A few (of many) thoughts on the ASTD 2009 Conference

I spent the past week in Washington, DC attending the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) International Conference and Exposition. ASTD is a professional organization for people involved in training and personnel development (primarily curriculum designers, training presenters, managers of the “learning function” and human resources professionals). It was a fascinating, if occasionally disconcerting, time and I came away with fresh inspiration, ideas, and some reassurance that I am (theoretically) on the right track with training initiatives here at PLS (Yay! But…my post-conference action plan starts with “move from the theoretical to the practicable”. More on that later…)

The overall themes of the conference were informal learning and learning transfer. Two concepts that have been looming in my mind for a while and directed the sessions I attended (also more on those later! But here’s a general overview…)

Informal learning describes the learning that happens outside of the formal classroom (physical or virtual) environment – peer to peer sharing and instruction, the use of job aids, personal learning, etc. The president of ASTD, Tony Bingham, opened the conference with a keynote speech calling on workplace learning professionals to be more actively engaged with supporting and facilitating informal learning. I think this is a particular strength of PLS already – we share information and resources extensively via PLS-L, the Director’s email lists, OWWLUG, System Meetings, PLS Notes, PLUM, and more. Library staffs work hard to support their colleagues on the job, everyday. So what can PLS training do to facilitate and/or improve these processes?

Learning transfer is the process wherein information gained as a result of training is integrated and applied on the job. All too often, training/learning seems to “stop” at the end of a class session – but the only reason to attend training in the first place is to be able to perform better on the job. I think this is the most serious gap in PLS training – we need to figure out how to get supervisors, participants, trainers, and managers working together to figure out a few key things: A) what should we see as a result of training that makes it worth rearranging schedules, paying mileage, or paying somebody to not be at the library? B) How can we better design training to achieve those results? C) What do we need to know before attending training to maximize the impact of training? D) What do we need to be doing to ensure that learners can apply new skills at work? E) How will we know that improvements have been accomplished?

Over the next few weeks, I will share my ASTD09 adventures, take aways, and ides I think would benefit PLS. I will (resurrect and) put them on my blog (http://trainingpioneers.blogspot.com – if you happen to have this bookmarked, this is a new URL! Please update your bookmark/subscription.) where I would love to discuss my ideas, your ideas, and PLS training endeavors in general.