Surrounding yourself with heroes

When new instructional designers, trainers, or facilitators ask me what they can do right away to become better at their job, my answer is this...surround yourself with heroes.

Here are a couple of mine. We met working for the same global health non-profit in Seattle. Recently, we all were at the same L&D conference, presenting or facilitating sessions for our industry.

We all have gone our separate ways - two to owning (and rocking!) their own businesses, and one (spoiler alert: me) to a different industry all together.

We all care passionately about the learner or worker. We all care passionately about tying training to business outcomes. We all could pick up the phone today, and ask the others to help troubleshoot a L&D conundrum, get tips on managing a recalcitrant SME, or simply kick the tires on an idea. We all challenge each other to think differently, to do better, to be better trainers and humans. We all know how to have fun.

Find your people, and make sure you hold onto them.