Elearning or just good storytelling?
Comments (2) I’ll get back to writing actual words here shortly. I can’t tell you how much this jazzed me up this morning…
Slagsmålsklubben – Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.
Comments (2) 
Today is Earth Hour Day
Comments Off Our lights will be out tonight.
She has an album coming out April 7th
Comments Off We saw her a few years ago at the Gravity Lounge in Charlottesville. She’s fabulous.
On Consulting
Comments Off Our group, Theory Why, had our project mid-point meeting with our clients yesterday. The meeting went well and we should feel good in that we’ve already given the client some valuable feedback. Our group worked well in the meeting. We each had assigned portions of the agenda but it never felt like we were “passing the microphone”. We were able to offer thoughtful comments back to our client as questions arose throughout our meeting.
We also received nice feedback that we’re on track and they are appreciative of what we’ve done so far. They are also a little more enthusiastic than I thought they’d be about the prospect of receiving a detailed report. We briefly discussed a possible date for our final presentation/meeting and it may be in front of a larger group than we anticipated. We’ll see how things pan out between now and the middle of April.
I feel lucky to work with the other members of Theory Why. We have a good dynamic going and are all intent on doing our best work on this project. We’re supportive and respond to each other in a timely fashion–we have as many conversations online as we do in person. Technology is really being used by this group.
To summarize: good client + good team=happy me.
As I am always a little ray of sunshine, I’d like to contrast this experience (briefly) to my experience in the Consulting Skills class. My partner in that class is also in Theory Why and he and I worked well on the consulting skills project last semester. I think some of our initial doubts about our clients from that project have helped inform the way we are working on this new project. I think we’ve successfully transferred some learning! I’m not so positive about our clients from that project and some of this is certainly my bias as I am able to see them in action on an almost daily basis. We’ll be sending a follow-up email to the clients to find out how they resolved the issue (they were going to try some of our solutions at a meeting held last week).
Because of my insider status, I’m already pretty sure that I know the answer to whether or not they tried our solutions. I’ll be disappointed if they didn’t try our first and best solution–to get everyone involved in the problem in the room. This solution was the overwhelming answer we got from everyone we talked to about the issue. They were enthusiastic in their desire to own the problem and help solve it. If this was ignored, I’m afraid it’s indicative of a greater issue: not listening to the voices of those affected most by the problem. How many times have we read and talked about involving others in solutions?
Update 3/27/09:
I heard back from one of our clients based on the email I sent to check on their progress. It seems they haven’t implemented our solutions, but I remain optimistic that they are moving towards the solutions we offered. They hope to have a joint scheduling meeting in October of this year. Baby steps that I hope turn into leaps.
Falling in love a little
Comments Off I’m working on my Change Strategies paper and until about two hours ago I was completely uninspired and just trying to figure out how to get one word on the page. I didn’t care. How could I care since I was writing about a company that I’ve never worked for or thought much about? But then I dug a little deeper into my research and started to get excited by what I was finding out about Honeywell. I already checked and they don’t have any openings in Richmond, shoot.
I never knew reading an annual report could be so much fun. The 2008 letter to the shareowners from the CEO is well-written and funny. Who knew business was funny? I’m sure the CEO is quite serious but he’s getting his point across with a light touch. He’s kind of making me fall in love with a really huge, global company. Their website rocks too.
Enough with the procrastination…
On Reflection and Transformation
Comments Off I like tasks. I can’t remember who I was talking to recently but she (at least I remember she was a she) absolutely hates cutting her yard. I love to cut grass—always have. You start with something raggedy and by the time you finish it looks nice and neat. Also, since I put flame decals on my riding mower, it’s a whole lot more fun to drive.
In talking about our work/learning styles– of which task-oriented stands out loud and strong for me– I told my Capstone group that sometimes I feel like I walk around with a checklist in my head: both reflection and transformation are on it. Instead of letting reflection happen (and someday hoping for transformation into a beautiful butterfly), I find myself wanting to make a check mark on the list. Silly, isn’t it? These are things that can’t be forced.
In reading the transformative action learning handout* this morning (what can I say, I was finished with my morning tasks and so read it), I was struck by how transformative action learning can be. I know we were told on the first night of Capstone that transformation was something that would happen as result of the class. I’m not sure it’s happened yet, but it’s an interesting concept to keep an eye on. I wonder if we’ll be able to see it in classmates before we see it in ourselves. Maybe it’s all internal and we’ll never see it in others. Hopefully, we’ll be able to recognize it in ourselves.
Yesterday a co-worker was going on and on about some expert in training and how this person has a MEd and is an expert in adult learning theories and she says having toys in training is ridiculous, blah, blah, blah. I cleared my throat and then said, “I think we have one of those in our midst now”. Apparently my transformation hasn’t quite hit some of the people I work with on a daily basis. Isn’t genius only recognized once you’re dead? She says with a glint in her eye.
Thinking about reflection and transformation as change (and trying to figure out how to make this post fit both the Change Strategies and Capstone classes), I wonder how much of the progress made during a Future Search conference is about individual growth through changing participant thinking processes and how much is about organizational change. I’m inclined to think it’s a tie. Without individuals growing and thinking about the problem differently there can’t be whole-scale change…the strength of a Future Search conference is that it’s completely up to the participants. They own every piece of the conference and every piece of the results. They transform their current reality and grow a new future.
* Chapter 7 from Action Learning: Images and Pathways. Professional Practices in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning Series. Dilworth, Robert L.; Willis, Verna J.
So this isn’t silly
Comments Off This isn’t silly and it will be a few years before they are adult learners but this is a wake-up call and we should start getting ready:
Change is sometimes too slow
By Erica, March 13, 2009 1:47 pm
I’ve been reading Tough Choices by Carly Fiorina. I had hoped to finish it last weekend but life got in the way. It’s been a wonderful book so far and fascinating to read in light of what I’ve learned about organizational culture and change. I’m at the place in the book where she’s just begun at HP and the circumstances under which she started were complicated. As we all know from the outcome nothing was simple for her there and I’m curious to read her side of the story.
I like that she describes her behavior in the corporate world. She’s a big believer in learning through questioning and given that she’s been a CEO, I’d say she’s a pretty good example of using questions to drive leadership. She’s also sensible and aware that treating people well brings big results from people. She’s also not afraid to be silly if it drives the department or the organization forward. I think it also makes her seem approachable and I certainly hope that was the environment she created while at Lucent and HP.
The descriptions of change in her book seem to flow quickly and I realize that her book is covering decades of a work life. It must be an entirely different mindset in a company that produces a tangible product than from my organization. Fiorina described the sales projections and how they reached those numbers and she talked about how the organization had to move towards certain objectives in order to remain competitive. Her stories seem to take place in fairly small amounts of time (a year or so for some). That’s exciting and must be a real motivator for people–not just to reach sales numbers but the challenge of getting something done that quickly.
My supervisor and I were in the car today headed to lunch and she asked me what I’m going to do when I leave the organization. I laughed and told her I needed to work on my answer as people are asking me. I think many assume the diploma will land in my hand on May 16th and on May 18th I’ll be sitting at a new desk somewhere. I told her I really want to work more in eLearning and, not knowing quite how to reconcile the two, would also like to work on organizational strategies. I told her that our Friday lunch conversations about organizational issues have been really great for me.* She told me she didn’t want me to leave and wants first dibs on how to help me stay. This is the first of many conversations I’m sure she and I will be having over the next few months.
While we were eating our soups and sandwiches, she said she thought our new director would be able to focus more on a strategic vision now that she’s been here a year and has hammered out our budgetary issues and has smoothed out our client problems. My supervisor thinks there’s never been a plan in place that we just react and that it would be good to put some things into play now. It’s true we need to be stronger, more agile and better equipped to work with our client. Even though our work plans are dictated to us by our client, the way we’re set up is of our making. It’s surprising to me at how free-wheeling this organization must have been as it was growing. I was hired during the end of the growth spurt and that was four years ago. We’ve done nothing to strengthen ourselves since that time and from what my supervisor says there was more of a “feel our way” vibe going on than logical, long-term plans. I think I could help with this but I’m not sure that change will be quick enough for me.
*Carol, I took the chance to tell her how I feel about those conversations and she was cool with it and there was none of the predicted eye rolling!
Don’t Stand So Close To Me
Comments Off The next time you are wondering how people come to certain things, it’s wise to remember that inspiration can come from anywhere. I read Lolita by Nabokov because of this song:
Themocracy