New Year's Resolutions

Learning is often a bridge over troubled water. It gives us the shore on the other side. It transforms who we are, how we behave, what we create. Always for the good. Always for the better. 

The amazing year of 2008—annus horribilis—increases the urgency of learning beyond anything I’ve seen in my lifetime. White collar parasites, blue collar troglodytes, chimeric markets, hollowed out institutions, the collapse of financial systems, industrial meltdown, a teetering global economy. The cross currents of this troubled water are a furious Hell’s Kitchen. For the most part, we ourselves are the demons.

It’s time then for learning pros to pull out the stops for our New Year’s Resolutions. Everybody makes their own. If you’ve got good ones, share them here. I’ve made a Top-10 list for myself and learning pros I work with.

1. Fun. Give pleasure. The journey over the torrent should be thrilling.
2. Games. The silver bullets of learning. Make them deep, variable, challenging.
3. Scenarios. Replace slides with stories. Experience trumps bullet points.
4. Simulations. Make sure learners can do what they know. That’s our job. 
5. Virtual Worlds. Tear down the walls of learning. Make it easy for everybody to enter.
6. Learning Management. Teach more, manage less. Stop shoveling! 
7. Social Networks. It does take a village. Catalyze peer-to-peer learning.
8. Return on Investment. Spend as little as possible on great stuff. Don’t buy crap. 
9. Training Evaluation. As in baseball measure the details. That’s how we win.
10. Instructional Technology. Put your head in the cloud. It’s the future of learning.

Resolutions like these may get us to a better world in 2009. Our time has come to shine. All our dreams are on their way.

Comments

[Jamie Turner]

Nice thoughts, Bob. I have a deceptively simple formula for my New Year's resolutions. It's so simple, it almost seems elementary, but once people use it, many people realize that it helps a lot because it talks about goals AND tactics for achieving those goals.

The formula is:
I will (accomplish this) by (doing this).

I write down about 10 every year and break them into categories -- health, career, family life, marital life, spiritual life, etc.

One other thing I came across a few weeks ago was to have a singe word "theme" for your year. It might be "balance" or "focus" or whatever. But that single word can help etch your goals in your mind.

All the best,
Jamie