What's the “P” in PLN? With Tricia Ransom

It’s like that movie theme song said:  

When there’s something strange in your elearning ‘hood, who you gonna call?

P-L-N!!

The past few months have been strange for so many of us in both our work and our personal day-to-day lives. How have you been coping? How have you been able to meet new challenges?

In this hyper-connected world, the odds are you’ve had some help along the way, whether that’s from colleagues on your own team or the folks you’re connected with on social media – your Personal Learning Network or PLN for short.

This week on Instructional Designers in Offices Drinking Coffee (#IDIODC) we discussed PLNs with guest Tricia Ransom.

Tricia has been working in the L&D world for 15+ years in many different organizations. And no matter how much things change, she says her PLN is easily the most important tool she has in her L&D toolkit.

‍

Tricia talked about how she first came to know about the concept of a PLN and recognizing she had already begun creating one without realizing it actually had a name. And then further realizing that she could actively add on to her PLN and even create different PLNs, with intention.

We had a great conversation about PLNs, and Tricia gave us some great examples of:  

• how her PLNs have helped her

• how you can build your own PLN
• and what the P really stands for (can you guess?)

And Tricia also stressed some additional key ideas to keep in mind when thinking about your own PLN:

• How to be service-orientated
• It’s okay to say NO!

• It’s also okay to be part of more than one PLN
• And the touchy subject of how to leave a PLN

If you want to connect with Tricia, reach out to her on LinkedIn.

You can check out the full episode including the always-helpful chat right here.

‍

About IDIODC

Instructional Designers in Offices Drinking Coffee (affectionately known as IDIODC) is a weekly live videocast and podcast that helps instructional designers with pain points and provides best practices and industry insight.  

Every Wednesday morning at 10am ET hosts Brent Schlenker and Chris Van Wingerden guide us through an upbeat and candid conversation with their guests from the elearning and training world. The live cast session encourages peers to participate in the chat and share their own personal insight! After airing live, you can catch the learning podcast on all major streams such as Spotify, Apple and Google Play podcasts, as well as on YouTube.