Words about Learning: intent

Sometimes we have an idea: let’s do something better! The idea is good. It gives us intent. But how do we actually do the thing better? What, when push comes to shove, are we not doing well already? Aspiration is a fine thing, but how does it translate into action. How do we get from merely ‘good‘ to ‘excellent‘? What are the skills, processes and behaviours that will deliver it. It’s all very well having a context and activity, but does it have clarity and does it have focus?

Many good ideas falter when they hit this reality, and many poor ideas just push through, leading to learning solutions that may be well designed, well written, well produced and fun to use but which, ultimately, lack clarity of intent and hence, lack impact. If you can spend time and effort anywhere, it’s probably worth doing it up front, developing the idea from an aspiration to actual objectives and specific tasks. We know we want to do something better, it’s a great idea, now what do we actually need to do differently. If we can’t actually answer this question with clarity, it’s probably worth going back to the question and starting again.