In Real Life: What Does JD Stand for Anyway?

I considered pulling a WalkingDead and (SPOILER ALERT) not answering the question in the title until mynext column, but that wouldn’t really align with the whole idea of knowledgesharing, would it? So, you can skip to the bottom of the article for the answerright now, or you can follow along and be rewarded at the end for sticking withme. After all, meaningful user choices are part of effective experience design!

The eLearning Guild has invited me along for the ride as itsnewest columnist for Learning SolutionsMagazine, and I’m super excited and grateful for the opportunity.Admittedly, sitting alongside veteran contributors like Jane Bozarth and Marc Rosenberg is a bit daunting. After all, Jane was the first L&D person Iever met in person via Twitter, andMarc has shared a pile of great stuff that I continue to use as a resource inmy daily work.

Authors always say they bring a unique perspective to their writing,and I’m about to make the same claim. Be sure to tell me how accurate you thinkI am via comments. That said, I’ve had a few interesting jobs during my 15-plusyears in corporate operations, learning, and performance. Telling you a littleabout them may help you better understand my vision for modern workplacelearning.

Many people know me from Kaplan,where I was director of learning technology and development, and led internaltraining tech, instructional design and development, and overall learningstrategy within the higher-education side of the business. Before Kaplan, mytime with Disney was split across a variety of roles. I designed and deliveredcustom learning solutions for cast members and management in every line ofbusiness at the Walt Disney WorldResort. I piloted 10-minute boat tours of the world’s most exotic rivers asa Jungle Cruise skipper. I managed the busiest corner of the world’s busiesttheme park as a guest service manager in Frontierland. It was a small yetdynamic world. I also spent time immersed in the business of global supplychain logistics as well as cinematic entertainment. That brings me to mycurrent role as principal learning strategist with Axonify. We work withorganizations in a myriad of industries to improve employee knowledge andbehaviors in order to solve business problems and realize measurable outcomes.What do you think? Unique?

I hope the perspective I’ve gained as a result of thissemi-transient career path will hold your interest as I share a new article onthe third Tuesday of each month. After all, I have been the L&D director. Ihave been the operational manager. I have been the instructional designer. Ihave been the frontline employee. I use this collective perspective whenever Iformulate and share my ideas on what workplace learning must become to drivereal business results in today’s marketplace.

I’m direct, open, and sometimes a bit irreverent. I alsoconsider myself pretty funny, but that’s for you to decide. My goal is toprovide you with practical ideas you can use within your organizations now to elevate your learning and performancestrategies and deliver real value to your stakeholders, employees, andcustomers. Each month, we’ll focus on a popular topic, such as measurement,learning technology, knowledge sharing, gamification, or microlearning. We’llreach beneath the surface and beyond the hype to explore common-sense ways youcan leverage these concepts to evolve learning and performance in yourorganizations. Theories and principles are great, but this column is about whatworks in real life.

I have one more thought to share before you get your answer.I consider myself to be both an L&D person and an operations person. I enjoy speaking about workplace learningand performance with both audiences, and I believe L&D can deriveconsiderable value from expanding our discussions to include stakeholderswithin the client group we typically refer to as “the business.” To that end, Iwill select topics and share ideas in ways that will make it easy for you toforward this column along to your peers in logistics, sales, compliance,operations, retail, food and beverage, etc. Let’s use this opportunity to starta bigger conversation about modern workplace learning and really bring aboutchange in our organizations!

And finally, the letters “JD” are just myinitials. Hi, I’m John Dillon. Yes, JD Dillon is awkwardly redundant, but it’salso highly Googleable.Join me next month as we start to dig in and explore what it really means to “modernize learning” inthe ever-changing world of work!