When I began my Master's degree program, I was inspired to encourage critical thinking and self-education...  Then reality kicked in...

It is my experience that many business leaders do not want their staff members making independent decisions; then become frustrated when the staff is afraid to make a decision.  I observed many situations like this in my daily work as well as stories related by others.  Independent thought and critical thinking, to find answers (or even to cry out the emperor has no clothes), is a great asset to an organization; many seem to feel that this causes mistakes the company cannot afford.  So, what do manager's do?  They instill fear and highly restrictive procedures that thwart creative thought and eventually... fear of ever making a decision.  

The Milgram Obedience Experiment, and the Stanford Prison experiment, teach us that the person to stand up and state this is 'wrong' is the exception...not the rule.  The culture of an organization can breed either free thinking and discourse, or fear of reprisal.  

In one experience, related to me, a manager stated that he didn't want his staff to "touch anything they shouldn't" and broke down the training into a manual a first grader would use.  I am all for providing learners with information to help them be successful; but, when we break down the task to the nth degree we breed out their ability to reason and find answers themselves.  They then become paralyzed and would rather ask and have someone else take responsibility for the decision.  This slows progress and, in some situations, it could cost much more than just a few dollars off the bottom line.

Along with this corporate resistance to staff members making independent decisions, is the mentality that "training will fix it."  If a corporation's staff is told what to do, and how to do, each piece of their job, they are going to have to understand that training will NOT always fix the problem.  

Let's take a new application just downloaded from the app store, of your choice.  Do you receive "training" on how to use your banking app?  No, and this is about managing your money!  Do you receive training on how to play Words with Friends? No.  Sure, many of these applications do have links to rules or commonly asked questions, but they also assume that if you want to use these apps you will "figure it out."  This is applied critical thinking.  I have touted the brilliance of Jane McGonigal's book "Reality is Broken" time and time again.  She speaks to how gaming creates critical thinking and if we embrace that paradigm shift and help staff members become empowered and able to understand the reasons behind the policies and procedures we follow each day. 

Sure it is a leap to trust employees.  However, the lack of trust, of employees, breeds contempt and fear.  Those who feel valued and trusted will return the positive feelings through hard, and diligent, work.

Whew!  What a long week and what a long time preparing for the Bold Technologies User Conference.  This year the company introduced the first full day train-the-trainer course.  This was my first opportunity, since completing my Master's degree, to deliver a course I designed from the ground up, and delivered for a full classroom.  Sure, I have trained others to train in my career.  What made this so special was my ability to share my, recently acquired, knowledge to those who too wish to follow this path.  

This course had some interesting and lively conversations.  As per usual, I learned some things from my learners that I will apply to future classes. Still, a great number of learners appreciated the shift in focus from just training to engaging adult learners and addressing the fears and challenges many adult learners bring to the learning environment.

This year we helped build new relationships, and cement old ones, by introducing a "team" concept where we all could earn points by attending courses and visiting vendors.  We had the most interactive final day ever; by having a final quiz show game pitting the teams in one final battle.  I had a great time hosting the final quiz show.  I want to thank everyone who so energetically participated.  While there is still some dispute as to the collection of points, all had a great time and were able to interact with people they may never have without the game.  

After starting back to college in 2008 for a second Bachelors degree in Photography, in just a few more weeks I complete my Master's degree in Adult Education and Training.  This was a long and meandering path to this degree but learned some really important lessons along the way.  If you know me, I wouldn't have it any other way!  :)

Lesson 1
Go back to school only when you can pay for it out of savings, pocket or through investments.  When I finish my degree I will have nearly $70,000 in student loans and interest to repay.  At nearly 43 years old, if I can afford the equivalent of a really nice car payment for the next 10 years, I will have only 10 more years to really sock money away for a legitimate retirement.  

Lesson 2
Find a way to 'try before you buy.'  I spent a year in the second bachelors degree program for photography, then another year in the Master's degree program, thinking that the programs would help me learn the skills I needed to make my artistic image, in my view finder, come out as an equally interesting image for others to enjoy.  However, what I learned was about being an artist and how to critique others.  My lighting course was the one course I was sure would teach me about the mechanics of my photographs.  After two years and $40,000 in student loans, I realized that I was never going to be a commercial photographer in order to pay that money back.  

So, I began hunting for a new program.  I found the University of the Rockies and their Organizational Leadership program.  I was very excited by the program because it was touted as the "soft skills MBA."  That sounded very interesting to me, I liked that the school had previously focused only on clinical psychology but had begun offering an Organizational Leadership program.  What I didn't know was the program was piggy-backing off of the current clinical psychology courses.  While there are similar concepts to learn, the application is very different.  I realized during my first semester, and after another $5,000 in tuition and costs, that this was not the right choice either.  So, now I am pushing $50,000 in debt and no degree.  

One of my professors at the University of the Rockies noted on one of my assignments that I was a "natural teacher."  This sparked my thoughts toward an education Master's degree.  There I found the University of Phoenix program for Adult Education and Training.  This sounded, on paper, to be the very best choice for me.  I was already a trainer teaching adults.  Still, the program, while interesting and informative, was not a "home run" for me.  This program was much more like a law school degree.  We spend two years learning theory, and practice waits for after completion.  

I can say I did learn many things during this last 18 months and I worked very hard to apply the theories within my current position.  However, I felt that there were a lot of K-12 educators who could not relate to the differences of adult learners in a corporate environment.  Understanding that adults, coming to training, come from a range of backgrounds and attitudes toward education, is vital to offering a positive experience for adult trainees.  

Don't get me wrong, I am proud of my accomplishment, but I really wish I could have tried some of these before spending the equivalent of a house on three different programs.

Lesson 3
Spend time getting to know your strengths.  I always knew I was comfortable as a teacher/trainer; but, I was not the strongest student in high school and being a dyslexic (and dysgraphic) and my only real understanding of education was traditional K-12 or finishing my PHD to teach in academia.  I also did not relish the idea of being a teacher in a traditional classroom.  A friend of mine suggested I was an "alpha gamer" even though I am not a "gamer."  What he meant was when I get excited about any topic I share it with anyone who will listen, and that excitement can be infectious.  I love technology and I love all the new innovations coming out every year.  I admit it, I am a bit of a tech geek.  What does this all mean about knowing your strengths?  I am a non-traditional educator motivated and inspired by the new innovations of this age.  Knowing that now, I would have gone into Instructional Design and development as opposed to straight adult education and training.  That would have tied more of my strengths and desires.  But!  I am not going into further debt to go back for that.  So, I will take my education and work on innovating from there.


I am sure there are many more lessons I learned throughout this process, but those are my top three and I am caught wondering what will I do when I am done?  I won't know what to do with myself.  What else do I want to learn?  I always used to say I was a "Jane of all trades, master of none."  Now, I can say, I am a "Jane of all Trades, Master of One!"

Please do not read my rantings about cost deter you from reaching for your goals.  Just think clearly about the long term costs of taking on student loans when you are older.