Confessions of a really new blogger

September 24, 2010

So I launched my blog this past Monday and announced it to the Twitterverse…got many retweets and congrats, and at least one blog mention (thanks again, Maggie!).

Now the reality sets in. I actually have to write this thing…it ain’t gonna write itself. After all, I don’t want to be like the bride who loves weddings and hates being married. I confess: this might be a big reason I haven’t started a blog before now. After all, it’s a commitment. Now that I’ve publicly said I’m gonna do this thing, I darn well better do it!

Sometimes, putting “it” out there, making it public, is a very good thing. I guess that’s why they tell you writing down your goals is so important. I think this blog is going to do some really good things for me.

• It will help me be more disciplined in when and how I write. Writing is hard work…just ask any writer who makes it look effortless (and there are a lot of them out there!). You can’t wing it; you can’t “mail it in.” Every writing teacher I ever had (not to mention every book in my writer’s library) told me the key to success in writing is to sit down and write. Regularly.

• It will force me to prioritize (or at least take a stab at it) what I want to think and write about. My really big challenge is that I have lots to learn and lots of things I want to learn, and lots of things I want to write about here. Even within the topic of learning – not to mention the peripherally related things that might end up on this blog. Ten minutes on Twitter and I’ve found 20 new websites to read…an hour on a live Twitter chat brings me new tweeps and a whole new set of links to explore. Simply by going through the process of prioritizing what’s important to this blog, I’ll get increasingly better at deciding where to focus, what to write about.

• It will help me refine my ideas. When I’m figuring things out, I’ll frequently “think out loud” (if you’ve ever been in conversation with me, you’ve likely heard me do it!). I “write out loud,” too…a sort of stream-of-consciousness process that helps me capture ideas and then mold them into something that makes sense (to me, anyway).

So even as I blog, I’m learning. Learning to be more disciplined, better at prioritizing, better at refining ideas. My big ‘ah-ha’ for the day…what was yours? Spend a little time thinking about it; you might surprise yourself.

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Want leading-edge learning? Think “different.”

September 15, 2010

Being an association professional development practitioner can be tough…month after month, year after year, you’re tasked with coming up with content and speaker ideas for education programs. It’s easy to fall into a routine and it can be tough to implement breakthrough ideas and concepts when the existing event model and planning cycle is entrenched.

Evidence is growing, however, that the current model needs breakthrough ideas…maybe even a complete overhaul.

Consider:

•  In a post titled “Take This LMS and Shove It,” Gary Wise (Living in Learning) quotes Josh Bersin: the average knowledge worker spends less than 5% of working hours in formal learning opportunities. Organizations spend as much of 80% of their learning resources on this 5%. So, workers [members] are spending 95% of their time in a work context – where informal learning flourishes. I’ll add to that: we repeatedly hear what is almost a conference axiom: the best conference learning happens in the hallways. There’s a reason it does.

•  In her constantly evolving, multi-website resource, Jane Hart (Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies) identified 10 factors driving change in workplace learning (see graphic at right). These factors apply to association learning too; especially the idea that our heavy emphasis on designing content-driven events is an outmoded industrial-age model insufficient for today’s learning needs. Continue reading →

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First isn’t always best

August 25, 2010

When I think about “first,” I usually think about best, as in “first place.” Or the lead, as in being out front in a race. Or perhaps being first-born, as in what I am in my family.

In thinking about what to write for my first post in my first blog, however, it strikes me that “first” hopefully will not be the best! I plan to be writing this blog for a long time, and after years of writing other things I know the value of striving to continually improve my craft. I write a lot; I write to “think out loud” when I’m by myself, to gather my thoughts for a new project, or to sound out some ideas by putting them on paper and seeing how they flow. I write to keep a record, such as when I’m on a journey and I want to remember what the experience felt like when I was in the middle of it.

These are some of the same reasons I decided to finally get going and launch the Learning Evangelist. It’s been in the planning stages (in my mind, anyway) for a long time – a “home base” from which to join the exciting conversation I see happening online every day. I hope to contribute to that conversation and exchange ideas and continue to learn from all of you each and every day. Learning is, after all, a journey…a glorious journey through life! Rosalind Russell as Auntie Mame said it best: “Life is a banquet…and most poor suckers are starving to death!”

Won’t you join me at the banquet?

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