A lesson in humility

I've always been pretty good with words.

As I have mentioned on this blog before, I have been playing Scrabble since I was about 8 years old. My mom taught me, because in those pre-TV days (South Africa only got TV in around 1975), the long evenings were lonely for a divorced woman - especially one with children to consider. She also taught me how to do cryptic crossword puzzles.

So, over the years, I have grown accustomed to being considered something of a clever-clogs when it comes to word games. Not that I am stellar, or anything, just somebody not to be taken lightly. I have played several word games on Facebook, and usually feature in the top 3 among my friends. In particular, there is a game called Word Challenge where I had been enjoying top spot for some time with a score of 22,503. My closest rival was my good friend Frank with 21,554.

Then, at the recent Learning Technologies conference, I met Ben Chai. He sent me a Facebook friend request and so began a series of the worst hidings I have ever had in my life!

It's true, my injured right shoulder has meant that I have avoided playing any of the mouse-controlled games for a while (for some reason this is the most painful thing to do - I can shovel snow, but I can't make sustained use of a mouse), so I am a tad rusty. Nevertheless, being ludicrously competitive, I have accepted all his challenges, in spite of the fact that they have me moaning in pain. I tell myself that I could do better if only my shoulder were not an impediment. But I have to accept that, even at my best, there is no way I can match Ben.

Scramble is my weakest game, so the fact that Ben's scores there are double mine is hardly surprising. I'm not great at WordTwist, but I have at least been giving him something approaching a run for his money, there. He trounced me at Pathwords, which I'm pretty good at, but the biggest humiliation has been Word Challenge. How on earth does anyone muster a score of 64,402?

I know when I'm out of my league!

Jumping back up on the 'mandatory' soap box

Last time I addressed this issue, I got into serious trouble and wound up having to delete the post. But a presentation at the recent Learning Technologies conference has once again raised this matter on my radar, and I'm sorry, but it has to be said. Again.

In the L&D business, we are dealing with adults!

"Well, duh!" I hear you say. Except that it's nowhere near as well duh as I would like.

One of the primary reasons I didn't become a school teacher (in spite of an aptitude test that returned a massive spike for teaching) was because I didn't ever want to be faced with a group of people who were there against their will. I wanted all my learners to be there by choice.

So why oh why do we try to force adults to complete our learning programmes?

The presentation I am referring to covered the learning support provision around a change programme within an organisation. They made it mandatory.

Now, I don't know about you, but my experience of making things mandatory with busy adults is that they have the power of veto. They just say no: either explicitly or tacitly. I have been in several meetings over the years when I have pointed out that the worst culprits for not completing 'mandatory' programmes is senior management. I have asked what they plan to do do address the fact that the SMT might simply opt not to complete the learning programme and have lost count of the number of times the response has been of the order of "Well, they just must". Oh yeah? Or what?

Well, the answer in this particular organisation is that they linked completion of the training programme to departmental budgets. No training completion, no budget approval. And for good measure, no bonuses either.

The presenter seemed to see this as a good thing and referred to it as the 'carrot'. Sorry, but to me, that looks like a stick. A carrot would be an increased budget, a team weekend away, an increased bonus, new laptops... something along those lines. A carrot is a reward, not the threat of loss of standard affordances.

But surely the best thing you can do is develop a resource that is worth their while to use? And by involving the user community/target audience along the way, the resource is already on its way to being owned by the community by the time it is launched. And if you build in ways for the community to contribute to the material, it becomes even more theirs.

Now I'm not that naive. I have built facilities for user generated content into solutions I have designed in the past, and they have been used very little and then fizzled out. But I don't believe that this reduces the validity of the approach. We simply need to sell it better. To get more buy-in. To get the comms people on board. To have a few evangelists out there among the general populace. And the issues we address need to be important to the community. We will only identify those with any accuracy if we involve them in the solution itself, instead the whole 'done to' thing.

Making a thing mandatory is not the way forward. Think about the longer term. You might be able to claim a 98% take-up rate for your solution, but how much learning actually went on? How much change will you see in the workplace? And how much damage have you done to people's attitudes to learning solutions? As if our jobs weren't tough enough as it is!

I know that you could stop reading this blog at any time. You have that freedom. And I wouldn't deprive you of it. I'm thrilled that you're here, but I'm not going to force you to stay. I simply have to work hard to make sure that you want to stick around and see what I have to say tomorrow.

I like to approach learning solutions in the same way. There are going to be all sorts of recommendations to you to swing by. All sorts of signposts that tell you this is a good place to come for help. And when you do, I'm going to bust a gut to make sure that your experience is such that you'll stick around. That you'll come back. That you'll tell the guy at the next desk about it.

Because you're a grown-up. A busy one. And I respect that.

The social side of Learning Technologies

On the first night of the conference, Donald hosts a bash at a pub near the conference venue. There are caricaturists, magicians, pool tables and lots of booze. There is also quite a crush and a high level of noise. This year - perhaps because it was the 10th anniversary - the free bar stayed open until long after I had left. Not that my fruit juices were going to break the bank anyway!

So what's the point of this? Is it just a jolly?

During coffee and lunch breaks at the conference, it's heartening to see the networking that takes place, but I suspect the social adds an extra dimension to the conversation. Stopping to watch one of the card tricks, you might find yourself next to someone you've never met before, and, as you speculate on how your signed card found its way into the locked box that was on the floor the whole way through the patter, you have an opening for a conversation. While you may feel a little reticent about introducing yourself to someone whose face looks vaguely familiar, the fact that the person is holding a caricature of him or herself provides you with another conversation opening - "That's pretty good, actually" or, in my case "Gee, that could just as easily be Sarah Palin!"

The fact that many of us speak with longing of having the chance to meet face to face is an indication that this conventional medium has value beyond what you learn in the presentations. There is such a long list of you I want to meet in person and, not being shy, I would have absolutely no reservations about starting up a conversation with you. In fact, you might find yourself being thoroughly hugged! You have been warned. We meet so often in this space, that some of us have become friends. In spite of my rude foot-in-mouth announcement, I felt no awkwardness about hugging George Siemens at our first meeting last week (fortunately, he seemed unfazed).

But I'm not typical, and the ice breaking quality of a drink or two, some snacks, light entertainment and a game of pool, really help to cement the relationships begun during the conference or online beforehand.

So here's my caricature. Whaddya think?

pic of the day - my (ahem) artistic efforts

I'm pretty creative, but it's all in my head. My hands are not very good at producing what my head imagines. Part of my Christmas gift to my younger son was a commitment to populate two of the painted frames on his bedroom wall. This is the result - there is still one more lizard to be added to the frame on the right, but it isn't dry yet.

I missed yesterday's pic of the day as I tried to write a 700 word report on Track 2 of Learning Technologies 2009. No easy task! I didn't even break for lunch.

Learning Technologies 09 - random, fresh reflections

I am back in my little office at home after two whirlwind days of Learning Technologies 09 conference. I have to write up a report on Track 2 (learning in practice) and on George Siemens's keynote, which will no doubt be published somewhere. Once I've written the report, I will probably unpack a few of the sessions in greater depth. But I thought I'd just unload some of the initial swirling impressions... in no particular order.

1. L&D professionals are getting the message about learner empowerment. I'm sure the battle is a long way from won, but we're gaining ground
2. L&D professionals are falling out of love with courses and are demonstrating a decrease in the idea that 'we have a performance gap' translates to 'we need a training course'
3. Nevertheless, many L&D professionals are still having a hard time persuading senior management teams that this is not some namby pamby, pink and fluffy HR fad
4. Some organisations and, tragically, some L&D leaders still think it's alright to force, compel, blackmail, threaten, bribe, coerce and otherwise corral staff members into completing a training initiative
5. We need to be careful not to see each shiny New Thing as a replacement of existing things. Sometimes a New Thing is just that: a new thing. One which we can add to our toolkit. When you buy a hammer, you don't throw away your entire toolbox
6. George Siemens is a genius. I had been looking forward to meeting George in the flesh ever since I heard he was coming to the conference. So how did I choose to ensure that our first meeting was the beginning of a lasting, meaningful friendship? The very first words out of my mouth were, "You're a lot smaller than you seem online." Way to go, Karyn! How to win friends and influence people
7. L&D people need to come out of their ivory towers and engage with the business, aligning their provision with the business goals and taking an active role in steering the business forward
   
8. Apparently - according to Jay Cross - I look like Sarah Palin :o( . He took this photo at dinner on Tuesday night to prove his point. You decide. He had threatened to say as much from the platform, but even though he didn't, before the conference was over, word had spread and I was being 'Palin-ed' left and right
9. Some noted luminaries need to move away from the idea that learning = recall!
10. Rapid no longer = quick and dirty. But rapid is not the only option!
    

pic of the day - George Siemens

George delivered this morning's keynote at Learning Technologies. Forty minutes of densely packed, information rich, insightful (PowerPointless - woohoo!) talk.

pic of the day - opening LT2009

Don Taylor, on his birthday, introducing the Learning Techologies 2009 conference this morning.

pic of the day - hobnobbing with the elite

I took this picture at dinner this evening. Seated around the table were Jay Cross (Mr Informal learning), Tony Buzan (Mr Mindmaps), George Siemens (Mr Connectivism), Seb Schmoller (Mr ALT), Don Taylor (Mr Learning Technologies) and me. Here Tony and Jay are pretending to have a deep discussion and philosophical discussion about the menu!