My name is Daniel Conner and I work in the Portland (Metro), Oregon area for the State of Oregon as a Strategic Operations Policy Analist. My position is about 10% analysis and 90% talent development (my agency prefers training and development). I am a division trainer serving the needs of almost 200 front-line production and customer service focused staff and managers on a team of two.  My primary focuses are on new hire onboarding, technical skill development and knowledge worker development. 

 

I always wanted to be an educator of some form. I found my niche as a knowledge worker and mentor which blossomed into developing and delivering full scale technical training programs for one of the most complex retirement systems in the world. 

 

I'm fascinated by neuroscience, the science of learning and of productivity. I believe that we are strongest when we work together because no one person has all the skills necessary to do all the various tasks.  If we hire the same cookie cutter person/personality or "type", we fail. New eyes and new thoughts challenge us to re-examine our understanding.  At our best, when we listen and analyze and empathize, these new thoughts are critical to organization change and true learning.  I have two stories for this.  The first is the "Pickling" story and the second is my personal lesson in diversity of skill vs thought.  Ask me about them sometime.

 

Until then, I hope you look at the world with fresh eyes and new perspectives as often as you can!