Thinking about all the stuff you’ve learned – in formal workshops, conferences, meetings, webinars, classes – or perhaps things you’ve read or re-tweeted or blogged about, is there some concept or tool or idea or theory you plan to re-visit and make an effort to incorporate into your daily routine? Even if it was something you picked up a year ago, it’s not too late to re-visit!
In my June 5 blog post, I declared that I would review my notes from presentations and the highlighted parts of books I’ve read and I would return to this space to turn some of the things I’ve learned over the past year into specific actions and habits.
Since the beginning of 2013, I’ve spent more than 60 hours in formal professional development sessions – conferences, webinars, day-long or half-day workshops. I’ve read some or all of 15 books to improve my knowledge base and performance. I’ve read countless blog posts, twitter links and had many conversations with other people in the L&D field. I’ve written over 160 blog posts. I’ve ate, breathed and lived L&D.
I have a lot of notes from all of these experiences. A LOT. While reviewing these notes has given me many, many ideas and reminded me of many cool things I’d like to try on Monday morning when I get to the office, I can’t do everything at once. Between now and the end of the year, I will try to up my game in many areas, but there are two specific things I plan to focus on and incorporate into my personal and professional life as much as possible:
- Kegan & Lahey’s Immunity Map. This was first introduced to me during my master’s program in an organizational development class. It is a tool based upon Kegan & Lahey’s change management work and I was reminded of this concept and tool during a recent Immunity to Change workshop I attended.
- Using variables in Articulate Storyline. I am truly a sucker for any blog post from Tom Kuhlman or Mike Taylor or David Anderson or Nicole Legault or anyone else related to Articulate. They have lots of tips and tricks and I’ve tried some of them out – sometimes the tips make my elearning projects better. Sometimes I don’t seem to do it correctly and I screw up the whole module. Regardless, one thing that continues to lack in my elearning is the use of variables in allowing learners to lock or unlock various elements on the screen before they can proceed to the next item. Before I learn any more tips or tricks with Storyline, I commit to learning how to better use variables in order to make the learner experience better or more challenging (or both).
Please forgive me if you see fewer tweets or re-tweets or comments about new things I’m reading over the next few weeks and months. I’ll be focused on bringing some specific new skills and habits into my daily routine.
Train Like A Champion will not have its usual Thursday post this week. I’ll be immunity mapping or learning how to use variables (or maybe I’ll just be getting ready for the 4th of July). We’ll see you back here on Monday, July 7.
