I was really intrigued by Cormier’s (2017) statement,
“Don’t tear down a fence unless you know why it was put there in the first place”.Â
I found myself relating to this message because I’ve experienced many learning solutions in the past to have stemmed from rash decisions in the workplace. With a background in corporate learning, developing learning solutions in global organizations sometimes felt clinical. In past roles, as an instructional designer I would be presented with editing specific elements of modules and actioning just a piece of the puzzle. However this often left my colleagues and I wondering about the impact of the training as a whole. Due to this lack of transparency, there were many projects placed on hold, and for those that got to completion did not seem as cohesive or targeted as intended.
In my current role, my team and I have been advocating for more transparency in projects and for communicating the bigger picture or purpose behind our development. I felt this resonate with Cormier’s (2017) aspect on the importance of building trust to support successful change. A big piece of building trust among my team is reflected in our new documentation principles. We’ve found that clear and organized documentation of our meeting minutes, strategic goals, project statuses, and feedback iterations helps to align the entire team and keep ourselves on track and provides us all with accountability. This ties in with the significance of stewardship and Cormier’s (2017) discussion about project management and wellness. One of the big changes I’ve felt from our previous project process to the current one is how there are now multiple checkpoints and queries in place to guide us in the development of new training materials, similar to the ones asked by Cormier (2017). Applying this new practice has also created more uniformity among our projects and from a project management perspective, it really makes us think about the necessity of a task before taking it on.
I feel like this brings it back full circle to Cormier’s (2017) initial remark of not tearing down fences, as my team’s new practices are much more sustainable. Honing in on the function of our development team has optimized our processes and allowed us to only take on new development projects when necessary and to keep a log of materials on hold that aren’t as aesthetic but still provide value.
Cormier, D. (2017, December 8). Our schools aren’t broken, they’re hard. Daves Educational Blog. https://davecormier.com/edblog/2017/12/08/our-schools-arent-broken-theyre-hard/