We began this week with a post challenging us to develop our discernment skill. In a decade that will likely be defined by competing attention for our time, how are we ensuring that we are focusing our energies on what matters most to us, either professionally or personally? This week, we're following up with some ideas to help us in our reflections.
The Pattern: You resolve to "stay current with AI" or "master strategic influence." You consume content—webinars, articles, LinkedIn posts. You feel productive. Nothing changes.
The Reality: Knowledge without application doesn't compound. It evaporates.
Think about how you'd approach learning a language. You wouldn't just download vocabulary apps and watch Spanish films with subtitles. You'd know that's preparation, not practice. Real fluency requires conversation—awkward, mistake-filled, iterative conversation.
Professional skills work the same way. You can study frameworks for instructional design or read case studies about stakeholder management. But until you actually facilitate a difficult conversation, design something for a real audience with real constraints, or navigate conflicting priorities with actual humans, that knowledge remains theoretical.
Volunteering offers what consumption can't: a place to practice with real stakes but without career risk. For those of us in learning and development, engaging with an organization like ATD-Orange County means testing new approaches on chapter projects before introducing them at your day job. It means speaking the language of L&D with practitioners who will notice when your phrasing sounds memorized versus lived.
This isn't about adding volunteering to your overflowing list. It's about redirecting energy you're already spending—from passive consumption to active practice.
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