Agile Learning Design: Periodic Table
Interesting periodic table capturing all the key components of Agile Learning, which has been defined as:
The ability of an organization to learn at or above the speed of change in an environment that is increasingly becoming complex and volatile.
On a separate note, like this presentation style because of its "to the point" information.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Three Idiots and Man's Search for Meaning
What does a Hindi Bollywood movie and a book by Victor Frankl, an internationally renowned psychiatrist and the Father of the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy, have in common? Precisely nothing as anyone would say!
I have a proclivity to seek connections and patterns in disparate elements, bits and pieces of information, situations and events unrelated... but even I would be extremely sceptical if you were to ask me the same question.
However, no one asked me the question. It stems from personal experience of the last two days.
I had gone to Mumbai and saw Three Idiots over the weekend. I also started reading Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, a book I had been looking for and very surprisingly found in Mulund Crossword--a sole copy lying on the shelf. Coming at a very affordable Rs. 260.00, I bought it immediately before going in to see the movie. Even then, I didn't know what was in store for me that night.
I was impressed with the movie. Apart from the performances of the 3 idiots that stole my heart (Madhavan has extremely expressive eyes and I have a soft corner for this chubby actor with his honest, winning smile, and Aamir Khan remains unbeatable at 44. Sharman Joshi outdid himself. "Kameeney ne dil jeet liya!" Kudos to all three!), the message of the movie resonated with the values that I hold dear and believe in.There are dark moments in the movie that emphasize the message.
The lessons I brought home from the movie: Have the courage to follow your passion and learn for the sheer joy of learning. Find your reason for existence and pursue that with sincerity and courage. Above all, don't become a machine, a slave to the system. Therein lies our meaning for living, for being.
The antagonist, Chatur's character portrayed the typical "system-manufactured man" who is in reality more of a machine than a human being, whose identity hinges on his possessions, the size of his bungalow and his car, his material worth and the degrees against his name. For whom, the pursuance of "success" is the reason for existence. Against this mechanical creature stood Aamir Khan, the iconoclast--who stood apart by virtue of a weird name and his philosophy, who refused to let the system turn him into another cowering, blubbering, spiritless creature, who retained his humanity in spite of the system. Who chose to retain his inner freedom to react to situations as his spirit demanded. And refused to follow success as the world understands it.
After dinner, I started reading Man's Search for Meaning while everyone went to watch TV.
In this book, Dr. Frankl recounts his experiences as a long time prisoner at Auschwitz, the concentration camp. This is where a human being was just a number--stripped of every vestige of identity and dignity, every reason for living, all semblance of human existence. People with bungalows or without, with degrees or illiterate, all became as one. Just a number. In this bestial existence, thus rendered identity-less and stripped naked--literally and metaphorically--Dr. Frankl found his reason for living. A book written with remarkable, almost frightening objectivity about events that make you shudder, it left me sleepless.
However, this is not another tale of the brutalities of the concentration camps but is an essay of profound depth, about humans who have "nothing to lose except his so ridiculously naked life." The book has a Nietzscheian undertone running through it and Dr. Frankl begins with the quote: "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how."
What connected the book and the movie for me? Not because I experienced both on the same day but the life philosophy embedded in each and the following paragraph from the book (I am copying it verbatim) that echoed the movie. Searching for and understanding one's personal "why" is the underlying theme in each.
"Don't aim at success--the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as a by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen; and the same holds for success; you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge."
The movie and the book came together at this point for me. Poles apart in the tales that encode the message, the message however unites. And this is a message I have been introduced to at a very young age--when I was just out of school--by someone who has been and is my best friend, confidante, teacher, guide, father, and has taught me my life's philosophy. My father-in-law!
That night, I slept fitfully. I tossed and turned as the book and scenes from the movie merged in my semi-conscious, dreamlike state. And the meaning of success gradually became apparent.
Success is not an outward state of recognition and fame, praise, material gains or possessions. It is success over oneself. When every choice has been taken from us, when fate throws us into situations undreamt of, it is the attitude we bring to the situation that matters. It is the inner freedom to make a choice--the choice to meet fate with dignity and grace. No one can take this inner freedom and personal value from us if we don't let them.
Dr. Frankl recounts the tale of prisoners who gave up their last meager morsel of food to others who were ill or dying in the concentration camps, who exchanged places with prisoners who were too weak to dig in the snow, who faced death and the gas chambers by staying back to take care of other prisoners. These are not tales of glory or of heroes but ordinary folks who became extraordinary because of their attitude. Even under the most degrading of human existence, they did not surrender their spirit. The SS officers could whip their bodies till they were broken but their spirits refused to cower.These are men who did not set out to be heroic but merely refused to die vermin-like deaths even when living among vermins.
I have a proclivity to seek connections and patterns in disparate elements, bits and pieces of information, situations and events unrelated... but even I would be extremely sceptical if you were to ask me the same question.
However, no one asked me the question. It stems from personal experience of the last two days.
I had gone to Mumbai and saw Three Idiots over the weekend. I also started reading Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, a book I had been looking for and very surprisingly found in Mulund Crossword--a sole copy lying on the shelf. Coming at a very affordable Rs. 260.00, I bought it immediately before going in to see the movie. Even then, I didn't know what was in store for me that night.
I was impressed with the movie. Apart from the performances of the 3 idiots that stole my heart (Madhavan has extremely expressive eyes and I have a soft corner for this chubby actor with his honest, winning smile, and Aamir Khan remains unbeatable at 44. Sharman Joshi outdid himself. "Kameeney ne dil jeet liya!" Kudos to all three!), the message of the movie resonated with the values that I hold dear and believe in.There are dark moments in the movie that emphasize the message.
The lessons I brought home from the movie: Have the courage to follow your passion and learn for the sheer joy of learning. Find your reason for existence and pursue that with sincerity and courage. Above all, don't become a machine, a slave to the system. Therein lies our meaning for living, for being.
The antagonist, Chatur's character portrayed the typical "system-manufactured man" who is in reality more of a machine than a human being, whose identity hinges on his possessions, the size of his bungalow and his car, his material worth and the degrees against his name. For whom, the pursuance of "success" is the reason for existence. Against this mechanical creature stood Aamir Khan, the iconoclast--who stood apart by virtue of a weird name and his philosophy, who refused to let the system turn him into another cowering, blubbering, spiritless creature, who retained his humanity in spite of the system. Who chose to retain his inner freedom to react to situations as his spirit demanded. And refused to follow success as the world understands it.
After dinner, I started reading Man's Search for Meaning while everyone went to watch TV.
In this book, Dr. Frankl recounts his experiences as a long time prisoner at Auschwitz, the concentration camp. This is where a human being was just a number--stripped of every vestige of identity and dignity, every reason for living, all semblance of human existence. People with bungalows or without, with degrees or illiterate, all became as one. Just a number. In this bestial existence, thus rendered identity-less and stripped naked--literally and metaphorically--Dr. Frankl found his reason for living. A book written with remarkable, almost frightening objectivity about events that make you shudder, it left me sleepless.
However, this is not another tale of the brutalities of the concentration camps but is an essay of profound depth, about humans who have "nothing to lose except his so ridiculously naked life." The book has a Nietzscheian undertone running through it and Dr. Frankl begins with the quote: "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how."
What connected the book and the movie for me? Not because I experienced both on the same day but the life philosophy embedded in each and the following paragraph from the book (I am copying it verbatim) that echoed the movie. Searching for and understanding one's personal "why" is the underlying theme in each.
"Don't aim at success--the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as a by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen; and the same holds for success; you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge."
The movie and the book came together at this point for me. Poles apart in the tales that encode the message, the message however unites. And this is a message I have been introduced to at a very young age--when I was just out of school--by someone who has been and is my best friend, confidante, teacher, guide, father, and has taught me my life's philosophy. My father-in-law!
That night, I slept fitfully. I tossed and turned as the book and scenes from the movie merged in my semi-conscious, dreamlike state. And the meaning of success gradually became apparent.
Success is not an outward state of recognition and fame, praise, material gains or possessions. It is success over oneself. When every choice has been taken from us, when fate throws us into situations undreamt of, it is the attitude we bring to the situation that matters. It is the inner freedom to make a choice--the choice to meet fate with dignity and grace. No one can take this inner freedom and personal value from us if we don't let them.
Dr. Frankl recounts the tale of prisoners who gave up their last meager morsel of food to others who were ill or dying in the concentration camps, who exchanged places with prisoners who were too weak to dig in the snow, who faced death and the gas chambers by staying back to take care of other prisoners. These are not tales of glory or of heroes but ordinary folks who became extraordinary because of their attitude. Even under the most degrading of human existence, they did not surrender their spirit. The SS officers could whip their bodies till they were broken but their spirits refused to cower.These are men who did not set out to be heroic but merely refused to die vermin-like deaths even when living among vermins.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
10 Posts of 2009: Turning Points in My Learning and Personal Development
I spent this weekend sifting through my posts and here is my list of top 10 posts of 2009. The exercise itself proved to be very interesting and beneficial for me. I realized that I had forgotten a lot of what I had written in the earlier part of the year. Also, I now feel more confident about answering a number of questions I had raised in my earlier posts. This is, for me, one of my biggest gains.
The list of posts I have selected--not because they are particularly well-written or anything--but because each indicates a turning point in my understanding and learning.
The posts do not focus on any one specific topic, but even as I re-read some of them, I realized that these are reflective in nature with the focus being more on seeking of meaning and the creation of a pattern.
The list of posts I have selected--not because they are particularly well-written or anything--but because each indicates a turning point in my understanding and learning.
The posts do not focus on any one specific topic, but even as I re-read some of them, I realized that these are reflective in nature with the focus being more on seeking of meaning and the creation of a pattern.
-
Data, Information, Insight...A Fine Balance!
-
Dealing with Ambiguity!
-
Creating Meaning by Exclusion
-
5 Minds for The Future and The Conceptual Age
-
Serenity
-
Social Networking: As Easy as Pie
-
Training Must Be Inconsistent!!!
-
Do people need training on how to learn?
-
Learning in 2009: My Story
-
In Response: Accidental Instructional Designers #dl09--Part I (I always think of this as the post with the maximum comments from people I learn from everyday)
Would love to read your comments...Look forward to learning from all of you.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Learning in 2009: My Story
I have not been a regular responder to the LCB's Big Question of the month. However, I do read the responses that flow in each month from varied bloggers. This month's question prodded me out of my lethargy because a) it is that last question of the year, and
b) it forced me to think of what I have learned and done differently in 2009.
I couldn't ignore point b and sat down to do some serious bit of introspection.
Siting the Big Question here: What did you learn about learning in 2009?
What has 2009 been for me? It has been a year of:
- A new job
- A new city
- Challenges
- Confidence
- Knowledge sharing
- Solitude
- Retrospection
- Beginnings and endings
- Learning
In this post, the last point is my focus.
- What did I learn?
- How did I learn?
- How was this learning different?
- What does my Personal Learning Network (PLN) look like now?
It was in the December of 2008 that I joined Twitter on a whim. With all the skepticism of a non-believer. The word Social Media was not even in my dictionary, and Facebook and Orkut had left me cold till then. What drew me to Twitter were the 140 character limit and a few names like Tony Carrer and Jay Cross.
At the same time, I changed my job and moved to a new city because of it. A city I had never been to before. I also rented a flat and started living on my own, going home only over the weekends, sometimes on alternate weekends.
When I look back now, I can see how all of these came together to form a pattern--something almost providential in nature--that set the tone of 2009 for me. And each of these was to become for me a key learning point in the year that followed. In many ways, the year has been a turning point in my life.
At the same time, I changed my job and moved to a new city because of it. A city I had never been to before. I also rented a flat and started living on my own, going home only over the weekends, sometimes on alternate weekends.
When I look back now, I can see how all of these came together to form a pattern--something almost providential in nature--that set the tone of 2009 for me. And each of these was to become for me a key learning point in the year that followed. In many ways, the year has been a turning point in my life.
- Twitter exploded across my universe, expanded it beyond my wildest dreams and suddenly I literally had the "world at my desktop".
- Twitter introduced me to blogs that became another leading source of learnign and conversation for me.
- The new job brought unique challenges that forced me to read, research discuss and apply what I had only known theoretically.
- The new job brought new people who became the harbingers of a paradigm shift in my learning and thinking, one person playing a key role.
- The new city offered me time and space and solitude for reflection.
- Living alone meant I filled my time reading, researching, assessing, assimilating...
My list of 20 from each of my learning spheres.
Twitter:
Twitter and subsequently #lrnchat introduced me to all that I had been consciously and subconsciously seeking to learn. I truly felt the power of collective intelligence in creating meaning, in generating answers, in accessing diverse points of views, in a real-time scanning of the web, and in separating the wheat from the chaff. I found people with common goals and passions and questions whom I have never met but whose thoughts and words could have been my own. The feeling was akin to an arial view of a gigantic crossword puzzle where the pieces were falling in place and the pattern was visibly emerging.
I have to mention here some Twitter friends I actively learn from, in no specific order:
Twitter and subsequently #lrnchat introduced me to all that I had been consciously and subconsciously seeking to learn. I truly felt the power of collective intelligence in creating meaning, in generating answers, in accessing diverse points of views, in a real-time scanning of the web, and in separating the wheat from the chaff. I found people with common goals and passions and questions whom I have never met but whose thoughts and words could have been my own. The feeling was akin to an arial view of a gigantic crossword puzzle where the pieces were falling in place and the pattern was visibly emerging.
I have to mention here some Twitter friends I actively learn from, in no specific order:
- @stickylearning
- @cammybean
- @c4lpt
- @JaneBozarth
- @kkapp
- @marciamarcia
- @Quinnovator
- @dwilkinsnh
- @kasey428
- @KoreenOlbrish
- @hjarche
- @jaycross
- @bschlenker
- @jclarey
- @KevinDJones
- @moehlert
- @jmarrapodi
- @michael_hanley
- @manishmo
- @followVasan (wish would tweet more often)
AND
#lrnchat (a very special group of friends, some I have had the pleasure to meet in person)
Blogs:
I follow too many blogs to mention them all here, but the 20 I do visit regularly:
- seth's blog
- stickylearning: Michael Eury's blog on practical ideas for learning that sticks!
- Learning Visions: Cammy Bean
- Making Change: Cathy Moore
- Kapp Notes: Karl Kapp
- E-Learning Curve Blog
- Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day
- Learning and Working on the Web: Harold Jarche
- Internet Time Alliance
- Learnlets by Clark Quin
- Informal Learning Blog by Jay Cross
- The Bamboo Project
- Full Circle Associates
- Engaged Learning
- bozarthzone
- eLearning Technology
- elearningpost
- The Learning Circuits Blog
- Learn and Lead
- Learning Practice
Reference Sites:
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Dan Pink on the Surprising Science of Motivation | Video on TED.com
One of those inspiring videos that makes one think...apart from the brilliant presentation style. Dan Pink tells a story...that sticks.
Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation | Video on TED.com
Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation | Video on TED.com
Books I Want to Read in 2010: Life Lessons
I was following a conversation started by Eric Garner on LinkedIn. The topic question: On a recent TV programme, Warren Buffet said that the book that had most changed his life was Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People". It certainly shows as Warren Buffet is great at influencing people to feel good about themselves. I was wondering. What books have changed your life?
I collated the list below from all the responses. These are books I am going to read in 2010. To see the discussion, click here.
Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
Thriving on Chaos by Tom Peters
Synchronicity : The Inner Path of Leadership by Joseph Jaworski
Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg
The Freedom to Live- The Robert Hartman Story
Coaching with the Brain in Mmind by David Rock and Linda Page
Breakthrough: The art of Conscience Conversation by William Mills
Difficult Conversations, How to Discuss What Matters Most - Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen
I collated the list below from all the responses. These are books I am going to read in 2010. To see the discussion, click here.
Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
Thriving on Chaos by Tom Peters
Synchronicity : The Inner Path of Leadership by Joseph Jaworski
Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg
The Freedom to Live- The Robert Hartman Story
Coaching with the Brain in Mmind by David Rock and Linda Page
Breakthrough: The art of Conscience Conversation by William Mills
Difficult Conversations, How to Discuss What Matters Most - Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Why Most Discussions Fail?
What I think makes for a good discussion:
What do we do instead:
Result: A frustrating, fruitless experience for all involved.
How can we change this?
We need to understand and develop two skills that are most crucial to successful discussions, management, team building, and any other activity involving more than one working cohesively together.
Listening skills has been discussed across forums and various platforms; I will not delve into it here.
However, empathy is still a new concept and gaining ground after Daniel Goleman's book Emotional Intelligence.
Empathy is now seen as a quintessential requirement from managers and everyone else working with people. Currently, along with IQ scores, EQ scores are also deemed equally important to gauge a person's ability to handle a team, interpersonal relations at work, handle clients, and so on.
According to John Kotter of Harvard Business School:
“Because of the furious pace of change in business today, difficult to
manage relationships sabotage more business than anything else - it is
not a question of strategy that gets us into trouble; it is a question
of emotions.”
I have seen and experienced various interplay and interactions at work where often an ability to empathize and listen would have effectively and quickly resolved the situation.
Test your EQ here. My score is 49 on a scale of 45-54. What's yours? Be honest!
- An open-minded approach
- An ability to "listen"
- No pre-defined answers in one's mind
- Empathy and respect
- A willingness to change one's opinion/notions if the discussion demands
What do we do instead:
- We come with a pre-defined set of answers (reciting them in our minds even as we enter the meeting room)
- We don't listen; we state our opinion
- We fail to empathize--a difficult skill anyways
- We cling on to our opinion no matter what the situation demands
- We follow set rules that may have worked once upon a time in other situations but may not in "this" one
Result: A frustrating, fruitless experience for all involved.
How can we change this?
We need to understand and develop two skills that are most crucial to successful discussions, management, team building, and any other activity involving more than one working cohesively together.
Listening skills has been discussed across forums and various platforms; I will not delve into it here.
However, empathy is still a new concept and gaining ground after Daniel Goleman's book Emotional Intelligence.
Empathy is now seen as a quintessential requirement from managers and everyone else working with people. Currently, along with IQ scores, EQ scores are also deemed equally important to gauge a person's ability to handle a team, interpersonal relations at work, handle clients, and so on.
According to John Kotter of Harvard Business School:
“Because of the furious pace of change in business today, difficult to
manage relationships sabotage more business than anything else - it is
not a question of strategy that gets us into trouble; it is a question
of emotions.”
I have seen and experienced various interplay and interactions at work where often an ability to empathize and listen would have effectively and quickly resolved the situation.
Test your EQ here. My score is 49 on a scale of 45-54. What's yours? Be honest!
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Organizations as Communities — Part 2
Yesterday, in a Twitter conversation with Rachel Happe regarding the need for organizations to function as communities, I wrote the follow...
