There are at least two kinds of games: one could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning; an infinite game is played for the purpose of continuing the play.     - James Carse, Finite and Infinite Games

Today was an interesting day. It was going very well, until I began the journey home. It didn’t feel right from the beginning. From the hotel entrance, I got into the truck and headed for Toronto’s Pearson Airport en route to Victoria, BC. I thought to myself, "Did he just slur the word luggage?" I looked past it. I chalked it up to his accent. I pulled out my iPad and began reading, as I always do when making the 30-minute journey from downtown Toronto to the airport. I’ve done the trip so many times, there is nothing more to see. I prefer reading, via the iPad. The head bobbing nearly concussed me as we literally stuttered toward the Gardiner Expressway, but I overlooked it at first. Once on the Expressway, and heading for Highway 427, I became concerned. "Is he swerving?" I asked myself. "Actually, is he drunk?" I asked the driver, "Are you tired? Have you been drinking?" He replied, "No, I’m just tired. I need a coffee." By the time we hit Highway 427 , I was in full-on DEFCON 5 mode. He was asleep at the wheel, and we were headed for the concrete wall. "WAKE UP!", I screamed. Thankfully, someone was looking out for me. (again) He awoke, managed to swear, and somehow avoided the wall and the car in front of us. The brakes were slammed — and for whatever reason — the car came to a complete stop in the emergency lane, unscathed. Do you know how difficult it is to hail a cab on the side of a highway? Do you know what it feels like to put your life in the hands of a drunk driver? Nevertheless, I was alive. (again) When life flashes before your eyes, one is instantly reminded of mortality, love and unconquered dreams. As an 18 year-old, I once was ditched from a white water river raft, sucked into an underwater Grade 6 cyclone that trapped me for what felt like hours. Imagine an underwater washing machine where your body is magnetized to the rim — the lid is closed — and there is no way to get out. It eventually spit me back up to the surface, where friends took over from there, saving my life. As a 26 year-old, a driver lost control of his car around a stretch of road in Vancouver while speeding at 80 km/h and was headed directly for the front of my trusty Saturn. With no time to think, I somehow managed to veer ever so slightly to the right. It saved three lives in the Saturn (including my own) but the entire driver-side of the trusty Saturn disappeared. The polyethylene dent-resistant plastic body panels of the trusty Saturn were no more. It was weird to see a car so naked, but it felt good to be alive. (again) I now sit in the friendly confines of the Air Canada lounge in Toronto. Naturally, I’ve been reflecting. Have I done everything possible to be the best human being possible? Have I conquered all of those dreams? No, I haven’t. But I will remedy the oversight, effective immediately. Please, don’t drink and drive. Dan's Related Posts:Omni Hotels & Resorts in Dallas Demonstrate Great Customer ServiceTwo Very Incredible & Courageous WomenTake a Chance on YouIFWhat I Learned From My Daughter About Decision Making

Whether you're a leader at your company, or you help develop them, the practice of delegating to others successfully is both an art and a science. And the upside to your organization is huge: Effective delegation can empower and engage employees, fuel initiatives, and spur energy and creativity.

Efficiency is key for business success. But in the long term, it won’t sustain business growth.

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Business is changing faster than perhaps any other time in recent history. The shifting economy is a prime driver, but so is technology - the rapidly evolving factor in the change sweeping most companies.

Back in 2001, Britain’s Royal Mail — that venerable institution of postal delivery throughout the United Kingdom, originally conceived and put into service by Charles I in 1635 — decided to change its name to Consignia. Consignia. The Chief Executive Officer at the time was John Roberts. He publicly stated that "the new name describes the full scope of what the post office does in a way that the words post and office cannot." Consignia. You can’t make this stuff up. Needless to say, Royal Mail was resurrected from the lost mail bag name a year later. That’s an example of a name change gone terribly awry. Recently, however, another name change has sparked a relative fury for professionals in the learning, talent and HR space. The ASTD — American Society for Training and Development — recently announced it was changing its name from ASTD to ATD, or Association for Talent Development. To be clear, this is not an example of Consignia or Royal Mail. In fact, this change is rather refreshing. One might say it’s needed. ATD got its start in 1943 as the American Society of Training Directors. As Wikipedia suggests, "The organization began in New Orleans during a training committee meeting of the American Petroleum Institute in 1942. The following year, a group of 15 "training men" met for the first board meeting of the American Society of Training Directors." From there, it morphed into the American Society of Training and Development and it now possesses thousands of members in more than 100 countries. In the US alone, there are over 120 chapters. There are 26 global networks in other countries as well. In a nutshell, it’s a large, international and community-driven organization supporting  the professionals who aspire to help all facets of professional development inside profit and not-for-profit organizations. I’ve never liked the term or the acronym ASTD. I felt it did not do justice to what this organization does, and will continue doing for professionals and workers in today’s organizations. The Association for Talent Development (ATD) is a far superior and clearer name than ASTD or American Society for Training and Development. Aside from the obvious — which is dropping the myopic view of an American-only association, which it never was — the graduation from ‘training and development’ to ‘talent development’ is necessary. Talent development is not solely about training. Furthermore, when one is developing, delivering or designing ‘training’, I wouldn’t subscribe to it being the only form of talent development. Talent development is much broader than training. A training and development only mindset is akin to believing workers in today’s organizations only learn inside of a classroom or a learning management system. It’s as though there is only one form of pie at my local bakery. I may love pecan pie, but from time to time, I love a sky-high lemon meringue pie or the sweet crumble of an apple pie. Whether via the Pervasive Learning model from Flat Army or through the myriad different ways workers have proven that learning is part formal, informal and social, it all comes back to talent. Talent is developed inside and outside of ‘training and development’. It comes in the form of coaching, mentoring, job shadowing, wiki’s, blogs, rotations, lectures, books, articles, job aids, leadership models … the list literally goes on and on. I want an array of pies at the bakery. I believe talent development is that bakery. I believe ‘training and development’ is one type of pie, but the ATD is a bakery that provides all sorts of pies for us to enjoy. In 1924, a company by the name of Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation decided it would be a good time to rename itself. Leaders thought the name was limiting. Leaders believed they had to expand the definition of the company to include a more international flavour. They also believed they were a one-pie bakery. What did the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation change its name to? Ninety years later, you may be more familiar with the name International Business Machines or IBM. ATD - not your one-pie talent development bakery. Dan's Related Posts:Dear C-Suite: We Don’t Do Training AnymoreDocking Employee Pay to Improve Their Skills is Dubious if not DumbLearning by OsmosisWhy You Must Define the So-What of LearningInternet Activities Do NOT Affect Adolescence Development

Several months ago I participated in a two-day offsite planning retreat for Interaction Associates at the Chicago offices of Gensler, the global design firm noted for advanced innovations in office design.

I was asked to comment on a few questions related to eLearning, social learning, etc. for an upcoming publication. Here are the questions and my unedited responses: What does an organization without social learning look like? What COULD it look like? The water cooler has been both a figurative and literal location of exchange. So too has the break room, the lunch room, the elevator … heck, even smokers alley outside the building. Social learning has always been a part of organizations. It’s the exchange of knowledge, intelligence, ideas and feedback through non-formal means. The ‘new’ social learning — where the utilization of collaborative technologies aid and abet the exchange — is a new must. Why prevent it? Why stop it? An organization without social learning is an organization without its soul … without its culture. It’s a draconian stance to take, one that ensures disengagement will flourish (an oxymoron, I know) and learning will be trapped in a classroom and LMS forever. How would offering social learning benefit employee engagement? To make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, one first must start with two pieces of bread. Let’s refer to this as formal learning. The peanut butter makes the bread stick together, something I like to refer to as informal learning. (eg. Coaching, mentoring, job shadowing, books, etc.) But it’s the sweet irony of the jelly that makes the sandwich complete. That sweetness comes in the form of social learning, and it’s necessary if one wants an engaged organization and improved operating culture. Social learning not only connects and unites one another in the exchange of knowledge, content and ideas — through collaborative technologies — it breaks down the barriers of hierarchy. Imagine a Senior Vice-President who begins a weekly internal blog, discussing important ‘executive’ topics with her team or the organization, while using it as a platform to solicit feedback and ideas on said topics. How is that not a good way in which to both learn and increase employee engagement at the same time? Is mobile or social the next hot thing for organizations to offer employees as part of a learning program? Why? I read with disdain a recent report from Proskauer entitled "Social Media in the Workplace Global Study". They found 36% of employers actively block access to such external social media sites, compared to 29% in 2012 and 43% of businesses permit all of their employees to access social media sites, which is actually a fall of 10%. This is not a good trend. Social, mobile, wearables, and whatever is next are part of our human condition. We invent to survive. We ideate to thrive. We create to exist. Everything is the next hot thing for organizations to offer employees as part of a learning program. It’s not limited to social or mobile. A true learning organization should be listening to its employees (as well as industry) to determine how these new forms of technologies (and ideas) can assist the employee to become better engaged, better educated to in turn perform better in their role for purposes of the customer they serve. What does the future of eLearning look like? I’ve always loathed the term eLearning. Something that is ‘electronic’ reminds me of my father and his electrical engineering days. His father made him become an engineer. Many people are forced to take eLearning. If I could change anything, it would be to drop the ‘e’ of eLearning and call it what it really should purport to be offering: interactive learning. Far too many eLearning offerings remain ‘click next’ rote memory exercises. I’d like to see eLearning become 10-30 minute interactive learning opportunities that truly demonstrate engaging, simulated and emotionally tied interactions with the learner. It too should be (somehow) tied to social learning. There is a time and place for individualized interactive learning — don’t get me wrong — but learning is also a shared experience, and by not having the tie-in with social learning (through discussion forums, micro-blog exchanges, video shares, etc.) we’re losing out on an important possibility to further enhance the learning experience itself. Dan's Related Posts:Employee Access to Social Media in the Workplace DecreasesSocial Media is not Social LearningLearning by OsmosisThe Social C-SuiteDear C-Suite: We Don’t Do Training Anymore

As the newly elected Chairman of the Board at Interaction Associates, I am thinking a lot about how the principles of Facilitative Leadership apply to this new role.