Consider the benefits of adding Uber app-like functionality to your training, letting employees know what skills are in demand and helping to develop them by providing more choice.
http://www.clomedia.com/2016/09/29/learning-uber-economy/
Written by SEWI-ATD Guest Blogger, Amy Krenzke
Talent Development -- what is it, does your organization have it, and how does collaboration drive it? This blog will take a look into the importance of Talent Development and a need for Talent Acquisition, Human Resources, and Learning professionals to all come together in taking action on a Talent Development Strategy.
First, let’s take a look at Talent Development (TD). It is a fairly new term in our modern work world. The Association for Talent Development (ATD) made the big name change back in 2014 from American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) to what it is now.
What was the significance of this change? Well, take it from Tony Bingham, President and CEO of ATD. He announced the need for the change at a special session of the ASTD 2014 International Conference & Exposition:
"You know better than most, your work is so much broader than training alone,” Bingham told the crowd. “Those outside of the profession see it too.” He cited the growing business references to the term “talent development” that describes the breadth of work done by professionals who develop the talent in organizations: their knowledge, skills, and capabilities. (https://www.td.org/Publications/Blogs/ATD-Blog/2014/05/ASTD-Announces-Name-Change)
Speaking to the attendees, Bingham noted, “You take the talents and capabilities of others and develop them to their full potential. As a result, organizations can prosper, and the world does indeed work better.”
As a learning professional, do you agree our role is larger than just training, it is about how to develop people to their full potential?
Let’s consider how to take Talent Development from a buzzword into an actionable strategy.
Talent Development is more than just training!
The name change of the Association for Talent Development (ATD) was definitely a welcome change for me and hopefully for all of you. It was an expansion of thinking; a change that focused more importance on strengthening talent and the realization that talent development is not simply “training.” Talent Development is a fusion of training, self-driven learning experiences, succession planning, career management, professional development, performance management, and organizational development.
What does this mean to us as learning professionals?
It means that the combination of these efforts becomes a Talent Development Strategy. Learning & Development professionals are becoming Talent Development professionals, but we can’t do it alone. Nope! It’s a coming together. It can no longer be everyone on their own island; there needs to be serious collaboration between Learning & Development, Talent Acquisition and Human Resource teams. Between these teams, the ultimate goal should be creating a Talent Development Strategy to ensure continual engagement of staff through learning, career (and agile performance) management, cultural alignment, and calibration of talent development goals that meet business needs.
A Talent Development Strategy – What does it look like?
Great, but what does a Talent Development Strategy really look like for the TD, TA, & HR Professional? Well, as with most things these days we’ll take a look at this through the eyes of the Millennials. As Millennials enter our workforce at the rate of one per minute (or so it seems) priorities are changing on what it takes to engage them. Millennials are more interested in work that has meaning, they want a manager that’s less a boss – more a coach, and they’re more likely to rank learning in their top reasons to join an organization. Let’s think, though, it’s not only Millennials, it’s Gen X and Y, and even Boomers returning to the workforce as contractors. People want more from their work. They want to improve themselves, learn how to do a job better, or share their expertise. In developing a Talent Development Strategy, understanding candidate and employee motivations needs to be considered.
It all starts with attracting the right talent in this first place. This is why we include Talent Acquisition in Talent Development strategic planning. They need to understand how to communicate to candidates the vision of employee development. Human Resources needs to collaborate with Learning & Development to design an engaging on-boarding program to immediately start new hires out on the right foot. Learning & Development needs to create learning experiences, not just training, that drives results, reports metrics and demonstrates ROI for the business. Talent Acquisition can only capture the best talent when they have a conviction behind what they’re selling to candidates. Therefore, there needs to be a collaboration from L&D on how to communicate the why behind their “top-notch learning program”, how it’s put into action and followed-up on with managers throughout an employee’s career. It is a responsibility of all development professions (TA, L&D, and HR) to develop and continually communicate the Talent Development Strategy and tie it back to their people development or talent attraction strategies.
Having a defined Talent Development Strategy will shift your team's mindset to collaboration and convert actions to results more quickly. For example, it can lead to quicker turnaround on recognizing needs. L&D can more easily identify and develop learning for a new skill set, then communicate that back to TA to source for talent with those skills, and HR can develop performance management on that new skill set. Collaboration is key for a Talent Development Strategy to truly deliver for candidates, new hires, employees, and management.
Driving Forward – What’s the Benefit?
The collaboration involved in developing a Talent Development Strategy might be a little messy to start, but once it comes together and teams collaborate, there will be business rewards to reap. There are many metrics that can be improved, so tracking turnover is crucial. From Officevibe Blog, http://bit.ly/OfficevibeBlog -
Just think, Statistic #1 above could be next to eliminated if your organization has a Talent Development Strategy that gives clear definition to employees and that cultivates a culture of honest, holistic people development, allowing employees to easily see their career advancement path.
Is it time your organization considered a Talent Development Strategy? Invest in one that encourages collaboration among your TA, TD, and HR teams. This will allow a true focus on learning experiences, career (& agile performance) management, cultural alignment, and calibration of talent development goals and business needs.
Where will your organization go next?
Think about how you can start bringing your people development teams together to strategically plan a strong Talent Development Strategy guaranteeing your organization meets business needs and goals. Define and communicate a strategy that benefits you - as Talent Development professionals, employees and prospective candidates alike. Remember what ATD President Tony Bingham’s said, “You take the talents and capabilities of others and develop them to their full potential. As a result, organizations can prosper, and the world does indeed work better.” Let’s work better, be more human in the workplace, and bring talent development to its full potential.
About Amy Krenzke
Amy is a SEWI-ATD member volunteer who chairs the bi-monthly Instructional Design PDN. She evangelizes all things talent development - people, culture, learning, performance, and agility in the modern workplace. She is a curator of learning, a strategist of developing people for the next level, and brings engagement to every moment of her virtual or in-person learning sessions. Amy has an MA degree in Educating Adults from DePaul University, Chicago. She has done significant academic research on using appreciation in the workplace, developing a model, The Appreciation Space Method. Connect with Amy; she can help you brainstorm a path forward to a Talent Development Strategy @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/becreatelearn or http://akrenzke.wixsite.com/amylkrenzke.
Want More? Here’s what Amy is Reading...
Alas, today brings us to our final post in this 3-Part series by Futurist, David Zach. (Be sure to read Part 1 & Part 2.) Here he wraps up his morsels for thought from his in-progress composition, "100 Great Ways to Own Your Future":
#7. And, the most important word of all This and that. Up and down. Black and white. Hot and cold. Form and function. Art and Science. Strength and beauty. Night and day. Today and tomorrow. Time and again. And, of course, is the most important word. It's the connector. It's the binding agent. It's the catalyst. All other words are incomplete and lonely without it. And, so are you. This photo is the inspiration for this article as well as for a new talk. A few years ago, I found these two exploring the Milwaukee Art Museum. He was excited to explore, she to guide - and me to find them in gallery after gallery. He would rush from painting to statue, she to follow, watch, and softly smile. She would ask, he would explain. He was maybe four. They had been here before. This is picture perfect. This is a perfect definition of "and." Young and old. Teacher and learner. Light and dark. Paradox and symmetry. Love and love. Art and .... For unlimited reasons, we must be reminded of why we have art and museums. We must be reminded of why we are here and should still be here in the future. This scene, preserved in a picture, reminds me that when you're witnessing the soul of a culture that has been lovingly preserved, protected and presented so that it may be lovingly passed from one generation to another, you should pay attention, you should wonder, you should be in awe. And, you should do that always and forever.
#7. And, the most important word of all
This and that. Up and down. Black and white. Hot and cold. Form and function. Art and Science. Strength and beauty. Night and day. Today and tomorrow. Time and again.
And, of course, is the most important word. It's the connector. It's the binding agent. It's the catalyst. All other words are incomplete and lonely without it. And, so are you.
This photo is the inspiration for this article as well as for a new talk.
A few years ago, I found these two exploring the Milwaukee Art Museum. He was excited to explore, she to guide - and me to find them in gallery after gallery. He would rush from painting to statue, she to follow, watch, and softly smile. She would ask, he would explain. He was maybe four. They had been here before.
This is picture perfect. This is a perfect definition of "and." Young and old. Teacher and learner. Light and dark. Paradox and symmetry. Love and love. Art and ....
For unlimited reasons, we must be reminded of why we have art and museums. We must be reminded of why we are here and should still be here in the future. This scene, preserved in a picture, reminds me that when you're witnessing the soul of a culture that has been lovingly preserved, protected and presented so that it may be lovingly passed from one generation to another, you should pay attention, you should wonder, you should be in awe. And, you should do that always and forever.
Here is a supplementary blurb from David that sheds a little more light on what you might expect to hear:
3D Printers can revolutionize manufacturing. Smart technology can be customized to the individual level and help make us healthier than we ever imagined. Logistics help us to navigate the world, connecting us with learning and learners everywhere on the planet. Design is becoming an essential aspect to everything from construction to education. The Internet is like some magical genie – answering all of our questions; connecting us, entertaining us, comforting us. The world is connected. It really is a magical age. Yet, we take in more information in one day than our grandparents took decades to acquire. Our behavior with smartphones has become indistinguishable from an addiction. We retreat into our homes, into our technology, and more and more people just don’t know how to have comfortable face to face conversations. We have unlimited choices and many of us just don’t know how to choose. Welcome to the early stages of the 21st Century. Once again, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times. What choices do we as individuals really have? Can we help people understand how to make better choices about the future? Can we have a better future?
3D Printers can revolutionize manufacturing. Smart technology can be customized to the individual level and help make us healthier than we ever imagined. Logistics help us to navigate the world, connecting us with learning and learners everywhere on the planet. Design is becoming an essential aspect to everything from construction to education. The Internet is like some magical genie – answering all of our questions; connecting us, entertaining us, comforting us. The world is connected. It really is a magical age.
Yet, we take in more information in one day than our grandparents took decades to acquire. Our behavior with smartphones has become indistinguishable from an addiction. We retreat into our homes, into our technology, and more and more people just don’t know how to have comfortable face to face conversations. We have unlimited choices and many of us just don’t know how to choose.
Welcome to the early stages of the 21st Century. Once again, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times. What choices do we as individuals really have? Can we help people understand how to make better choices about the future? Can we have a better future?
If you were to ask me those questions, I’d sum them up by deferring to Abraham Lincoln’s astuteness:
“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”
So, are you ready to create YOUR future? If so (and even if you're not) please join us for an exciting and enlightening day at the Schlitz Audobon Nature Center!
There's still time to register... Click here!
Do gamification techniques supercharge your online training? Swift Elearning designed an online compliance training using compelling narrative, points, virtual currencies, timers, badges, and levels. Check out this case study to see their results:
http://www.swiftelearningservices.com/case-study-on-gamification-supercharge-online-training/
In Part 1 of this 3-Part series, Futurist, David Zach provided three pearls of insight from his in-progress composition, "100 Great Ways to Own Your Future". Today, he continues with three more gems:
#4. Relearn to be Curious Yes, relearn to be curious, because more than likely you’ve lost most of it. The writer Neil Postman said that, "Every child starts school as a question mark and leaves it as a period." Adding insult to inquiry, Google now answers your questions before you're finished asking them. We think that's clever and convenient, but it's more like confining your brain into a comfy chair from which it never gets up; never having to do the exercise of sculpting a good question, let alone lifting up good answers. Google does the work, so you don’t have to. Curiosity has been automated, because now there’s an app for that. If you’re curious about the dangers of such conclusions, then you’ll have to stop outsourcing yours. Once upon a time, we had to dig through lots of irrelevant information to find what we wanted. Except it wasn't irrelevant. Much of that process was the act of refining what it was that we actually did want. All that other “stuff” had a stickiness to it, which could fill the gaps in your brain to help you understand, to put into context, the great big world. Understanding the great big world is necessary for thriving in it. Answers don't make the world go around, being able to ask better questions does. I know this all to be true because I read the book Curious by Ian Leslie. And then I listened to it. And then I read it again. It's that good. It explains why our future depends upon rekindling curiosity. He explains how "diversive curiosity" helps you put the world into context. What he calls “epistemic curiosity” is where you drill down into specific lines of inquiry to develop competence. Diversive curiosity is especially strong in children because they need to learn about all that great big future ahead of them, but then it fades as we gain specific competences. Your challenge is that, when it comes to the future, we are all essentially children. Rediscovering a bit of childlike wonder will do wonders for making better futures. If you can’t relearn how to see the world through the eyes of child, you’ve become that saddest of creatures, an obsolete adult. The first lesson of well-nurtured curiosity is one that continually reveals itself: a lifetime of adventure; both self-directed and self-rewarding. Curiosity doesn’t create lifelong students; it creates lifelong learners. Curiosity is not just the foundation of lifelong learning; it is the foundation of life. Curiosity has to be nurtured in children, so they can become learned, ever-curious adults. These sorts of adults are productive, creative, innovating adults. Lifelong learners will save the future, because they are the ones who always save it. #5. Think Into Other Boxes “Think outside the box,” is some of the worst advice you will ever get. Most people end up just wandering around, lost in thought. It's because they've lost their context - that box they've been told to get away from is actually their perspective, their learning, their everything. What sense does it make to give that up completely? That box is not bad, it's just incomplete. It's too isolated. We and our thinking were not meant to be alone. Fortunately, there are so many great ways to connect your thinking to that of others. From coffee conversations to formal brainstorming and even strategic planning retreats, people bring multiple point perspective to ideas old and new. Just as I had suggested that your thinking shouldn't be merely linear, it also shouldn't be one-dimensional. There's a landscape to innovative thinking. It can be multi-dimensional. Do for your thinking what multiple-point perspective does for drawing and painting. Connect your thinking to additional dimensions. The easiest way to do that? Don't do it alone. Take your perspective (aka: that box that everyone told you to abandon) and then find another perspective, different from your own, but not completely different. Find common ground. Then talk. Explore the topic that stands between you. Look at it from all sorts of angles. Use mind-mapping to connect and consider possibilities. You have to do this with curiosity, and you have to do it with enough humility to consider the odd possibility that the other person might just be as smart as you. Maybe smarter. Lean into that. And what about the ideas you dislike, that you have already discarded? You may have plenty of reasons to do so, but there are a lot of great ideas that don't easily fit with others. Your task is to re-imagine possible connections. The Japanese writer, Junichiro Tanizaki, said that, "Without shadows, there can be no beauty." Look for the shadows, or better expressed, look into the shadows. Look where you're not looking. Look where you might be afraid to look. Find beauty that's not always obvious, not always on the surface. Look where you don't believe you need to look. Look. #6. Think Outside Occupational Boundaries This is obviously the offspring of the "Think Into Other Boxes" notion. It's just more specific, and for many of you, more practical. It's about your job, or rather your future job - because that one you have now just might change into something a bit unfamiliar. In 2012, I surveyed architecture students on their then supposed poor job prospects, asking: “If you don't become an architect, what else might you do?” Their answers went into wordle.net and out came this word cloud: This cloud is thinking into other boxes and obviously, so were the students. They get that occupational boundaries are not entirely real. They might be necessary, but they, by necessity, cannot be absolute, especially in the face of all the changes swirling around them and the world of work. Student debt clears the mind wonderfully, especially for those able to think more entrepreneurially in terms of, "What works right now?" What works right now is needing to rethink the edges of the professions, but not eliminating the edges. In practical terms, we need the boundaries to determine competencies. What was competent then, isn't completely transferable into today. Everyone's career is really about skill clusters, which will ebb and flow, not according to just which technology is being used, but also which skills and perspectives can be combined. The skill cluster of an architect today is vastly different from what it was a hundred years ago. Just a guess - it's going to be even more differenter (yeah, you see what I did there...) 25 years from now. Your actual mileage will not vary because the same thing applies to you – no matter who you are, no matter what you want to be.
#4. Relearn to be Curious
Yes, relearn to be curious, because more than likely you’ve lost most of it. The writer Neil Postman said that, "Every child starts school as a question mark and leaves it as a period." Adding insult to inquiry, Google now answers your questions before you're finished asking them. We think that's clever and convenient, but it's more like confining your brain into a comfy chair from which it never gets up; never having to do the exercise of sculpting a good question, let alone lifting up good answers. Google does the work, so you don’t have to. Curiosity has been automated, because now there’s an app for that. If you’re curious about the dangers of such conclusions, then you’ll have to stop outsourcing yours.
Once upon a time, we had to dig through lots of irrelevant information to find what we wanted. Except it wasn't irrelevant. Much of that process was the act of refining what it was that we actually did want. All that other “stuff” had a stickiness to it, which could fill the gaps in your brain to help you understand, to put into context, the great big world. Understanding the great big world is necessary for thriving in it. Answers don't make the world go around, being able to ask better questions does.
I know this all to be true because I read the book Curious by Ian Leslie. And then I listened to it. And then I read it again. It's that good. It explains why our future depends upon rekindling curiosity. He explains how "diversive curiosity" helps you put the world into context. What he calls “epistemic curiosity” is where you drill down into specific lines of inquiry to develop competence. Diversive curiosity is especially strong in children because they need to learn about all that great big future ahead of them, but then it fades as we gain specific competences. Your challenge is that, when it comes to the future, we are all essentially children. Rediscovering a bit of childlike wonder will do wonders for making better futures. If you can’t relearn how to see the world through the eyes of child, you’ve become that saddest of creatures, an obsolete adult.
The first lesson of well-nurtured curiosity is one that continually reveals itself: a lifetime of adventure; both self-directed and self-rewarding. Curiosity doesn’t create lifelong students; it creates lifelong learners.
Curiosity is not just the foundation of lifelong learning; it is the foundation of life. Curiosity has to be nurtured in children, so they can become learned, ever-curious adults. These sorts of adults are productive, creative, innovating adults. Lifelong learners will save the future, because they are the ones who always save it.
#5. Think Into Other Boxes
“Think outside the box,” is some of the worst advice you will ever get. Most people end up just wandering around, lost in thought. It's because they've lost their context - that box they've been told to get away from is actually their perspective, their learning, their everything. What sense does it make to give that up completely?
That box is not bad, it's just incomplete. It's too isolated. We and our thinking were not meant to be alone. Fortunately, there are so many great ways to connect your thinking to that of others. From coffee conversations to formal brainstorming and even strategic planning retreats, people bring multiple point perspective to ideas old and new.
Just as I had suggested that your thinking shouldn't be merely linear, it also shouldn't be one-dimensional. There's a landscape to innovative thinking. It can be multi-dimensional. Do for your thinking what multiple-point perspective does for drawing and painting. Connect your thinking to additional dimensions.
The easiest way to do that? Don't do it alone. Take your perspective (aka: that box that everyone told you to abandon) and then find another perspective, different from your own, but not completely different. Find common ground. Then talk. Explore the topic that stands between you. Look at it from all sorts of angles. Use mind-mapping to connect and consider possibilities.
You have to do this with curiosity, and you have to do it with enough humility to consider the odd possibility that the other person might just be as smart as you. Maybe smarter. Lean into that.
And what about the ideas you dislike, that you have already discarded? You may have plenty of reasons to do so, but there are a lot of great ideas that don't easily fit with others. Your task is to re-imagine possible connections. The Japanese writer, Junichiro Tanizaki, said that, "Without shadows, there can be no beauty." Look for the shadows, or better expressed, look into the shadows. Look where you're not looking. Look where you might be afraid to look. Find beauty that's not always obvious, not always on the surface. Look where you don't believe you need to look. Look.
#6. Think Outside Occupational Boundaries
This is obviously the offspring of the "Think Into Other Boxes" notion. It's just more specific, and for many of you, more practical. It's about your job, or rather your future job - because that one you have now just might change into something a bit unfamiliar.
In 2012, I surveyed architecture students on their then supposed poor job prospects, asking: “If you don't become an architect, what else might you do?” Their answers went into wordle.net and out came this word cloud:
This cloud is thinking into other boxes and obviously, so were the students. They get that occupational boundaries are not entirely real. They might be necessary, but they, by necessity, cannot be absolute, especially in the face of all the changes swirling around them and the world of work. Student debt clears the mind wonderfully, especially for those able to think more entrepreneurially in terms of, "What works right now?" What works right now is needing to rethink the edges of the professions, but not eliminating the edges. In practical terms, we need the boundaries to determine competencies. What was competent then, isn't completely transferable into today.
Everyone's career is really about skill clusters, which will ebb and flow, not according to just which technology is being used, but also which skills and perspectives can be combined. The skill cluster of an architect today is vastly different from what it was a hundred years ago. Just a guess - it's going to be even more differenter (yeah, you see what I did there...) 25 years from now. Your actual mileage will not vary because the same thing applies to you – no matter who you are, no matter what you want to be.
For more of David's thought-provoking ideas, see Part 1 and Part 3 of our 3-Part Guest Blog Series.
And if you enjoy David's posts, you’ll appreciate seeing see him live, in-action, during Thursday’s keynote presentation at SEWI-ATD’s Fall Special Event. Register today!
In moments of pause between his wanderings around the planet, David has been creating a list of things to think about in terms of
"100 Great Ways to Own Your Future".
In part 1 of a 3-part series this week, he graciously pre-inspires and tempts us with a few bite-sized samples of wisdom from this in-progress composition:
#1. Learn to Think Clearly Sounds simple enough, but then there's what’s called, "Mrs. Peter's Law," to explain it a bit more: "If you're not confused by what's going on today, you're just not thinking clearly." Lots of research shows that our thinking is fairly muddled and we're way too easily distracted. We're confused mostly because we don't know how to find enough of the right information and then organize it so that it makes sense. So to organize your thinking, make an outline. Better than an outline, make a Mind-Map. Mind-mapping is a simple and elegant way of organizing your thinking visually, by mapping it. (It's what I'm using to write this article.) They’re easy to learn and your brain will thank you for doing so. Map your future. Find Blogger @ChuckFrey on the InterWebs. He's probably the best resource for mind-mapping. http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/author/admin/ #2. Find Your Retreat Oh, sorry, that was a typo. You don't want to retreat. You want querencia. Not familiar with that word? Too bad because it's a great one! Much better than retreat. Here's the definition of querencia: A place from which one’s strength of character is drawn. A place in which we know exactly who we are. The place from which we speak our deepest beliefs. It's a Spanish word but you should make it your word. We all need querencia. You need querencia to help you take ownership of your future. Finding querencia gives you a place to stand. Without a place to stand, everything you build, everything you plan is without foundation. Foundations first, then plans, then build. #3. Paid AttentionIf you're reading this, then you're the sort who's not really paid for your time, you're paid for your attention. Time is linear, attention is non-linear. Time is one damn thing after another. Attention is holistic, unlimited and very much not linear. We pay attention to lots of things at the same time. Teenagers, I have been told, can pay attention to ten different things at once and still be, like, bored. We falsely pride ourselves for being able to do that, but it’s not a strength, it’s become a weakness. About ten years ago, I was at a conference to speak just after Temple Grandin, the famous agriculture specialist who also happens to be autistic. Halfway through her talk on "Humane Animal Rendering," she spied a guy sitting near me and practically shouted at him, “You’re texting! Stop it!” Then looking out at everyone else, she said, "People! Stop multitasking! Multitasking makes you stupid!” Just a guess, but I’d say she lost that battle, because apparently we lost that war. This may be one of those memes that has no real science behind it, but I'm going to believe it and share it anyway: People in the first half of the last century were able to pay attention to something and keep that attention focused for upwards of 20 minutes at a time. Today, it's down to about 8 seconds of total concentration, which they say is right up there - no, strike that - right down there with goldfish. Squirrels, I'll wager, have a longer attention span than you do - and that's just nuts. A.D.O.S. Attention Deficit, Oooh, Shiny! So put a bit more effort into putting your technology in its place, which is more off to the side, much less in front. Slow down the madness, break the addiction, stop the behavior that has become indistinguishable from worship. Stop using your so-called smart device as a shield, use it as a tool. Understand that your tech not your most important tool, your own brain is. Your brain is the breakthrough app, if you’d only stop being so distracted towards every little new upgrade. Protect your attention. It’s the most valuable resource you own. Stop giving it away.
#1. Learn to Think Clearly
Sounds simple enough, but then there's what’s called, "Mrs. Peter's Law," to explain it a bit more:
"If you're not confused by what's going on today, you're just not thinking clearly."
Lots of research shows that our thinking is fairly muddled and we're way too easily distracted. We're confused mostly because we don't know how to find enough of the right information and then organize it so that it makes sense.
So to organize your thinking, make an outline. Better than an outline, make a Mind-Map. Mind-mapping is a simple and elegant way of organizing your thinking visually, by mapping it. (It's what I'm using to write this article.) They’re easy to learn and your brain will thank you for doing so. Map your future.
Find Blogger @ChuckFrey on the InterWebs. He's probably the best resource for mind-mapping. http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/author/admin/
#2. Find Your Retreat
Oh, sorry, that was a typo. You don't want to retreat. You want querencia. Not familiar with that word? Too bad because it's a great one! Much better than retreat.
Here's the definition of querencia: A place from which one’s strength of character is drawn. A place in which we know exactly who we are. The place from which we speak our deepest beliefs.
It's a Spanish word but you should make it your word. We all need querencia. You need querencia to help you take ownership of your future. Finding querencia gives you a place to stand. Without a place to stand, everything you build, everything you plan is without foundation.
Foundations first, then plans, then build.
#3. Paid Attention
We falsely pride ourselves for being able to do that, but it’s not a strength, it’s become a weakness. About ten years ago, I was at a conference to speak just after Temple Grandin, the famous agriculture specialist who also happens to be autistic. Halfway through her talk on "Humane Animal Rendering," she spied a guy sitting near me and practically shouted at him, “You’re texting! Stop it!” Then looking out at everyone else, she said, "People! Stop multitasking! Multitasking makes you stupid!” Just a guess, but I’d say she lost that battle, because apparently we lost that war.
This may be one of those memes that has no real science behind it, but I'm going to believe it and share it anyway: People in the first half of the last century were able to pay attention to something and keep that attention focused for upwards of 20 minutes at a time. Today, it's down to about 8 seconds of total concentration, which they say is right up there - no, strike that - right down there with goldfish. Squirrels, I'll wager, have a longer attention span than you do - and that's just nuts.
A.D.O.S. Attention Deficit, Oooh, Shiny!
So put a bit more effort into putting your technology in its place, which is more off to the side, much less in front. Slow down the madness, break the addiction, stop the behavior that has become indistinguishable from worship.
Stop using your so-called smart device as a shield, use it as a tool.
Understand that your tech not your most important tool, your own brain is. Your brain is the breakthrough app, if you’d only stop being so distracted towards every little new upgrade.
Protect your attention. It’s the most valuable resource you own. Stop giving it away.
For more of David's thought-provoking ideas, see Part 2 and Part 3 of our 3-Part Guest Blog Series.
And, if you enjoy David's posts, you’ll delight in seeing see him live, in-action, during Thursday’s keynote presentation at SEWI-ATD’s Fall Special Event. Register today!
Published on April 18, 2016
YouTube video: 4:17
https://youtu.be/H8__q4lZEtw
We had another terrific PDN with the SEWI-ATD Leaders of Learning group on Friday! Our topic was Emotional Intelligence: Defining it, discussion of formal training processes for staff development, resources, and organizational need. This blog repost, "7 Basic Emotional Intelligence Training Keys Your Boss Needs to Know About" by Aleesa Word, is a wonderful follow-up to our conversation.
And if you like that one, you’ll also enjoy this compelling article, “Emotional Intelligence Can Boost Your Career And Save Your Life,” by Dr. Travis Bradberry.
SEWI-ATD’s 2016 Fall Special Event has incited quite a buzz about the promises of virtual and augmented realities in the talent development industry! After having had many conversations with colleagues about it though, it seems that hesitations about its proliferation in training during the next few years greatly outweigh the faith that many have regarding their organization’s acceptance of futuristic methodologies anytime soon. Perhaps a four-generation workforce and the old-school mentality of some middle-aged upper managers is what brings certain progressive L&D initiatives to a screaming halt. Or maybe it’s limited budgeting and resources that are getting in the way. However, to get a glimpse of how AR & VR are moving fast in the public eye, and how that may begin to drive organizational change sooner rather than later, check out these 5 Top Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality Technology Trends for 2016.
Don’t have a multi-million dollar budget to create your own Pokémon-Go style game for Learning? Viable AR learning experiences are still possible and can be achieved in most organizations. Check out this essay by Anders Gronstedt (Keynote speaker at our upcoming 9/22/16 Fall Special Event) to learn more about the possibilities of blending VR, AR, Gamification, and Social Learning to entice and engage your learners.
Contact Usadmin@sewi-atd.orgPhone: 608-204-9815Association ManagersSeth TrickelHeather L. Dyer, CAE
