In the past few days I’ve seen occasions where people have used other people’s concepts to produce blog posts, LinkedIn posts, etc. I even did it myself; I’ve talked about Mexican food for years as an analogy for learning and Mark Eltringham suggested it was a nod to Billy Connolly. I did a bit of a Google and found that the ‘Big Yin’ had used the phrase ‘same food folded differently’ years ago (warning for crude language). I’m a big fan of Billy’s and must have heard that joke before. It didn’t register but has obviously prompted the thinking about training materials. I’m really happy to attribute Billy as the source and will do so from now on.

The other occasion was a bit different. Someone on LinkedIn posted an article about how to use design thinking in learning and development. For them, it was quite a successful post; comments, likes and amplification. Unfortunately, it was a direct lift from the work of Connie Malamed, unattributed, copied and re-presented as their work.

They were called out on it, attempted to justify it, were messaged by Connie and have now deleted it.

I’ve mentioned the need to reference people’s work before.

Play fair.

If. You. Quote. Other. People’s. Work. Make. Sure. You. Attribute. It.

If you don’t you’re stealing.