Key Take-Aways from the ASTD International Conference in DC Last Week

I am sorry that I have been a little quiet on this blog recently. I was in DC at the ASTD conference all last week and felt like I was always running from one thing to another. I thought I would take a moment and reflect on the key messages that are sticking with me:

First, although training and development professionals tend to be a bit behind the curve in terms of technology (often encouraged by their IT departments), I found this year's conference, and many of the 8,000 attendees, much more hip and "with it." Excellent! Lots of people were talking about using Web 2.0 for learning and a bunch of people were twittering the conference.

And I was reminded of the kindness of occasional acquaintances. I saw and reconnected with so many cool people and it was good to feel a part of a partner group. I think all professionals should have the opportunity to schmooze with their "kind" (in terms of functional expertise) on a yearly basis. I know that a lot of companies have cut travel budgets but please try to keep some dollars earmarked for professional conferences.

The overwhelming theme I heard at ASTD this year was - get more involved in informal learning. At a great talk by the CLO Sun Microsystems, we learned that 78% of learning is informal. I think we all know that most learning is informal, but this is a big number. AND, the point of knowing this number is to highlight a problem: many training, OD and HR professionals ignore or fail to impact or manage informal learning. Personally, I love working within the informal space, but I have worked for some organizations that thought the bulk of their training dollars and attention ought to go to formal classes.

I attended an awards reception and heard summaries of all the award winners and runners-up. They had done some really cool work making workplace learning pay off in driving organizational excellence. It was interesting that a few organizations were mentioned many times - the US Navy, HP, Sun Microsystems, Santyam, etc... I bet there is more great work goign on in many organizations who don't consider submitting their projects for recognition - might YOU consider sharing your best practices? I chatted with the Navy folks for a while and they were smart and delightful - so sharp and applying their passions to serving the country. Cool.

I saw Marshall Goldsmith talk about Mojo and Keith Ferrazzi talk about support networks. My favorite presenation was the Town Hall type discussion with the lengendary John Kotter. What a lovely, intelligent, and witty sage! He reminded us of the simple but profound nature of true leadership and that leadership occurs throughout our organizations. I got John Kotter to sign a copy of A Sense of Urgency even though I already have a copy (hear my podcast with John Kotter here). One more point about Kotter - he received a lifetime achievement award at the awards reception and he echoed how nice it is to recognize great work and that we ALL ought to do it more often and for great work that occurs throughout our organizations. Agreed.

And one more thing. This is not unique to the ASTD conference, in fact, it seems to occur at ALL conferences. The line at Starbucks was too dang long! Why can't they have more than one location in the conference hall or double the staff? Rediculous long lines. I could walk from the DC conference center to the White House, shake Obama's hand and walk back in less time than it took to get my vente hazelnut latte. Why is that?

Thank you to everyone who attended my session on Hip and Sage. It was very fun for me and I hope you enjoyed it.

Comments

[Brenna]

Thanks for the conference summary, I wasn't able to make it!

Just a suggestion, for more ways to get involved with informal learning, visit http://www.coachingourselves.com

They offer a management and leadership development program for the organization through informal peer-learning groups. It's an exciting approach!

[Dan Bobinski]

Thanks for the overview, Lisa. It's been a few years since I've been able to attend an ASTD ICE. Like you said, they're great for an annual "reconnect" with other learning professionals.

Especially interesting: 78% of learning is informal. So many questions to ask around that --including a few about the 22% that is 'formal'!

[lisa haneberg]

Yes, Dan, you are right, the 78% quote is a great place to START a conversation. Apparently, they will be coming out with a comprehensive report and I assume that it will include some data on the 22%. Their overall point about the 78% is that many training professionals don't mess with it at all - and what Karie was saying is that she wants to manage/oversee/shepherd that learning too.