Archives for September 2023

Not diplomatic, but do care!

26 September 2023 by Clark Leave a Comment

So, I’ve been let know that my feedback is ‘blunt’. Which, I suppose, is better than some other alternatives. Still, I’d at least like to contextualize it, since I really can’t deny it. Hey, other people’s opinions are valid! They may not be correct, but I’m willing to acknowledge that it’s probably true. So, I guess I want to say I am not diplomatic, but do care.

So, I can be a little obtuse. I don’t always pick up on the subtleties of human interaction. Not a lot of evidence it’s actually worth a label, but… I recall going to meetings with my clients, who are executives at the C-level. We’d come out and they’d ask me “what did you see?” I’d respond with an analysis of the performance problem, and possible paths. I’d return the question, and hear things like “that’s the person with the real power”, “that one doesn’t like this other”, and other such perceptions. I just don’t see that stuff!

Even back when I was supervising students, I remember a couple of them saying “we never have any doubt about whether you’re not happy with something”. #oops On the other hand, I also typically don’t hear people saying I’m deceptive, or misleading. My opinions are pretty clear, but so too, generally, are my motives. (Because I’m inept at hiding them, I would suspect!) I do strive to make my feedback instructive as well as constructive. I perhaps over-err on the side of explaining why I’m saying something, and try to remember not to offer advice to fix it unless asked. (Not perfectly, by any means!)

I do also recognize that I may not always contextualize my feedback. In particular, I can forget to say what’s good before I say what should be fixed. I could defend myself and say that I don’t critique unless it’s worth fixing, but really I shouldn’t assume they know that. I am not deliberately mean, and never mean to hurt anyone’s feelings; I try to recognize that most folks don’t have bad intentions. And, of course, I don’t always succeed. Similarly, I try to admit my flaws, but again, don’t always succeed.

So, for the record, I care very much. And, we can be awesome! So, I do my best to share what I’ve learned. I freely admit my total luck at having opportunities to be the right place and have exposure to some great minds. I’ve had to work hard to learn it, mostly because it came easy early on. Then at the higher levels I learned that I couldn’t just wing it anymore.

So, my main point here is that when you see me critique things, it’s because it can be better. I do it publicly (though usually anonymously), so we can all learn. And I welcome feedback and pushback! I have lots to learn, and always will.

Oh, and please, please don’t be intimidated to talk to me. I’m really not an ogre. (I am a bit of an introvert, so I can seem standoffish, but it’s really just insecurity ;). Admittedly, I can have a very short fuse for folks trying to take advantage of me (or others), but… I really do care, and want to help everyone. I just have a responsibility to allocate my time in the most efficient ways. As I’ve said before, I talk ideas for free; I help someone personally for drinks/dinner; if someone’s making a quid, I deserve a cut. Until I hear otherwise, that’s seemed fair for close on two decades. So me: not diplomatic, but do care. Fair enough?

Modeling mental models

19 September 2023 by Clark Leave a Comment

I’ve talked in the past about mental models (and continue to do so), but they seem a difficult concept to grasp. I was discussing them again in preparation for this post by partner Elevator 9. Despite their utility, grounding in fundamental cognition, and value in learning, they continue to be absent or misunderstood in our learning interventions. It’s worth taking some time and modeling mental models in use.

To start with, what are mental models? Wikipedia defines them as “an internal representation of external reality”. Really, it’s an explanation of how a small part of the world works. Wikipedia goes on to add “the mind constructs ‘small-scale models’ of reality that it uses to anticipate events”. They can manifest as equations, or sets of rules, but really, to me, they’re constructed from causal conceptual relationships. That is, there are entities, connected by causality. For example, feedback loops are a mental model. They occur in many situations, and what happens is that something takes the output, and feeds it back to the input, positively or negatively, to influence subsequent actions. For instance, a thermostat uses the temperature as a way to determine whether to turn on or off a heater or cooling device.

The next question is why mental models. Back to Wikipedia: they “can help shape behaviour and set an approach to solving problems”. To me, they’re explanatory and predictive, in that they can explain why something occurred, and predict the outcome of various actions. It’s that latter that provides the instructional value. We want people to make good decisions. If they have a basis for determining the outcome of different courses of action, they can choose the best one. Providing them with a model for the domain, e.g. interpersonal relations (c.f. situational leadership), gives learners a way to choose optimally.

There’s evidence that our brains will build models, and that they won’t necessarily be good ones. In addition, if we don’t have a good model, we try to patch it rather than replace it. Which isn’t necessarily effective. Thus, the best approach is to provide a good model up front, and demonstrate its use. Then we use examples to demonstrate models in context, showing how the abstract concepts map to real world elements. Further, in general, we provide them before we give practice in most cases.

Instructionally, then, providing models is good support for making decisions. I’ve argued before that making decisions is more likely to be the deciding value for organizations (as opposed to fact recall). Thus, instruction around making better decisions is important. Therefore, instruction using models is going to be valuable! As a relevant aside, in many cases they’re valuably communicated via diagrams or, in the case where dynamics are important for comprehension, via animation. The point is that as they’re conceptual, you save the photos or videos for the examples.

Finally, if models are useful, then they should be part of our instructional toolkit. One small problem is that subject matter experts have compiled their knowledge away, and may not have conscious access to the mental models they use. This makes it difficult to extract them and make them comprehensible to novices. Yet, clearly, they’re useful, so we should be doing that. Knowing what they are and why they’re useful is, hopefully, a motivator for making the effort. And, succeeding!

So, please, spend the effort. We should be modeling mental models to our learners. Find, refine, and present the models via examples. Then develop them through practice, and use them in feedback, explicitly. With models, we have a better basis for learning design, and better chances for successful improvement. Which is what it’s about, right?

Note: I talk about mental models in my book Learning Science for Instructional Designers.

Engaging people at work

12 September 2023 by Clark Leave a Comment

Last week, Donald Taylor wrote an interesting post, wondering about ‘learner engagement’. That’s a topic I do talk a wee bit about ;). He closed with a call for feedback. So, while I did comment there, I thought it potentially would benefit from a longer response. I think it’s more general than learner engagement, so I’m talking about engaging people at work. (But it’s still relevant to his thesis without quibbling about that!)

In his post, he talked about three levels: asset, culture, and environment. I’m not sure I quite follow (to me, culture is an environmental level), and I’ve talked about individual, team, and organizational levels. To his point, however, there are steps to take at every level.

He starts at the individual level, talking about designing learning experiences. I agree with his ‘do deeper analysis’ recommendation, but I’d go further. To me, it’s not just if they recognize that content’s valuable, it’s about building, and maintaining, motivation while controlling anxiety (c.f. Make It Meaningful!). I don’t think he’d disagree.

At the next level up, it’s about making sure people are connected. Here, I’d point to Self-Determination Theory (SDT), and ‘relatedness’. I don’t mind Dan Pink’s reinterpretation of that to ‘purpose’, in that I think people need to know how what they’re doing contributes to something bigger, and that something bigger supports society as a whole.

Finally, to me, is culture. You want a ‘learning organization‘, as Don agrees. He says to start with a sympathetic manager, but I think L&D needs to create that culture internally first, then take it to the broader organization (and starting with said manager is a good next step).

I think that latter step solves Don’s final step of breaking down barriers, but he’s a smart guy and I’m willing to believe I’m missing some nuance. I do like his focus on ‘find a measure’ to use. However, ultimately, it should improve a lot of measures around adapting to change: innovation, retention, and success. That’s my take, I welcome yours!

To design is human

5 September 2023 by Clark Leave a Comment

I maintaining a fascination in design, for several reasons. As Herb Simon famously said: “The proper study of mankind is the science of design.” My take is to twist the title of Henry Petroski’s book, To Engineer is Human into ‘to design is human’. To me, design is both a fascinating study in cognition, and an area of application. The latter of which seems to be flourishing!

I’ve talked in the past about various design processes (and design overall, a lot). As we’ve moved from waterfall models like the original ADDIE, we’ve shifted to more iterative approaches. So, I’ve mentioned Michael Allen’s SAM, Megan Torrance’s LLAMA, etc.

And I’ve been hit with a few more! Just in the past few days I’ve seen LeaPS and EnABLE. They’re increasingly aware of important issues in learning science. All of this is, to me, good. Whether they’re just learning design approaches, or more performance consulting (that is, starting with a premise that a course may not be the answer), it’s good to think consciously about design.

My interest in design came in a roundabout way. As an undergrad, I designed my own major on Computer-Based Education, and then got a job designing and programming educational computer games. What that didn’t do, was teach me much about design as a practice. However, going back to grad school (for several reasons, including knowing that we didn’t have a good enough foundation for those game designs) got me steeped in cognition and design. Of course, what emerges is that they link at the wrists and ankles.

So, my lab was studying designing interfaces. This included understanding how we think, so as to design to match. My twist was to also design for how we learn. However, more implicitly than explicitly perhaps, was also the topic of how to design. Just as we have cognitive limitations as users, we have limitations as designers. Thus, we need to design our design processes, so as to minimize the errors our cognitive architecture will introduce.

Ultimately, what separates us from other creatures is our ability to create solutions to problems, to design. I know there’s now generative AI, but…it’s built on the average. I still think the superlative will come from people. Knowing when and how is important. Design is really what we want people to do, so it’s increasingly the focus of our learning designs. And it’s the process we use to create those solutions. Underpinning both is how we think, work, and learn.

To design is human, and so we need to understand humans to design optimally. Both for the process, and the product. This, I think, makes the case that we do need to understand our cognitive architecture in most everything we do. What do you think?

FWIW, I’ll be talking about the science of learning at DevLearn. Hope to see you there.