Death is a state of mind

Talk about doom and gloom – swine flu comes quickly on the heels of recession predictions. We’ll be keeling over in more ways than one. But is most of it in the mind? Do we give too much attention to negatives and too little to opportunities?

How does what we listen to shape our attitudes? How does language shape our personal destiny? We all use language but some of us are more adept at using it positively. Positive thinkers tend to rise to the top because their enthusiasm and belief in themselves and others brings out the best in everyone around them. Now I’m not talking about the sales technique of talking up a product when it really doesn’t match the sales pitch – I’m talking about the mentality of choosing to concentrate on the positive rather than focus on the negative; to do what you can, or control what is controllable.

I was reminded of the strength of positivity this morning when I took a session with three high achievers who have been put onto an informal GATE program at a local school. GATE stands for Gifted And Talented Education. The three nine-year olds had interests in multi-media technology, so I was asked to design a project that they could do with one hour a week’s tuition.

When we got together first I found I had three disparate children whose minds went nineteen to the dozen, who couldn’t wait to compete to show me how clever they were and who all spoke at the same time. How was I going to get that group focused on a project? Late in the hour we focused enough to decide that we would create a road safety project for the Ministry of Transport and that they would each storyboard an idea for an animation.

At the next session they came up with varying ideas (only two related to the topic) and we settled on a selection from those two storyboards. This session occurred just before the Easter holidays but they were so enthusiastic I was sure they would carry the momentum through until this Thursday. Not so …

Today they all admitted they had done next to nothing toward the project. The Ministry of Transport (alias moi) was very annoyed and told them that if they weren’t ‘up to the job we’d find someone else to do it’. The interesting thing about the following conversation was that these nine-year-olds displayed so many tactics that you would normally note in adults on a worksite:

• Avoidance of responsibility – I couldn’t find my disk, my computer doesn’t get the Internet, I was away for half the holidays, I’m so busy with my sports
• Blaming – But XX didn’t phone me up so I forgot, we had a clean out and I think mum threw out my sheet
• Avoiding tasks – I can’t see when I’d fit it in … I’ve got XX on Monday and XX on Tuesday, I’ve got Vista and it can’t read anything from an XP

Each time they came up with an excuse I told them: “I’m not interested in your excuses. All the Ministry of Transport wants is a completed video it can use.” I also named the avoidance technique they were using.

I brought out a prepared timeline and we discussed completion dates for each task using a calendar. There was a lot of talk before the target dates were set and each child recorded them. One boy in particular kept talking about the problems, and how he would have so little time out of school to complete his job. I realized he was focusing on the negative.

In Golden Bay the day had see-sawed between showers and sunshine. I threw open the curtains and told him: “Look outside … See the clouds – they’re the problems. See the sunshine – that’s the opportunity. Which one do you want to concentrate on?”

They all laughed, and one boy said: “My dad calls it ‘is the glass half full or half empty?’”

All bright kids, but already at aged nine they’d learned to look at the negative, to expect things to be hard, to accept failure.

So how does that relate to swine flu and the recession? I can’t control swine flu but I can take any precautions recommended by the medical profession charged with controlling it. Otherwise I’ll just forget about it and get on with life. And the recession? Well there are so many opportunities to be had in an adjusting market, I’ll just get out and find them.

And I’ll leave the last comment on swine flu to my daughter who posted on Facebook: We've decided it should be called Mexican Hog Fever. It's not less gross than Swine 'flu, but it sounds more festive...

On a serious note: If you do need to put some procedures in place to deal with the potential consequences of a flu pandemic, take a look here. We may be able to help. - Heather

Knee-jerk to elearning

When a (now-not-so) new technology enters the smorgasbord of training options, industry training organisations may be tempted to jump in with both feet on the accelerator. This has been especially so with the advent of elearning. Everybody’s doing it so why not us? Anyone from within the organisation who suggests a cautious approach may be seen to be dragging on the vehicle bumper for reasons of their own discomfort at the speed of change.

Elearning is not a good idea unless it fits with the organisation’s technical capability and workforce readiness. While most of my work has some component of elearning, and I do believe the method adds amazing capacity to move learners forward, I, too, would like organisations I work with to be a bit more cautious before writing their Expression of Interest documents.

Elearning developers love to create, but they also want what they create to meet the needs of the learners in the organisation. Unless the project succeeds, the risk for the developer is that the tools they create will be seen as having failed, and that in turn will damage the developer’s reputation. Often it is not the tools but the process that is flawed.

My observation is that organizations follow a pattern of:

idea > resistance > wearing down > agreement > write the EoI > start the project asap

The promoters of the project are so intent on getting on with it, (seeing that so much time has been ‘lost’ in convincing the organisation to move) they fail to do enough research to develop an effective, measurable EoI, which is the only document a developer can respond to when designing a proposal.

The EoI can be based on assumptions about the needs of the learner, as well as unrealistic budgets and time lines for development. Developers have these options:

• To warn that the project is unrealistic and can’t be done in the timeline – good-bye contract
• To build in a number of ‘provided that’ clauses to cover potential timeline blowouts
• To answer the EoI as it stands and limit the potential of what they can provide within the timeline or budget

And guess which developer will get the contract?

Before any elearning project starts the organisation should:

1. Get some reliable research done on the needs and capability of the learners they serve, and not just rely on gut-instinct. Managers see the world through the technological eyes of their own use of computers – ‘everybody knows how to use a computer’. Well they don’t! They may be more adept at using a mobile phone or the DVD remote.
2. Really understand learners’ access issues to technology. The parents may have a computer installed at home, but what happens to accessibility when the young person moves out to their first flat? Can they afford to link up to Broadband or will they install Sky Sports? If they are into social networking online, do they really want their tutor/trainer muscling in for all their friends to see? And can they afford the cost of mobile communication when for days on end they don’t reply to txts because their credit’s run out before payday?
3. Decide whether it would be wiser to contract an independent researcher to investigate these issues before engaging a developer; or make the developer responsible for developing a learner profile and recommending a best practice solution.

It is in the best interests of the organisation, the learners and the developer to design the most effective learning solution, and that solution may NOT be elearning.

The case for cloning ;)

How many times have you heard people say: “Imagine if everyone was the same! What a boring world it would be.”

I’d like to counter that by asking: “How could we possibly know that for sure?”

If we were all the same we’d all think alike, react in the same way to outside stimuli, and understand exactly what the other person was experiencing or thinking. We wouldn’t be suddenly confronted with someone angrily reacting to an ‘innocent’ comment because they would have understood what we meant.

Life would be calm; we’d all agree on how to solve problems because there would be only ONE way. The things we like to do would be the only things that there were to do because there would be no demand for anything else - the market just wouldn’t be there. Think how much waste would be saved!

There’d be no problem finding a partner because everyone would suit us. We wouldn’t need counseling because our partner would agree with us all the time, and besides, our boss wouldn’t get up our nose, and there would be no road rage.

People would work hard just like we do, so we wouldn’t feel pissed off with the shirkers. Everyone would pay their taxes and not cheat the system. Why would they need to? The tax system would have been designed to suit people like us; the health system would have plenty of funding for the ailments that affect us; the education system would teach us in the methods that suited us (because the teachers would be just like us).

Most trainers are aware that, in this world of variety, each person learns in a slightly different way. It is, however, a challenge to adapt our teaching or training style to suit each learner, because WE have a preferred method of delivery. What we tend to do is try to include a variety of delivery styles during the course, even though some activities may feel uncomfortable for us to deliver.

By providing variety we hope that each learner will be hooked in by an activity that suits their style of learning, and that they can ride out the activities that don’t appeal. A learner’s urge to ‘pass’ will usually provide enough motivation for them to stay focused.

So the trainer's case for cloning is … if everyone had the same learning style, what a dream they would be to teach! In the meantime ….