New at ASTD: Screaming Rubber Chicken!

Thank goodness for the Screaming Rubber Chicken! Give it a squeeze, listen to its agonizing reverse squeal. Do it again. Laugh. Another squeeze. Toss it to someone. Laugh some more. Hey, so far, it's the funnest, most inspiring thing I've come across at the ASTD conference here in Orlando.

Bummer.

I came here looking for fresh, cool, innovative training and development ideas, and I'll keep looking. But I'm not thrilled at my prospects. Though not new to ASTD and going fast at $12, the Screaming Rubber Chicken could be it.

What's up with that? The number of exhibitors seems way down. There's a ton of convention bureau associations trying to distract us from our job at hand and lure us to other cities before our work is done here. There's e-learning mania of course. Energy on the expo floor seems low. And one couldn't help but wonder how alive and engaged the exhibitors themselves were in representing their own products and services. A simple "How's it going?" often elicited a deep sigh and a "One-more-day-to-go" response at best.

OK. So I do have another day to go and I'll keep looking for new ideas I can bring back to our own new product development process for The FISH! Philosophy, but I'm not optimistic.

Could be the heat: it is sweltering out here.

Could be the transition the whole T&D world is in: ROI pressures that dehumanize so much of our work, proving strategic value and the like.

Could be our industry is in a rut: we're supposed to be the strategic and conceptual leaders and implementers of fresh, engaging training and development approaches, but I'm just not seeing that kind of shine in the eyes of most people I've met so far.

Hugh McLeod recently wrote that "The market for something to believe in is infinite." In our business, that translates into new life-long learning approaches that inspire myself and others to believe in ourselves: personally and professionally.

I get the distinct feeling that our industry doesn't really believe in itself right now. Rather, it's tentatively tip-toeing around rather than taking a risk and plunging into passionate, personal development ideas and concepts that genuinely inspire all of us to more deeply believe in ourselves, our colleagues, our managers, our organizations and our customers.

OK. Like I said, It is muggy out here and my brain may be getting soggy.

But hey, I came here to get inspired, and dammit, I'm going to find a way to leave inspired. (Maybe that Screaming Rubber Chicken is working after all.)

Comments

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[stefan]

hello. i must have such a chicken. can u tell me were i can get that thing

[Daniel]

Where can I get the original screaming rubber chicken?!

thank you

[mark]

Wow, I think it's time for a screaming FISH too!

[Hip Deep]

Geesh, Mr. Carrot, take it easy. Don't be all demoralized and downtrodden with your colleagues in the "Change Industry.” Forgive them father, they know not what they do. When rock-steady companies like Dairy Queen and Victoria’s Secret sell Blizzards, Boxers & Bunshorts as “transformational commodities”, the nature of how our society perceives what “change” is, that is, of changing ourselves, or our organizations, becomes trite, predictable, and an outright prolonged deception. We cannot believe in change when the clutter of insincere or dimwitted hucksters claim the territory of transformation. More important, we can’t truly change or provide change experiences for our customers unless we can identify what we want to change into, change to what?

I’m taking a second here to write down four things that are/were transformational:
OK, for me it’s:

1. That Martin Luther King decided that the US Civil Rights movement would be non-violent. (Thanks Mr. Gandhi)
2. When Dylan went electric.
3. When Phil Donahue figured-out that his audience was more interesting and had better ideas than his guests, he walked from the stage into the audience.
4. That in collegiate Ultimate Frisbee matches, there are no referees or umpires – that players call their own fouls, so there’s an honor code that goes along with the play, becoming a part of the total experience.

Change and transformation demands that we are BEING part of the community that we’re serving, and we can only do so when we are an “intricate character” to the change. Being the change we wish to see (thanks Mr. Gandi!) Not separating ourselves from our community.

Change is personal, and the personal is political. And Ultimate Frisbee has no umps . . . the honor code is built in, and that's what's changed the players, on the field and off.