I am always searching for better ways to explain our mission as trainers. That search often takes me outside the world of law enforcement to books, blogs and magazines that were not written by or for law enforcement, but have everything to do with our profession. Today I will share insights from two of those non law enforcement blog posts.
The first comes from Seth Godin, a prolific author and marketing guru.
Connecting dots (or collecting dots)
Without a doubt, the ability to connect the dots is rare, prized and valuable. Connecting dots, solving the problem that hasn’t been solved before, seeing the pattern before it is made obvious, is more essential than ever before.
Why then, do we spend so much time collecting dots instead? More facts, more tests, more need for data, even when we have no clue (and no practice) in doing anything with it.
Their big bag of dots isn’t worth nearly as much as your handful of insight, is it?
The second insight comes from author, artist and innovation specialist Hugh MacLeod. One of the unique, hand drawn infographics on his Gapingvoid blog post had two simple drawings. The first was a bunch of dots on a page with the heading ‘information’. The page beside it has all the dots interconnected and the heading read “knowledge’.
Both Hugh MacLeod and Seth Godin clearly understand your missions as a trainer – connect the dots. In a world where people and agencies are obsessed with collecting dots (data, information, statistics), your mission is to help people in your organization gain insight perspective and knowledge by connecting those dots. It is not enough that people have dots. If they cannot apply that information or see how their dots relate to other dots, the information is of limited value. Without connection it is just data, facts and information – just dots.
Take care.
Brian Willis – Committed to making a difference in the law enforcement profession.
Think Differently About Training – www.experiencewinx.com
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