 By Al Morris How do you start a blog again, it’s been a while? Perhaps with a joke, or a nice story that helps to set the scene, maybe even to pose a question, or… we can simply just come to a consensus between us both that it’s started and bypass any awkward formalities.
All good? Yup, great. Today I am here to tell a not so unique story, well it’s unique to me I guess but probably much like many other people out there. Ok, deep breath…. 3 2 1 “I hate Training” There I said it, feels good to get it out there. “Education”, oh another word that strikes fear deep in my soul. Want to hear another, “Curriculum”, oh the chills. What a strange opinion of somebody who spends 90% of his working life talking about training. You’d think I must be miserable, but you would be surprised. I am kind of like the pupil who hates school then grows up to be a teacher. It’s one thing taking part in training, and another living it. Here is why. How I learn For somebody, that has from day dot hated education and training I sure know how to do a lot of things. This is for one very simple reason…. I learn as I go. Throw me in front of a broken car, and say fix it, I will become giddy with excitement from the unknown future that stands before me. Organise a 1-day book based, theory based, discussion-based training session and I would sell my right arm to not go. Here's a list of throw me in at the deep end feats that I have learned the most from, in no particular order:
I am sure there are many more, but as I said at the beginning, let’s get to the point, eh? My point is, I am on the most part of it a total and utter wuss. If you give me a chance to run away from things that scare me I would. I know this and have developed the only coping mechanism that works for me to achieve anything in life which is to say YES to everything. Can you stay late tonight and work? Yes Can you write a blog post for us? Yes (here you go) Can you win that job, with that client you know nothing about, in 5 minutes? Yes You get the idea. The benefits & pitfalls Over my 37 years in life, this has taught me a lot. Mostly that you can do and achieve anything you focus your mind on, but also that you learn a ridiculous amount of things if you can cope with the stress. I am also very aware that you need to be ok with imperfection, and ready to fail. It is through the failures that you learn the most. I have become incredibly resilient to change, open to new and wonderful ideas and can often see hidden connections between people, abilities and solutions that many others cannot. You see, there is nobody on this entire planet who has failed to learn anything. As humans we are physically and mentally incapable of it. My negative thoughts on the stereotypical education are not mine alone, and can be one of the most overbearing reasons why people do not progress in their careers, do not strive for growth and do not believe training is worth it. The honest truth is if you are like me, then the education as we know it is not worth it. It will do nothing but further demoralise your desire to improve and add to the existing negativity around training. Al & Neve I remember that just over 1 year ago, Angela Kate and Myself were on a Zoom call discussing the future of Education. CivTech had just announced their 5th round of challenges, and we embarked on solving the solution of re-imagining immersive digital learning. One of the main things we knew is that we were all different, we all learn best in different ways and what works for one will not work for all. The training/learning platforms we all know are great for some but not others. This is the understood, this is the expected, this is the current good enough. When there is plenty of choice, then why do we all need to use the same one. You use that one over there, I will use this one and all’s good, right? Well in some ways yes, in many other ways no. We talk often about working in cross functional teams, the huge benefit that comes from working with diversity of thought. Well what are the effects of that in an educational setting? What happens when our training platforms naturally categorise and file people into pots based on how users like to learn. We once again find ourselves surrounded in the familiar. Neve means something different for everybody, and so it should. For me it means ‘training unique to you as you are unique’, and providing an accessible space in which diversity of thought and diversity of experiences can co-exist together. That is my aim, and I will fight for the right to learn uniquely by promoting individuality and supporting alternative forms of education to co-exist. An example thought to leave you on What room would you rather be in? What do you get when you put the world’s leading car designers in a room together and tell them to make something? Probably the next biggest thing in car design, I guess. However… What do you get if you take one of those designers, alongside a chef, a singer, a postie, data entry clerk, shop worker, a surgeon, 3 children, a gran and Mrs Smith my primary 6 teacher? All at different ages, with different levels of ability and different opinions and agendas. I have no idea to be honest, haha, but it sounds way more exciting, challenging and interesting to me. Written by Al Morris, Digital Transformation Lead at This is Milk. To talk to us about how Neve can turn your training into an experience that even Al would enjoy, send us a message and we'll be in touch. Interested in investing in Neve, find out more and register here.
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