Breaking open the mind

It wasn’t even my birthday

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

I started working in my current position in April of 2009.  For the most part, I was coaching new staff, post-training.  In June, I co-facilitated my first class, and I really enjoyed it.  My years as a poet, giving public readings, and my years teaching composition at university helped me immensely.

One thing I learned is that most trainers, like most writers, are quite shy.  We don’t like to be in the spotlight, but once there, something happens.  In my more poetic days, I thought of it as the goddess of poetry.  She inhabited me for a while and when I left the stage, she’d move on to the next wallflower.

Now I understand the phenomenon a little differently.  I let the passion for the subject I’m teaching take the reins.  When you love what you do, it isn’t hard to be dynamic, entertaining even.  I pour on the happy, sunshiny energy in public situations.

I got my first taste of Participant Centered Training in August, and then in December, became one of three trainers delivering systems training via NetMeeting to all of our staff in the province.  It was a grueling month of 3-hour session after 3-hour session, morning and afternoon, every day.  I’m surprised I didn’t get laryngitis.

Ultimately, that first year was just about getting acclimatized to the unit and my place in it.

In January and March of 2010, I co-facilitated a newly redesigned version of some of our operational training.  Of course, there was more coaching to do, a never-ending stream of it 🙂

Then, in May of 2010, I received a present: a SMART Board.  Our department received six of them; each delivered to a separate location.  To my knowledge, I was the only one to unpack the boxes, assemble the SMART Board, call IT to install the drivers and software, and give the dear thing a test run.

Basic functionality was all I had time to master, however, as other priorities emerged.  Involvement in a working group, the development of a brief introduction to the SMART Board for my colleagues, an in-person team meeting (I work on a virtual team), training in SharePoint, and preparation for and execution of three and a half months of intensive training kept me busy until the end of November.

When I finally had a little time, I returned to the SMART Board, registered the operating software, updated it, and learned a little bit about Notebook.  Then my hungry mind found something else to play with.

Have you received a work-related present, or a new toy that was a game-changer for you?  What was it?  How did it change your game?

 

Breaking open the mind …

/ Melanie Marttila

A word about my day job

My day job is as a corporate trainer: I teach staff in my business to do their jobs.  In the last year or so, I’ve become much more aware of the industry I’m in, and the oh-so-interesting social, psychological, and economic impact I can have simply by going to work every day and doing my job.

The title of his blog category, breaking open the mind, is a nod to Daniel Pinchbeck’s Breaking Open the Head:  A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Shamanism, and though no mind-altering substances—unless you count knowledge—were used, that’s exactly what it feels like.  I’m back in university, and my mind is being blown.

I worked for a year as a trainer in my department before I really understood what I was doing and what I could be doing in comparison.  Yes, I’d been introduced to participant centered training delivery, but that was in-class, and the world of training seemed to be so much bigger than that.  Online asynchronous, synchronous, and blended methodologies were becoming predominant in the industry outside my workplace, and I had a feeling that we should be moving in that direction.  There was no evidence that we were though, and for the longest time, I couldn’t figure out what was bothering me.  I hadn’t developed as a trainer sufficiently to be able to articulate this feeling; I didn’t even know what the terms asynchronous, synchronous, and blended referred to; and without being able to express my feeling, I couldn’t consciously process the information.

That will give you some insight into how my mind works.  Shamanism and corporate training:  in the world of the learning mutt, they mesh 🙂

Business writing

Last week I spent a few days in a business writing course, first as a student, to learn the content, then as a trainer, to work on the implementation of the training for my department.

It was a great refresher, and I did learn a few things.

My main takeaway: I’m a grammar Nazi, and proud of it!  I’m not ashamed to admit that I can detect verb or pronoun agreement issues at 50 paces.  I can generally advise which word should be used (e.g. advise, or advice) and will visibly twitch when someone says ‘irregardless,’ or speaks about how a new policy impacts staff.  It has an impact on staff, unless it’s the equivalent a meteor hurtling toward the earth!

Recently, a few blog postings on grammar have come my way:

In fairness, I should also post this response:

Yes, I believe that English is a living language, and as such, is in flux, as are its ‘rules.’  Common usage does eventually get entered into the Oxford English Dictionary.  In fact, I think that irregardless has been entered in some dictionaries already thanks to its rampant misuse.

I’ll remind everyone that we aren’t living in the days before a dictionary of any kind existed.  We now have excellent tools like spell and grammar check to alert us to potential issues.  I recommend that every writer in any professional context use them.  In order to use these tools though, a familiarity with the basics of good grammar is necessary.  How else will you know what to ignore and what to change?

If for no other reason, a writer should use proper language and punctuation because it might rankle with a manager, prospective employer, agent, or editor and scuttle any chance of advancement or publication.

In training design, good grammar is imperative.  You have to model what you want your participants to emulate in practice.  Professionalism shouldn’t be a swear word in the workplace.

Having said all that, I must offer this apology:  I am not perfect.  I make spelling and grammar errors, but I correct them when possible, and try to learn from them what I can.  Such is the life of a learning mutt  🙂

Some grammar resources (for those who wish to improve):

Also, for a fun book about grammar check out Lynne Truss’s Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

So do you know your shit, or just know you’re shit?  Do you hate me now that you know I’m a grammar Nazi?  No Writerly Goodness for you!

Monkey around already!

/ Melanie Marttila

Today, I attended a Webinar sponsored by TrainingIndustry.com and presented by G. Michael Maddock.

In business, there are often synergystic pairings: Walt and Roy Disney; Wilbur and Orvil Wright.  One is the creative genius and the other is the business mastermind.  Maddock calls them the idea monkey, and the ringleader respectively.

At work, I identify with the idea monkey but I also have the focus and vision of a ringleader (I think).  I had to ask the question: can one person be both?

The answer: yes.  If the entrepreneur is in business for herself, she has to be both.  I think because of my writing, which is essentially self-employment, I’ve learned to be self directed as well as creative.

Other interesting learning bits:

Dr. Edward Hallowell, whose research influenced Maddock.  His primary area of research is ADD/ADHD and some of his research has identified similarities between highly creative or innovative people and those diagnosed with ADD/ADHD.

This was an interesting piece, especially given my recent postings on creativity and adversity in My history as a so-called author (A born storyteller … and Three blind mice).

The insight equation: I [statement of fact] because [reason] but [tension].  Example: I want to pay via credit card online because it’s convenient, but I’m afraid of fraud.  (Paypal’s insight).  The critical piece is the but + t (for tension).  So when thinking about a problem to solve with innovation, look for the sexiest butt 🙂

Expertise gets in your way.  Think outside the box?  You can’t read the label if you’re stuck inside the jar.

Finally, intelligence is painful.  You have to learn from your own mistakes.  Wisdom is better.  You get to learn from the mistakes of others.

It’s quite a bit to digest, but like most of the things I learn through my day job, it has implications not only for my work as a trainer and course designer, but also for my creative life.

What have you learned lately that seems to tie into your life in diverse and interesting ways?  Are you an idea monkey, or a ringleader?  If you’re a ringleader, do you like to monkey around?

Life before training

/ Melanie Marttila

I’m talking about my work life here, and before I became a trainer, I can honestly say that work was hell.

Before I go any further, I just want to establish one fact:  I disagree with the whole concept of work as something that we have to do to earn money, pay bills, and be a ‘productive member of society.’  I have no problem with work itself.  I garden; I help my spouse renovate the house; I’m writing a novel.  That’s all hard work and I don’t shy away from it.  I just don’t like the necessity of selling the better part of my life so I can live the rest of it the way I want.  It’s a devil’s bargain.

When I was young, it was retail, after school and on weekends.  In university, it was seasonal, contract jobs.  Now I can’t say that I hated all the jobs that I had.  I enjoyed working in the library, working as a student counsellor, helping students write resumes and find job placements, I enjoyed the pet stores I worked in, and the veterinary clinic.  Retail and food service, not so much.  Being a security guard was the worst, despite the canine companion.

I enjoyed some of the things I got to do, like designing Web pages (in the old type-it-out-in-Wordpad days) and desktop publishing.  I liked filming and editing horse shows.  I was good at teaching, but aside from the subject matter, I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the rest of it.

The problem was that until I started working for my current employer in 2001, all of my jobs were short-term, with no future.  I was always worried where my next pay cheque would come from.  Plans were out of the question.  I ended up on Employment Insurance. Twice.

So I got my first real job … in a call centre.  Six and a half years and varied, frantic applications for internal job postings later, I became an adjudicator.  While a vast improvement over my previous position, it was still a job, something I did to pay the bills.  A year and a half later, I was successful in another competition and obtained my current job.

I started off monitoring new trainees but soon had my first experience as a corporate trainer.  I liked it!  I immersed myself in my job and tried to do my very best.  Soon, I was rewarded with further opportunities for certification, new toys with which to deliver training (SMART Board) and the means of developing a collaborative work platform for my virtual team (SharePoint).

From there, I dove into the world of free Webinars on various aspects of learning, course design, and training delivery; I started writing courses, creating videos, and designing in SharePoint.  I became a social learner, a mutant learner, and, as I’ve dubbed myself, a learning mutt.  It was my day-job that brought me to the world of social media, platform-building, and this blog.

I’m now well on my way to becoming a certified trainer through my employer’s program, I’ve taken courses on curriculum design and project management.  I’m about to become one of a group of trainers who will be delivering a newly developed business writing course.

I’m having as much fun now as I did in university and everything that I’m learning feeds my creative soul.

I still don’t like working, but if I didn’t have to work, I might still choose to be a trainer and course designer.

Go figure …

Have you found, or lucked into, a job you like?  Are you still searching?  Share your journey!