the toolkit as well. If you hone in specifically on, say, communication, you can really work on that communication within a workplace and that trickles down from the from the top down. Is that how you've noticed these things have been um applied to workplaces?

SPEAKER_00:

Of course. I for for example, aside the fact that the app has all of these skills, there's also a toggle option. So when you're signing into the app, so there's the landing page that helps you to sign into the app, and then we have a list of um sectors. So say I work in the hospitality sector, we also have microlearning content for the hospitality sector. So if I click on the hospitality sector, the app feeds me content based on my three lowest skills for that sector. So, say communication is one of my three lowest skills. The app gives me microlearning content that helps me develop my communication skills.

SPEAKER_01:

I've seen that the app is very useful in all those ways to be able to navigate in all the different all the relational skills. That's very cool. Excellent. Well, this has been an insight. I actually have learned so much already about the app from you as far as some of the advancements that have happened over the last year within the lap within the app as well. And I think when when it comes to talking about the the difference between this and traditional learning material or micro-learning material, I think the searchability and the organization and the diverseness in contextualism is the is a differentiator here. Would you agree there?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I agree. I agree with that. Because so some of the things that we also have in the toolkit are case studies. And then these case studies are based off on like sometimes real life. Scenarios and real workplace, workplace scenarios. So yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_01:

Very nice. Very nice. It sounds like a really holistic tool that a lot of people should be can be taking advantage of. So, Ruby, this is really interesting stuff, both on the app side and the toolkit side. So if people want to, for our listeners, they want to engage and get take advantage that this toolkit is available for no charge until the 31st of March in 2026. How would they go about doing that?

SPEAKER_00:

So they just need to send an email to us at support at workplaceconnections.ca or toolkit at workplaceconnections.ca. And then there's more information about the toolkit on our websites at workplaceconnections.ca.

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent. All right. Well, this has been absolutely brilliant having this podcast with you. You've been a fabulous guest. And if people want to get hold to you specifically, how would they do that, Ruby?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, they should come to my home. That's a joke. To get a hold of me, it would be training at workplaceconnections.ca.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice. And I believe that is also Workplace Connections is also on LinkedIn as well as some connection.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yes. So I think there would be workplace connections, just workplace connections.

SPEAKER_01:

Great, which is also where some of these uh uh podcasts you can find the links to and as well. So thank you so much for joining us today, Ruby. And just for everyone who may be looking for you online, Orunta is spelt O-R-U-N-T-A. So thank you for that. And for everyone else that is listening here, I'm Jessica Soudin, and thank you for taking the time to lean in to learn.

Head Shot

Jessica Soodeen

Host
Head Shot

Dan Wong

Producer