As the content (and garbage) on the web continues to proliferate, it’s sometimes hard to sort through the gold nuggets from the chaff (or the garbage). Â This is especially true in the performance arena. Â There is one particular site that has been up a while (“a while” in this case means since 1995). Â It’s the work of consultant Don Clark. Â Don has produced a true labor of love that everyone in the workplace learning and performance fields needs to be aware of. Â With a background in the Army and then Starbucks before he set off on his own, Don decided to create a site not to promote himself but really cover a wide range of ISD, training, OD, performance, management and programmed learning content. Â He’s got a variety of self-created templates, forms and manuals you can download on topics like ISD or task analysis. Â He provides a list of HRD names and why they matter, books that are important, timelines for particular topics, relevant quotes and more. Â But mostly the “more” is about tools and examples and content around how to do what it is that we do–more intelligently and effectively. Â And the site is clearly designed to share knowledge, not for self-promotion or profit. Â Frankly, I cannot think of a single person in the workplace learning and performance field who has been so prolific on their website in terms of content.
The primary topic headings off the main page are: Â leadership, training, learning, history, knowledge, performance, java, news and his blog. Â And under each of these topics, you’ve got a wealth of depth (in some cases over 100 individual pages of content in terms of a user’s manual or separate job aids). Â Quite simply, there is a tremendous amount of eclectic depth and breadth on this site. Â In the few exchanges I’ve had with Don in the past, he’s proven to be trusting, magnanimous and helpful and easy to deal with. Â I once wanted to use some of his material for some University Professors in Central Asia and instead of providing a lot of hoops for me to jump through, really made it easy to move forward with his stuff.
I’m going to list the URL in just a few lines but I do so with the caveat–I think the URL has changed a few times over the 15+ years that Don has has this site up (and he continues to add to it). Â So if for some reason the URL doesn’t work (which could be due to my error or a change on his part), I’ve always found it by searching for “Big Dog’s bowl of biscuits” (certainly a memorable phrase). Â And if you go to the website and look at “about” you’ll see pictures of “big dog” and “little dog” with an explanation that will probably draw a chuckle from you and also just drive home how amazing this site is–that Don is clearly doing this out of a desire to help the field and share knowledge, not profit individually or market himself.
The most recent URL that got me to Don’s site is: Â www.nwlink.com/~donclark/ and if you haven’t visited the site before, I strongly suggest you do. Â Don–keep up the great work!