L&D: Losing it…

Have any of you been to Nottingham in the UK? If not, surely you’ve heard of the place. There was a famous Sheriff of Nottingham that strongly disliked one Robin Hood. Yes, that Nottingham! It's a pretty great city chock full of history and a vibrant community. I work for Thrive , the complete learning & skills platform. We’re based in Nottingham and I just returned home from an awesome #IRL visit with my new team. They’re all amazing. It was a fantastic trip. But today’s topic isn’t about how many times I can say Nottingham or to brag about my employer or to give you travel #FOMO.

I’m writing because on my evening walkabout through the town I encountered something curious.

It’s something I know about because I’m a nerd. I assumed the purveyor of a historical site (that is also a pub) would have also known. Nope! Just me, I guess.

“What is it, Nate?!” Okay, I hear you. What I’m rambling about is the letter ‘thorn’ (or torn - T, t). It’s a letter that fell out of popular use during the 14th century and is the predecessor of the “th” sound. It’s the letter used to spell Thor, the Space Viking, in Old Norse (Tórr). Here we find another cool connection as ‘thorn’ is almost identical to the rune ‘thurisaz’ which is written as ‘?.’ In the last few years we have seen Marvel’s Thor in the comics don a new costume with the thurisaz taking prominence in the design. The point being, you might be more aware of 'thorn' than you thought.

Back to my very tourist-like strolls through Nottingham. It just so happens that the oldest pub in England (the legend dates it's founding to 1189) is right there in the city. I absolutely had to have a drink there. It’s now called (since 1799) Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem as, according to the story, it was the stopping point for King Richard the Lionheart on his way to the Third Crusade. It’s that Ye, not the one who sometimes makes rap music, that is the focus of my attention… sorry Kanye. It’s not all about you.

According to Will Hill, Associate Lecturer, Graphic Design & Typography at Cambridge School of Art, when English printers were importing printing presses in the 15th Century from Belgium they didn’t have the Old English letters (want to learn more? see page 5 in this link). So, they did what we all do and winged it. What kind of looks like ‘T’? The letter ‘Y’ won out based on how it was drawn at the time. So, ‘Te Olde Trip to Jerusalem’ became ‘Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem.’ Please note that this was still pronounced with the ‘th’ sound - THe.?

So, what? Greene King Pubs are more focused on the beer than the history of the alphabet. Are they? I mean the beer is alright. Not ignoring history alright, but not bad. I bring this up because stuff loses meaning over time. It’s like the game of telephone kids play. It’s like making a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy… it all degrades.?

As L&D Professionals do you see this happen in your organization? I have over and over again. It’s especially obvious in groups where tribal knowledge rules and there is no formal repository.

If you ask, “why do you do it that way?” someone will inevitably point at Kathy who says it’s the way she was taught by Fred, and that was 20 years ago. Do you trust the accuracy of that information?

I don’t. I’d at least question if it was still relevant or if the process still made sense. That’s how you get a whole department checking Ye Olde Fax Machine (with a hard ‘Yeeeeee’ pronunciation) without asking why they're still faxing.?

How do we stop our companies from losing it?

You can define ‘it.’ What’s your organization’s ‘thorn’? We’ve all got them. It’s part of our job, in my opinion, to catch them and fix them before a walkabout Nate discovers them and calls you out on them.

I’d love to hear your stories in the comments. I’m sure there are some comical ones that we all need to hear.