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I have a pile of "Perfect Attendance" awards and I hate them.

 Every single year from kindergarten through 11th grade, I received an award at the end-of-the-year presentations. They all look about these same: printed on thick paper with curly-but-still-readable font, a nice blue border, and my name printed below the words "Perfect Attendance." I still have them in a box somewhere.  I loved getting those awards every year because it validated that, by simply showing up, I was achieving. Not achieving something specific, but achieving. Being physically present every day and having a teacher mark that I was sitting at my desk meant that I had done something worthy of commendation during an awards ceremony. Those awards were also a little confusing to me. Why wouldn't I be at school every day? The sniffles don't mean you stay home. A headache doesn't mean you take a break.  In high school, I went to school with a pack of tissues and a nasty cough. I went to band practice with fevers and headaches. Just to be clear, my parents ne...
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Presenting at DevLearn: Six Things I'm Glad I Did, and Two Things I'll Do Next Time

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This year I achieved a huge professional goal by presenting a session at DevLearn in Las Vegas. It's a few weeks later, and I'm still feeling fuzzy inside about it. It was by far one of the most valuable experiences I've ever had in L&D. I've always seen connections between my personal hobbies and what I do for a living. And after years of being told that my interests were "too niche" or "not relatable" or "just plain strange," it was great to be able to connect video games and gaming culture with project teams, psychological safety, change management, and design thinking for my colleagues and peers. More than that, it was great to do it in a professional setting where someone had actually said, "Yes, that sounds like a valuable use of time." I have never felt so cool in my entire professional life. After I got home, I started thinking about my experiences and what I would do next time if I could. As a first-time presenter, I ...
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Happy new stuff, whatever it is for you.

Challenge words. Resolutions. Goals. Bucket lists. Commitments. Promises. By its very nature, the "new year" offers us a chance to look at things with fresh eyes. We assess what's important to us, what we want to leave behind, and who we want to be. Whether we formalize it or not, I think we all have a moment where we take stock. I don't make New Year's resolutions for one simple reason: I don't follow through on them. My goals and the changes that I make show up in my life whenever they please, and not once that happened on January 1. This year, however, I do have something that I want. So (for an indeterminate amount of time), I'm going to ask myself a question every time I decide to do something: "What is the goal here?" More importantly, I have to remove my own expectations for artificially lofty and grandiose answers. It's just as well: 2020 didn't leave me with a lot of tolerance for that anyway. I don't care what my answers are...
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Coffee, Tea and L&D - Videocast Episode 10: Conference breakdown: ATD Virtual and DevLearn

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While ATD Virtual was happening, so was DevLearn! We met up with one of our fellow L&D members, Emmanuelle Brusson, to talk about the respective sessions and conference methods, finding overlap and sparking creativity for future work endeavors.   Special thanks to Emmanuelle for joining us for an early-morning, caffeinated exploration of learning! Connect with us on social media! Jessica Nordness LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-nordness-0a9644b2/ Daniece Rainville LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniecerainville/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/eLearningOnCaff
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Coffee, Tea and L&D - Videocast Episode 9: A talk with Rance Greene

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Just in time for the holidays, Jessica and I sat down with story designer Rance Greene for a special interview about creating characters and conflict in training, making learning objectives work for your stories, and connecting with learners through storytelling. This was a truly eye-opening experience, and it's a great way to stay inspired over the upcoming long weekend. Connect with Rance to learn more about story design! Website: https://needastory.com Buy Instructional Story Design : https://amzn.to/2up6VLY LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rancegreene/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rance2ya Connect with us on social media! Jessica Nordness LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-nordness-0a9644b2/ Daniece Rainville LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniecerainville/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/eLearningOnCaff
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Coffee, Tea and L&D - Videocast Episode 8: Making goals actionable

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It wouldn't truly be nearing the end of the year if we weren't looking forward to making the next year better.  In this episode of the Coffee, Tea and L&D videocast series, we talk about the goals we set for ourselves just before ATD Virtual and how those panned out. But more importantly, we talk about strategies we can use to make those goals work for us. Connect with us on social media! Jessica Nordness LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-nordness-0a9644b2/ Daniece Rainville LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniecerainville/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/eLearningOnCaff
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Coffee, Tea and L&D - Videocast Episode 7: ATD Virtual and moving forward from 2020

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2020 has been a year we couldn't have predicted. Now it's time to talk about it. In this videocast episode, we discuss Amy Cuddy's opening keynote from ATD Virtual, applying the concepts to our experiences in the pandemic, and how we plan on moving forward into 2021. Also, this video has a cat in it, if you're into that. Connect with us on social media! Jessica Nordness LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-nordness-0a9644b2/ Daniece Rainville LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniecerainville/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/eLearningOnCaff
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