My friend and colleague Shannon Tipton released her new book titled Disruptive Learning: Discover Your Inner Learning Rebel. And I was honored when she asked if I would write a brief forward.

Rebelling Has Its Pros and Cons

The idea of being a rebellious professional fit right into my comfort zone. My career path included veering off the road less traveled to roads never traveled…more than once. Sometimes it worked out, and other times not so much. As I look back on my career, I see what pushed me forward was disrupting the status quo. While in some cases pushing against the status quo ended jobs, doing so always pushed my career forward.

I loved Litmos from the first time I saw it. It changed everyone’s idea of what a learning management system should be. It was simple to use, fast to implement, easily affordable, and built by passionate (and rebellious) professionals. And it just kept getting better and better, and truly disrupting the LMS marketplace.

The Power of Community Support

I understand that not every one is comfortable taking risks. And this is where the idea of Shannon’s Learning Rebels made sense to me. While you may not be comfortable with risk, you can mitigate that risk by connecting with others. Learning from other professionals who are also interested in moving beyond the status quo helps everyone. You may find that someone has already attempted that crazy idea you’re pondering. And even if their attempt failed, you can learn from their mistakes and reduce the amount of risk as you push forward with a similar attempt.

(FYI – Litmos customers: Keep an eye out for an email regarding our community launch.)

Industry Newbies Are Natural Rebels

I’ve met many many training professionals in my career. The most surprising discovery lately is how new training professional have so few hangups, and actually enjoy their work. It’s so refreshing to talk with training professionals with no (or more recent) academic experience in instructional design. They are energized by the work they are doing. They don’t dwell on “how it should be done” based on 50 year old education models. These young rebels are changing the face of corporate training despite “gurus” and “experts” claiming it’s not right.

And this is the rebel life: Doing your work. Loving your work. And ignoring the haters and distractors. It’s not always an easy road but it’s comforting to know that our industry has a growing population of fresh faces being successful and unafraid of upsetting the elearning establishment.

So, go ahead and join the rebellion! Even if you’re not ready to rebel just yet. Learningrebels.com.