learning theory

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17 January 2012

All work and no play: how to strangle innovation

Posted by Ed under behavioural change, communication, HR, leading performance, learning theory, learning transfer, line managers, management, motivation, relationships, reward and recognition, talent management | Tags: , , , |
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HRZone recently published an interesting article by Emma Littmoden, partner at The Living Leader, called Can HR devise rules that stimulate not stifle innovation? A question that begged for a response – possibly a fairly abrupt one – from the organisational equivalent of ‘the cheap seats’, I thought, so it’s lack of comments so far comes as a surprise. Perhaps everyone else’s HR departments have issued memos banning employees from posting comments at HRZone?

There were quite a few points I wanted to pick Emma up on, in the nicest possible way. First of these was her surprise at Apple’s apparent introduction of stern social media protocols, given the money it makes from handheld devices that encourage ‘the free-flowing ideas of the individuals on the payroll’. Once some of the world had stopped loading candle apps on their iPads and leaving £400’s worth of hi-tech equipment outside shops to mourn Steve Jobs (I’m no accountant, but a tea-light would have said the same, and been far cheaper and less of a personal data security risk), I got the impression that the control-freak tendencies of the recently deceased were aired more freely than previously. And Apple, for all the design savvy of its products (for which thanks should strictly speaking go to Johnny Ive), is a company that makes it very hard to dig beneath the OS, install open source software, and is very keen that we load our (very profitable) new toys with apps, tunes, books, movies and so on bought from an online store that very much runs by their rules. Apple’s version of the world is impeccably stylish, but pretty tightly closed. I’m not sure everyone wants to rule the world, but Apple is keener than most: their internal application of the tendency didn’t surprise me in the least.

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5 January 2012

Think of hope as a doorstep

Posted by Ed under behavioural change, coaching, HR, learning theory, learning transfer, life, motivation, recruitment, relationships | Tags: , , , |
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Ah yes, January. Bit of an opinion divider as months go. Some of us are raring to go, all ‘out with the old and in with the new’ – purging ourselves of brandy butter and port, and filling the void with earnest resolutions. Some of us are closer in sentiment to an old Flanders and Swann song:

Dark November brings the fog/Should not do it to a dog.
Freezing wet December, then/Bloody January again!

My own take on resolutions is probably closer in spirit to an Oscar Wilde quote – “The basis of optimism is sheer terror”. The spur to think about changing things springs predominantly from the horror of the idea of more of the same old same old. Which in turn requires a modicum of awareness that things could at the very least be different, and possibly better. Faced with thinking or feeling “Uh oh, here we go again”, one answer is to go somewhere different.

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1 November 2011

I made a boat out of Pepperami

Posted by naysan firoozmand under communication, learning theory, learning transfer, relationships
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Language is a fascinating thing but as a psychologist looking at speech development in children, especially my own, is hugely entertaining and enlightening into the workings of thought and logic. I watch with great anticipation and expectation as I observe my children and their friends talk about everyday life to see what wonderful combinations of phrases and mispronunciations occur, something I often do myself – and not always on purpose. One which made me laugh out loud most recently was when a friend of my middle daughter was trying to explain a school project she had to do, which puzzled us all to begin with…

“I had to make a boat out of Pepperami”

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22 September 2011

Book Review: Awaken, Align, Accelerate, edited by Scott E. Nelson and Jason G. Ortmeier

Posted by Ed under behavioural change, book reviews, coaching, leadership development, leading performance, learning theory, line managers, management, organisational development | Tags: , , |
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While the world – and certainly many of its organisations – is always in need of more skilful, insightful and capable leadership, it is hard to argue with an authentic heart that the world is crying out for more books on the subject. Thankfully, just as some leaders rise above the multitude, some books stand taller than the mire of self-help tools and celebrity business hagiographies that continue to flood forth. While some of the latter may provide inspiration to improve, or a spark that sets an individual off on a personal development path, comprehensiveness, rigour and practical usefulness tend not to be high on their authors’ agendas. For the leader (at any level), coach, L&D or HR professional who is looking for something that truly provides these so-often lacking qualities, Awaken, Align, Accelerate should be an addition to the Leadership bookshelves that they can wholeheartedly welcome.

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9 August 2011

In the Psychometrist’s Chair: Episode 1 – MBTI

Posted by Ed under behavioural change, coaching, communication, leadership development, learning theory, life, motivation, psychometrics, relationships, teamwork | Tags: , |
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There are many different psychometric instruments in use, not just in leadership or management development, but also in the recruitment and personal development fields and others. As it occurred to me that very rarely do you get to read a first-hand account of the process of completing some of these questionnaires and receiving feedback on them, I took the opportunity to follow up a fascinating session by an ASK colleague during Adult Learning Week by completing a range of the most commonly used tools and receiving facilitated feedback on them. In this first post in a series, I’ll cover MBTI® (later posts will cover FIRO-B® and instruments from the Hogan stable), and I hope they will provide not just interesting reading, but an insight into the psychometric experience for those who have yet to undergo it or are apprehensive about doing so.

Like many other organisations, ASK frequently deploys a range of psychometric instruments. As we value professionalism, client confidentiality and well-being, we only do so where those administering the instrument in question are licensed to do so, and all feedback is facilitated by trained professionals: while we can’t claim to be unique in this, many individuals each year receive feedback from the use of psychometric tests that is unmediated, unsupported and unfacilitated. (Given that any psychometric tool is a form of mirror to be held up to the person completing its questionnaire, this is never something that we would recommend.)

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12 July 2011

The Learning Transfer 2010 Survey Summary of Findings is now available

Posted by Ed under behavioural change, evaluation, HR, leading performance, learning theory, learning transfer, line managers, management, motivation, relationships, reward and recognition, talent management | Tags: |
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To bring clarity and a greater understanding of how this ‘transfer gap’ – between the learning that takes place during training and its application in the form of improved performance – can be narrowed, ASK worked in partnership with Training Journal to undertake the first national survey of current transfer and application practice in the UK.

While notions of ‘best practice’ in different approaches that support learning transfer and application – from training purchasing and design to delivery and follow-through activities – are widely documented and increasingly well-known, the survey has sought to identify how much these concepts, methods and practices are not just influencing current practice but being implemented.

Nearly 600 responses had been received, and a Summary of Findings from the Survey Report is now available. If you would like receive a copy – or would like to take part in the 2011 Survey – please complete the form below.

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24 May 2011

Adult Learning Week: I’d Like To Teach The World To Strum

Posted by Ed under communication, learning theory, learning transfer, life | Tags: , , |
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We volunteered you to do a session for ALW so you can show people how to play guitar’, they said, sweetly. Mmmm: my turn to stand on my hindlegs and do the teaching bit. In the spirit of ‘can do’, I naturally said ‘Yes’ before my brain had an opportunity to think in any more depth. (I’ve also undergone the psychometric assessment experience as part of ALW, more of which in later posts, but I’ll be interested to see if a tendency to overthink things figures in the feedback.) Apart from a term as an Artist in Residence many years ago, teaching calligraphy to secondary school children, my teaching experience is pretty sketchy. I’ve trained people to use bespoke software – making sure I write them task-focused user guides that are heavily illustrated with screen grabs – but I usually have a pretty good idea what they will use the software for, and their daily context (not least as I’ve often been the man that wrote the specification for the programmers.) But something as free-form as ‘teach them to play guitar’ – that’s pretty open-ended …

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24 March 2011

Cherish your mistakes

Posted by Ed under behavioral change, HR, leading performance, learning theory, learning transfer, line managers, management, motivation, relationships, talent management | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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How I Love Lucy was born? We decided that instead of divorce lawyers profiting from our mistakes, we’d profit from them.
Lucille Ball 

Janice Dickinson, who British history mainly records as slightly less popular than Christopher Biggins, has said she sees herself as having been “shaped by my mistakes”. (We can’t find any interviews, but we’re sure that her plastic surgeons speak fondly of her in public too. Perhaps if she’d been in The Rocky Horror Show in her youth…?) Staying with the arts (and continuing the spirit of generosity), many musicians have spoken about their attitudes to mistakes. Miles Davis simply said “Do not fear mistakes. There are none”, while Ornette Coleman’s approach was perhaps a little more humble:

It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.“

Coleman’s imply one common view of mistakes – that they are an opportunity for learning from direct experience, a way of finding out both about whatever area of life you make the mistake in and about yourself. (Indeed, in another corner of the arts, James Joyce called mistakes “the portals of discovery”.) With mistakes, a lot comes down to how you view them – both in the abstract and in the aftermath.

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