I learned the work before I learned the language around it.

I did not start in learning and development. I started on a factory floor.

That matters because it shaped the questions I still ask. What does the job actually require? What makes somebody good at it? What do experienced people know that never made it into the procedure? Why do some supervisors help people grow while others slowly wear a team down?

Over the years, the work moved from assembly into training, then into broader learning and workforce development. I have built technical training, leadership programs, qualification systems, career progression tools, trainer development programs, assessments, and development processes for people doing very different kinds of work.

The more responsibility I took on, the less interested I became in training for training's sake. A course is useful only if something is different afterward. A qualification system matters only if it reflects the work. Leadership development matters only if a supervisor handles the next conversation better.

That same thinking now shapes my work with AI. I am interested in where it removes friction, helps capture knowledge, improves communication, or gives people a better starting point. I am equally interested in where it can make a bad process move faster or create confidence that has not been earned.

I write for the same reason I teach: real experiences stay with people. My books and articles cover leadership, faith, recovery, relationships, work, and the things people carry into all of those places whether organizations make room for them or not.