In response to: Why “Talk” Culture Ruins Everything

I was reading Why “Talk” Culture Ruins Everything by Hugh McGuire this morning. And the scary part of "cherry picking" ideas and creating mash-ups from these were driven home once again.

We do it all the time...in casual conversations, on social networking sites, during water cooler gossips, in one-on-one conversations with friends...We de-contextualize snippets of conversations, texts, dialogues heard, reassemble the various bits and pieces, add our thoughts and pass on the new "mash-up" till it has lost all resemblance to the source.
We are wired to share our thoughts. It's almost impossible for a human being to not talk, not converse, not share. We are also wired to listen to and pick up those bits and pieces that are in synch with our ideas. We suffer from Homophily . Hence, we hear what we want to hear. There's no greater truth than that.

Take me for example: I can hang around with friends w/o speaking a word and just listening to their banters. Most of it does not register. I tend to be lost in my own dreamworld. But should anyone mention any of the following words in the course of their conversation, I am completely on my "mental toes". Words that can jolt me out of my dreamstate are typically social media, training, books, collaboration, instructional design, marketing, movies, Pink Floyd, Phil Collins, Jazz, Elvis, etc. My take away from the entire conversation will be purely mine--nothing to do with the conversation in its entirety.

And not being so egoistic as to think of myself as unique, I know this is a normal phenomenon. Unless we are attending official meetings that are followed by documented minutes, we hear only what we want to hear. Hence, there is never an absolute, single truth for all. Our takeaways depend on our worldviews, our social context, our gender, age, and all the rest that we lump under the term demographics. A popular word with designers of learning solutions. Our demographics drive and filter what we perceive as the truth. And from this emerges our personal mash-ups of all we see, hear, read, feel, experience…

There are two sides to this:
1. We hear, read, see and assimilate all of that such that it becomes a part of our own internal knowledge schema. It is then ours and no longer mash-ups.
2. The dangerous bit is when we cherry pick and create mash-ups without the assimilation process, and pass on that patchwork of information with citation.

I have seen such conversation mash-ups create endless mis-communication, misunderstanding, mis-representation and mis-interpretation.

And Hugh McGuire puts it brilliantly when he writes:

"It always surprises me that there aren’t more articles about the dangers of one-on-one conversations: after all – shouldn’t we be worried about, “the fragmentation of data that the conversations produce, as news articles, novels and record albums are broken down into verbal words and sentences shared between people at cafes everywhere; the growing emphasis on immediacy and real-time responses of the person in front of you; the rising tide of data and information that permeates our discussions; and the emphasis that conversation places on subjectivity."

And such dangers are on the rise with the Social Networking sites permeating the very fabric of our lives. It has become so very easy to pick a line from here, a sentence from there, a tweet from people I follow, throw in a link from a blog, and my case is made. Each of the instances stand de-contextualized, maybe even mis-represented, but there is no stopping this phenomenon any more. The deluge has already started and the world has become one vast water cooler.

Organizational Network Analysis: Impact of Proximity on Collaboration

Where I work, the e-learning team occupies 4 large rows with instructional designers, graphic designers, programmers, technicians, project managers spread out and rubbing shoulders in happy abandon. The team's manager sits within 3 feet of the team and can not only observe every member but can also walk up to offer quick assistance/advice whenever needed.

A few weeks back, there was talk of moving a part of the e-learning team working on a specific project to a different building altogether. This information disturbed me deeply, and I raised this concern with the manager and a few other members as well. Somehow, to me, this seemed to be the opening up of a severe fault line in the project. However, I could neither quantify it nor rationalize it. But the hunch was so intense that I could not ignore it either.

Ironically, it was not going to affect me at all as I was already scheduled to travel. But I could almost sense the negative impact such a shift would have on this critical project.

Today, as I sat reading (once again) Informal Learning by Jay Cross in a distant hotel room in Westbrook, Connecticut, the point on Organizational Network Analysis hit me. I wish I had recalled it in time to support my hunch with facts.

I have paraphrased a few points from the book (pages 69-71):
Rob Cross is the founder and research director of the Network Roundtable, a consortium of 40 learning organizations working with UVA faculty to apply network techniques to critical business issues.

Using Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) to pinpoint the vulnerability of the informal organization, one of the key findings was that:

"...the ONA demonstrated the extent to which the production division had become separated from the overall network. Several months prior to the analysis, these people had been physically moved to a different floor in the building. On reviewing the network diagram, many of the executives realized that this physical separation had resulted in loss of a lot of the serendipitous meetings that occurred..."

These informal meetings are part of the shadow organization that runs behind (under the radar of) every formal organization. While the formal organization facilitates systematic, process driven work, the informal enables innovation, learning, just-in-time information, productivity and quality improvement, improved job satisfaction....

And analysis also shows that most knowledge workers are likely to turn to their neighbor to discuss a problem than consult a database. By facilitating such "turning to one's neighbor" possibilities and ensuring that the right contacts are closely located in the workplace, an organization can immensely improve quality, productivity and morale.

Many forward looking companies have redesigned their work space to enable interaction and collaboration, to connect people who need to be connected. 

For a deeper understanding, read: What is ONA? and pf course, Informal Learning.

Social Media and Love

This is in response to a post put up by my co-blogger. The post highlights in a very straightforward, and therefore hard-hitting, terms the values and commitments one must bring in when engaging with social media. You can read the original post here.

Two statements that leapt out and struck a chord with me:

“Social media is your own child and once you are committed to it, you cannot stop loving it.”

“There is no room for translucency in the name of transparency.”

Absolutely true! I am first and foremost a mother before anything else. I know, no matter how troublesome, demanding, unreasonable and everything besides my daughter could be, I would gladly go to the end of the world and back for her.

It’s the same with social media too. Because we are interacting with real people. We are building relationships—of trust, of intellectual bonding, of respect. We sometimes forget the people for the tools we are using. We try to pull a fast one, try to create a quick impression, and fail miserably. Social media (the organic mass of thinking, living, breathing human beings) will catch you and make you an outcast. They can be as ruthless as they can be warm and caring.

As in all successful relationships, engaging with social media requires us to be patient, caring, respectful, and most of all, giving. The more you give, the more you will receive. If you can give without stinting, without holding back, you will gradually reap the benefits. But this giving has to be whole-hearted, uncalculated and honest. And you’ve got to be willing to listen—carefully and patiently listen.
Here are a few unwritten codes of conduct that rules the world of social media. These, I have gradually discovered are close to the values you’d bring to a love-affair or a friendship that you have committed to for life.

Honesty: There is no pulling the wool over the eyes of the people there. Be totally transparent. If you ask because you don’t know the answer, you will find a hundred friends out there ready with the answer for you. If you pretend, you are done for. You will be coldly shunned.

Patience: It takes time to get recognition, to form your own groups and get your own followers. No matter what Twitter says about getting 1000 followers and what not, it takes time. And the number is not important at all. What is important is to form engagements where you can share and receive, learn from, and expand your understanding. This is what is also called Knowledge Networking, a topic I will cover in a later post.

Being giving: Give of what you have, of what you know—no matter how meager this seems. If you keep your ears to the ground, this giving will lead to you receiving so much more in return that you will wonder why you did not do this earlier.

If something interests you on the web, if you have read an article that you honestly learnt from, put up the link on Twitter with a few words capturing the essence of the piece. This is sure to help someone out there the way it helped you. You will see how one response of gratitude from a completely unknown individual can make your day. Because you have helped someone to learn something new.

Being consistent: Just as you would expect your friends and lover to be there for you when you need them, to be consistent in their attention, to be dependable, it’s the same with social media. If you have formed a group, have followers, they expect you to be there. If someone asks you a question or directs a response at you, the worst thing you can do is to ignore it. If you don’t know the answer, admit it and experience the trust that develops.

Willingness to listen and engage: Whether you are using social media as a marketing tool or to expand your learning the way I am doing, LISTEN. Listen to the voices out there! It’s not only about accessing the links and re-tweeting what you like, it’s about engaging in a dialogue—a rich, multi-voiced, many-dimensional conversation that brings in people with diverse opinions and makes our thought processes so much richer.

One of the reasons I make it a point to attend #lrncaht is primarily this one. You can see the transcripts of different sessions here.

Although I am more of a lurker in these sessions, these have introduced me to the spirit and power of social media. Even as a lurker, I can feel the web and flow of the conversations, the multitude of opinions and the respect for each of those view-points though they may be vastly different. Where else would you get a comment like this: “God grant me serenity to train who I can train, dismiss who I cannot, and wisdom to know the difference.”

Willingness to change views and adapt: As we delve deeper, engage with others, reflect on the conversations ebbing and flowing around us, many of our pre-conceived and earlier held notions may appear shallow, one-sided, immature, biased, or plain wrong. This is the time to step back, take a hard look and discard notions and ideas that can actually be an impediment to your intellectual growth. In short, you’ve got to be OPEN TO LEARNING ALWAYS when you are out there. And be willing to let go off your dearly held notions.

Sometimes, it will be intended learning, information you have been seeking that comes your way and makes you go “Aha!” Sometimes, it can be something that completely throws you off kilter and makes you rethink…It’s the latter kind that we have to open our minds to accept and truly commit to being a lifelong learner.

Courage to accept mistakes: We all goof up! The biggest and the best do it. And when you goof up in a social media platform, it’s out there for all to see, comment on, criticize. The web has a long memory and spread… If you goof up, say sorry. And with sincerity. Your followers will love you for it and your customers will respect and trust you for it. Then, most importantly, follow up the sorry with an action that is genuine and shows you have listened and care and are willing to change. Simple rules you’d follow with a friend you love too.

These are some of my beliefs garnered from my experiences over the past one year. It’s a very short span of time to have gained any form of expertise in the use of SoMe and am looking forward to evolving my thoughts…

I would love to hear your thoughts and learn from you.

Some interesting reads:

1. For those interested in the ROI of Social Media from a marketing perspective, here’s an interesting post: http://www.altimetergroup.com/2009/07/engagementdb.html

2. A post by Chris Brogan about how you can extend yourself across the social media spectrum but I think should be attempted by the more mature users: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/extending-yourself-into-a-platform/

3. Interesting perspective here-- What Social Media Can Learn from Multicultural Marketing: http://adage.com/bigtent/post?article_id=138864

Social Networking: As Easy as Pie

While we all know it is imperative today to network in order to keep up with the changing trends and shifting paradigms, to a new comer into the arena of social networking and the virtual world, the reality can hit hard.

The sheer number of options can be overwhelming. Then, there are subtle and not-so subtle differences between these options--some of the differences are inherent in the features of the networking tool and some have been superimposed by the users over a period of time. The best example is of course the way Twitter is used today...

For such people, how would collaborative learning or informal learning work in this age of technology? They may have and I am sure do have a tremendous amoung of knowledge and experience to share but are simply unable to do so because of the channels of communication in use today...How can we facilitate this sharing and ease them into the world of technology?

The feeling of a new comer as I see it...for a lighter touch! :)

In response to The importance of being synchronous

My response to The Importance of being synchronous from Onlignment.

It's a great discussion topic and there is already a very thoughtful comment posted.

I will reiterate the focus of the post here just to keep myself on track:


...asynchronous communication is not the focus of this blog, so we’d better find some equivalent arguments to justify communicating in real-time, when we don’t usually have a record of what is said and done, when all participants have to be available at the same time, when communication has to be spontaneous, when the pacing is inflexible and when there is no rewind button. So what are these arguments? Why do we phone rather than text? Why do we talk to someone in person rather than send an email? Why do we hold a discussion using web conferencing rather than using a discussion forum?

Even in this age of technology (deliberately using this flogged-to-death phrase), why do we prefer a f2f meeting? What makes us more comfortable saying something (especially if these are sensitive issues--personal or professional)when we can observe the reaction of the person opposite rather than drop an e-mail and wait anxiously for the response?


Some of my thoughts:

1. No matter how well-crafted and thoughtful an e-mail may be, we can never be 100% sure of the reaction of the recipient (we are dealing with the human mind and emotions). If the issue is a sensitive or critical one, it may also require quick damage control actions/strategies. This is possible in an f2f meeting or even on the phone where the instantaneous reaction of both parties are evident. This gives each side an opportunity to mold the conversation as per context. And also to correct understanding and perception.

2. Sometimes, the opportunity/time to think through everything we are writing can lead to some amount of hypocrisy/hiding of true feelings/putting off saying something because its going to be on records for various reasons. This may be unintentional but does happen. However, the syndrome, "I didn't mean this when I wrote that" arises later putting a spanner in a lot of plans and schedule. While mails are wonderful records of incidents and decisions, they should not be the drivers of decisions.

3. Brainstorming, adding to ideas, just randomly throwing ideas around such that one blends with another, and then thrashing them all out to come up with that gold nugget cannot happen if everyone involved is not in the same room. The vibe and synchronized energy have to be there. We've got to see the glow in another face when a brilliant thought has been floated to feel inspired and invigorated. We have to be able to thump each other on the back and shake hands and show the victory sign and all the other gestures that motivate, move and make us feel a part of a group.

4. It's just the most basic human need to be in physical touch and use all the five senses when communicating. Remember how good we feel when our boss personally comes and tells us we have done a good job compared to an e-mail we see in our inbox. In the latter case, we may even have a niggling doubt as to whether s/he sent or was it the secretary...Thus, trust builds up when we can see each other with all the moles and warts. We see the human side. We might say, "His mails are so curt and to the point; but he's quite a jolly fellow when you speak to him...I was pleasantly surprised."

5. Finally, f2f communication brings out the earnestness in us. It's very difficult to completely hide from people when they are in front of you. If we say what we don't mean, our body language or expression will give us away. Unless of course we are very adept at acting. To build trust and credibility, the importance of being earnest cannot be overlooked...

These are from my experiences...Do you feel the same?

In response to Twitter Quitters - 40% leave after one month.

Why am I writing about Twitter? Because it is a powerful social networking tool that is fast becoming a social learning tool. The connotation of the word social is changing from one of "connect" to bring into its fold other meanings like collaborate, learn, share, give, participate, hear, be heard, ask, be answered...This is not a litany in praise of Twitter--it is in support of all social networking sites (SNS) that will help us to collaborate and build collective knowledge. The latter will be our saviour in this time of recession when corporate training budgets are at an all time low.

I think like all new applications/technology, Twitter will face its share of scepticism and rejection.

Refer to the article on Twitter Quitters.

One primary reason why people would quit in a month:

It takes about a couple of months to get the hang of how to “use” Twitter in a way that brings in returns–that is, makes one a part of a community of practice, helps to build a knowledge base, and connects one to like minded people. All of this takes about two months of diligently pursuing twitter. This learning curve often proves to be the hurdle and people who are not adventurous or naturally willing to explore are likely to quit before they have found the true usage.

Also, I feel Twitter falls into the slightly advanced category of social networking site–more complex than Facebook or MySpace. For non-believers in social learning/advantages of social networking and first time users of social networking, Twitter is probably not the place. One has to come to twitter willing to be a part of the huge collaborative learning space–prepared to give and receive.