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Archives for August 2022

Help with breaking up

30 August 2022 by Clark 4 Comments

In a current engagement, we’re faced with the challenge of being given large goals. They can be learning, or performance support, or even just awareness. One of the things we’re wrestling with is how and when to break things up into smaller chunks. To be clear, this is about whether to put it into a separate entity, rather than how to segment within an entity. This isn’t an area of my expertise, I admit. As a consequence, I’ve done some scouring and pondering, and here’re some thoughts and my request for help with breaking up.

My initial reaction is that this is about curriculum. That is, the level above pedagogy: not how to teach, but what to teach. A term which made sense is ‘curriculum mapping‘. Which works for K12, but the advice I found wasn’t helpful in this instance. It seemed to be about iterating, which is good, but I was looking for some research-based principles. We don’t have external standards.

Asking around, my colleagues suggested it’s more like information architecture. I know a bit about information architecture, but not a lot. In general, I take it as organizing around the way users think about the content. Which is good for information, but not necessarily for learning.

Of course, your learning objectives should provide a guide. There should be a path from the learner’s initial state, through enabling objectives, to the final objective. That should define the scope of an experience. If it gets too big, then make one or more of the enabling objectives their own piece. In this case, we’re taking something already created and trying to make sense of it.

Really, I’m fine with that latter, but I just wonder if there are any evidence based principles to guide this thinking. Something besides seemingly sensible breakups. It all seems based upon perception (and iterative testing). However, I wonder if there are metrics, or a principled basis. Hence, my request. I’m asking for help with breaking up. What am I missing? Any pointers?

What’s New at Quinnovation

23 August 2022 by Clark Leave a Comment

Time for an update, as things have been happening, Some over the past year, some more recently. So here’s what’s new at Quinnovation.

So, as I’ve already noted, I was asked to join the Learning Development Accelerator last fall as Editor in Chief of the new LDA Press. That means, practically, serving as both acquisition and development editor. So far, I’m better in the latter than the former. We did publish our first, book, er, mine ;). I’ve also joined as co-0rganizer.

We’re doing some fun things with that. The first is the You Oughta Know series of Wed webinars, introducing people, well, that you oughta know. We’ve had an amazing run of guests. I’ll also be starting up a series of Very Opinionated Tech Takes. Yeah, it’s me going off on various techs, but I will be unpacking my thinking behind the takes. And I have had a number of decades of experience at it… Finally, there’s the forthcoming Learning & Development Conference, where we’re looking to do what we think should be done. That is, a focus on important specifics; we’ve two tracks, one more for beginners and one more advanced. Attendees can choose. We’ve got a good tight faculty, and are expecting a great development experience.

In addition to my LDA duties, I’m still continuing on with Quinovation, of course. That has meant some steady client work since the beginning of the year; including two projects on learning and performance strategy. One is likely to be continuing at least a little while longer. From that one is a topic I’ll be discussing as part of at DevLearn. I’ll also be running a ‘Make It Meaningful workshop there; a full day digging into the principles and tricks of making experiences emotionally engaging. (I’ll also be part of a panel of the Guild Masters.)

I’ve also taken on some other roles via Quinnovation. For one, I’ve been working with an initiative attempting to take K12 STEM into the 21st Century. Yes, there are plenty of efforts in this area, I just happen to be involved in this one that has an approach I’m getting to shape aligned with my perspectives. I’m also now on the advisory board of a startup with a platform for augmenting formal learning programs. Finally, I’ve signed on to assist an established elearning firm improve their approach as part of a growth initiative. All are focusing on applying learning science to make bigger and better impacts. Those are the types of things I can comfortably get behind.

So that’s what’s new at Quinnovation. Reckon I’ll be busier than the proverbial beaver, but that’s preferable to the alternative. Stay tuned!

Consumed by consumption?

16 August 2022 by Clark 2 Comments

I don’t listen to podcasts. Not that I have anything against them; I would if I had a driving commute where my eyes must be occupied while my mind isn’t fully. However, I don’t have such a situation, and otherwise I’d rather read (as with videos, I can generally read faster than they can talk, and I can also skim). However, pondering the increasing growth of podcasts and other media, I begin to wonder if we’re being consumed by consumption. 

To be clear, I like consuming information. I regularly am searching for information about new ideas I’ve come across, or going deeper in particular areas that have gained in importance in what I’m doing. I track Twitter and LinkedIn, and… However, I also take time for reflection. Which is important. If you look at Harold Jarche’s PKM model, you see that the middle section of ‘sense’ is where you process the information, synthesizing it. It’s an important part of learning, elaborating, experimenting, and internalizing.

Nothing wrong with consuming, but I’m suggesting it must be balanced with the synthesis, the integration, the reflection. If we only consume, I fear that we’re really not learning. We need to ponder what it means to us. Yet, in this increasingly fast-paced world, I worry that people feel they need to continually be consuming. I’m arguing that it shouldn’t be the only thing. It needs to be balanced. 

It’s not that I don’t think people reflect, I just want to make sure that they’re conscious of it, and don’t fall prey to a need to be distracted continually. We need to be present, with ourselves and our information, and process it. We need to avoid being consumed by consumption. Happy to believe that I’m wrong, but better to err on the side of over-communicating, eh?

Top 10 Learning Tools for 2022

9 August 2022 by Clark Leave a Comment

I continue to be a fan of Jane Hart‘s work, and her annual survey of Top 10 Learning Tools is only one of the reasons (another being her co-conspirator, along with Harold Jarche & Charles Jennings in the Internet Time Alliance). As a consequence, it’s time for my annual list, this time the Top 10 Learning Tools for 2022.

To be fair, my list could be reproduced from last year’s. However, a couple of tools have become more prevalent, and one’s slipped back, so…  I’ll rearrange my list for this year, given that I’m not writing a book right now, with an expectation that it may swing back.

Text

Writing is a primary way for me to think through things, and that’s not changing. I could say email, but that’s not where I put my most cogent thoughts.

1. WordPress. My blogging tool, is a major part of my learning process. In meeting my commitment of at least a post a week, I’m motivating myself to continue to explore new topics.

2. Google Docs. In collaborating with folks on a suite of things we’re working on, we’re learning together. We’re using a few other tools as well, one in particular, but it doesn’t allow simultaneous editing. Sorry, allowing people to work at the same time is the future.

Visuals

Tapping into our spatial processing capabilities ends up being important for me, both to personally understand things as well as communicate.

3. OmniGraffle. While I seem to have not used it as often, it’s still a major way I experiment with syntheses of ideas. Dear, and with much more capability than I need, but I haven’t found a reasonable alternative. Diagramming, mapping conceptual relationships to spatial, is a powerful way for me to make sense of things.

4. OmniOutliner. I don’t use all the features, and it’s dear, but again, haven’t found another outliner with the one key addition I need, columns. Spreadsheets don’t support outlining, as far as I’ve seen. And this is visual in that the representation of the structure is critical for me.

5. Keynote. Creating presentations is another way to think about how to share. The need to link elements together into a bigger picture is an important element of learning, to me.

Social

Interacting with others is a big part of learning, for me (despite my introversion).

6. Twitter. Following folks on twitter, even occasionally interacting with them, is a way to keep track of what’s happening, and what’s interesting.

7. LinkedIn. The posts I see on LinkedIn are often of interest, and occasionally people point me to things that are worthy of my attention (in one way or another!).

8. Discord. This one is new to me, and it’s still early on in my experience, but I’m finding it an interesting way to interact with colleagues.

9. Zoom. Like everyone else, I’m on a fair amount of Zoom calls (still my preferred environment for videoconferencing), fortunately not enough to experience fatigue yet ;).

Search

Search is a great part of my learning, looking up anything I hear about and don’t know.

10. Duck Duck Go. Duck has become my preferred search engine, because it’s claim to not track is comforting to me. I don’t use their browser, but I find their hits to be pretty spot-on.

So there, that’s my Top 10 Learning Tools for 2022. I encourage you to find a way to add yours to Jane’s list. It’s always interesting to see what emerges from the aggregate responses.

L&D Language is Limiting?

2 August 2022 by Clark 1 Comment

In our most recent LDA You Oughta Know event, our guest touched on the language we use. It struck a chord for me, thinking about how we refer to things. It led me to wonder whether, in fact, we’re hampering ourselves. So here are some thoughts around the question of whether L&D language is limiting us?

So, Serena Gonsalves-Fersch heads talent for SoftwareONE, a global company. For her dissertation, she interviewed a number of folks about what L&D is doing. While her comments were extremely worthwhile, it was more a toss-off comment about using terms like “talent management” that got me to leave a note to riff on this topic.

So let’s start with those overarching terms. Human Capital, Human Resources, and Talent strike me as ways to dissociate from thinking of people, and instead think of using assets. You might invest in them, but are you investing in your people, or in the capability of your organization? The latter may sound sensible, but it leaves open the question “at what expense”. Do you care if they burn out from the way you use them?  Shouldn’t we talk about our people, employees, or those we’re responsible to and for? Perhaps I’m overly sensitive to the issues, but too often I see the approach being impersonal and if not inhumane.

Similarly, what about the phrase Corporate University? I am fond of the case study Mark Britz presented in Revolutionize L&D, where he said that for his organization, he recognized that what was needed was a community to share, given that they were disconnected but experts. What folks really mean by a corp uni is a training academy, but a uni isn’t a good model. Instead of deep theory with little practical application, it’s almost the reverse. Learning should be continual and ubiquitous, not sent off to separate environs. Even when you do specific formal interventions, they should be seen as integral, not isolated in an ivory tower.

Similarly, I’ve sounded off on the problems of Training & Development, or Learning & Development. Training and learning are means to an end. What we want are people performing optimally, and continually developing. It might even be Performance & Innovation (if you take the revolution seriously ;).

It’s clear language does determine the ways we think about things (is it a mishap or a catastrophe?). When we use language that characterizes activity in certain ways, we implicitly put constraints on it. This is true for every formulation, of course, but perhaps it behooves us to think consciously about the language we use. Do we know if L&D language is limiting us? Let’s make sure that we’re not prematurely handicapping ourselves by our framing.

Clark Quinn

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