It’s day 17 of our 30 Day Brainstorm Challenge – Trainers Helping Trainers
I just wrapped up the Design and Delivery Bootcamp, and my biggest take-away? We need to work more on reaching out for help.
This group of trainers all work for the same organization, and they are wonderful people. They had great ideas, and open minds. Not to mention they asked really good questions about content design and they genuinely wanted to learn how to do better by their organization. It was a week where ideas flowed! I went through flipchart paper like a mouse goes through cheese.
Then it happened. When asked about informal learning and how they progressed their own knowledge of the training industry, the room got silent. Except with the exception of those who are clear readers, and one who had a podcast addiction. The other 14, well… so question then becomes – why don’t we reach out more to help each other?
Is this a leadership issue? Do we forget to encourage learning for our own people? The people in my group all admitted they are update within the business industry, but not training. Why was training, half of the job, out of sight – out of mind? They knew they needed help, but why not search for help? Because they don’t know where to start? Because they don’t know how to ask? Because as leaders we haven’t recognized the signs of a person struggling? All of the above?
I don’t have the answer but perhaps it starts with “Trainers Helping Trainers”. Maybe it starts with those of us who have made it a practice to focus on learning curiosity and help those who haven’t found their way to making personal knowledge management a practice. Helping those who don’t have strong learning networks? Of course, we can’t just march into a business and start a search and rescue. This where leadership needs to provide coaching and mentoring to team members, encouraging people on their team to build knowledge blocks.
If you are reading this, odds are you are in the L&D field. Part of this challenge, for us all, is to brainstorm how we can move the training field forward. How to encourage our team, others and even ourselves to reach out more. When trainers help trainers, the whole industry improves. Your challenge, find a new person to connect with and bring someone on your team with you. Find a new person to follow on twitter, subscribe to a new blog, read a book together, as a group research something new in the field. It all starts with one new piece of knowledge at a time.
#LETSDOTHIS
NO! It’s not too late to join! See the original 30 Day Brainstorm Challenge post here
See previous post: Day 15: Perseverance
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Great Post Shannon…
Those questions are real questions I have asked myself over and over again when I see the difficulty of people in finding out & searching out help when they need it. (I’ve fallen in that shoe myself several times)
It’s an interplay of the different issues you raise. Sometimes leaders & coaches need to learn to identify struggling people and offer help. But then sometimes if the trainees themselves are not comfortable with ‘being helped’, then efforts will not yield the best results.
However, if like you suggest, trainers begin to gently seek & offer help to other trainers, we can together build a healthy culture of helping each other to learn more, when we need it. A culture where ‘not knowing’ is perfectly acceptable and the ‘need-to-knows’ are not made to feel any less professional than the ‘i-knows’. A professional culture where the success of leaders is measured not by how much he ‘single-handedly knows’ but by how little the gap of knowledge between him & those around/under him! I know there’s more to consider on this issue… but a healthy & growing culture of continuous learning may further help, trainers help trainers!
BTW, I’ve been following & reading the 30-day challenge articles, only I couldn’t join this time – keep writing!
Thank you for your thoughts Daniel. I agree with you, there is something to be said about feeling safe enough to ask for help. Unfortunately, there are many people who feel insecure in their workplace, and to some extent, in their own network. All the more reason for us to reach out and help each other.
Thank you for reading along, maybe next time you can join in!