Welcome back to another year in VET-Land! I hope all is well in your world and that 2015 is off to a fantastic start for you. I must admit, I had some trouble thinking about the right topic to start off this year’s writing as there’s so much going on in our sector at the moment, and so much coverage, publicity and chatter about it.
Then it hit me. All the chatter is just noise. And it’s distracting us.
No matter which topic I thought about, they all just seemed a bit…noisy. I mean, I could write about compliance topics until my fingers drop off onto my keyboard, numb and bleeding from over work, and I’d still have only hit about ten per cent of this topic.
And, guess what? You would have heard it all before.
The more I thought about all the ‘stuff’ we see in RTO-Land (media attention, blog posts, online forum content and the rest), the more I realised that it’s nothing new. And personally, I think it’s a better use of our time to read something new and different.
And therein lies the problem…the noise. To me, the noise is all the reading matter out there on things we already know, whether it’s articles, blog posts, or just conversations in on and offline forums. And, I don’t know about you, but I find that a lot of this noise is pretty negative.
Now, I have no problem when the negativity is actually constructive, or has a positive, forward-looking intent, but in my experience, little of it actually does.
“I put it to you that this ‘noisy negativity’ is what’s holding us all back from achieving what we want in our businesses, for our clients, and for our sector as a whole.”
This year, through my writing, I’m going to try my very best to cut through the noise, either by giving you something new to think about, or by dissecting the noise in a new, useful way—turning it into something we can all use to propel us forward to a place of unequalled latitude.
In my next piece, I’m going to focus on something that’s everywhere on online VET forums at the moment—the continual discussion of various RTOs’ advertising—and look at just how useful this chatter is (hint: I don’t think it’s very useful!).
This year, I’d like these pieces I write to be a conversation. I’d love to hear your thoughts and views too. I invite you to engage with me. Let’s quiet this noise once and for all—or at least dial down the volume a bit—so we can focus on the important things.
Until next time, you can follow me on twitter @nickmc. You’ll find NickM.com.au on Facebook too! If you’d like to contact me, go ahead and email nick@latitudecoaching.com.au.
Nick is a business coach and VET consultant. He works with the VET community to build leadership capacity and provide elegantly simple yet robust solutions to the complex challenges RTOs face. A regular speaker at key VET events, Nick is passionate about enabling people to be their best. Find him on LinkedIn and Twitter @nickmc or email him – nick@latitudecoaching.com.au.
