I’m incredibly excited to announce that Learning Ninjas® is now Build Capable.
We did not make this decision lightly. Learning Ninjas has a great reputation and is well recognized in the learning and development community. Clients tell us they love our brand and regularly wear our t-shirts out in the wild. So, why did we re-brand the company?
Who we were
Learning Ninjas was established in 2008 as a group of online learning experts who wanted to give-back to organizations that did not have the resources to create effective training programs. The work was pro-bono and gave the team an opportunity to deliver with creativity and few restraints. It was an honor to work on a Ninjas project!
My first Learning Ninjas project was in 2013. I had the wonderful opportunity to work on an emergency response course with a group of deeply knowledgeable designers and developers such as Trina Rimmer, Julie Dirksen, Sean Putman, Brian Dusablon, Kevin Thorn, and others. I immediately fell in love with the work and mission of the organization.
Over the years, those pro-bono projects turned into requests for much larger projects to provide online learning products and services to both for-profit and non-profit organizations. In 2018, managing partners Brian Dusablon and Sean Putman asked me to join them and we began building the company we are today.
Who we are today
We are a diverse team of learning and development practitioners with deep expertise in online learning. But, who are we really? Before rebranding, we got together to describe the voice of our company today. These were the words we used to describe us:
- Smart
- Witty
- Enthusiastic
- Confident
- Dry humor
- Realistic
- Principled
- Ethical
- Honest
- Leaders
- Composed
- Positive
- Matter-of-fact
- Informal
- Collaborative
- Patient
- Do the right thing (even when difficult)
- Unique expertise
- Excellence
- Better practice
- Talented
- Fun personality
- Optimistic
- Credible
- Passionate
- Non-academicDirect
- Independence
- Giving back
- Quality
- Caring about people
- Make things better
- Innovative
- Forward-thinking
- Technical experts
- Rebellious
This list helped guide us to our new name.
Meet Build Capable
Capable: 1having the ability, fitness, or quality necessary to do or achieve a specified thing. 2able to achieve efficiently whatever one has to do; competent. Oxford Languages. https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/
Since 2018, we have described our mission as helping organizations establish and build their online training capabilities. Build Capable embodies this mission. The definition of “capable” perfectly represents the outcome we pursue in the work that we do together with our clients.
We Build Capable in our services, from strategy to implementation of online training content and platforms. We Build Capable by sharing what we know with other learning professionals through industry events, workshops, books, and articles. We Build Capable through our products – a custom assessment tool that supports competency development (Capable®) and an online certificate program to teach a new training data standard (Learn xAPI).
We believe that Build Capable more fully describes who we are today in all facets of our organization.
Our logo mark represents the way we support our clients, from integration and collaboration to the iterative nature getting it “just right” and delivering the highest quality products. We are committed to helping you build your own capabilities and sharing our processes. The logo mark is intentionally non-continuous, ensuring you can “take it from here” whenever you’re ready.
We look forward to working with you as Build Capable.