Anyone working in talent development who's read a few too many management books can probably agree on this: The profession needs its own comic strip, one that isn't Dilbert. As with other fields, talent development is filled with funny moments that can't always be captured in a satire of business in general.
Luckily, the profession already has its own Dilbert. Just go online and check out L&D Scenes, a series of comics published by Clint Clarkson, vice president of e-learning at Xpan Interactive.
Launched in November 2017, his collection now includes more than 30 different scenes, with each one depicting a different aspect or challenge of life as a learning and development professional. They're usually only five to six frames long, and they're always funny.
Take scene 17, "Train Them to Be Motivated," as an example. In this scene, Clarkson shows an interaction between an L&D professional and a manager, with the manager requesting training to help improve her team's performance. When the L&D character points out that motivation, not training, might be the issue after learning that the manager has eliminated her team's performance incentives, the manager agrees. "Exactly! I want you to train them to be more motivated," she says.
