Sticky Stories

Came across a posting on e-Clippings (Learning as Art). Mark posted this quote from "Made To Stick":

"Contrast the "maximize shareholder value" idea with John F. Kennedy's famous 1961 call to "put a man on the moon and return him safely by the end of the decade." Simple? Yes. Unexpected? Yes. Concrete? Amazingly so. Credible? The goal seemed like science fiction, but the source was credible. Emotional? Yes. Story? In miniature.

Had John F. Kennedy been a CEO, he would have said, "Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centered innovation and strategically targeted aerospace initiatives."

Seeing Marks posting reminded me that stories from "Made to Stick" have been in my world for the past six months. Down loaded a podcast from CLO Magazine that was an interview with Dan Heath. On a car trip recently I was re-listening to the book on tape. Not quite sure what story ideas are floating in my mind, but I find myself writing in my Blog after a very long time. So we will see what happens

Follow-up to the TeamSTEPPS Staff Meeting

Finally I have decided to reactivate my Blog. Got into a conversation with John Webster and realized that I was long overdue to get back to this process.

Been at a team meeting for the HCTCP Patient Safety project. If you are interested you can get more information at http://teamstepps.ahrq.gov

A New Year and Learning Continues

There has been a pause in my blogging - my computer crashed and had to be replaced and over the holiday's I spent free time configuring my new computer. I did not realize how important my software and productivity tools were until I had to start over configuring a new machine!

While I have not been posting I have been observing my thoughts. When thinking about learning, when I am aware of my informal learning process (and I am discovering that I am learning all the time!) I find myself smiling. I catch myself thinking in blog entries! It is becoming a fun way of becoming more conscious about my learning process - and that was the goal for starting this blogging process.

Some learning described in an earlier posts is starting to connect. A recent issue of Time Magazine had a cover story on education. I read the article with a new focus developed by my encounter with the Map of Future Forces Affecting Education. Oh the power of perspective - I am reading the Time Magazine article and my mind is saying, "Something is not right about this article." The map fundamentally changed my perspectives on how I think about education. The Time Magazine artical focus was on educating the individual child. It was well written, very thoughtful and from it's perspective offered some challenging ideas about the challenges of education in the 21st century. After I finished the article my mind was full of conflicting challenges. I went and got the map and sat there looking at it. The two pictures did not fit together at all. And then I noticed something very interesting, I was starting to talk about the Time Magazine article, with my wife, with friends, with anyone who would listen. Some comments here, some discussion there. Something was significantly out of place and I was working new ideas in my head.

Then one morning over the holiday's I was visiting Jay Cross's Internet Time blog. I found a very interesting post on Learning for Individuals and Communities too. When I viewed the slide show, Everything is Relative, I went "yes". The struggle I was having was the focus on the individual. The traditional way of thinking about education is the individual, yet the product of a good education is the ability to work in a group. Skills in isolation have limited value. We use our skills in work groups, organizations, family groups, friendship groups, social groups.........!

Clearly there is a lot of new thinking going on in my mind about learning and education. The point I want to share in this posting is that coming to a new understanding about focus - individual vs organizational and how it can affect how we frame and think about an issues is the learning for the moment. My inner dialogue has shifted from struggling with a new idea to realizing that shifting the perspective can change the entire way you explore the story.

Discussion - Looking For Stories About Corporate Wikis

I started this blog saying that I wanted to explore Blogs, Wikis, and RSS feeds. I am learning to blog. Last Sunday, 12/03/06, the New York Times Magazine feature article was on the Intelligence Spy network. The article described the paradox inherent in creating a secure network. The different intelligence agencies had very secure network communications within their agency but very little ability to share information with other intelligence agencies. Rather than creating intelligence information that is sharable and actionable, they were creating secret information that was not easily sharable. The article also described a wiki the intelligence agencies has begun to use. One story in the New York Times Magazine really made the point about the power of a wiki. When the private plane crashed into the New York apartment building back in October, within 20 minutes a page was posted on the intelligence community wiki. In short order over 80 intelligence analysts found the page and shared comments and information. The intelligence community was able to quickly determine that the crash was not a terrorist event.

The New York Times Magazine article helped to push my learning about wikis one step forward. It was the story that really helped me to understand the implications of new technology and a cultural shift in how a intelligence agency shares informatoin. I got reminded about how powerful stories are in my learning process. Now I am looking for a couple of good storied about how wikis are being used in the corporate world.

Learning 2006 videos, MP3 and PDF files now available

For those of you following this blog you know that I am writing about my learning experience at and following Learning 2006. On the conference wiki most of the videos from the keynote presentations are now posted. If you missed the conference this web site is a resource for you to listen to some of the main plenary discussion at 2006. Click here to to the wiki.

Keeping Up With Technology

Jim Louderback, PC Magazine did a session on "Technology to Watch For - Devices that are changing learning" (scroll down to find the session if you are interested in listening to Jim's trend analysis). As I reviewed the video of this session last weekend, I realized just how important these sessions are for me. I count on these types of conference session and my participation in the Masie Consortium conference calls and region meetings to keep up with all the technology changes. I just do not have the time or the energy to play with and explore all of the new and emerging technologies. So what is happening in my learning process...I am becoming more conscious about how I learn.

Blogging my 2006 learning has also been a really interesting experience for me. Just the process of writing this blog has forced me to focus on my learning process. Without this blog I am sure that my learning process would have been "over come by events" and the conference learning experience would have drifted out of my conscious mind.

How practical is this new technology?

This blogging thing is no easy task. In a world where everything is "go, go go" I find it hard to find time for this new informal learning adventure. So how am I adapting to this new adventure. Each day I find myself spending at least some time thinking about this blog and my informal learning path coming off the Learning 2006 conference. Making the commitment to writing this blog was also a commitment to pursuing the personal learning experiences at the conference. Without that commitment many of the new ideas would be getting "cold" and more distant in my mind.

So time is my big challenge. My daily ritual includes a cup of coffee with cream and 45 minutes of quiet time each morning. That seems to be the time when I write here in the blog. Once the business day starts there seems to be not time at all for this learning activity. Was reading the Q2Learning newsletter this morning and came across the article, "the Medium (is Not Always) the Message". If you click on the link you can get a download of this two page article. Some interesting questions about time, focus, goals and promoting independent learning. Time is up for this morning. More later.