As I begin the final phase of this MALAT journey, I must now contemplate how my efforts may be valuable in the future to those who are working towards building out a team development framework.
The first question to answer is why this research important to me. As a leader who has worked in corporate and not-for-profit organizations, I have learned the importance of developing a bench of trained, confident and motivated individuals. However, I have also been challenged with capacity in finding and maintaining the time, money and people-power to accommodate a fulsome program.
As I visualize how my research can support me to be a better learner, facilitator and leader, I begin to wonder who else may find the outcomes of this research valuable. I hope that my research helps to provide a robust framework, so that other leaders can get down to what’s important – developing a strong culture of learning and development in their organization.
So that I can reach those who may find value in my research findings, I have begun to consider how I can disseminate the findings.
I am involved in a few professional networks, all of which revolve around professional excellence and continuous improvement. It could be effective to simply share the findings through a blog contribution, including an invitation for readers to reach out and collaborate.
Or, perhaps, it could be effective to also submit a proposal to present at a local, provincial or national conference. Most of the professional networks to which I belong accept such proposals, as long as they are in line with the scope or overarching conference topic. Having been successful in submitting similar proposals in the past a few times, I am confident that I will be able to find a good fit.
I would need to be mindful of gaining approval from our CEO and Board of Directors for either of these suggestions for dissemination. However, I work with a progressive organization who believe in the importance of working collaboratively, so I anticipate that my suggestion(s) will be valued and approved.
Lastly, as an effort to continually move towards being a content contributor, as opposed to simply a content consumer, I could disseminate my findings through an article on LinkedIn, or through my blog. Although it seems too daunting to even consider, I also am keen to consider working towards being published in an academic journal. Exploring this idea a bit further has made me realize that this goal can be achieved if I simply research and ask questions from publications that could be a good fit with my findings. After all, if I truly want to become a content contributor, I will need to jump outside of my comfort zone to further explore where my potential audience may be so that I can reach them.