Group items tagged

Blog post by Chris Collison, , on why organizations don't value implementing in a more systematic way the documented learning. "In my experience, many organisations sometimes treat lessons learned like they are an end in themselves - as though the value has to remain in the document - rather than where possible leading to actions which embody the learning. These actions might include updating a process, policy, standard or system has been updated to incorporate the learning, which removes the need to promote the lessons or recommendations to future teams. So why do some organisations settle for a pile of lessons rather than a set of improvements? Some possibilities: It's much easier to write a document than see a change through to completion. It's too difficult to find the owner of the process which needs changing. I'm measured on how many lessons our project captures. We have invested in customizing SharePoint to capture lessons learned documents, and need to show that we're using it. Although I wrote the recommendation, I'm not 100% confident that we should change the process for everyone."

Very interesting blog post on how to convert casual readers into activists on Mashable by Geoff Livinston, May 13, 2010. 1. Stop thinking of them as slacktivists 2. Steward people up the Twitter engagement ladder from very low involvement (reads the tweet) to medium (retweets) to high (makes a donation or takes action) or very high (takes action and actively encourages others to do so). 3. Reevaluate the donor funnel to see where people are talking about issue online, listen, reflect back on what you're hearing, invite small acts of engagement, thank people and tell them the difference their acts made, listen some more, invite them to speak... 4. Shift your attitude to understand what hot buttons are to trigger support, cultivate them and make them feel appreciated. 5. Create new calls to action.

blog by Jarche, 11.02.14 on creating the AAA organization (Action, Alternatives, and Awareness) Action that is focused within the organization, communities of practice to identify and review the alternatives, and awareness that one gets from diverse networks.

good description of the history, development, uses, and framework of single-loop and double-loop learning as defined by Argyris and Shon. Examples of double-loop learning in organizational and educational settings, and actions taken at each step in the process.

excellent interview with Liz Coleman, former president/reformer of Bennington College on action, engagement, learning, real-time issues, etc.

Blog by Harold Jarche, April 30, 2012. This excerpt IMO justifies why women (and everyone else!) needs to know how to work in social networks to learn and to help others learn and apply their "capacity for action" in their workplaces and elsewhere. They can transform their workplaces through enriched learning practices. They may not have the HR title but they can still role model organizational learning on a small scale at least. Excerpt: "Individual learning in organizations is irrelevant, as work is almost never done by one person alone. Knowledge, Senge said, is the capacity for effective action (know how) and it is the only aspect of knowledge that really matters in business and life. Value is created by teams and mostly by networks of people. While learning may be generated in teams, this type of knowledge comes and goes. Learning really spreads through social networks." Excerpt: It shows that the company never gave any thought to organizational learning. ■Are employees narrating their work in a transparent environment? ■Does the daily routine support social learning? ■Is time made available for reflection and sharing stories? "Narrating their work in a transparent environment," "support social learning," and "reflection" are all linked to other resources.

Article on Leaning into Discomfort: Social Sector Leadership inthe 21st Century, NPQ (Nonprofit Quarterly), May 7, 2012 Excerpt from interview with Nancy Northup, Center for Reproductive Rights: ""In fact, leaning into discomfort, I think, is critical, to make sure that what we are doing-both externally, as we work to establish reproductive rights around the world, and internally, at the organization level-is bold enough. The organization had better be feeling discomfort if it's leaning into new strategies and ways of working. "You have always to ask, Am I pushing for the change that's really needed? On all of those levels, you have to continually refresh and check and make sure that you're getting the most power for the mission by being as uncomfortable as possible. Because change is hard, and the reason why you have to look at all those different levels-yourself, your organization, and then the world-is that if you're not willing to hold the tension of change as an organization, how can you begin to understand what you have to risk and what others have to risk to make change happen in the world?"" Excerpt from interview with Ai-jen Poo, National Domestic Workers Alliance: As Poo observed, "Domestic workers work in isolated workplaces. They don't have any job security whatsoever, and there are no labor standards or protections, except-for now-in New York, because of us. But really, there's nothing mediating the relationship between a worker and an employer-your workplace is somebody else's so-called castle. It already takes a lot of courage to assert your rights and dignity, and to make sure that you get paid on time, and to make sure that you can get home on time to your own children. And all of these challenges that are just day-to-day challenges of living in that environment already demonstrate a tremendous amount of day-to-day courage." Excerpt from interview with George Goehl, National People's Action �

Bob Marshall on what an effective group workshop looks like--September 30, 2014, quite demanding yet doable. he above story illustrates a range of features of an effective workshop: Certain shared proficiencies in e.g. Skilled Dialogue, Lean Coffee, etc.. Pre-reading (shared), including "standard" texts - here including Nancy Kline and Chris Argyris. Clarity of purpose "just why are we here?". Shared purpose "we're all here for the same things". Folks tweeting and googling continuously during the workshop. Amanuensis / cybrarian to facilitate shared learning in the workshops. Democratic agenda-setting. Mutual exploration of topics. Active curiosity. "Essentiality" - avoidance of rabbit-holes and extraneous discussion of details. Focus on impacts (as compared to busyness, or outputs, or even outcomes). Post-reading - following up new references. Follow-up conversations, actions. Feedback. - Bob Afterword In writing this story, it seemed to me that a video of a workshop in action would be a great addition to the resources available to BaCo staff to help them appreciate the nature of an effective workshop. Maybe one day I'll have the opportunity to write and/or direct such a video. Further Reading What is Dialogue? ~ Susan Taylor (pdf) Share this: inShare10 Email Print More

article by Martin Dewhurst and Paul Willmott, September 2014 on new leadership skills required in age of new information technologies Machines force executives and senior leaders to: 1. open up their companies through crowdsourcing and social platforms within and across organizational boundaries 2. create data sets worthy of the most intelligent machines 3. "let go" in ways that run counter to a century of OD 4. executives...able to make the biggest difference through the human touch. ...questions they frame, their vigor in attaching exceptional circumstances highlighted by increasingly intelligent algorithms ... tolerating ambiguity and focusing on the "softer" side of management to engage the organization and build its capacity for self-renewal. 5. turbocharged data-analytics strategy, a new top-team mind-set, fresh talent approaches, and a concerted effort to break down information silos...transcend number crunching..."weak signals" from social media and other sources also contain powerful insights and should be part of the data-creation process. 6. ...early movers will probably gain insights of unstructured data, such as email discussions between representatives or discussion threads in social media. 7. ...dashboards don't create themselves. Senior executives must find and set the software parameters needed to determine, for instance, which data gets prioritized and which gets flagged for escalation. 8. ...odds of sinking under the weight of even quite valuable insights grow as well. Answer: democratizing it: encouraging and expecting the organization to manage itself without bringing decisions upward. ...business units and functions will be able to make more and better decisions on their own. 9. 8 will happen even as the CEO begins to morph into a "chief experimentation officer," who draws from acute observance of early signals to bolster a company's ability to experiment at scale. 10. need to "let go" will be more significant and the discomfort of s

May 23, 2012 by Leadership Freak Dan Rockwell "8 ways to run great meetings: Short agendas are better than long. Allow ample time to discuss substantive issues. Rush through trivial items at the end. Press for decisions. Create immediate, short-term action items. Set short-term incremental deadlines. If it's due in six months it won't be started for five unless you set clear, impending milestones. Identify champions - people who own action items. Follow-up with participants in between meetings. Ask, "How's your project coming?""

New report about adult literacy in technology rich environments. Majority (greater than 60%) of those with low numeracy, reading, and problem solving capabilities are high school graduates. Hispanic and black Americans have the lowest skill levels. 2/3 of low literacy adults are employed, but 40% have earnings in the bottom 1/5 of wage spectrum. Talks about solutions - most are collective actions across a wide spectrum of public and private organizations. "...the first and overarching strategy of this national call to action is for stakeholders to act collectively to raise awareness that transforming learning opportunities for youth and adults is a means of reaching shared goals.

very good action mapping slide deck by Cathy Moore (@CatMoore) on elearning with impact

roll back on affirmative action practices

great HBR article by Gino and Staat on what organizational leaders need to do to learn and help their employees learn with reflection after doing among other actions. November 2015

article by Jenna Goudreau, Forbes staff, April 26, 2010 on how women are more social and specific action oriented while men are more strategic in their use of blogs, networks, etc.

article by Jenna Goudreau, Forbes staff, April 26, 2010 on how women are more social and specific action oriented while men are more strategic in their use of blogs, networks, etc. 

Ofsted good practices database on individual learning plans. This plan has 6 action steps. It is in a MSWord format that can be made into a template for use.

Reflection blog post by Nancy White on 1.9.13 on her Project Community course that she co-taught at the Hague. Offers many insights including this jewel below on what the learning design must bring together: "The other aspect of the design was to bring three elements together: sense making discussions about the subject matter (synchronously in class and asynchronously on the class website), insights from weekly "guests" shared via 5-10 minute videos (to bring a variety of voices), and action learning through small group experiences and team projects. I know there are strong feelings about team projects, but building collaboration skills was part of the course learning objectives, so this was a "must do." And we spent time talking about the how - -and reflecting on what was and wasn't working as a vector for learning these skills."

Podcast and list of actions to take to overcome the resistance that most of us have when starting a new project or improving our lives, Michael Hyatt. Excerpt: In order to deal with the Resistance, you have to first understand what it is. It has four attributes. Attribute #1: It is invisible. Attribute #2: It is internal. Attribute #3: It is insidious. Attribute #4: It is infallible. But what can you do about it? You can only defeat the Resistance by understanding its three primary strategies and applying appropriate countermeasures. Strategy #1: Fear. The typical response to this strategy is procrastination. The countermeasure is to START. Strategy #2: Uncertainty. The typical response is distraction. The countermeasure is to FOCUS. Strategy #3: Doubt. This usually occurs at the end of a project, and the typical response is to quit and leave the work unfinished. The countermeasure is to FINISH.

from Fast Company.com Explanation of Mightybell and interview with Gina Bianchini about why she created it. Again, the focus is on groups. "Today, the number of social networks available to us means there's a surfeit of places to come together online--we share aspirational photos on Pinterest, photos from our lives on Instagram, news on Google+, Internet happenings on Tumblr, and everything else on Facebook. But with so many channels to work with (waste time on?), the things we want to say are easily drowned out in noise, making it hard to establish genuine, intimate relationships with groups of people who aren't close friends and family. Sure, you can like a photo or retweet a clever one-liner as gestures of social solidarity, but they don't go far in making connections that count. Which is why Gina Bianchini, founder of new social network Mightybell, thinks it's time for an AOL chat room renaissance. Collaboration and action in intimate circles could be her competitive advantage."

More on Mightybell

Very powerful blog post in the Leadership Learning Community by Deborah Mehan, June 28, 2013, on collective leadership through networks, and how customized supports such as coaching can help these groups learn and take successful action.