One thing that happens as you age, and provided you’ve been paying attention, is that patterns seem to emerge. You hear some people talking, and you can quickly determine what is going on, hostile, friendly, business, personal, whatever, from the patterns exhibited. Many things start to look familiar.
And you get the feeling you’ve seen most things before. Because you have.
If you believe learning by doing is a superior method of learning, and training, certainly better than old boring lectures, reading, etc, you’re in good (well, maybe not good) company. Many educators and trainers believe the same — that “real” learning can only occur if learners are demonstrably active. That is, you can see them doing something. Then again most trainers lack a sound education in learning and learning theories, at least to the breadth and depth needed to be competent in helping other people learn.
Here’s the thing. Despite the fact that most trainers come at learning from a humanistic perspective that emerged from the 60′s, they tend to ignore some human capabilities that distinguish us from animals. Animals tend to learn by doing because they lack abilities that we have. Hamsters learn by trial and error, primarily, and by the effects of reinforcement, but that mode of learning by doing is one of the least effective methods. Then again, hamsters don’t have many other options. And yet again, again, a wrong move in the learning by doing might result in the hamster’s demise.
If you run a training or consulting business and have been watching your income erode over the last months, no doubt you are feeling pressure. We all are. It’s good to consider that the poor economy isn’t going to last forever, and that you have options,particularly if you have enough financial strength to that you can ignore current lower revenue, and build for increased revenue when things improve.
It is an ideal time, particularly if you have less work, to start looking at new product/service lines. Introducing innovative products and services can place you way ahead of the game come the recovery. So build your “infrastructure” for the long term.
Once it was possible to set up discussion lists (or similar forums) that would, eventually, and essentially become self-sustaining, and fairly self regulating. Many such professional groups (which were for sharing and learning) emerged and ran successfully for a number of years. HRNET, for example ran successfully without almost any leadership or tending. Others, also.
But that was then, and what it takes to open and run a forum, or professional list, has changed. An online community needs far more nurturing and gardening than it did before. When they die, it’s not because the format is outdated, but it’s because what worked before no longer works. If you run a learning community, you need to lead, and you need to garden.