#LDAdvent: Day 5 Celebrations

Over the next few weeks I will post a series of blogs each with a ‘gift’ and a hashtag #LDAdvent: a link to a podcast, a piece of research, a comment, a network or just something that has inspired me and feel the need to share wider.??All the stories shared will be insights into my experiences and my interpretation.?It would be great to hear your interpretation. As ever with the way the algorithms work, some may not get pushed to your feed in the order they are published, fear not, embrace that and let me know how you relate.

5th December is my mums birthday.? This year it is a big one.? She is 90.? There are so many stories she has shared with my brother and myself about her life, the experiences she has had, the challenges she has faced.? She is the eldest of 8 (siblings that span 17 years) and a twin.? From a very early age, on Mondays she and her twin sister did not go to school, one did the Monday laundry (after all Monday was wash day!) and the other did the Monday deep clean of the house. ? There were stories of ‘buzz bombs’ air raids and Anderson shelters, the impact of seeing the liberation of Belsen camp and prisoners of war coming back from Burma had on her. The challenges of feeding a family of ten with the rationing system, stories of dodgy dealings on the meat market (including illegal trade in horse meat) and stories of being in friends houses with no blankets - only old coats on the beds. As the eldest with a mother who was bedridden through most of her pregnancies (she had 8 but lost others), my mum also had huge spells of dealing with the family finances too, taking the 'housekeeping' money from my grandads wage!

Seeing the advance of technology through her eyes has been interesting, the introduction of a telephone? in the house (“for emergencies only”) in the late 1970s, colour TV too at a similar time,? household appliances - moving from a twin tub to an automatic washing machine for instance.

And then seeing her embrace the mobile phone - at first she never switched it on whilst on holiday, and never took her charger (maybe something in that!!) and about 10 years ago, working her way around a tablet and Facebook! Setting up folders for pictures that family members send her, checking premium bond numbers and advising my youngest daughter not to click links on email (who says GenY/ Z are up with tech - not the case for two of my three! but lets not go down that rabbit hole - a whole other gift of research dismissing that concept!!)

Birthday celebrations are an opportunity to see just how far we have come, and perhaps look ahead to what happens next.??

The gift today is from People Management and their online article about L&D and AI.? AI - something my mum has said - ‘not for me, I dont do technology!’ As I rolled my eyes and sighed at her response - she just replied “What - what have I said now?”? There is a whole series of noise about AI and what L&D should and should not do about it.? For me it is about context, organisation priorities, personal development and exploring opportunities to see what AI can do to free up talent to deliver….

https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1858917/five-ways-l-d-leaders-use-ai-learning-%E2%80%93-right?

It wont be the last link in these advent gifts on AI, but it is a great easy read and gets you thinking about the art of possible…. where are you with AI and the art of possible - would be great to hear your insights.