Skip to main content

Fly on the wall

Recently, I was a fly on the wall on a couple of discussions by a gathering of LnD associates. Yes, I admit, it was a boring event, but instead of feeling bored, I switched roles to that of someone who observes dispassionately, and here is what I gathered (this is tongue in cheek of course)

1. LnD people run the business. They do more than the business teams, founders, top level leaders and everybody else. Without them, there would be savages and philistines running the company.
2. Lnd people are therapists, counsellors, coaches, psychologists and conscience keepers rolled into one. It is a pity they are paid the salary of one person only.
3. LnD people believe they know everything. Including and not limited to the "Theory of everything". Just that nobody asked them. Else, the Nobels would have been ours people - seemed to be a collective feeling.
4. Any more navel gazing, and they would be Buddhas with the luminosity of their high salaries as the halo around their head.
5. They cant believe that their great meal (Michelin star ratings learning equivalents top rated) of trainings is being left untouched by the masses. The masses must be wrong the talking heads say. They always are, arent they? They dont get it. They dont have evolved tastes - those Netflix chomping, Whatsapp gazing masses.
6. LnD people know the future of work so well, they have been discussing this for 15 years now. And yet online courses remain the same bland thing you saw when Windows3.11 was running on computers. They whined that the rest of the organization isnt seeing the future.
7. Despite using Blockchain and paying with Bitcoin, the training experiences are poor, they lamented
8. But they are sure that ML and AI with a spot of AR and VR will solve all their problems, exactly the same way Microlearning and 702010 did 3 and 7 years ago respectively
9. These consultants are ohsobad, they said - and we can never get good consultants despite paying by the hour and dollars at that.
10. They buy the best content, but it is never good enough - sigh.
11. They all read the same books, if at all they do (and it is a very narrow set of them, if you have any doubts. The same TED talk gang that keeps referring each other in their books)
12. They research a lot, by typing keywords into Google - but nowadays quality of Google output is also poor it seems
13. 30 years, later, they are still figuring out the ROI of training. This must be the longest unsolved problem on earth just after the Theory of everything.
14. Gamification is the next new old big thing - apparently everything has to have accompanying badges and stars. They nodded.
15. Blended is the way to go. Phygital. Microlearning - everybody was sure.
16. What about right brain they ask the left brainers. And the opposite question to the others. They themselves are circular brains. This alone deserved the Ignobel.

My potential recruiters and potential clients, if you are reading this, please judge me on this and I will guarantee you better answers than this. 

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Be Civil. Make nice!

Popular posts from this blog

The man who saved Pumpelsdrop

This was a story we had in college if I am not mistaken. Perhaps it was in school, but a delightful story it was. The story goes somewhat like this ( reproduced from here ), but the college version we had was slightly different from this.  I t was a dull, gloomy and a depressing morning in a town named Pumpelsdrop in northern England. The Great Depression had brought all the businesses to a standstill. The bored automobile dealer was spending time alone, as usual. But, this seems to be an unusual morning as an odd entity (customer) appeared on the horizon. A man in a bright suit walks up to the dealer and says, "I need to buy a Rolls Royce Phantom II. We have a business conference coming up and I need to impress my customers". Then proceeds to pay 10% of the deal with a single check for 2000 pounds. The rest he says will pay when he takes the delivery.   The auto dealer was stunned. He was delighted to hear that someone is holding a business conference of some kind and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

And the unconference happened

 Most conferences have an agenda. No, not the stated agenda, but an agenda of marketing, airtime to sponsors, ensuring the past and future customers are invited, of ensuring that the "stars" of the industry are invited and attention showered of them. All in all it is a your scratch my back, I scratch your back syndrome. Some of these become cliques and claques and therefore the real point behind a conference is lost. And then there is the unconference - organised and run by the alumni of the ISABS ODCP program. And as the name suggests, this is truly an un-conference organised by the alumni, for the alumni. No funders - except the alumni themselves. No sponsors. Just the team.  I havent seen a more tastefully organised conference (yes, its an unconference).  To begin with - the location - not a typical star hotel, but an outdoorsy place. The food - simple. The welcome - personal. It was like a homecoming. The setting was warm and welcoming. It was a smaller conference. Ju...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why does elearning exist?

 Elearning is one of those niches that does not deserve to exist. Yes, it was a novelty 20 years ago, but not now. It cannot exist. But somehow it does. Disclaimer: I used to head a content team once upon a time. And I used to ask those whom I hired - tell me the last thing you learnt from an e-learning. The answer is - pretty much nothing (and this is a good decade ago).  Why?  If you want to learn a recipe, you go to Youtube, or Reels or something like that. If you are terribly old fashioned - as in, you read - then you go to a website and read the recipe and make it.  Most other things you learn by doing or learning on the job or asking an expert.  If you have to learn something in depth, then there are other ways.  So, where does e-learning fit in all this? E-learning is one of those products that the customer hates, but has no choice, because someone has decided it is the best way. For instance, you have to learn a new CRM or some other product - you w...
Post a Comment
Read more