Professors Abound

 I accepted an offer to discuss training in process safety management (PSM) a few weeks ago. Little did I know that it was a far more important and worthwhile presentation than I initially thought it might be.

After doing a bit of investigating I found out that I was presenting to a new committee/association. This group was dedicated to process safety training in academia. I looked at the invitees and suddenly I saw about 50 professors, assistant professors, and lecturers at many prestigious schools; LSU, Texas A&M, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, Michigan, UVA, and on and on and on.

Naturally, I redoubled my already doubled efforts to check and recheck my presentation and my delivery.

I'm happy to say it went quite well. I heard some good feedback and I got some great questions. They didn't want advice on PSM training per se, after all they are all SME's in process safety. These are engineers and safety guys who are now giving back to industry by training and teaching others in PSM courses in universities. Although I went over Knowles Principles of Andragogy, and the Zone of Proximal Development, what I found interesting was that they didn't glom onto that . . . they liked the far more practical aspects of the presentation. When I told them how to create presentations that are engaging and interesting, what forestalls forgetting and generates reflection. That's where I saw people pay attention.

Makes sense now that I think about it right? These are engineers, practical people who've applied science backgrounds. Now, they want to make presentation and classroom assignments that are interesting. They probably got their positions through their education and resumes in their fields, not because they were great teachers.

What does this have to do with self-authorship, writing, or reading?

Well, I think it's funny that I gave all my high-falutin PhD reasons and techniques to make training more interesting, engaging and effective, but it was the simple aspects that they really got the most out of.

I find that many of these things happen in my writing as well. Sometimes I make too much of it. Sometimes I'm in my own thoughts and in my own brain. Sometimes I throw up my hands because I'm not churning out the next best American novel.

What I need to focus on is the simple things. Just go write. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be on the paper. Quit making things complex, sometimes the better way to go is to just keep it simple.