Short and sweet - a quick visual

The Organisational Learning & Development Community on Google+ is looking for a visual.  Thanks to the Making Learning Connected MOOC #clmooc I discovered Tagxedo and here's my creation.

Will this be the making of me?

Manicured Lawn

What do you know about me so far?

That I can bake and make jelly would be the minimum; add to that my voracious appetite for searching out posts, ideas and writing that captures whatever it is I am thinking about or interested in at the moment (or on a quest in order to complete a uni assignment).

Add to that an incredible ability to get distracted and leave a trail of part completed tasks on the computer or in the house, garden and office... and pivotal to it all I have a wonderful husband, 2 grown children and a 3rd four legged child with all of whom I am besotted.

My Blogger and Google+ profiles give a glimpse of me at the moments in time they were written.  Posts in both places will give you further insight into me and my world.

So, what is making?

Cakes, toys, clothes, dance costumes, assignments, clean clothes ironed clothes, dirty clothes, dirty houses, clean houses, smiles on other's faces, smiles on my own face.

A planned workforce; leadership development programs in place; confident and capable managers; workplaces free from harassment and bullying and positive workplace cultures.

Now that gets me thinking...

Making is not in isolation.  If I collected all my individual 'makes', it would build a picture of the larger make that is me.

We are a system of makes!

I read a post by Jens Graikowski  on G+.  He talked about the impact of "too much noise in your stream" - readers are confused about who you are and what you are interested in.

I'm not sure my response, so leave you with this;

Some of us are manicured lawns, others are patchwork quilts.  Both are beautiful and equally valuable

Patchwork Quilt

The words we use...

Liquid

I met with a friend recently and she expressed her frustration at the way a major restructure was being handled and senior managers continued use of the statement "things are still fluid".

We were talking about what 'fluid' really meant and what the response might be if she asked the question of those so fond of the word.

Many things are fluid, and flow... water is fluid, sometimes a trickle, sometimes a river, sometimes a gush from a tap or hose, rapids and Niagara Falls.  What about treacle? Primary school science taught me at glass has fluid-like qualities. It just takes a couple of hundred years for it to flow!

Niagara Falls

Today's Daily Idea from Harvard Business Review was titled "Language matters..." and was extracted from Michael Schrage's post titled "Good Leaders Don't Use Bad Words" 

"The business world, no doubt, is full of jargon, clichés, truisms, and buzz words. Quality, morale, lean, innovation — all fine words, in and of themselves, but they are often rendered meaningless by our repetitive, and sometimes thoughtless use of them.

It's a shame; language, when used carefully and correctly, can make a big difference. Referring to customers as clients, or offers as products, as simple as the distinctions may be, can have a profound, cognitive effect on your team's behavior. 

"The difference," Mark Twain wisely wrote, "between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter — it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." 

Well said."

What do they mean by 'fluid' in my colleague's situation?

The skeptic in me suspects it is 'we really aren't sure what we a doing or how this is going to end up' and reminds me at we need to be so careful with the words and phrases we use and we should say what we really mean.

The shifting landscape of learning - MOOCs

They are massive, they're online, and they're open; but do participants learn - for themselves and with others? To what extent do participants contribute to and gain from collaborating with other participants?

Monet's Haystack series

The same, yet ever changing

I'm participating in a MOOC at the moment - Managing Change in Community Development. Don't ask me how I found out about it - I know I was checking out the world according to Google+ at the time, after that - serendipity rules OK!

I read some of the other MOOC participant's blogs and albeit at the 11th hour, found the discipline to begin my contribution here.

Dave Valentine made reference to poverty limiting access to learning and I'd like to add another dimension to this and thank Dave for sparking the connection.

Some years ago a high school teacher introduced me to the term 'low learning resourced families', families where there was an absence of of the physical resources that can support a child's learning.  Importantly, it also included families where the resources were, or could have been present, but little value and importance was placed on learning and the child received little or no encouragement to engage in any learning experience.

What about online learning?  Some 'Googling', the Managing Change in Community Development MOOC, webinars and blogs triggered more of my thinking that has contributed to this post.  Face to face interactions motivated an online quest for more.  Without some human interaction - in real life, Skype, webinar, Hangout, whatever, I suspect it wouldn't have been as extensive.

Helen Blunden wrote about her experiences with online learning, identifying that the addition of a face to face component enhanced the experience;

"In my experience, I have yet to experience an online learning community that doesn’t use some additional face-to-face time whether it is through Skype, Google Hangouts, webcams or meeting face to face (whether they are organised by the organisers or the participants). Certainly using the additional forms to meet and work online only adds and enriches the learning experience because it personalises the people within your community."

I joined week two's session for the Managing Change MOOC - it was great to see Ramona and Inge on screen and this motivated me to engage (at least a bit) more!  Without this, for me, it would all be a bit impersonal.

So, do MOOCs work...?

With time zone differences, it can be difficult for participants to be there in real time.  Technology issues can also hinder participation - recent personal experiences include slow internet speed and routine maintenance by the ISP (well who is online at 3am?).

The technology aside, there are other challenges and potential barriers to learning online, including via a MOOC.

"Education is primarily driven by motivation, and online learning doesn't do anything to address people's motivational needs.  In fact, the nature of online education strips away many of the components that keep students engaged and committed.  Many of the factors that online education advocates claim are a benefit, such as time, flexibility and the lack of classrooms, are actually a hindrance to learning. Studies have show that a fixed structure and the sense of belonging that comes from a student body improve completion rates.  Allowing students to study on their own removes these components of the support system resulting in lower rates of course completion."

Francisco Dao

I've already mentioned the value of the webinar and video; scheduling activities to specific times; scheduling tasks and providing ready access to those facilitating the learning could provide the support system Dao states is missing.

Online learning remains dependent on the motivation of the learner - but isn't that true of face to face learning?  Whilst it is easier to work with other students, collaborate, meet up outside the classroom in the real life setting; this isn't impossible in the online setting.  Google+ has Hangouts; there is Skype and other web-based chat.  Google+ and other communities provide a 'learning space' for participants to interact and discuss.  Doing so rests with the motivation and drive of the individuals and stimulating 'triggers' from the facilitators.

Does classroom-based learning work?

David Gurteen drew my attention to Jeff Bliss (high school student) who criticised his history teacher in a 'YouTube rant'; "there's kids in here who don't learn like that, they need to learn face to face".

"If you would just get up and teach them instead of handing them a freaking packet, yo.  There's kids in here who don't learn like that, they need to learn face-to-face."

"You want kids to come to class?  You want them to get excited?  You gotta come in here, you gotta make 'em excited, to change him and make him better, you gotta touch his freakin' heart."

It is important to note that Jeff was criticising class based instruction - if you looked through the door, it was technically face-to-face.  Here is a student, frustrated by the real life classroom environment, it was facing to provide the very support Dao states is absent in online learning.

Where does this leave us?

Online learning presents some different challenges (confidence in and ability to use the technology is only the beginning), yet is filled with similar pitfalls to face-to-face learning.  Learners won't engage or be motivated if the teacher/facilitator isn't engaged and highly motivated (plus skilled etc...).

Enter my recent studies in social ecology and transformational learning; 

Mezirow describes a 10 phase process of transformational learning:

1. A disorientating dilemma
2. A self-examination with feelings of guilt or shame
3. A critical assessment of epistemic, sociocultural, or psychic assumptions
4. Recognition that one's discontent and the process of transformation are shared and that others have negotiated similar change
5. Exploration of options for new roles, relationships and actions
6. Planning a course of action
7. Acquisition of knowledge and skills for implementing one's plans
8. Provisional trying of new roles
9. Building of competence and self-confidence in new roles and relationships
10. A reintegration into one's life on the basis of conditions dictated by one's perspective

I've previously explored Prochaska and DiClimente's stages of change, and in particular the readiness and motivation needed to support the change journey.  Joe Moore used it to identify appropriate tools for managers working to build respectful workplaces, depending on the level of awareness of the need for change - sadly this isn't in his blog, but you could always ask him!

Returning to the challenge of low learning resourced environments, I would contend that there are 'low learning resourced' adults.  The physical resources are not the barrier, it's a mindset that dismisses learning and education as a means to continuous self development and improvement.  They are unaware (unconsciously incompetent) of the benefits of learning and personal development.

From my perspective, Mezirow's phases are relevant for individual, organisation and community development - in each we seek a transformation from what is, to a new state, which becomes the future 'what is'.  Need awareness, motivation and readiness to learn are key (stages of change).  Use of information, tools and materials that the individual, organisation and/or community can relate to, depending on their readiness to move increases the potential for success.  Changing and adjusting them as the awareness of the benefits of change become stronger, helps build sustainability and ownership.

MOOCs present as great an opportunity to achieve this as any other form of collective learning - it's not the what, it's the how that matters.

The Twist

"The twist with its crisscross form represents the many paths of life and love and as such is regarded as the original eternity symbol.  The double and triple twists have similar meaning but refer more to the joining of two peoples or cultures rather than individuals."

I've rambled in response to an activity that forms part of the Managing Change MOOC already mentioned.  I am not sure if this really adds value, but it does represent a collection of thoughts triggered as a result of what we've explored so far!

"Everything alters me, nothing changes me"

Salvador Dali

Roll with the resistance and maintain the momentum; a journey in leadership development

Ok, I rose to the challenge of getting a PowerPoint slide into a .jpeg for posting onto Google+ with patchy skills...and did it!

Here it is...

Where did this come from?  A colleague (Sonia Hay) and I submitted an abstract for a Healthcare Improvement Award in culture change and leadership.  We were selected as poster finalists and spent a few weekends working on the data and a way of visualising what we had done and what we trying to achieve (which we did to an extent)!

The original abstract was available online, however since removed and as the poster was displayed publicly for a day, I have no qualms sharing publicly without de-identifying (the good public servant that I am).

We aimed to portray the roller coaster ride our managers experience in their leadership roles...and show the cultural and staff satisfaction improvements we had achieved as a result of some intensive interventions.

The original poster had to be 800x900mm or thereabouts, hence the size.  Hopefully it loads this time.

We wanted the poster to speak for itself...if not and/or you want to chat, feel free!

Also viewable on Google+ via me! https://plus.google.com/110463521707116846096/about

There's a Berkeley Lineman in us all

This post was inspired by something Helen Blunden shared via Twitter this morning which led me to post on my employers Yammer presence.

In times of budgetary constraints and as many of our executives and their project teams work to find efficiencies and eliminate waste from the systems and processes we use to deliver services to our customers; this is a timely reminder.

"The Berkeley Lineman" - http://www.internettime.com/2013/01/the-berkeley-lineman/

As with the Berkeley Lineman, all organisations have front line staff who know the real game and are frequently ahead of the game.  They all continue to deliver services; at times despite all the plans, projects and intents of those who seek to 'improve' the way they do the work they do.

Over the years they have learned the ultimate survival technique... keep on keeping on and most importantly stay focused on your customer; this too will pass.

I quote the section from Jay Cross's post that really hit home for me...

"The Berkeley Lineman’s story didn’t surprise me. I have been mulling it over for a dozen years. As usual, I was taking in the 60,000 foot view. (Down, boy!) I haven’t taken time to connect the dots for my readers. Let me point out that:

The Lineman’s in a bind because the industrial revolution is over but lots of people are still playing by its obsolete rules (like the Lineman’s number-crunching, misguided bosses). Networks are begetting networks, denser connections make for faster cycle times, the rate of progress speeds up, effectiveness trumps efficiency, and a surfeit of variables causes uncertainty and instability.

Everybody wants a simpler, less confusing, and more just world. The way to get there is to go back to treating people like people. Dump the vestiges of the by-gone era. Skip micromanagement. Follow your heart. Revere your values. Do what’s right. Change the world.

Some people probably think their company’s moving too fast. Actually, the company’s too slow. The Lineman’s ahead of his employer. He has his priorities right: satisfy the customer and have a good time doing it. The company must change its ways to enable its Linemen to flourish."

My vent and frustration to my colleagues was this;

"The 21st century is NOW - not tomorrow, not next year, NOT WHEN WE HAVE SOLVED THE LATEST BUDGETARY CRISIS - yes I am shouting. I shout for all out 'linemen' who remain unheard and/or misunderstood.

I also know that of the 80,000 or so living people who work for [our organisation], there are only 1202 of us [on Yammer]."

Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
Loosely quoted from Margaret Mead