An Open Letter to Tony Bingham and the ASTD Board of Directors

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Tricia Ransom

Dear Tony,

On Tuesday, May 6th, you announced that our entire organization has changed our name, logo, focus, colors, etc. Effective immediately.

You said that you’ve spoken with countless CEOs and other leaders who recognize our efforts and how important our field is.
You highlighted three executives, Senior Vice Presidents and higher, to tout the change. You emphasized the fact that you kept this change a secret for 2.5 years.

Listen now to the voices of the tens of thousands of us who will never be an executive.
Listen to the vast majority of the organization you lead.
Listen to the people you are supposed to serve.

LISTEN!

We wanted to take this journey of change with you. You denied us. Why?

We wanted to share our ideas, thoughts and suggestions about how we can grow. You denied us. Why?

We have opinions to share with you. You never asked us. Why?

I agree with the new logo.I mainly agree with the new name, although many of us would like to include performance.
I agree we are more than training.
I agree this is a new century and we need to embrace change.

Change comes about because of stakeholder buy-in.

I’m a stakeholder.

I argue that all of us who work day in and day out in cubes  are more of your stakeholders than any CEO or CLO.
We, the privates on the front line, are the people you are supposed to serve and support – not the generals in the Pentagon.

Listen to us. Ask us what we want. You don’t have to implement our choices, but least ask.

Currently, I’m evaluating the benefit I get from each of my professional affiliations.
That means I’m evaluating what is important to me, Tricia Ransom. My priorities are an organization that:

  • Talks WITH me.
  • ASKS me what I want.
  • Is genuine.
  • Provides realistic, tangible and relevant benefits.
  • Is transparent.

I don’t need theory. I don’t need books.
I can go to twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook to learn most everything that was presented at ASTD 2014.
I don’t need an organization that decides what is best for me.

Please, reach out to the tens of thousands of members. Not on your website or your LinkedIn group. And not with an email that uses the exact script you used on Tuesday.

Reach out to us where we live now. Ask us where we’ve gone and why. Please.

Next year, no more executives on the big screens. Resonate with your audience. Have one of us, in our cube, with all of our messiness. Show us the reality of who we are.

Sincerely,

Tricia Ransom

Instructional Designer, eLearning Developer, Virtual Training Facilitator, ILT Facilitator, audio voice over creator, performance supporter, Social Media, Connector, Project Manager, Cat Herder, cube-dweller, IMPORTANT ATD MEMBER

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Childhood, Learning and Development, Life and Learning Rebels

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Tricia Ransom

The Learning Rebels are blogging about this topic . They are MUCH more eloquent than I am, and they inspired me to jot down a few thoughts.

My take on this topic is that we’re really making our field way more complicated than it needs to be L&D, Instructional Design, Social Learning, PLN, KM, whatever you want to call it….I’m going to call it Life 101. The longer I’m in this field, the more I’m convinced that L&D is Life 101:

  • Respect people. Time, intelligence, experience and knowledge
  • Speak clearly.
  • Keep it simple but challenging, just like those word problems.
  • People know where they want to go. Show them where they are now, and give them a map and support to reach their goals.
  • Encourage people to learn.
  • When giving feedback, even if the answer is correct, build on it. Add a challenge in.

This is how my parents raised me and my brother. This is how I was taught in school. And I think it is more relevant today than ever with the explosion of knowledge, blurring of barriers between work and personal, and just the general lack of time.

Respectful, Simple, Challenging, Encouraging, and Clear.

fyi: I’ve been talking about this since 2010: The Sandbox: All I need to Know about L&D I Learned as a Kid.

Posted in 2013, learning | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

12 August 2013 = Cancer Free For Me!

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Tricia Ransom

As of Monday, August 12, 2013, it’s official. I’m CANCER FREE!

And all of this is 5 months.

 

Here’s what I learned from March 28th to August 12th:

1) Always listen to your mother

2) It’s not a lump. it’s a frozen pea.

3) If you feel a hard frozed pea anywhere in your breast, get it checked out ASAP!!!

4) If the pea is squishy like it is defrosting, not urgent but not good.

—————————————————————————————–
MY CANCER TIMELINE:

James Watkins (my husband) was with me for every single appointment, visit, everything. He takes care of me and loves me. And I love him.

  • Jan, Feb, March 2013: mom keeps telling me to get a physical
  • March 28 2013: I get a physical. Dr feels a small lump basically in my left armpit. Was leaving the next day on a business trip, but set up a mammogram for day I came back.
  • April 8 2013: Get mammogram, and Dr wasn’t comfortable with what she was seeing. She did immediate biopsy
  • April 9 2013: I was diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. And I named my lump “Lumpy” short for Lumpina.
  • May 7 2013: I had 3 surgeries at once. They removed Lumpy (yippee). They removed some of my sentinel lymph nodes (to determine if Lumpy was spreading), and the girls got a free reduction and lift!!!!
  • June 2013: Determined that I did NOT NEED CHEMO (there was much rejoicing and happy dances that day)
  • July 2-August 12 2013: Every Mon-Fri, my husband drove us 20 miles to radiation center where my left breast was blasted w/radiation to kill any rogue Lumpy cells. And then he drove me to work, and picked me up. Every single day.

Except for about 2-3 weeks to recover from surgery, I worked this whole time.

Posted in Cancer, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Applying or Understanding?

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Tricia Ransom

I have a huge problem when courses, workshops, seminars, trainings, call-it-what-you-will that uses the word “understanding” as an objective.

I propose a 3-step experiment

1: Ask dozen 8yr-olds if they understand why they need to say please, excuse me and thank you.

2: Ask the test group to explain why it is important to say please, excuse me and thank you.

3. Record the test group throughout their normal day and document how many times they actually apply please, excuse me and thank you correctly.

My hypothesis is that all of the test subjects understand the importance of polite behaviors – they just don’t always apply the behaviors

And that brings me back to where I began. I find it much more critical for a “learner” (for lack of better word) to know when, where, why and how to apply a behavior. Knowing the when, where, why, who and how will by default take care of understanding.

Learning you can apply or information you understand? Arguments can be made for both sides, but I work in corporate America with a focus on results. And to me application=results.

Posted in learning | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Aches and Laughter

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Tricia Ransom

I think that I’ve been pretty lucky in the 24 hours since surgery for the low levels of pain I’ve experienced. Lets call it strong discomfort.

And you know what helps with that besides narcotic pain medicine? Laughter! Although in theory it hurts to laugh, once I’ve finished laughing I don’t feel the pain/discomfort nearly as much.

Besides, when I’m laughing I’m not focused on myself which is always a good thing.

Posted in Cancer, Personal | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment