Thursday, January 31, 2008

Training: Fun?

Yes, we all need to improve. Some of us more than others in one area or another. Despite all the groans I can hear, we all know it. We can't be everything and all-knowing all the time. There's only one person with that job and thank goodness the position is filled!

That being said, why should we resist training? It doesn't have to be a cumbersome, lengthy, or a mind-numbing experience. I know, because I've attended some really fun training sessions. I like the short-burst training times. Either full-day experiences or half-days once a week for a short period of time. Let's face it; we are busy people and if we wanted to do this full time, we would not run our own companies (not that there aren't lessons learned every day). We would go to education centres and make full commitments of resources (time and money).

Recently, I attended a course for small businesses who wanted to increase their knowledge and understanding about ezines and blogs presented by Susan Regier (Vantage One Writing) and Jayme Cousins (In House Logic). I picked up some great information but I never expected to learn about how things "auto-magically" happen thanks to Google when you "play in their pool" or how many "flavours" there are or that there was "widgetry" out there. Apparently "content is King" and often "perfectly free" as long as "you're on the sniff" and consider the "gee-whizery factor." And never, ever, in a million years, would I have ever thought I would ask someone to "chew my chicklet!" Somewhere "under the hood" is a lot of detail that I should know about but don't really need to know what to do with it. I rested assured though, "it is permanent until you change it."

Yes, I have my tongue in cheek but the point I'm trying to get across is that I had a lot of fun and learned at the same time in a small, dare I say, intimate classroom where "conversation and interaction are Queen."


Nimbly,
JCM

P.S. Watch for The Nimble News, my new ezine coming out soon for other places you too can go for training and self-improvement.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We had a lot of fun that day and I think we all came away with some new tools for our bag of tricks.

It is possible to have a laugh while learning. Actually, it's the best way to learn as far as I'm concerned. I'm always "on the sniff" for a great group of people to learn with.

Thanks for playing a role in it!

Nimble One said...

You're such a good sport Jayme! Now you can say you've been quoted on the internet.