Are you sitting with the "right" people?
Last night after work here in London, 5 of us went out to dinner and quickly the conversation went FROM "tell us about California," TO "let's brainstorm ways we can produce educational programming for the bank in a way that engages more learners?"
Jodi and I took the opportunity to share many of the programs we've been involved with creating over the past three years. In fact, just last weekend we were co-presenters during some sessions at PresentationCampLA - a GREAT example of what happens when you "put the right people in the room."
Last night's dinner was very exciting for three reasons:1) More groups are willing to experiment with "what could be." This is exciting, as we can capitalize on both traditional and "new" learning models to engage more associates in the learning and implementation process. For example, I can take my practice with "Bloom's Taxonomy" of lesson plan building, and add in my own understanding and use of Twitter as a learning tool.
2) It's ok to have a "not perfect" idea. One of the special things about having dinner with people I have a history with, is they know that my idea-generation ability is pretty expansive...Give me a couple of hours, with the right people at the table, and we'll create many more ideas than we could ever implement!
3) And, finally (an extension of #2 above), when I DO pick something to do...Watch out: It will get done! It's amazing when we take the opportunity to Stop...Reflect...Consider...Act...Assess.
So, we'll be back in London in September (and Zurich) and in between now and then A LOT more travel (check out the schedule on the right side of our newsletter page...) as we're partnering with more learning organizations.
The good news about being "learning consultants" is that each group we work with benefits from ALL we see going on out there (and...There is a LOT going on...).