One of my favorite icebreaking activities is to have people craft their own 6-word memoir. You can tell a lot about someone in just six words. I previously talked in more depth about 6-word memoirs as a training activity.
My go-to 6-word memoir: Love is cookie dough ice cream.
Yes, I explain to my participants, I do love ice cream. And chocolate chip cookie dough is my favorite. But that’s not all. At my wedding, we had an ice cream cake (and one of the layers had… you guessed it… Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream). And one of my favorite days of the year is the first Saturday in February, which is also known as International Ice Cream for Breakfast Day (seriously, it’s a real thing… and it’s coming up… you’re welcome). I sit down to breakfast with my kids, and we eat ice cream. For me, love and ice cream are hopelessly intertwined.
You can get pretty deep with just six words.
6-Word Memoirs from the Training Community
I had a chance to reach out to some learning and development colleagues and ask them to write a 6-word memoir about their training careers. Some of these folks are pioneers in the field of L&D, or authors, or senior executives. Others are just starting out or have been working on the front lines of effective learning and development initiatives for several years. All of them have an interesting perspective. Here’s what they wrote:
JD Dillon: Building connections between people, not content.
Jane Bozarth: Thoughtful design matters more than software.
Shannon “The Learning Rebel” Tipton: Has. To. Be. A. Better. Way.
Julian Stodd: Question widely, fight inequality, lead humbly.
Zsolt Olah: Zsolt’s been through The Looking Class.
Melissa Milloway: It’s back to the drawing board.
Michelle Baker: Creative, collaborative learning is her jam!
Miranda Greenberg: Molasses to crunchy peanut-butter to almond-butter.
Marci Morford: Teenagers: no. Teaching: yes. L&D FTW. (Author’s note: FTW stands for “for the win”)
Brent Schlenker: Teaching is the best learning tool.
Kelly Palmer: Learning – the power to change lives!
Mike Taylor: Passionate curiosity shared to help others.
Kristin Anthony: Fell in and learned to swim.
Priscilla Shumway: Creative curious learner transforming trainers’ classrooms
Kirby Crider: ADDIE often looks more like ADAIDAADDIAE
Rachel Barnum: I’ve learned to work with everyone.
Scott Enebo: Curious facilitator encouraging discovery and reflection.
Tom Spiglanin: Facilitating knowledge sharing through incessant change.
Erin “E.J.” Peterschick: Connect the dots, and voila: trainer!
Matthew Guyan: Varied, growth, challenging, rewarding, frustrating, support.
Amy Warren: The pieces will eventually fit together.
Mary Cropp: Good idea! What’s the behavior change?
Casey Gulkin: Training fuels my passion for learning.
Ajay Pangarkar: Unexpected anticlimactic journey of discovery & change.
And of course, yours truly: I’ll take Mr. Sketch over PowerPoint.
If you had to sum up your L&D career in exactly six words, what would it be? Let’s read your memoirs in the comment section! Have you used 6-Word Memoirs in a training session? How did it go?
6 word memoir: Bridging the gap between workshop & workplace.
I love it Mark… the “&” may be bending the rules, but you definitely didn’t break them!
Facilitating discovery is funner than telling.
Or
Facilitating discovery is a powerful tool.
Hmmm. Is “funner” an actual word?? Either way, it’s true, it is more fun than telling… AND it’s a powerful tool. Thanks for playing, Holly!
What if we just did nothing?
Definitely an attention-grabbing headline for a conference workshop!! (Or a book!)
Helping people work by translating technology.
Listen Ask Watch Simulate Extrapolate Share
This was so much fun but it’s not as easy as it appears!
Here’s my #6WordMemoir: I live to learn to teach.
Remember person alone at their desk
Humility to learn; performance to succeed!
6 word memoir: Did they really get it?
Improvement is just one conversation away.
Helping others to maximize their #strengths!
Thanks for posting this question. Sometimes simple things like these take you back to the basics 🙂 Here’s my six words memoir…
If I’m yawning, they’ll definitely sleep!
So true! I remember talking with a colleague about his training plan and suggesting we make it a little more engaging and he said: “I don’t know what you want from me. This topic is boring… but they just need to know it.” I told him that if this was his area of specialty, and this is what he thought of it, what did he think his poor learners would think?? If I’m yawning, they’ll definitely sleep, indeed!
Let’s try and see what happens
Making a difference in people’s success
Learning has never been more fun!
Remember, we can always do better.
Did you listen to your customer?
Actually, this is supposed to be “It can always be better”
That’s only five words! (Like a true trainer… you’re taking the superfluous content out!)
This is my theme phrase. It can always be better. I can always be better. The way we do something can always be better.
What should they DO at the end?
I’m thinking they should know something, right? Or perhaps understand something? 🙂
You’d be surprised. “They should be able to list the key dates for the development of the light bulb”
When you stop learning, you die. (or stagnate, if you don’t want to be so morbid)
I think career-wise, “you die” might be spot on!
Brian, sorry for posting so many, but this is a really good one! Here is my memoir:
“Why?”
Why? What if? How about? Lets try!
(It wouldn’t let me edit my previous post. sorry.)
No need for apologies… I love all these posts! Thanks Tricia!!