The enormity of the possible

In addition to taking in the wonders of The Wizarding World, my trip to Florida was bookended with time to think about the future. My adventures started with the Learning 2023 conference, and ended with an inspiring personal/professional retreat/vacation with my friend Maria. So much thinking about the enormity of the possible.

Learning 2023

My conference time was something of a whirlwind. As you might imagine, the big topics of conversation were the implications of artificial intelligence tools and emerging technologies in general. People shared their experiences using ChatGPT and other tools to make their work more efficient and to meet the needs of learners through AI-generated interchanges and recommendations.

And yet, many people were simultaneously talking about making sure we don’t lose the human touch – in learning, in management, and in everyday work. The presentations were thought-provoking and energizing – exactly what you want from a conference.

I was scheduled to present a session in the last time slot on the last day – just before the closing keynote. (For details about my topic, you can check out my session follow-up page.) I spent too much time in the days before working on it and worrying about it (and skipping some conference sessions). I had myself convinced that I would spend all this time getting it right only to have just ten people in the room, some of whom would be disappointed in what I planned to share.

Happily, I was quite wrong. I had about 85 people in the room, and they were quite engaged in the conversation. A bunch of people came up to speak with me afterwards, and a dozen or so connected with me on LinkedIn. I’m hopeful some of them will take me up on a free consultation and perhaps want to work with me in the new year. (I’ll be following up, you can be sure.) At the very least, their reaction has given me more confidence in the possible reception for the book I’m writing on the subject.

The Learning conference is billed as “the learning leaders conference” which is exactly the group I want most to meet. It’s a forward-looking conference that focuses more on strategy than on the nitty-gritty details of learning experience design and learning technologies. My work is focused on developing people, on strategies for supporting learning in the workplace, so it is a good match. As we move toward an AI-driven “augmentation economy,” I plan to remain focused on the people-to-people exchanges at the heart of learning, and the conference conversations convinced me there will be plenty of learning leaders who want that, too.

My jaw-dropping conference hotel room – seriously, they’re never this nice! (Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace). And my book for sale in the wild!

A special thank-you. Conferencing was paused briefly so I could celebrate my birthday with the family. Tad and his entire crew – also in Florida at the same time – took me to dinner at a great hibachi place where we had a fantastic meal, including yummy fried rice. Thank you all for the love and for feeding me “when I’m 64.”

Visioning retreat

Fresh from a great conference and a fun few days at The Wizarding World, I was ready to put all that energy and magic to work in thinking about my plans for the coming year. (Well, my head and heart were ready, my feet needed a day to rest up!)

I met up with Maria for a five-day retreat at The Alfond Inn in Winter Park. As always, our retreat time together was full of intense conversations, lots of great questions, productive co-working sessions, and thoughtful personal/business planning. The hotel space was over-the-top beautiful, from the rooms, to the lobby areas, to the grounds. Winter Park was a perfect spot for architecture envy, Christmas shopping, and delicious meals. And, giving a sign that good luck must surely be on its way, I saw Santa come by escorted by a fire truck three times – twice from my hotel balcony and once at our last dinner (outside) in Winter Park.

I could not get over this room! (Proving you get what you pay for.) Take a close look at the detail work on the barn door to the bathroom. Once again, I could open the balcony doors for fresh air – which is a treat.

I got to visit Maria’s house (although we decided to remain at the hotel for our last night) and her office space – both quite lovely. Her house is right on a lake and I was flabbergasted by the view from the back porch. I would never leave!

We visited the Orlando Museum of Art to get some quiet inspiration, and our hotel was actually designated as an art museum as well, with rotating artwork in the halls and rooms.

Multimedia work by artist and museum patron Norma Canelas Roth. Enlarge pictures for a close-up – amazing work!

 

Work by Cuban artist Damian Aquiles: Infinite Time, Infinite Color, Infinite Memory, Infinite Destiny. Made from reclaimed metal. Notice the one figure going in the other direction, and the several figures in the bottom right corner that are not quite in alignment. Ponder the possible meanings of that for a bit, especially in light of the piece’s title…

Our breakfast conversations were driven by reactions to our reading assignment, Enchantment: Awakening wonder in an anxious age. In it, Katherine May writes beautifully about the very real loss of focus and connection she experienced during the pandemic (I could relate!) and offers thoughts about how to recapture a sense of enchantment.

Here’s a paragraph that resonated (for reasons you can guess):

Lost souls have long retreated to the seaside to take the air. The air is a place of letting go. Its business is dispersal, the dissipation of fog, the scattering of seeds. Subtly, air brings in the new.

And another:

I think I’m beginning to understand that the quest is the point. Our sense of enchantment is not triggered only by grand things; the sublime is not hiding in distant landscapes. The awe-inspiring, the numinous, is all around us, all the time. It is transformed by our deliberate attention. It becomes valuable when we value it. It becomes meaningful when we invest it with meaning. That quality of experience that reveals to us the workings of the world, that comforts and fascinates us, that ushers us towards a greater understanding of the business of being human: it is not in itself rare. What is rare is our will to pursue it. If we wait passively to become enchanted, we could wait a long time.

Katherine May invites us to open ourselves to see the beauty in the world and the glorious possibilities in our engagement with it. To me, that is a reminder to stay connected to the people in my life. And it is an inducement to fully enjoy the serenity of the beach and “the air” in my new environs. And it is a call to step with renewed vigor into my work.

I have ambitious plans for 2024. Moving into my condo is first up (closing is January 22). I sincerely hope many of you will come to visit. I have several terrific adjunct faculty assignments and consulting projects lined up for the first part of the year.

And I am going to write, to live into that author-beach-walker hyphenate I so covet. Lots and lots of blog posts, both personal and professional, and… another book – tentatively titled, The Leader’s Guide to Developing People. I’ve already written quite a bit of draft material for it on my blogs, and Maria and I had a great conversation that inspired me about ways I can make it better.

I’m starting 2024 in a good head space, having had 4 months of liminal time at Pot Nets waiting for my condo to be finished and two weeks of fun and inspiration in Orlando. In 2024, there is much to do, new people to meet, a condo to decorate, guests to entertain, activities to enjoy, work to accomplish, and many, many walks on the beach to relish.

On the first day at the Inn, I noticed a piece of artwork that immediately captured my imagination. It was a neon sign that said: “Be afraid of the enormity of the possible,” but I immediately read it as “be NOT afraid.” And that’s going to be my motto for 2024.

Be not afraid of the enormity of the possible.