I’m writing at article for the March edition of Training & Development magazine, which is published quarterly by the Australian Institute of Training and Development (ATID). The edition theme is Learning Culture. How could I NOT submit an article given that I developed and ran a Building Learning Culture program with Nigel Paine last year and I’m speaking on this topic at the AITD’s 2020 conference in March.
I reached out to Nigel on 3 January and suggested we both write an article. We agreed on complementary topics, although each is a standalone article. Nigel is writing about technology and learning culture, while I will focus on mindset and skillset.
Submissions close on 15 January – yes, in 3 days time. I suspect Nigel has finished his article already. I’ve just started. I like to think I’ve adopted what Adam Grant calls creative procrastination in my approach to this article. I was focussed on creating a new product that I soft-launched last week. So, for the next three days my calendar blocks allocated to creativity will clearly be consumed with writing this article.
I did the hardest part today. I got started. I spent an hour mind-mapping my key ideas and points. Work in progress is shown in the picture of the whiteboard above. My eraser was used liberally as I started fleshing out ideas and key points. It’s starting to take shape. Having it on the whiteboard means that I can keep refining my ideas visually as I start writing. I’ve supplemented the whiteboard with a flipchart that I’m using as a parking lot for ideas that I may (or may not) incorporate, or items I remove from the whiteboard but want to keep on the bench, ready to bring back into the field of play should it feel right.
At some point I decided upon a working title ‘Do you have what it takes to build learning culture?’ A bit dull? What about ‘Building Learning Culture – Do You Have What it Takes?’
I’ll post a Daily Dispatch each day until the 15th when I WILL submit the article. Let’s see how this takes shape.
For anyone else who writes articles – I’m curious about how you get started. What’s your process for writing an article?
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