A nice reward

For the past two days, Angie and I have been working our way through two months worth of mail. Most of it was worthless - or, more precisely, less than worthless.

This - my diploma for my Masters in Adult Education - however, brought a smile to my face. It's funny how something that was such a big part of my life for 18 months can just disappear, almost unnoticed, replaced by other things.

Though it's completely illogical, I expected the completion of an advanced degree to change me in some small way.

Did I think I'd feel more mature? No.

More confident? No.

More intelligent? Professional? Literate? No. No. And no.

And yes...

But it doesn't work that way. Any gains I made in maturity, confidence, intelligence, professionalism, or literacy were incremental (and certainly arguable).

What was gained was gained one fraction of an inch at a time, like the growing of hair. There's almost no change from last night, until suddenly you need a trim.

Well, it isn't like I need a brain trim (what would that be like?). But... even if the destination is anticlimactic, the journey was great.

What I Did This Downturn...

Remember those "What I did last summer" essays?

I'm reminded of them for two reasons:

1) It's 'back to school' season

2) Our business appears to be picking up again

Our previous CEO, Ken Schroeder, used to say that what you did during a downturn would determine how you did during the following upturn. He considered any downturn to be a time for retooling and refreshing skills.

The biggest impact this downturn had on me was a lack of business travel. Since 1993, I've spent anywhere from 30-95% of each year overseas - mostly in Asia. In the past 18 months, however, I have not made a business trip.

As a result, I've been able to engage in a number of projects that have given me amazing developmental opportunities:

• I started my Master of Arts in Adult Education and Training at the University of Phoenix. I'll finish it in three months. I've met smart people that I wouldn't have otherwise met, discovered the foundations of adult learning, and witnessed the power of online learning.
• I led two very challenging and rewarding projects at work - a mentoring program and a 'reboot' of our development process
• I met Nancy Duarte, author of slide:ology, and spent the past 9 months working with her and her incredible team to provide instructional design consultation on the slide:ology workshop. This has been one of the most rewarding projects of my life.
• I spent two great days with the VizThink community; meeting Dan Roam, Jessica Hagy, and Dave Gray, among others. It was a very stimulating event.
• I was certified as:
  a DiSC profiling facilitator by Ken Blanchard Companies
  a facilitator of The Leadership Challenge Workshop
  a facilitator of Edward deBono's Six Thinking Hats
  a facilitator of Power Speaking's High Tech Speaking
  a facilitator of Vervago's Precision Q+A Workshop
  a facilitator of CMOE's Applied Strategic Thinking Workshop
  a facilitator of InsideOut Coaching
• I was able to spend two days with Cal Wick of FortHill, learning The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning
• Randy Emelo of Triple Creek and I created the Mentoring Conversations Model and have written a series of six newsletters to introduce the model
• I completed a training workbook, based entirely on manga-like images. The new workbook has been a big hit, particularly with our students for whom English is a second language.
• I continued to put my new-found drawing skills into practice for storyboarding

In the next few weeks, I'll be attending workshops run by James Kirkpatrick and Stephen Few, so the learning hasn't stopped.
I would not have been able to enjoy most of these opportunities in a boom market, so I consider myself very lucky.

What about you? What did you do this downturn?