Creating Achievable Wins by Naming Your Context

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been spending a lot of time with others on the Learning Forte team looking closely at our Aligned Design process. It’s a process that starts with a key step for any learning design project. It asks the question: what is my contextual reality?

Now, for many of us, doing the work of acknowledging our contextual reality may not feel like a win. After all, we’re often surrounded by limiting factors, such as meager financial resources, overstretched mentors and colleagues, and learners with needs beyond what our experience can begin to solve. But one of the things I keep coming back to is that only by knowing our contextual reality can we begin to understand what success might look like.

Could a win look like staying within your adult formation budget for this particular program? One brainstorming meeting with your departmental colleagues instead of three (or none)? We can’t solve the problems of the world or even our field in the classroom (if only!). We might, however, be able to share one or two skills well through great scaffolding and a clear sense of what learners need to thrive in a particular subject or profession.

After becoming clear about the gifts and challenges of your context, you can then ask yourself:

• What would success look like or feel like now?
• What goal or objective would make this learning experience feel like a win?

Sometimes the most important work we do when planning is setting realistic expectations. The result of this? Achievable wins you can always celebrate.

written by Amanda Bourne
May 2024