The power of questions
“A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.” ~ Francis Bacon Many years ago, I provided job hunt and career counseling to people in transition. One day, a man came into my office for help trying to land a good job as a news camera operator at a network station. He was totally frustrated because he had a part-time gig with …
Talent Development Foundations
“If anything, more and more organizations and industries appreciate the need for deep and ongoing learning – individually and collectively. This shows up in a stronger desire to ensure that people have the support they need to learn and grow as they work.” ~ Peter Senge (Foundations, p 3) If ever there has been a time when talent development is …
Emerging frameworks for learning strategy
I’ve been thinking about this one for quite a while. When I wrote Learning Environments by Design (2015), we were really just beginning to grapple with how to structure (or not structure) learning strategies in the wake of ideas about curation and ubiquitous availability of the internet. Since then, many others have published ideas about how to support learning and …
Design Thinking: Reclaiming our identity as designers
The topic of design thinking is getting renewed attention in the L&D space. Among other things, it is seen as having the potential to inject creativity, to provide strategies for leveraging emerging technologies, and to expand our vision of learning support. At the same time, design thinking is sometimes critiqued as old wine in new bottles (and relatively tasteless wine …
Dare to invite critique
I wonder if you can relate to any of these scenarios: The final review. You’ve worked for quite some time on an important project, and finally, it’s done! You proudly show your finished product to your client and get a disappointing response. She lists a half dozen tweaks she wants made that will take more time than she knows, and …
Creative Brief Inspiration
I’ve recently been immersed in the tools and techniques of design thinking, and have rediscovered the power of a creative brief as a tool for giving gentle direction to a project. Adopting this tool also has the benefit of underscoring the creative nature of the work we do. A creative brief is a construct out of the marketing and communication …
‘Tis the Season
In the midst of everything that goes on at this time of year, I almost always make December a time for reflection and planning. My birthday is at the beginning of the month; the year turns at the end of the month; and there is often something liminal about the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. In this season, …
On customizing learning support
As the year comes to a close, I am noodling on new commitments to my own learning for 2018 – specific topics and skills that I want to further develop. I’ll be drafting a syllabus of sorts for the few that are most important to me, and I’m confident and thankful that I have the know-how and time to put …
Frank talk, spirited debate, laughter, and love
I am excitedly awaiting the release of Oathbringer, the third volume of Brandon Sanderson’s epic Stormlight Archive series, which comes out in November. To stoke the anticipation, Alice Arneson, one of the beta readers, recently published a post detailing the review process for Oathbringer. The post is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the creative process for producing the Stormlight Archive …
Doubling down on curation
Earlier this month, Josh Bersin published an interesting analysis that concluded: A New World of Corporate Learning Arrives – And it looks like TV. In it, he points out that emerging platforms for corporate learning are serving up a wide range of content in much the same way that our favorite video providers might – with aggregated resources, playlists, recommendations, …