Unexpected Learning

Musings from ATD2015

I'm in Orlando at the Association for Talent Development International Conference and Exposition, fondly known in the industry as ATD ICE. This is my second year, and I'm still amazed by the mammoth size of this event. I forgot from last time that I should have prepared for the Boston Marathon prior to coming here. This place is HUGE and I'm convinced that I am walking several miles between the parking lot and between sessions. 

It's also an interesting thing to see the family gathering atmosphere that occurs here as people who have made connections over the years reconnect at the conference. There's lots of catching up, and I suspect that there are some job connections that come from this event as people build their PLN. One the flip side, if you come alone, things can be daunting and feel clique-ish. It's important to realize that things are not like that at all. Everyone is welcome and often invited. 

The discoveries so far have been rather unexpected.

MUSING One
GIRLFRIEND, Get Down Off Your PRIVILEGED High Horse

When I arrived in town I picked up my rental car and began to grumble about how uncomfortable it was and WHAT! It didn't have power windows and locks. It's a Kia Rio, and definitely NOT a car I'd ever buy for myself because the headrest pitches you toward the windshield and it's really hard to get comfortable.

I drove from the airport to the timeshare I'd rented for the week. RCI had a special promotion of an extra week of vacation for $249, so I cancelled my reservation at the Hyatt, right next to the convention center, and booked a week at the High Point World Resort. The pictures looked good, and the reviews were mainly five star. I'd always had wonderful resorts whenever we'd stayed at RCI places, so I had great expectation, especially after the resort we stayed at for Learning Solutions with its full service, incredible food, poolside restaurant by the enormous pools with multiple hot tubs and posh accommodations.

This place was a little different. My GPS sent me to the strip with all the cheap souvenir shops and down a tiny road to what looked like a pre-fab housing development of budget townhouses. The welcome center was two guys at a desk. One checked me in and the other handed me a stack of paperwork about the "amenities" which included a hot dog roast by the pool in the middle of the complex on Wednesday night.

I found my unit and walked into 1980 complete with the brown canvas couch, the VCR and the Formica furniture in the bedroom, complete with mirrored closet doors.

It looked clean anyway, so I settled where I met the lizard running around the walls of my living room. Oh boy. Could this get any worse? At least it wasn't a mouse. 

I posted something on the ATD Facebook page about the lizard and Michele Lawson suggested I give him a red feather and invite him for networking. So I named him Richard, after someone I'd met at dinner, and decided I could deal with him.

It's funny, how that little bit of perspective changed everything. Last night when I got back Richard was no where to be found, despite his very visible dashing presence the night before. I was kind of sad about that.

This morning I woke up and realized that this place would be luxurious if I were in India and decided that it's not so bad after all, even though the wi-fi is not working. I have a hot spot on my phone. What's the big deal? What was so annoying yesterday is not so much of a bother. I realized that I needed to get down off my high horse and be grateful for having a place that saved me a ton of money and a car that gets me to the conference safely. I have sneakers to wear to be comfortable in the marathon walk from the parking lot, and can walk off some of the calories from the fabulous meals we've been eating. So first lesson learned: In the moments of tiredness, annoyances are bigger than they really are. Get over it and put things in perspective.

MUSING TWO
UNexpected Conversations

I was invited to dinner gatherings by two people I'd never met before, and I'm so grateful to Michelle Lawson and Megan Torrance, who gathered together random groups of people to go to dinner. I ate at Margianno's Italian restaurant and Fogo de Chao Brazilian Steak Houses; both places I wouldn't have stumbled on. The food was great but the company was really fascinating.

I met Richard and Austin from Sage Media out in Denver. They do video, which was pretty interesting, but the conversation evolved to elements of film, which is something I know next to nothing about. It was really interesting piecing fragments of the conversation together with my little knowledge store in this area. I wonder how often that happens in our training classes? Definitely something to think about to make sure that I attach new concepts to something familiar.

On Sunday I had breakfast with Aaron Silvers, a long time Twitter friend of mine who is an expert in xAPI, and his friend Russell Duhon. It was interesting hearing the geek side of the process and the evolution from SCORM, something no one really understands, but we are expected to conform learning in our LMS to it. I wish my friend Jason Kramer would have been there. He'd have eaten that up. Perhaps another conference.

Musing Three
Learnings So Far

I've been focusing on instructional design at this conference. I attended a workshop on Design Thinking for Instructional Designers with Angel Green from Allen Interactions. She walked us through some exercises we could use with our SMEs, which generated an oh duh! moment for me: Leverage Design Thinking Principles with our SMEs. I'd recently taught the principles of Design Thinking to my team of IDs and never thought to have them use that with their SMEs.

After teaching my session, I went to a workshop with Dick Handshaw and Jim Robinson called When Instructional Design Meets Performance Management. I'm trained in both disciplines, but it was really nice to have a refresher from the people who were key influencers in practices we use today. I'd never thought about the importance of getting to the right SME to identify the business issue, and that often means escalating a level or two. I plan to share their slides with my team and work a little harder to dig out the business issue around the behavior problem or need we need to solve for. When training addresses and corrects a business issue, the business sees training as a valued partner. I returned to Dick's ID workshop today and was reminded yet again how important that is.

Today I attended Ken Blanchard's presentation on the new One Minute Manager. His original book is over 20 years old. Business has changed, but paying attention to employees has not. Connecting, praising and redirecting toward the goal go a long way in developing people. It's amazing to have been able to see the pioneers and leaders in our discipline in person. 

Reflection is important

I've been tweeting up a storm at this conference. It's been great meeting people, and sharing the nuggets that I've been discovering in workshops. I really appreciate having the handouts available and online so I can go back to them and add them to my notes. I'm not convinced I appreciate the long trek from one end of the building to another between workshops and from parking to the conference, but I have appreciated having quiet time to reflect like this.

I've learned a lot so far. How about you?