Doug C. McBride

Those who ride the night winds learn to love the stars . . . those who live on the edge get used to the cuts . . . Even while crying in the darkness . . . the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts . . . we’ll never know now . . . one part is missing. —Nikki Giovanni

In June 1997 the technology industry lost a true advocate and sponsor. Many of us also lost a dear friend. For those of you who didn’t know Doug McBride, you probably know someone or something that he touched.

For the past several years Doug was the Executive Director for the Information Technology Training Association (ITTA). He was in the technology industry most of his life and had the war scars and stories to prove it. He was a gifted speaker and dynamic personality who helped organizations see the larger picture of how to bring solid learning solutions to business at all levels.

For several years prior to his death, Doug worked with Wayne Hodgins and me, drafting a book and delivering workshops at training conferences about the state of the IT Training industry, productivity, and learnability. Doug was there when we coined the word Learnativity and originally envisioned this site.

Doug lived by a few simple rules.

1. If you’re going to do it, do it BIG.
2. If you’re going to care, do it genuinely.
3. If you’re going to share, share with everyone.
4. Take a chance; Challenge your ideas; Live life to its fullest; Do it now.

He lived by those rules and, sadly, he died by them, too. Several of his columns in Services News captured his message with more personality than I could on my best day. To introduce those of you who didn’t know Doug and to remind the rest of us about the true wisdom of those around us, I’ve included several of those articles here.

To the night winds,

Shaking things up: Banana Blender Surprise

By Doug McBride
Service News, August 1996

When I was in high school there was a local hangout that was the 60s version of the malt shop. They served organic fruit juices, healthy sandwiches, smoothies, and something called a Banana Blender Surprise. The BBS (not Bulletin Board Service) was a constantly changing concoction of fruit, fruit juice and various herbs and powders that were supposed to give you greater health, vigor, and enhance your appeal to the opposite sex. You never knew what would be in it, or what you would get out of it. That’s a lot like our industry and our jobs.

Recently, I spent time with a vendor of support products. They were remarking how the support industry was rapidly integrating with the training side of the business. At ITTA’s annual conference, Strategies for Success 96, the buzz was about rapid delivery of smaller and smaller bits of training. Some of the ITTA member companies were announcing their entry into more traditional support-related fields. And, many of the courses delivered by the training companies now include modules on various support products.

The biggest obstacle to the ongoing consolidation, change, and convergence of our businesses is changing the minds and the mind-sets of the players. We no longer have the luxury of defending our turf. The fact is that what you see as your turf today may be washed away tomorrow, not by the forces of competition, but by the inexorable forces of change. It would be like worrying about the competing store down the street, while a hurricane ran through your town.

So what can you do to grow and profit from this constant change? Here are some simple rules:

* Know what your job is today, and do it well;
* Take some time every day to spot a trend in your industry, business or company that is pointing the way toward your duties in the next year;
* Be positive. The changes we are experiencing always lead to opportunity;
* Be creative. Figure out how to facilitate changes and let your coworkers know your ideas;
* Be patient. Good ideas take time to implement. That way they get better with more input;
* Forget who owns the idea, especially if it was yours. Every one knows who the leaders are; and
* Keep a personal journal. You will be pleasantly surprised at how much has been done, changed, and become better.

Over the next three and a half years, by the year 2000, the support and training industries are slated to more than double in size. You are part of it today. Will you be there, happier, more productive, better paid and more involved? Only if you learn to be part of the change. Otherwise you will place your order for the Banana Blender Surprise and have no idea what it contains. SN

Reprinted with permission of Service News, Copyright © 1996. United Publications August 1996.

Finally getting good enough

By Doug McBride
Service News, May 1996

For many years we have tried to substitute technology for humans, especially in the learning place. We have not succeeded for two reasons: First, we applied ridiculous expectations to the products. Second, we knew little about how humans learned.

Bob Mosher, author of books such as Training for Results, tells a story from his past as an elementary school teacher. It seems that many teachers were all knotted up about a piece of new technology in the 70s that would replace the teacher in the classroom. It enabled students to view lectures any time, any place. They could review parts of the lecture over and over, or speed through the parts they did not need. It was cheap, easy, and relatively portable. It was the VCR.

We all know how yawn-inspiring a lecture on tape can be. It is my favorite sedative. Really it is. In part of my job I review 50 to 75 speakers a year for the ITTA conferences. Most of these are on video tape and most tapes have the same effect as sleeping pills. Keep in mind that these are some of the best speakers in the world, too. Quite contrary to your average academic lecturer.

Remember when “educational television” was the rage? This was going to raise the education level of all regardless of their station in life. How great to have really important lessons piped right into the home, right? “Everyone will know everything, at the touch of a button!!!!!” Hogwash. Educational television is a wasteland of its own. Populated with overblown actors huffing their way through bad Shakespeare rip-offs, and overstuffed toys coaxing kids to learn their ABCs and 123s.

The same has been true of computer-based training solutions. They were, for over 20 years, really pathetic (and expensive) electronic page turners. Many touted CBT as the wave of the future. No more classrooms, right? All of the cries of “better, cheaper, faster” went up again.

Now we have Internet-delivered learning and the rage goes on. But maybe not with the same results this time. Admittedly, the other forms of technology were less interactive. About the only interaction you had was turning them off after you were bored to death. People seem to like learning over the Internet, right? Well, maybe. People seem to like two kinds of learning over the Internet, targeted and accidental. Recently my wife was working on a production of “Shadowlands”, the story of part of the life of C.S. Lewis. Through searches on the Internet she found his step-son and opened an e- mail communication with him. An amazing amount of learning happened due to these communications. They were made possible only through this amazing communications tool. This was targeted learning at its best.

I am afraid that much more is learned by stumbling on to it while surfing. Worse yet, I am afraid that this learning will be co- opted by those that think they can bring order and reason to the search. They will likely succeed in making learning adventures targeted and eliminating the value of the accident. The facts are these, learning technology is finally getting good enough, and nobody knows enough about how it works. We are only now bringing learning theorists into this environment. We are barely understanding the basics. Let’s not blow this opportunity by weighing it down with expectations and unreal understandings of how learning works. SN

Reprinted with permission of Service News, Copyright © 1997. United Publications May 1996.