Connectability

This is what I was listed as on the Open Sesame Blog out of 100 Ed Tech Must Follows back in December. The number or even being on a list is thoughtful and appreciated of course but insignificant really as we live in what Euan Semple refers to as an ephemeral meritocracy . All-in-all its nice company to be a part of and I recommend you check the list out.

What struck me initially though was my description compared to that of the other 99 on this list.  Mine is a bit nebulous, no?  Well I guess you can check me out on LinkedIn or about.me, or better yet follow me on Twitter etc and dig a bit deeper but I'll save you some trouble and share a few things. I am not an author, I'm not really on the speaking tour (couple events here and there), I am not a consultant, I'm not specifically an ISD or elearning (courseware?) designer (although I've worn those hats since at least the mid 90's), and finally I don't work for a big name organization having thousands of employees. In comparison to my illustrious peers on this list I appear pretty vanilla really.

I think the reason I am on this list and a few others like it is in the first sentence - "master connector." And this really resonates for me. Heck, I'm down right proud. This "connectability" has helped transform my thinking and enabled me to bring real change to the organizations that employ me as well as helped me connect others to the many who influence my thinking and actions.

Connecting is a necessary skill today. I often share with others my belief that knowledge is not static, it is dynamic - its fluid. It doesn't exist within us, but between us in our conversations. I connect with authors, speakers, thinkers, designers, and disruptors not because we are peers in those areas but because we share a common belief in learning and in the humanity within organizations being the most critical part of the organization. It's here, at this simple level, far below the tools, technology and processes that seem to dominate the conversations that our connection is made.

In the end, a master connector is really just a good "node" and a node is where everyone should strive to be first and foremost. What you know and do today is only important if you continue to stretch. And the only way I know to do that is to help keep the conversations and information flowing between us.

Won't you open up your eyes?

Beatles songs have always given me pause. Some of my favorites include "Yesterday", "Hey Jude", "Across the Universe" and "Let it Be." The Beatles were ahead of their time musically and lyrically.

Recently, yet unfortunately, while running up a pretty steep hill the song "Dear Prudence" began playing on my iPhone. I say unfortunately because when you're climbing a hill you need Metallica or something.

Outside of the hills, running is meditative for me. My mind, wanders between work, life, calf pain, back to work, life ...etc and at the moment the song began, I was pondering the difficulties of convincing others of the changing nature of work and learning I see around me everyday. Most struggle to see what I view as obvious; the need for a connected workforce that shares and collaborates openly in networks enhanced through technology.

Dear Prudence hit me like lightening (probably the only thing worse than running up a steep hill). A warm song immediately took on new meaning, a bit if divergent thinking if you will, and one that will now serve as an anthem, playing in my mind when I engage those who just don't see it... yet. 

My new look at select lines in the song follows each verse.

Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?

Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day

The sun is up, the sky is blue

It's beautiful and so are you

Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?

Start with "Prudence." Sure, as the story goes, John and the boys were teasing Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, who was held up in a tent working hard on meditation and missing out on the fun. But for my lucid, endorphin filled, running moment it is more the dictionary definition for those who show caution with regard to practical matters; discretion. What's more prudent than connecting people to communicate and share - it's what people do! In my experience those who show caution see only the status quo, stuck in old laws and paradigms of learning. These are the workers and leaders resting on ideas that led to "success" in the 20th century.  They hold back, or move slowly while the world changes rapidly around them.

"won't you come out to play?" "greet the brand new day" - The ideas and tools "breaching the hull" our organizations are worth exploring, trying, feeling. We have entered a new era of connection that is transforming society, business and learning; it is a brand new day.

Dear Prudence, open up your eyes 

Dear Prudence, see the sunny skies 

The wind is low, the birds will sing 

That you are part of everything 

Dear Prudence, won't you open up your eyes? 

"The wind is low, the birds will sing" "That you are part of everything" -The barriers, the headwind that slows down innovation, can be reduced when we encourage social learning, encourage networks which level the hierarchies that lock progress in political chains. People are truly at the center of this communication, knowledge, innovation, and technology, even the naysayers are "part of everything" and can greatly improve and contribute once they accept this reality. 

Look around round, Look around round round, Look around

"Look around" - See what is naturally happening already, what has been happening. Look at the technology but more importantly how that technology is being used. Mere tools, yes but pause and re-think their immediate applications. Look how community has changed, how networking has changed, how knowledge flows within these networks. See how hierarchies hold surface strength only and the nodes really do rule the day.

Dear Prudence, let me see you smile

Dear Prudence, like a little child

The clouds will be a daisy chain

So let me see you smile again

"Dear Prudence, let me see you smile." - Smile, the universal human symbol of happiness. "Happiness is the precursor to success—not really the result of it" says Shawn Anchor in his book The Happiness Advantage (see brief article/video here).   He goes on to explain the three main predictors of happiness are:

1. having an optimistic mindset, 

2. having the ability to see stress as a challenge and not a threat, and 

3. social support.  

The first two organizations can hire for but the third is what your organization's culture presents and encourages. Good social support systems enable community. Within community people share and collaborate. When employees share and collaborate they improve processes and products; they get work done. When employees get work done (socially) they are rewarded intrinsically and extrinsically. When employees are rewarded, they are happy. When happy, Shawn argues, employees are smarter, more energetic, and more creative.

"The clouds will be a daisy chain" - Wow, really?? was Lennon so deep into meditation that he had an out of body, time travel experience and saw Cloud Computing?? OK, a stretch but "daisy chain" today is a term that most can understand beyond the counter-culture reference (which I have to assume was a Flower Power ideal). As the definition in the link explains, a Daisy Chain is: 

"an interconnection of computer devices, peripherals, or network nodes in series, one after another. It is the computer equivalent of a series electrical circuit."  

The keyword here; interconnection.  Networks are made up of nodes and people are the knowledge nodes. Through these connections they are learning, collaborating, and sharing ...improving.

Dear Prudence, won't you let me see you smile?

Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?

Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day

The sun is up, the sky is blue

It's beautiful and so are you

Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?

"It's beautiful and so are you" - Next time you are presented with resistance or outright mocking reaction to building the connected work force rather than spout off about 70-20-10, Social Learning Theory, Collaborative tools, etc.... speak to the reluctant ones of their own value, skills, knowledge and motivations and how this "beauty" works perfectly within the "new systems." 

Whistle or hum Dear Prudence...it may be all you need to give yourself that pause. 

Dear Prudence - Composed by The Beatles. Author: Lennon; Lead vocals: Lennon, McCartney

A New Age of Reason

As a former HS History teacher, the Age of Reason (17th-18th Cent.) was one of my favorite areas to teach.

I was always in awe of some of the great minds in human history that seemed to all live within about a 200 year period. Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, Franklin, Hume, Kant just to name a few. These folks and their peers in science and technology all lived at an incredible time in history when an awakening of inquiry took place. Although real time collaboration rarely happened, these folks influenced each other over time and space (sound familiar?). This era was chock full of revolutions in technology, politics, science, economics, and society.

As I personally question my own professional understandings and am constantly influenced by thinkers over time and space, I am wondering if we are entering a New Age of Reason. In particular in the area of organizational learning? The parallels seem pretty close in my opinion.

To start, here's my quick-n-dirty on the Age of Reason (purposefully simple & non-exhaustive!) to set the stage for some small comparisons.

One can argue that the era began with the Renaissance, a “rebirth” of ancient beliefs from Greece and Rome. This in turn led to new scientific “discoveries” about our solar system, gravity and physics. This “Scientific” revolution spurred on a questioning of the physical world. The new scientific questioning began to challenge and threaten the Catholic Church in Europe (supreme authority). New technologies (e.g. the printing press) hastened the transformation and new ideas were quickly and economically shared with the masses. Questions of faith and questions of government authority led to New Protestant faiths emerging. Capitalism and Democracy grew as colonialism and industrialization challenged agrarian social traditions. Discontented and empowered people rebelled and self-determinism led to political change internally and overseas…

Simply put, this was a time when the mysticism, religion, and superstition of the Middle Ages was challenged.

What do you see happening today in organizational learning?

Today, Thought Leaders are questioning the mysticism of formal learning being the end-all-be-all, they are disputing the religious doctrine of L&D departments and “learning” organizations, and they are contesting the authority of today’s “Cathedrals of Knowledge” – the LMS.

Are we in, or on the cusp of, a New Age of Reason in organizational learning?

The ideas of Democracy challenged traditional political organization (Absolute Monarchy) much as Connectivism and Wirearchy stakes their legitimacy among traditional theories and ideas of knowledge and organizational learning structures.

• Representative government displaced Feudal Kingdoms much like we see the long standing Training and Development Departments giving way to empowered learners making their own decisions about what to learn, when to learn and how to learn.

Web 2.0 is our time’s Printing Press…Twitter, Blogger and Amplify spread ideas quicker than if they were posted on a Church door.

This is a time of Enlightenment for many. And like German philosopher, Immanuel Kant described it; enlightenment is the “freedom to use one's own intelligence.”

Kant, further defined enlightenment this way: “Enlightenment is the liberation of man from his self-caused state of minority. Minority is the incapacity of using one’s understanding without the direction of another. This state of minority is self-caused when its source lies not in a lack of understanding but in a lack of determination to use it without the assistance of another.”
http://bit.ly/6dsHm All About History - Age of Reason-Open Society

So today, in organizational learning, it is not that many do not know what to learn, what to use to learn or how to drive their own learning that prevents real knowledge and stellar performance... it may partially be our blind obedience to the institutional structures & traditions in the places we work. It may be our "state of minority" that causes us to unquestionably follow the "learning experts" within organizations; many of whom shackle workers to archaic systems and worse, archaic thinking about what and how best to learn.

In the Age of Reason, political discourse in local coffee houses inspired revolutions. Today, we can find Thinkers like those of the ITA challenging conventional wisdom in the modern coffee houses of the Internet; Blogs and Twitter chats are today’s Penny Universities.

Spurred on by obvious logic, Learning professionals and workers at all levels are fighting the good fight in their organizations- expanding their opportunities to learn through social and informal channels.

The perception of the Enlightenment during its time, and the new ideas that were presented, were often seen as radical, and even dangerous. Today though these ideas of inquiry, democracy, self-determinism, and rationality are taken as unquestionable truths... Some day too, and I suspect quite soon, these truths in the New Age of Reason will be self-evident in that we have the right and responsibility to to learn anytime, anywhere, and by any means.