To LTEN, With Gratitude

From the President – Greg Adamson

It’s always a good time to be thankful

Let’s just start this column off right – I’m thankful for you. I’m thankful you’re reading this message of gratitude, I’m thankful you’re a member of LTEN, and I’m thankful that your individual contributions to our network help so many others. In short, I’m thankful.

Of course I picked the right month to express this thankfulness – later this month is the Thanksgiving holiday in America, and fall in general is when people traditionally plan festivals and events to celebrate harvests and mark the shifting seasons.

Still, it’s always a good time to be grateful for all we have, personally and professionally. What’s more, it’s always a good idea.

From a business perspective, gratefulness and the accompanying respect pay off handsomely. Feeling appreciated is a strong mortar in terms of talent retention, and leaders who give credit while shouldering blame have happier, more productive teams. It’s the same personally – everyone wants to feel appreciated, respected and valued.

But those still aren’t the only reasons why thankfulness is a good idea.

This past March, UCLA published a review of 70 research projects that show gratitude has individual health benefits, both physical and mental. Practicing gratitude for 15 minutes a day, five days a week, for at least six weeks, promotes a possibly lasting change in physical health. It can reduce depression, lessen anxiety and stress, support a healthy heart and help you sleep better. All good things.

So in that spirit, let me tell you some of the professional things I’m grateful for right now:

• I’m grateful for all the great people I get to work with, many of whom have crossed into the personal friend territory. My LTEN Board of Directors colleagues are on that list, along with the members of the LTEN Advisory Council.
• I’m grateful for the LTEN staff and the work they do for all members. I worked especially closely with Lauren Harbert, our amazing executive director, and her predecessor in the position, Dawn Brehm, who retired this year. I’m grateful our team has such conscientious, caring direction.
• On a happy note, I’m thankful to have four new colleagues on the board this year: Kristy Callahan, Brian Groves, Jim Page and Brittany Pilcher. They joined us after the well-earned retirements of Mark Osborne and Carol Wells, and exciting career shifts for Jennifer Muszik and Rich Baron.
• On a somber note, I’m thankful that I was able to get to know two board colleagues we’ve lost in the past few years, first Chuck Pearson and now Mark Lockett. I’m even more thankful that LTEN is finding ways to recognize and honor their passion for training and professional development.
• I’m especially grateful that LTEN has grown even stronger, with 815 new members this year. Every new member of LTEN sets a new record as we grow the network.
• Speaking of new members, I’m grateful that our LTEN Ambassador program has taken off. Thanks to the volunteers who help those new to LTEN find their place in our network. I’m grateful also to tell you there’s more room at that table if you’d like to join the welcome wagon.
• While we’re talking about joining, I’m thankful to the more than 150 LTEN members who sit on the 10 LTEN volunteer boards or committees. They’re indescribably helpful in guiding our programs, publications, workshops and mission.
• I’m grateful for everyone else who has volunteered their time to support LTEN and its members this year. That’s a larger group than you might realize, even seven bullets into this list. It includes (but is not limited to) authors, speakers, sponsors, charity drive participants, award judges, workshop reviewers and so many others. Thank you all, sincerely.
• Speaking of support, I’m thankful for our entire sponsor community, who make our events, our magazine and our resources all possible. This year we’ve added 17 new Preferred Industry Partners to our ranks of industry-leading supplier companies, and you can bet I’m appreciative for their partnership.
• I’m grateful for the growth we’re seeing, such as our newest offering for LTEN members, the Metrics, Measurement & Learning Analytics workshop.
• I’m thankful also for the growth of LTEN Focus on Training magazine this year to a monthly publication schedule. I’m even more thankful to more than 9,200 unique visitors to our Focus articles so far this year.
• I’m grateful we grew, under my board colleague Laura Last’s direction, the Learning Executive Series into a yearlong collection of events and resources for training leaders, culminating in last month’s Learning Executive Forum with 70 guests. I’m excited that will continue next year.
• I’m happy that our LTEN webinar program grew this year, with programs nearly every week registering more than 6,300 people so far … that’s a lot of learning.
• Speaking of growth, I’m thankful for the increased traffic to the LTEN website and our expanded social media presence. We’re engaging more members and potential members than ever before.
• Speaking of events, I’m grateful that 1,036 of you were able to join us for the LTEN 2023 Annual Conference. That’s about 150 more people than the previous year, and we also saw the number of countries represented at the conference grow to 11. More people from more places coming together – that’s what LTEN is all about, and I’m thankful to see it.

That’s a lot of good things to be thankful for, and frankly it’s just skimming the surface. It might even be a bit redundant – I started this column being grateful for you, and I hope you saw yourself reflected many times in my more specific praise list. LTEN members both collectively and individually keep our network thriving, and every thank you I’ve made today proves your value.

So thank you, once again. Feel free to share your own thankful-for list with me if you’d like. And I certainly hope you take some time in this month of appreciation to be grateful for your family, friends, colleagues and everyone and everything that makes you smile.

Until then …

Greg Adamson is president of the LTEN Board of Directors and executive director, sales training, for Olympus Americas. You can reach out to Greg via email at greg.adamson@olympus.com or through LinkedIn.