The Association for Talent Development knocked it out of the park with the International Conference and Expo (ICE)! I just got back, and I am pumped about the future and filled to the brim with new knowledge. I am thrilled to share my key takeaways from ATD’s ICE with you!
Hopefully, you were there to experience Oprah, Seth, and all of the many fantastic teachers on your own. If you were, please share your favorite takeaways in the comments! Let’s start a chain sharing key takeaways from ATD’s ICE to benefit everyone.
Before I share my key takeaways from ICE, I have to say that one of my favorite aspects of the entire event was meeting up with old friends as well as meeting new friends and followers of my blog. I am humbled by the fact that people who follow me took the time to meet with me and allow me to get to know them. Such a beautiful and memorable experience for me!
To each of them, THANK YOU!!!!!
Key Takeaways from ATD’s ICE:
#1 How to Use and Design Microlearning
Microlearning and Nano learning are definitely trending right now, so I was really appreciative of the session by Carla Torgerson of Bull City Learning. Oftentimes, people will hear a smidge of something and make big judgment calls about it.
For example, I once worked with a leadership team that heard about microlearning. Microlearning was all the rage. The result was that every training we created needed to be 5 to 10 minutes long. Period.
Of course, this is not the correct approach, but someone heard it somewhere and that was that. It was so nice to hear Carol share that training can be 2 hours long and composed of a series of micro or nano learning episodes. The key is to ensure that each lesson can stand alone and doesn’t need to reference other lessons to provide value.
So, how might you use Microlearning in your role? You can use it for:
- Prework
- Boosting Learning
- Short-form Learning (single stand-alone)
- Performance Support (moment of need)
To design effective microlearning, you should:
- Be Specific
- Focus on Performance
- Be Brief
- Be Engaging
- Focus on the Learner
#2 Remove Friction from Learning
Danny Inny of Mirasee, shared an interesting point in one of his sessions about friction. Learners often come into a learning experience with momentum. They are ready, or at least somewhat ready to learn, but can often be stalled by friction.
As architects of learning, we need to evaluate the cause of friction and where it is occurring. Once we have identified these things, we need to do what we can to mitigate or remove the friction. Friction can impact the effectiveness of learning.
Friction could be poor technology, a difficult registration process, poor sound, an inability to see the screen, uncomfortable seating, and etc.
#3 What’s the Intention?
Some of my favorite key takeaways from ATD’s ICE came from this session. I could write an entire post on my key learnings from Oprah! I took so many notes! For the sake of time, however, I will just focus on intention.
She suggested that we always do a gut check and take a pause to ask ourselves, “What’s the intention behind that decision or action?” Why do you want to do that project? Why do you want to take that position? Ask yourself why.
To be authentic and true to yourself, you must ensure that your intention is good and not driven by ego or other personal motivations. Oprah shared personal examples of how making decisions for the wrong reasons impacted her life.
It was so refreshing to learn from a mega-celebrity how important it is to be true to yourself and not let ego drive you.
One thing she shared, which really touched me was,
“Everyday, your life is speaking to you. Start exactly where you are, in the seat you’re in.”
My life speaks to me. I never thought about it, but it does! Truly, it does. And, start where I am in the seat where I am. Gosh, you mean I don’t have to wait for perfection to get started? Where was she when I was a teen? I needed that message then, but I will take it and run with it right now, today!
#4 Create Animated Looking PowerPoint Presentations
OMGeeee!! This session by BrightCarbon was by far one of my favorite sessions. I saw the session on the schedule and thought, “Whatever, it’s just PowerPoint. Aren’t we all over PowerPoint?” So, I skipped the session and went to something else.
A strange thing happened… that session generated a huge buzz. Everyone who went to it was blown away. I mean seriously blown away.
Thankfully, there was another scheduled session. I went. YAY ME!
Wow.
I am so glad I did. PowerPoint 365 has some amazing features. You can record into PowerPoint and produce a video. Did you know that? I knew you could do it on Windows machines, but you couldn’t do it on MACs in the recent past. Well, you can now, and it produces HD or Full HD videos. I tested this for myself yesterday. It worked, and it was EASY!
You can create animations that look like animated videos! What? No, really, you can! I saw it with my own eyes! First, you create bookmarks where you want things to happen. Then, you set the animation to be triggered by the bookmark. I am so looking forward to tinkering with this feature!
Have you ever seen a video of a map or a diagram where a magnifying glass zooms in and hovers over a particular area to enlarge it? Would you believe you CAN do this in PowerPoint too? I know it’s hard to believe, but you can.
You will need to use the Morph transition, crop a circle, break your image into multiple slides, and magnify specific areas, but I saw this happen in a matter of minutes LIVE, so I know it can be done. This is another feature that I am pumped about exploring.
Now, I know this is a super simplistic explanation of how to do what I just described. You can find all of the details in the tutorials on their website. Just sign up to get access.
#5 “If failure is not an option, then neither is success.”
I almost skipped Seth Godin’s session. Yup, I’m so glad I didn’t. I ended up with more notes from Seth than I did with Oprah. He was truly AMAZING!
The quote above moved me enough to make the session worth attending, but that was just one teency weency nugget of many.
“People with good jobs are going to be replaced by art.” – Seth Godin
Not art as in painting, sculpting, and etc. He defined art as the human who creates possibility. The opposite is the human who is copying what everyone else is doing. Mmm, powerful. Right?
“What are you doing? Are you creating art or are you creating copies?”
#6 Storytelling
Have you ever watched the Walking Dead? I haven’t but I know it is a hugely popular series. Even though I haven’t seen the show or read the books, I did get to learn from the author of the books, Jay Bonasinga and his co-facilitator, Gary Mills of Pinnacle Performance Company.
These two fellas shared how to create a story using their 5-point process as well as the 5 Business Stories you should always have cued up, perfected, and ready to share.
Here are the 5 Business Stories to add to your storytelling repertoire:
- The Origins Story – How’d you/it start?
- The Crucible Story – A challenge you got through.
- The Leadership Story – How you forged a path and people followed.
- The Helper Story – How you helped someone.
- The Pie in the Face Story – A mistake you made.
These stories are key to have in Training Development because they can help you create connections with learners, establish your credibility, show you are authentic, help learners feel safe and comfortable during the learning experience.
What’s Next?
These are just a handful of the many things I learned and experienced at the conference. I hope you find these key takeaways from ATD’s ICE valuable and useful. As for me, I will be starting where I am today, in the seat that I am in to perfect my PowerPoint skills and build my 5 business stories.
If you have key takeaways from ATD’s ICE to share, please add them to the comments for all to benefit from.
Got Questions?
My Facebook page is a great place to add your questions and engage with other instructional designers on different topics related to instructional design, so jump on in and join the conversation.
