I’ve been on the road a lot recently, and I realized I’ve been recycling a lot of my go-to ideas for a variety of projects. The airline miles, the steady diet of fast food, the jet lag, the unnecessary late nights flipping through tv channels instead of going to sleep just because I have access to a tv with HBO, the simple busy-ness of being on the road – it can all conspire to wear me down after a while and leave me looking around desperately for some fresh, new ideas.
Following are several sources of new ideas that have given me a boost over the past several weeks. Hopefully you can find some inspiration in here somewhere, too!
Inspiration in small bites. Want some inspiration 140 characters at a time? Check out Jane Hart’s latest list of 100+ people who tweet about workplace learning. Be sure to follow #80!
Pokemon Inspiration. Want to think about some transferable lessons that Pokemon Go can offer to L&D professionals? There have been a variety of articles written over the past week or so, but I’m leaning toward JD Dillon’s post as the most insightful and actionable on the topic.
Inspiration on the go. Want to listen to some instructional design insights and tips from a range of successful practitioners? Kristin Anthony has released 14 episodes of her podcast (so far) called Dear Instructional Designer. I like this podcast series not just because there are some really smart, successful people talking about their instructional design craft, but also because it’s obvious Kristin is having fun putting these interviews together. Give it a listen. And for ongoing inspiration, subscribe to it!
Inspiration with impact. I’ve written about Will Thalheimer’s unbelievably important book on overhauling Level 1 (post-training session) feedback forms. The fact that this book is so simply written and so immediately applicable with tons of sample questions is exciting. The fact that he’s already writing about early lessons learned from people who have read the book and adding more sample questions via his blog is pretty energizing, too.
Mindless inspiration. Several months ago I mentioned this short video, a mock 30-for-30 documentary offering some insights as to why the Soviet crowd switched sides during the epic Rocky Balboa-Ivan Drago match. It really doesn’t have anything to do with learning and development, but it makes me laugh, and laughter can be inspirational… or at least energizing. It’s definitely a go-to video for me when I need a quick pick-me-up.
Where do you turn for inspiration when you’re running out of ideas?
