Why Mentoring? Why Now?

Today (Tuesday 29th July 205), I posted an announcement on the social media channels #LinkedIn, #facebook and #Instagram advising my professional community that, at this late stage of my career, I am now offering a professional mentoring service. The posts looked like this... 

And my social media feeds blew up! 

I have been overwhelmed with the responses. In LinkedIn alone, 100+ 'likes', 49 comments and endorsements and 11 reposts; in facebook, 19 likes and 15 comments; and in Instagram, 17 likes and 7 comments - all favourable, supportive, affirming and just downright humbling. I've never had such positive reaction to anything I've posted before. 

It seems like I've hit on a professional service offering that has resonated with many. 

Indeed, I've already had several enquiries and am lining up exploratory calls with some people to see if there's a potential fit and to consider options for entering into a mentor/mentee relationship with each other. I am very excited about all of this. 

But, to my initial question: Why mentoring? Why now? 

Because I'm not done yet. Yes, I'm 'getting on a bit' now, but everything still seems to be working (don't ask), although I no longer have the stamina for commuting, nor for working 5 days a week either, thank you.

My career has spanned almost 50 years, over 35 of them in Learning and Development, but I've got even more years of lived work experience dating back to 1976 when I left drama school in Edinburgh (See my profile at the top of this blog page). 

And now, as I approach my 70th Birthday in December, it's time to slow down, look up, and focus on what I seem to have done best all through my career - support individuals and help connect them with others on their workplace journeys. 

I want to acknowledge all the brilliant, talented and generous people I have worked or interacted with professionally throughout this time, many of whom have become good friends and many of whom I have looked up to - and still do - as leaders and mentors in their own right. You know who you are. 

So for now, onwards! Work to do. People to help.

I’ll keep you posted.

Back to Basics

Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

I went to Olympia London on Tuesday 4^th February for a wander and catchup at the World of Learning Summit Exhibition. A relaxed and enjoyable experience, in a familiar and inviting space, I visited some exhibitor stands, purposefully - and sometimes accidentally - met some of my professional pals and basically recharged my L&D batteries.

A recurring topic of conversation was that the AI in Learning hype seems to have quietened down, as the reality of the tools, it’s limitations and its benefits, have challenged the L&D profession to really question its efficacy and relevance. In my view this is a good thing.

I detected a more mature repositioning of L&D’s attitude to and use of Artificial Intelligence. It seems it has challenged us to look at ourselves and what we do, through the lens of a powerful tool that will only serve us if and when we get our own house in order.

Initially, AI will work best for us as a beast of burden, taking on our boring admin, content scraping and weeding, and freeing us up to be more creative and relevant in supporting our customers with better learning solutions.

And we can do that better by going back to basics.

We need to get to grips with proving impact – and for that, we need data. And data is the lifeblood of AI. The insights and evidence of our impact should then follow.

On Monday, Wesley Atkinson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesleyatkinson/) posted a short piece on LinkedIn which prompted me to think about how L&D could meet AI in that space.

“If you’re not organised and don’t track/plan ahead, proving the impact of an e-learning course is going to be hard.

To do this properly, you need:
- A business counterpart to collaborate with.
- At least two measurable data points to track.
- To figure out what to track BEFORE you launch the course.

Proving ROI on an e-learning course is about tracking the right numbers from the start.

Without a plan, it’s impossible to demonstrate business impact.”

Boom! (Thanks Wes.)

Three things for me here:

-        An engaged business stakeholder is essential to assist learning designers to ensure their solution is relevant to the organisation.

-        No data, no evidence of impact!

-        AI to evaluate evidence, assess the impact and suggest further refinements .

Is AI the kick in the pants that L&D needs to be better? Or am I oversimplifying here? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this take.