Training Directors Forum 06

Training Directors Forum 2006 took place at the Desert Springs Marriott in Palm Desert (nextdoor to Palm Springs) in the high desert about two hours east of Los Angeles. This is a wrap-up post.

From a 2003 article about the lack of water here:

There will be no more projects like Palm Desert’s Desert Springs Marriott, where guests ride gondolas to feast on ahi steaks by the edge of a sprawling lake. “That was done in Palm Desert at a different time - when people really believed we could pretend we were Hawaii,’ Crites said. ‘There was really no organized group saying the emperor had no clothes.’

Water, water everywhere.

To a Northern Californian, the lower part of the state is like central Alabama to a New Englander. Zany. Ethnic. Garish. Too many Wal*Marts. That said, I had a wonderful lunch on the way in at Crazy Coyote Tacos in Cabezon.

Several hundred of us gathered to hear Anne Herrmann-Nehdi at the conference opener describe Improving Performance Through Whole Brain Learning. We’d all taken a brain dominance scorecard before coming just to make things personal.

The whole brain model is quite effective, primarily because it forces you to think about your relationship to the world and to reflect on how others see things. It gets you thinking empathically and that leads to setting up multifaceted learning environments. Here’s the basic framework:

As you might expect, my profile is so into the yellow that I cross over the line and way out of the circle. Mind you, this is a gauge of self-image, not talents. So I see myself as artistic, holistic, flexible, imaginative, and synthesizing. That fits me to a T. If I’d had this technology thirty years ago, I’d have asked it to write my resume. Anne concluded the session with a balloon toss. It didn’t have much to do with whole brain thinking but it got everybody’s heart going.

Bryan Chapman gave a talk on how the social web is morphing into the learning web, with a tip of the hat to informal learning. In fact, look at the screen in this part of the presentation. No surprise. Bryan and I share a common vision of how technology and the web should fit together.

Sites suggested by Bryan include Animal-Vegetable-Video, ODEO for podcasts, and Zillow for house valuations. Trends:

Every conference seems to schedule IBM’s Tony O’Driscoll and me to speak at same time. We never get to hear one another. Happily, we found each other at the Sea Grille and had time for a full mind meld.

I didn’t expect to like Michael Gelb — and he was chief storyteller for a Tuscan dinner and wine tasting centered around the “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci” theme. I had found the book corny. But Michael has a magnetic personality, and he won me over. Great guy, full of gusto. Abondanza!, which he would say with marvellous hand gestures. It’s sfumato.

My next book may be How to Think Like Vincent Van Gogh. It wouldn’t be as long as Gelb’s book on Leonardo, but it would be more colorful. Alternatively, perhaps I should write “How to Eat Like Leonardo da Vinci.” Eat this diet, and perhaps you too can become a world-class artist, scientist, inventor, anatomist, and so on….

Oh, I forgot my talk. TDF invited half a dozen of us to a beauty content to make six-minute presentations in a session entitled “Learning with the Stars.” The program announced, “We’ve challenged six industry masters to model great learning design and delivery, as well as provide great content. Get ready for fast, fun, and focused learning nuggets. These masters will give you a snapshot of their content….” Hey, now. I can name that tune in two notes.

In my breakout session, I kept my pledge to keep the projector off: no PowerPoints. I think of PowerPoints as presentation; we learn more from conversation. (A friend of mine commented in a chat session last month, “PowerPoint = tyranny.”)I told illustrative stories and tried to follow the lead of my full-house crowd. It’s hard to break the habit of talking at people when those people are most comfortable with doing just that. The audience seemed quite pleased but there won’t be any follow-up evaluation. I told people smile sheets were nonsense: the true test is what you put to work in the next month or two, not how you feel the minute or two after a session.