Category: writing

The Art of Play: Building Bonds Through Simple Adventures

Unless we live in a monastery, we all have busy lives,
and it’s important to find time to do less.

1. Monastery or Mayhem?
~Finding Balance in the Game of Life

So, just to be clear, I do not work at a monastery, and I have chosen to generate offspring. So for me, it is crucial to build in time for doing less. It’s crucial to build activities into our schedule that don’t really have any purpose other than leisure, fun, relaxation, or recharging our batteries. Last month, I took some time off from work because my daughter wanted to ride the carousel. So I booked time into my schedule to do that, and we entered the game-layer.

2. Quest for Gas: The Pre-Game Adventure

We were riding the merry-go-round, but let me back up. I picked her up from school, and we were driving to the park that had a historic merry-go-round. I needed to stop and get gas. At the time, I had already started recording for this podcast. I was playing an audio text message game of chess with my friend Sarah. She had expressed anxiety about being on a podcast show, and when I asked her to record a message that says “play chess,” she ended up sending me a three-minute recording about how she was doing that day and slowly phased in the statement I was seeking. Naturally, I just texted her back, thanked her, and then created my own audio message, thus beginning our chess game podcast via text message audio recording.

3. The ICEE Expedition: Fueling Fun

As I was driving to get gas, I got out of the car and recorded a message back to Sarah. Then I went in with my daughter and bought her an ICEE, which is a very special treat in our world. I sent the audio message, not knowing that in two days my new iPhone would automatically delete it. We went to Faust Park, and I purchased three tickets each to ride the carousel repeatedly. I made videos of the carousel, and later my daughter commented on how we weren’t in the videos. I created videos about the firsthand experience because I was in the game layer; I was focused on the process and the environment more than the faces of the people around me.

4. Emotions on Replay: The Carousel Connection

What struck me the most about the experience of riding the carousel with my daughter was obviously the emotion on her face, but that was for my soul. I didn’t want a record of that to be posted on my blog or captured in my podcast. I did take a lot of pictures of her, and there is some video of her riding the carousel, but I’m not going to share that footage here, and that’s intentional.

5. Soundtrack of Play: The Symphony of Joy

The reason this moment struck me to my core is because I was creating time for fun. I was planning play into my schedule. What struck me the most about the experience was mostly the sound.

There was the canned music in the beginning, which was overpowered by the mechanical sounds of the ancient carousel lumbering across its hub. The second round on the carousel also had canned music, but it was a different song—maybe a better song. But the third round was the best. The operator fired up the old Orchestrion, a mechanical instrument slightly bigger than a piano that can synthesize an entire orchestra with reels, xylophone, real drums, real chimes, and even real trumpets.

(Now I wanted to call that a glockenspiel which does seem like a better name, but apparently a glockenspiel is just a xylophone with metal bars.)

This is the experience that I had come for—not spinning around on an old, ancient wooden horse—although I did enjoy that significantly. It was the machine—the small machine that didn’t dish out a synthesized audio recording from a hard drive. It played; it had analog motors with sticks that struck objects. It was a physical representation of the GAMELAYER.

6. Rainy Day Revelations: A Walk Back to Base

After we got off the merry-go-round, my daughter and I were outside walking back to the van in the rain. I noticed a different energy about her. She was commenting nonchalantly about the pavement and the grass. And she turned around and looked at the building that contained the massive artifact of play. She said something that, to a six-year-old, is a comedic masterpiece: something about those people getting to live in there—that must be so fun! I agreed with her even though I knew I wasn’t understanding that statement on the level she was.

7. Heart-to-Heart Co-op: Building Bonds Through Play

My daughter turned and told me that she loved me, and I told her I loved her too, because I do. She asked me to carry her, which is basically her way of asking for a hug. So I carried her through the rain back to the van, and we spoke openly and freely, and our hearts connected through our words. And in the tone of her voice, I could tell that I had made a difference. I had put her needs ahead of my needs; in that way, we became better friends—we became closer. I built trust with her; I made time for her, I created empty space so that she could play.

8. The Missing AudioQuest:
~ Will Sarah Save Our Game?

Oh, and the audio recordings that my phone deleted? I think Sarah has those—or at least she said she does! We’ll see if she makes the choice to share them back with me so that I can add them into our audio-chat-message cat phone tag game of chess radio show episode of GAMELAYER.

Thanks Perplexity

I would like to personally thank Perplexity.ai for helping me shape this up for readability without changing my message, writing style, nor tone.

“What’s the passcode?
Carry me. Carry weary.”
[What I mean to say is I want a hug from you daddy.]

Celebrate Your Wins

Pause,

Observe…

🥳!Celebrate!🥳

Near the end of 2024, I developed an idea to create a blog post celebrating all the achievements from the year. I wanted to pause and recognize all the accomplishments I had achieved. As I reflected, I thought about things I had written or not written about throughout the year that I could highlight.

However, instead of actually writing the blog post, I paused and spent an enormous amount of time with my family, you can read about that and see the glorious pictures at the end of this post under Family Time Adventure.

Think about moments you could have celebrated but didn’t. How can you make celebration a regular part of your daily routine?

Professional Growth

We recently had significant turnover at work, and an engagement expertise facilitator, Tanya Zion came in via AAIM HR group to help us navigate some big transitions. The sessions were insightful, blending professional and personal development with focus groups and facilitated sessions that resembled group therapy. One message that Zion emphasized repeatedly resonated with me:

It is important that you remember to pause and celebrate after a significant accomplishment.

– Tanya Zion

Often, we’re so focused on fixing problems and completing tasks that we forget to celebrate how far we’ve come. That idea stuck with me throughout the year and inspired this blog post.

Reflection on an Eventful Year

I want to pause and recall some of the achievements I accomplished in 2024.
If you get anything from this post it should be that
No accomplishment is too small to celebrate. You don’t have to buy yourself a car or go to the islands on a boat. Stop, take a deep breath, and shout, “Yeah, I did that!”

My Highlights: 2024 Greatest Hits

(Titles and images linked):

Certified Gamification Journeyman:

Gamification Certification by Sententia.

Prototyped a Game:

With my kids that is playable online.

Spoke on a Podcast:

On a real podcast!


Presented at a Conference:

Facilitating on Learner Engagement.

Worked Tile:

I Mastered 4-ft. (1.22 M) ceramic tiles and the Schlueter tile System!

Got Off-Line With Family:

The end of this Post captures this in depth!

Celebrating Completed Achievements

It’s easy to dwell on missed goals or failures. It’s challenging to be proud of achievements and celebrate the wins. Completing the tile work in our bathroom was one of those wins. As I admired the finished product, my five-year-old daughter walked in and exclaimed, “Wow, it looks so good, Daddy. Are you proud?”

I responded, “Yes, honey. I’m proud. This was hard work. It wasn’t easy for me, but I did it anyway. I finished the job.”

More Thoughts

Reflecting on 2024 reminds me of the value of pausing to appreciate our progress. We often achieve things that would have been unimaginable to our past selves. It’s important to recognize and celebrate these moments—not just for ourselves but to inspire those around us.

A contact/ mentor of mine named, Caitlin Johnson, talks about making our goals into quests. Her mission is to explore gamifying not only business strategy but our personal/professional goals. This concept works perfectly with my ideas of using Novelty to Bend Time and to me extends into the concept of artmaking as a process of religious practice.

Here’s to celebrating 2024 and looking forward to new milestones in 2025!
Thank you if you made it this far, take a moment to scroll down and view the absolute novelty of my last 2 weeks of 2024, and why I chose to write this post to open up 2025, and not close 2024.

Family Time Adventure

So, first things last. I want to share what I did instead of writing this blog post before 2025 started. I attended family gatherings for the holidays, played video games with my kids, tiled and grouted a bathroom, and took several impromptu vacations.

In retrospect, the novelty of those 2 weeks could have filled five months of a normal year. When my kids were meant to return to school, several snow days extended the joy of that time. The past three weeks alone have given me plenty to celebrate.

Cooking and Crafting

Creepy Tunnel

A random adventure I generated in the moment was a hike on the infamous Bootlegger’s Trail. We even found that creepy old-time brick tunnel that our pathologist neighbor Jim had warned us about!

Gravity Paintings

At one point my kids asked if we could make gravity paintings like Daddy does. I said Let’s do that and use the old ceramic tiles we found on Uncle Mark’s farm! #Novelty!

Art in the Woods

I kept seeing advertisements for a local light installation so I randomly invited friends of the family and we all went out. I took a lot of video of the Light Cycles show, and I will post that below the pictures!

Video of Art in the Woods

Here is some video of that show.

Train to Germantown!

Somewhere in the middle of the winter break from school, we took a train ride to a local treasure: Hermann, Missouri. Hermann is a small town in rural Missouri that was built by German immigrants in 1837 who initiated grape growing for wine in the rolling MO hills, but more importantly here AMTRAK goes there. So we bought a round trip and exposed the kids to trains!

Thai Style for New Years!

We were really in the mood for the Thai version of Korean BBQ. In Thai, this is called MU-GRA-TA หมูกระทะ. We have an electric version that also simulates the infamous Chinese “HOT POT.”

In the pictures above there is a handsome devil who also happens to be bald. He is known as The Bobby. During this New Year’s Eve party, he mentioned a great meteor shower that would fly across the sky for days. That is important later when he decides to return to bed instead of going out in sub-zero temperatures to see the meteor shower covered by clouds.

4 Foot Porcelain Tile!

So, I haven’t said much about this on this blog, but it has taken over my FaceBook account. I have been laying tile in our hall bath. So, the hall bath started leaking. I tried to fix it and then it didn’t hold so I just ripped out the whole room and expanded the ceiling. The main highlight for me of the last few weeks of the year was completing all the tile and grout in that hall bathroom project, and preparing it for a glass door installation.


If you can’t tell from the pictures that was a pretty big project. I listened to the Case 63 podcast when prepping the floor. and then I listened to it again when laying the tile! It felt like I was a new person with a new task. Listen to the podcast if you don’t know why that is awesome!

Listen to Case 63!

OK, Yes Betty, you are right. AAAH, Thank you to the great Betty Dannewitz for recommending this amazing Podcast that I listened to back-to-back in 2 days on 2 separate occasions. (OK OK). …And.. Betty is my #1. (Apart from my family.)

Seriously that podcast is RAD.

New Years had passed but we still had a whole weekend before school and work started back up!

The Final Weekend

So do you recall Bobby the Bald, that handsome devil? We had plans to wake up at 2:30AM (much thanks to Bobby) to view a meteor shower, but it was cloudy when we woke up and our friends (Ahem Bobby) canceled on us. So, to celebrate completing the tile and grout work, we spontaneously got in the car at three in the morning to watch a meteor shower. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, instead of turning back, we drove across several states to Cincinnati, Ohio.

Planning as We Went

We had no plan and it was an amazing vacation. On the way, we booked a hotel and spent just a single day in the city.

Start with heART ❤

We started with the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.

The Aquarium in Newport

Next, we went to the aquarium, petted stingrays, and saw sharks, sea turtles, and a fascinating creature I had never heard of: the stingray shark. I’m still not convinced it wasn’t a robot, but it looked impressively real.

And I also took some other pictures at the aquarium…

Who is Hungry?

This was technically not in Ohio, It was across the river in Newport, Kentucky. Right next door to the German Brewhause Hofbräuhaus! Perfect!

Ice Skating

Our hotel room in downtown Cincinnati overlooked Fountain Square, where there was an ice-skating rink.

Even though we were practically running on fumes from waking up at 2:30 a.m. Central Time, we went ice-skating. The ice was so rough it looked like a layer of fresh snow had fallen on it. Despite the poor conditions, it was the best ice-skating experience of my life.

Keep on Ramblin’

The next day, we woke up at 2:30 a.m. again and raced back to St. Louis, Missouri, to avoid a snowstorm. We didn’t avoid it, though, and drove for miles on snow-covered highways. That in itself was an adventure, but the Odyssey didn’t let us down!

We Need an Igloo in All of this Snow

When we got back the kids had snow days so we went sledding again and started on an igloo mad out of frozen water balloons.. That didn’t pan out like we had hoped.

However, Thanks so an idea from Kassy Laborie, we did manage to salvage some of the failed water ballon bricks into some lovely ice luminaries!

Think about moments you could have celebrated but didn’t. How can you make celebration a regular part of your daily routine?

Thank You

Thanks for getting this far. That last point was again just how thankful I am to have such a warm and supportive family! The journey is always better when you travel with those you love! I do a word each year, and I started with thinking I would use Balance and then thought about Action, and then Balanced Action, but now I am thinking the way you find balanced action is via #NOVELTY … It is time travel after all. Novelty just might be the way forward on the quest for improvement. Be sure to check back in to see how it goes!

All the best!,

David.

Picture of David Kolmer
Improvement Dave Logo
Improvement Dave Logo inverted with blue and green background with white ID logo

Write for Them: How to Create Instructional Content That Resonates

Write So They Care

Hey, this is Dave. I am an Instructional Designer and learning experience advocate. I would like to discuss ways we as learning professionals can help learners on their journey. How Teachers, Corporate Training Facilitators, or Instructional Designers can “Get Out of the Way” of learners on their journey. This is not a new idea, but it is an important one.

Main Points

  1. Use tools that help you stay in the learning game.
  2. Write content that helps the reader improve on their own.
  3. Sell your idea, don’t force it, Sell it!
  4. Make the training about the real world, not academia or your world view

Serve the Reader

One way we can create instructional content that resonates with learners is to write better. Write simple statements that offer solutions and ideas that will help our learners. It sounds obvious when you say it, but somehow it helps to be reminded. In this article, I would like to pinpoint this concept, explore its meaning, and connect it to educational artifacts.

Expedited Audio Learning Tool

Here is an accidental win I had. Have you ever done a free trial of an app on your phone? Then you liked the app so much that you just never canceled it? It’s not something anyone would be proud of. I’ve had it happen at least once. OK, it was once because I do not spend money. It was the Headway app. This is not a paid advertisement for the Headway app… …but it should be!

( #Headway, #pleasesponsorme, #sponsorship #Iloveyou, #Iwillfightforyou.) 

the icon of Headway with a blue and yellow square with a white ladder.
My favorite app, I mean Blankest is good but Headway is BOSS!

I love the Headway app. It condenses books to their essence and then reads that summary to you, it also provides you a text summary. In this way, you can listen to 4 or 5 books while you say, mow the lawn. (Which is normally what I do while using the app.) I have

  • Listened to condensed versions of books I have never heard of
  • listened to condensed versions of books I have already read twice
  • discovered books I want to read and then went out and read or listened to them. 

The topics are wide ranging. I have relistened to the 7 Habits by Stephen Covey. I learned about the Japanese Aesthetic of silence and somber inaction. I have trained my subconscious mind to generate creative solutions. I have gotten better at not arguing with my family. You tell the app what your interests are. Then it amazes you with content you never knew existed. It also reminds you of content you love.

Nobody Cares About You

The most useful book that I listened to on Headway is called:

This book will teach you how to write better
by Neville Medhora.

Neville writes an amazing blog here: https://www.nevblog.com/ 

This book falls into the category of: This is a book I like so much. I went out and read the original book.

I love the message of this short book: 

Write clear and concise messages that help other people. 

It really doesn’t get any better than that. People don’t care about you, they care about themselves. People like to read about interesting or novel things that will help them. Even if you write a story about yourself, you should not stroke your ego. Don’t make the book all about how you are the most amazing human ever in the history of the world. The focus is on the reader, how can you help them? After all humility is sexy. People want to be with other people who are humble.

Summary of the book, that I wrote on my iPhone while mowing the lawn.

As I mentioned I use this app while mowing the lawn. (OK, I took breaks from driving the riding lawnmower while I took these notes. I did not write these while I was mowing.)

This book will teach you how to write better 

  • Delivery is critical, be proactive in finding ways to help others. 
  • Always write in casual copy.
  • Never write in technical explanation. *Unless designing technical documentation or technical training.
  • People care about themselves. people do not care about you. So write for them. Write things that help them.
  • People respond to what is: new, novel, or helpful. 

Use the AIDA sales Model: 

  1. Attention 
  2. Interest 
  3. Desire 
  4. Action 

[End of the summary I wrote on my iPhone.]

So, we have a novice writer (yours truly). He is writing about being a better writer. He is also using a sales model to identify how to be a better educator. I want to drill down on the warning above about the tone of the writing. We should use casual copy to describe ideas to compose writing that is easy to read. Learning content should be straightforward. It should be easy to follow. It should use common words and not use complex language that the average person would not know.

This is because the reader (learner) will waste effort on figuring out what you mean. They will focus on looking up words or not really understanding instead of focusing on the message itself. In the Learning World, we discuss this using the phase, “Cognitive Load” but you already knew that… or you should have.

Definition of the A.I.D.A. sales model

Here is a definition of the AIDA sales model provided by Gemini AI from Google.com

The AIDA model is a marketing framework that describes the four stages a consumer goes through before making a purchase:

Attention: Content that attracts attention to a brand Interest: Content that generates interest in a product or service Desire: Content that evokes a desire for a product or service Action: Content that spurs action to try or buy a product or service

The acronym AIDA was developed by American businessman Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898 and has been in use ever since. Businesses can use the AIDA model to create effective sales pitches that resonate with prospects and turn them into customers by understanding and addressing each stage. For example, a salon might use the AIDA model to promote an opening by running a PR campaign before launch, offering free consultations, and hosting exclusive launch events. 

[End of Gemini AI Summary from Google.com]

Oh, wow. Look at that AI writes really long sentences too.
Now I don’t feel as bad!

Wait, is This Sales? Am I on the Wrong Vlog?

How can Learning and Development professionals apply this model to our work? After all, this is a sales model of all things. I would like to lean on my memory of writings by Daniel Pink here. I am evoking his book “To Sell Is Human.” This book was suggested to me long ago by a colleague. They saw that I just didn’t get it. I was being naive and idealistic in my approach to work.

I was acting as if it was all about me. Yet, counterintuitively I was being aloof. Self-deprecating humor is very useful when you are a corporate training facilitator, but it can go too far. I was not speaking well of myself all the time. I was chronically breaking myself down with self-deprecating humor. This wasn’t just humility, I started to believe it. I hypnotized myself into thinking that I wasn’t good enough.

It’s not about me, it never is. It is about us, working together for a better way. We have to sell ourselves to the people around us all the time. We have to sell the ideas we write about in our learning artifacts. Sales is good, it is healthy. It isn’t inherently sleezy, as long as you are being honest. So, let me rewrite this summary with an L&D bend:

A.I.D.A. Learning Model  

AIDA Learning Model Attention: Content that attracts attention to the WIFFM (What’s in it For ME?) Interest: Content that generates interest in a new skill or ability. Desire: Content that evokes a desire for a better process or perspective Action: Content that spurs action to try a new process or mindset

The AIDA Learning Model is not a real thing. I just made it up because this is my blog, and it just fits. A sales pitch is a perfect metaphor for well-written learning content.

  • It needs to be short and concise.
  • It needs to grab our attention.
  • It needs to tell us why we should care.
  • It needs to get us fired up to make a change.

If our learning content is not engaging learners in an experience. Then it is not a learning experience. Learners should feel encouraged to explore and think for themselves. Otherwise it might as well be compliance training on an LMS with a multiple-choice exam. That’s not learning, that is covering your legal ass-ets.

Another Short Book on Writing Better

I don’t think it is a coincidence that the other book I would like to mention here is also short. Writing better is about being concise. I already had a lot of classroom experience. I worked as a training facilitator at a call center in Bridgeton, MO. This experience was in front of audiences and classrooms. I didn’t have a lot of feedback (or feedback I was open to accepting) on my writing.

At one point, I had written an especially terrible email. One of the seasoned trainers handed me a small gray book. I will call him “Jim Simpson”, which is his real name. On the front, it said, ~~~ “The Little Gray Book” ~~~ Q. Wallace. I started reading it. It instantly pulled me in. It gave me ideas I implemented right away to improve the clarity of my writing. I can not recommend it enough to someone who wants to write better.

“The Little Gray Book” ~~~ Q. Wallace

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43292446-the-little-gray-book

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Gray-Book-Q-Wallace/dp/1503583910

Where do we go from here?

All aspects of our experience can help us better serve our learners.  We better serve our learners and create learning content that truly connects with them. This happens when we give the best solution to potential problems. We should avoid just collecting cold facts or professing problems. 

There is nothing wrong with using AI or ChatGPT and citing them accordingly. We should hesitate to send only what a search from these tools told us. These tools do not always write in the most straightforward tone. Nor do they always give the insider information we can get from partnering with an SME. If we share “real company culture” or “how they do it on the floor,” then we are helping the learners.

The learners will be more engaged. The more focused this solution is on their environment or job role the better this works. The more specific you can be on: what the solution IS the better the results. Share best practices. Explain how it works best. Provide tricks with “the system login”. Describe how it fails etc. The better the results. [This was the end of the post.]

Continue reading Write for Them: How to Create Instructional Content That Resonates