Speed of Information Changing Training

Have you ever been struck with a concept the first time, then that same concept seems to appear everywhere, validating it for you?  As someone with over 20 years’ experience providing adult training, it suddenly hit me that the internet and social media have forever changed how training professionals operate.  The world our kids are preparing for is vastly different than the one their parents were introduced to as adults.

Marketing professionals say that businesses must have a social media presence and be savvy in order to succeed, however, it is also true that information moves so quickly that it is impossible to know everything.   At a technology conference two years ago, an expert on Smart Phones stated that apps are being invented at a faster rate than any one human could possibly learn each and every one of them.

It has been suggested that no one can be an expert on using Twitter.   Since it moves so quickly and is ever changing, the knowledge of using Twitter is a journey, not a destination.  In an article by TravelWeekly, Vicky Garcia, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Cruise Planners/American Express, was quoted telling small business owners that “Social media is such a quickly evolving medium that no one is an expert”.

 If ‘no one is an expert’, who teaches us?  Perhaps the answer is the participants teach each other.  The popularity of lecture style webinars for a fee has diminished, giving way for ‘Twitter Chats’; designated times on the internet where a single topic is brainstormed by any individual viewing a specific hash-tag name.  Twitter-Chats are often organized and facilitated by a company or association selling products or memberships.  Instead of charging a fee, these free open participation sessions often offer a prize draw and an opportunity for anyone with an interesting Tweet to be re-Tweeted, thereby promoting them to others and gaining even more desired followers.

The question now becomes, how do Training Professionals alter their offer to remain relevant?  Perhaps the answer is the facilitation and organizations skills become the offer more than the expertise and content.  Not all ‘idea people’ have the leadership or organizational skills to manage the Chat; organizing topics and putting them forward, re-Tweeting beneficial statements, ensuring the organizer gets their benefit and all requisite follow-ups and management of the new connections.   

This topic has a parallel for me in what is currently happening in my kids' school board. Looking back over previous years, we could count on nearly an hour of homework/practice each day to keep our kids on track with the curriculum expectations.   This year the homework has been slashed by 90%, in favour of a teaching approach that focuses more on ‘critical thinking’ than knowledge through repetition and memorization.

Makes great sense to me!  Business and social media are putting more focus on innovation and ideas than ‘cookie cutter’ solutions.  The school board entrusted to groom my children is preparing them for the real world they will enter – where they must be the masters of their own innovation as opposed to repeating the successes of others.  It reminds me of a quote I love:

 "The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own. "  ~Benjamin Disraeli~