As we look back over these last few months I've recognized that I did participate in some of these concepts over the course of my career, though using specific tools for each was not my typical method. I've worked in the Food Industry as a Quality and Regulatory specialist for the past decade and so I've spent a lot of time looking through regulatory bodies' rules, however I haven't done much to engage beyond my immediate contacts.
As much as I've avoided it, I think Twitter will now remain as a crucial point in gathering information from sources that actively posts materials here or respond to questions through here. Even as someone who doesn't like to remain connected at all times, getting a daily summary or semi-daily summary when I want to check in on Twitter and responses is important as well. It is also useful in keeping conversations short and sweet and avoiding conversations which go on too long and cover too much information for the reader.
Patience has been important when building up a PLN. When you are looking for material that talks to you as an audience amongst the many, many blogs and videos available, it's not always apparent that what you found first gets the point across in a way you can understand. I've spent many hours and days searching for YouTube or company videos that use real-world people and applications when discussing skills at work. While it is great to go through the entire process in an animation or through instruction, this adds another step in translating, so for example when I want to get the point across for what a Supervisor in a manufacturing plant I can choose to go through one of the many class-based videos available, or find one I specifically found that shows what it means to work in my audiences environment such as: https://youtu.be/u5IRyzNPWic
The importance of learning with others is something that can be missed in our online courses or if we choose to avoid classroom discussions. I do appreciate reading through the material and having some time to reflect myself, but being able to engage in active discussions with others is important, especially when taking time to have a live discussion regarding a subject. Even without the ability to communicate daily with classmates, coworkers have been a valuable resource to engage with in each of these subjects, whether it was regarding technology for instruction of the use of videos for training, I found that re-stating what was learned was useful for the longer-term retention of information.
From my PLN, both personal and online, I've found that the more you keep an active voice in the goings-on of the organization, the group and discussion, the more of a part you will play in shaping it. While some could consider it stepping over boundaries, I think it takes some push to help get an action to take place, rather than waiting for it to happen. Too often we can hear that something is 'coming', or that a change is 'in the works', but if it takes too long it can become demoralizing and can lead to those who looked forward to it to find somewhere that it is already in place. This often can lead to those who feel out of the loop to find somewhere they will be kept in the loop if they also don't feel like they can actively participate.
Human Resources Development is an active membership within the organization. We should not and can not wait for someone to request a change, it should be a part of our responsibility to an organization, the employees, and ourselves to proactively address an issue before it can occur. While everything may not be under our radar, we have the opportunity to see the larger picture outside of departments and to act as the voice of the customer for many people. Many times this important role in HR is relegated among departments and loses the focus it needs within an organization and so development is erratic and incomplete, which could develop into issues should it be mis-managed or employees feel like there's an unfair benefits granted to some departments and lacking in theirs.
Finding content that matters is an important benefit to providing the right method of instructing. In talking with coworkers, especially those who don't see a benefit in training outside of their regular job, I found that providing them with issues that don't have a practical application example in their day-to-day workplace makes retention of any information negligible. If there's a lack of information that applies to your workplace, rather than using something that takes a situation from elsewhere and explains it, I now believe that creating that situation is the proper step to applying this example of the training you're attempting to get across. This has been a great semester in showing me what is missing and what works from the current methods I've seen employed in my workplaces and educational life and look forward to continuing on next semester to better improve myself and the organizations I'm a part of.
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