TJ editor Jon Kennard looks at the most popular pieces from the year gone by.

Reading time: 2 minutes.

As the year draws to a close, and the multi-various lists are drawn up to make sense of the past 12 months we thought we’d turn to that coldest of curators for our run-down of the year’s content: Google Analytics.

The pieces that made it onto this list aren’t necessarily our favourites, but they are the ones that most successfully drew a load of strangers to TJ, as well as the ones which made an impression with our biggest advocates too, and it’s this combination that’s more than enough to earn them their place.

If you look at the list beneath, it’s quickly apparent that technology hardly features. That’s not to say it doesn’t matter – far from it – but it’s interesting that the most popular content is mostly about the human concerns of L&D, and often about soft skills too.

This is crucial information for us, and something we will be taking on board to inform our content strategy for 2019, as we progress. 

When we think about what sort of things we want to publish, the info usually comes from three sources: Analytics (Google, Twitter, LinkedIn etc), anecotal evidence from ongoing conversation with friends and members, and survey data.

But it’s also important, I think, to try to lead the conversation as well as react to it. We want to make sure we are talking about what DOES interest our members, but also what we think MIGHT interest them too. And this year, I think we’ve done a decent job of that. 

As for next year? We’ve been planning a while: the forward features list for TJ magazine is already out, and we are also looking forward to our new webinar time slot (4pm) to reflect our growing US audience, moving the conversation away from the TJ forum and towards our social platforms some more, growing the podcast library (we’re 600 away from 20,000 plays!), a few exciting new content partnerships and products for clients, kicking off the TJ Awards again, doing another member survey, and a ton of stuff I’ve probably forgotten.

For now though – have a read of the pieces beneath, chosen by your friendly robots over in Mountain View.

Merry Christmas and see you in 2019!

1. Near and far transfer of learning

2. Five benefits of leadership and management apprenticeships

3. Why language learning will be top of the corporate agenda in 2018

4. Neuroscience and the learning brain: Is there a better way?

5. Seven tips for effective employee performance evaluation

6. How to build a sense of community in the workplace

7. Five tips for exerting influence without an authority position

8. Unconscious bias: Some lessons learned

9. Six interview questions that reveal true leadership potential

10. How chatbots make HR departments more human

About the author

Jon Kennard is editor of TJ.