Understand from Failure

In my previous post, I dug deep and shared about a position I held as an Instructional Designer; where I was not passionate and my skills were not well aligned with the needs of the learner. So, here are the top 5 things I learned from the most challenging Instructional Design job I have had so far. 

Let Go, Your EGO

Think less about how you are being perceived by others, Focus on the value you can add to the business.

I was trying to add value to the department I was serving. However, I was thinking too much about myself and not enough about the needs of the business or, more importantly, the needs of the learner.

Let Your Interests Guide you

Do not work for an industry you are not pasionate about, seek out your passion.

This topic almost seems idealistic because we have heard it so much. In my current position, I am engaged because the industry I serve is electrical components and electric systems. I find it terrifyingly interesting. When I worked at insurance I felt a bit like I was serving an economically dark lord. I realize I was not working for the satan, but from my perspective, according to my truth, I might as well have been. A person much wiser than I once uttered, “

“Choose a job you love and
you’ll never have to work a day in your life” – CONFUCIUS

Strive for New Skills

Do not fall back on the skills you have,
Seek out new skills.

It is easy to skate by on the skills that have served you best in the past. However, as a learning professional, “The way we have always done it” or “I’m going to use the tool I know best” does not always produce the best outcome for the learner. So, as a principle, force yourself to seek out new tools and identify where they would be useful. However, do not use them simply because they are new.

Enhance, Don’t Rebuild

Use the tools already in place, and then enhance or build on them.

This is huge, and this ties directly back to letting go of your EGO. Don’t build something new just to say, “Look, I made something new.” Often times what is in place is working so don’t touch it. Instructional Designers and even higher-level learning architects do not have to be Organizational Development experts. It’s not our job to reorganize the business so it works better. (Although, sometimes it feels like the fails of business structure are flung onto the easy targets in the training department.) 

• Use the systems that are in place and find ways to enhance the way people interact with them. 

• If learning content exists then use it and build on it, do not scrap it and start over unless you have to.

Learn From Failure

Learn From Failure

Don’t let your ego get in the way of learning new skills, fail head first with passion and then learn from your mistakes to improve.

If we do not feel comfortable failing, then we never truly grow.

Another key point in the 5-part series by Betty Dannewitz is that failure is fundamental in this process of discovering your glorious purpose. In the Television show by Disney+, LOKI (link to trailer) fails so bad that we can perceive him as an anti-hero. However, when LOKI meets Morpheous and is really challenged to the core, his path diverts, he can start to embrace his failure as legitimate and use that experience as a moment of learning.

“A person who never made a mistake
never tried anything new.”  –ALBERT EINSTEIN

—Albert Einstein

Did you know that Albert Einstein could play the violin?