Helping the Shoemaker's Son

In the learning practice, we often discuss ensuring we have variety of delivery styles for our learners. We want to combine elements that attract the visual, audio, and touch learners in our sessions. Our virtual sessions can't stay on one screen for too long or learners' attention will drift. We create different forms of learning to ensure that there is always something for our learners to use.

What do we do for our learning professionals to make sure they don't get bored? What do managers and companies do to engage the learning professional? What actions should management take to ensure that instructors or designers don't get restless, taking their institutional and professional knowledge with them?

In one of my previous positions, I was facing this dilemma. I had been teaching the same curriculum for five years or so and it was becoming tedious. I found it increasingly difficult to muster enthusiasm for the subject matter, already dry, and keep my students' attention.

I approached my manager and asked if I could, in addition to my duties in my curriculum, teach a few courses in the other curricula of the department. I saw it as a win-win. She would have an instructor who knew more of the courses of the department, be assured my curriculum would be covered, and have a re-energized instructor.

Unfortunately, the answer was 'no'. I was to stay in my lane. My curriculum was all I was qualified to teach. I believe it was also an attempt at quiet firing, as the manager and I were not always in agreement. Whatever the reasons, there would be no growth, no job enlargement, and no real caring that I was burning out.

Fortunately, a short while after that, my manager was promoted, and my new manager was much more receptive to the idea of diversification of her talent. I taught some courses in the department's existing curriculum, created a few courses of my own, and even did some train the trainer sessions of the others in the department on my original curriculum so we could all be diverse in our instruction of the department's offerings.

In another role I found similar roadblocks. About a year after I had joined the department's learning group, the company reorganized all the departmental learning groups into one central learning organization. I was not chosen to join that group as my department's leadership wanted to keep my knowledge of their products to engage our clients.

Once again, after a few years, I grew weary of the same subject matter month after month and approached the learning leader assigned to our group if I might do some co-teaching with her instructors to combine my product knowledge and their skill instruction. She was receptive to the idea, and we worked together to see what we could accomplish.

Unfortunately, her management in the corporate learning organization was less than receptive. They were all for me sharing my learning decks and associated materials with them. When it came to them sharing with me, they were less than receptive. Initial meetings were held, but trying to get any follow-up from the members of their group was nearly impossible. I would ask for their manuals and decks, only to be ignored. The message became clear: They were happy for me to share my knowledge, but I was not welcome to play in their sandbox.

Providence again stepped in and helped relieve the fatigue. My department merged with another, and I began teaching a new set of products and tools. The corporation leased software that everyone in the company needed to learn. A soon overwhelmed corporate learning group began falling behind, and I was asked to step in to work with clients who needed extra assistance. Those changes made instruction fun again.

The learning group I am now working in gets this concept. I am encouraged to try different approaches, work in various modes of instruction, help not only our clients but my fellow employees, and always look at how learning can be upgraded and improved. My skills are sharpening and my engagement steadily rising.

For those who don't understand the title of this article, it refers to the story of the shoemaker's son. The shoemaker was so busy making shoes for everyone in the village that his own son went barefoot. We in learning provide knowledge to our clients to upgrade their skills, allowing them to take up new challenges and continue to drive company goals.

We in learning provide knowledge to our clients to upgrade their skills, allowing them to take up new challenges and continue to drive company goals. Too often we forget that our training staff needs the same nurturing. Without new challenges, new curricula, and a chance to be learners, they will burn out from sheer repetition. They quit, taking all that institutional knowledge and accumulated client goodwill with them. The department then must go through hiring, skilling, and onboarding someone new, when for a much smaller amount of company dollars, they could have retained their veteran resource.

It's a lesson all learning leaders need to remember. Don't forget to make shoes for your learning professionals.