Reflecting on the ATD 2019 Conference

About six months ago, the research for the ATD 2018 Skills Gap report, Bridging the Skills Gap: Workforce Development and the Future of Work, found that 83 percent of respondents report a skills gap in their organization and 78 percent expect their organizations will have a skills gap in the future.  Here is the link to the report:  https://www.td.org/press-release/83-percent-of-organizations-have-skills-gaps-according-to-atd-research

With this information in mind (and some of the key findings were interesting – for instance, companies have a gap that impacts them,  but a drop in organizations spending money to address the issues!) it was very impressive to see 13,500 professionals focused on wanting to address those very issues (management / communication / leadership / soft skills).

Project management skills – at the project manager, leadership and team member levels – can help (I know – preaching to the choir) and we have those courses/solutions! One take-away that made me proud when attending sessions, speaking with others and hearing what’s going on, I found the conversations validated our approach to training (modular training / customized to specific needs … even to something as mundane as having two people run a virtual session).

There was buzz in the group about doing things in an agile way … without really understanding what that means (also true of AI, VR, etc. ), and how it will improve the learning and impact business results. I get that you don’t want a poor course to sit on an LMS for several years, and that perhaps an agile approach would get that feedback faster – so would engaging the leaders and learners up front (as in requirements gathering and validation). As with most business problems, there really is no magic bullet, but research shows that using adaptive project management practices can increase speed and effectiveness in most situations.

One positive theme that came up frequently involved the role of storytelling and "the art of presentation" in making information / training memorable and applicable. My colleague Crystal Busch and I both got a lot out of these workshops. I asked Crystal to share her impressions of the conference:

Final thoughts? I am exhausted and energized all at the same time.  So many new insights  triggered!  Also some points of validation to what I do – how we work with clients to ensure that our training is applicable and makes sense for them; that we are changing the behaviors, making an impact.  Everyone needs validation that what they are doing, how they are approaching a project makes sense – that their performance is on point.  (It’s like Beyoncé asked Oprah, “Was that okay?” after their conversation together – even Bey needs validation!)  There are still so many sessions I want to watch/ listen to when the recordings from ATD 2019 are uploaded – always more to learn and figure out for the future.  I should have gone to the time management session  because I am going to need to find more time! 

Overall, ATD offered a  great conference and I felt priveleged to be among so many passionate, enthusiastic professionals. Til next year!