The RBH Blog

James Dean Quote on Immortality

2006-07-16T19:30:00.000-04:00

Just watched a documentary on James Dean. Wow. He was a very interesting actor, artist and human. This quote is so true.

"I think there is only one form of greatness for man. If a man can bridge the gap between life and death. I mean, if he can live on after he has died, then maybe he was a great man. To me the only success, the only greatness, is immortality."

-- James Dean

Phillip Pike

2006-07-02T15:05:00.000-04:00

Lorne was at a 10th birthday party for a school friend today. Lorne says his friend is arab. I was reminded of a friend I had a Lescon Public School when I was in grade 5 or 6 - Phillip Pike.

I did a search on "Phillip Pike" and came up with this article on him.

He is now a film maker and his first video, Songs Of Freedom, is a 75-minute long documentary on the lives of gay and lesbian Jamaicans.

"Arriving in Canada from Jamaica in 1971 and moving to the Toronto neighbourhood of North York with his family."

(Lord) Stanley's Angels

2006-06-20T21:51:00.000-04:00

caniac nation 06
Originally uploaded by itucker.

Wow the women are ugly down south!!

Saw these three on the CBC Hockey Night in Canada coverage of Game 7. I guess they don't shave during the playoffs either.

Daddy Rocks

2006-06-20T21:46:00.000-04:00

Daddy Rocks
Originally uploaded by RichardBH.

Happy Father's day to me. Kids did these in Cross Country (Sunday School). Daddy rocks and a Lindsay rock is the small one. Lindsay did the one on the left. Lorne the one on the right.

"God the Father is the perfect one,
He loves me just as he loved his son,

I'm God's gift to my Dad you see,
My Dad rocks because he loves me!

Happy Father's Day!" - written by Jenn from Marshall Memorial.

No Space for Rent

2006-04-12T23:07:00.000-04:00

I always remember a "Candid Camera" tv show scene which showed a great lesson for life.

The show had set up a situation where a small vendor displayed a sign announcing "NO CHANGE GIVEN." As people stopped by to buy an item, the vendor would not provide change.

Most everyone became upset. Several people became furious, calling this whole scheme ludicrous.

However, one man politely accepted his short-changed return and walk off without incident. When the host stopped the guy and asked about his non-reaction, he gave the simple answer, "I don't let people rent space in my head."

I'm pretty good at avoiding letting people rent space in my head - but I'm far from perfect in that regard.

Richard
Tags: candid camera, anger, life

Jann Arden will be inducted to Walk of Fame.

2006-03-08T23:03:00.000-05:00

Just two days older than me, I'm very pleased Jann Arden is going to be inducted in to Canada's Walk of Fame. I will be sure to visit her star. Her profile explains why she is a great candidate for this honour.

Tag: jann arden

The Spirit of Harriet Tubman

2006-02-28T14:05:00.000-05:00

Leslie McCurdy in "The Spirit of Harriet Tubman" Saw this amazing show in Oakville on Sunday February 26, 2006. It was excellent. My kids (6 and 9) were totally in to the show, as well as everyone else in the theater.

Leslie McCurdy also answered questions for 45 minutes following the show - which was much appreciated by all those in attendence.

Made me want to learn more about Harriet Tubman as well.

This is a must see!

harriettubman theater lesliemccurdy canada

Later - The most bizarre thing happened. I accidentally posted this to another test blog I did for Pam a year ago. It generated an email to her of the posting. She emails me to check if I sent it. I replied sorry, yes it was an accident. She replies:

"I’m glad you saw it! It was great to get your review, and the website.

Coincidentally, I am going tonight with my 3 kids, (8, 12, 14) so it was helpful to have a glowing review. I was afraid my youngest would be too young, but now I wont worry."

Pam

Harriet's spirit at work??? Coincidence

The 148,000 "NO'S"

2005-11-21T10:16:00.000-05:00

by: Shad Helmstetter, Ph.D. from: "What to Say When You Talk to Yourself"

During the first 18 years of our lives, if we grew up in a fairly average, reasonably positive homes, we were told "No!," or what we could NOT do, more than 148,000 times!

If you were a little more fortunate, you may have been told "No," only 100,00 times, or 50,000 times--however many, it was considerably more negative programming than any of us needs.

Meanwhile, during the same period, the first 18 years of your life, how often do you suppose you were told what you CAN DO or what you CAN ACCOMPLISH in life?

A few thousand times? A few hundred?

During my speaking engagements to groups across the country, I have had people tell me they could not remember being told what they COULD accomplish in life more than three or four times!

Whatever the number, for most of us the "yes's" we received simply didn't balance out the "no's."

Technorati tag: hchy

Yee Haw Adventure Farm

2005-08-19T21:46:00.000-04:00

Yee Haw Adventure Farm Always a great place to visit in the fall if you are in Southern Ontario. The kids and I have had a great time the past two years. Tags: fun, fall, farming, pumpkin

Even Greater Things - Reflection

2005-06-17T11:12:00.000-04:00

The reflection I wrote and delivered at our May 2005 service at MMUC.

Good Morning.

I’m Richard and I’m a keen member of the Contemporary Service Planning Team. Not only is the team a great bunch of people but we get to plan these services.

The way it works is as a group we look at the Bible Readings suggested in the lectionary which lists specific readings for each week, and then we come up with a Theme based on the reading and design the service around that theme. It’s actually a lot of fun and we are looking to involve more people. So talk to one of us if you would be interested.

When we looked at the reading for this week, the part that really jumped out for me was Jesus telling us that we can do “Even Greater Things”.

There were two aspects of that passage that intrigued me. One was the excellent leadership that Jesus was displaying and the second was the question “could we actually do even greater things than he did?”

Leadership first. I’ve been interested in leadership since I joined 4-H as a teenager. 4-H is a great program. Anyone know what it’s motto is? Learn to do by doing. When you are a member of a 4-H Club, you elect a Club President and other executive members and the members run the club with some guidance from a couple of adult leaders. I was President of a 4-H Club when I was about 15 and ever since leadership has been a keen interest of mine.

One of the classic signs of a great leader is their belief in the people they lead. Sir Winston Churchill is recognized as one of the greatest leaders of all time. In June 1940 when Hitler had taken most of Europe and many in Great Britain were ready to give up, Churchill stood up and said “we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender,” He believed in his people so much , that they in turn, believed in themselves and saved their island and perhaps the world.

Think of the great leaders in your life. Perhaps a great teacher or boss or coach – likely one of the things that made them great – was their belief in you.

Jesus believes in us. He tell us we can do even greater things! If Jesus was the boss on the television show “The Apprentice”, he would be saying “Your Hired” every week instead of Donald Trump’s “Your Fired”. I’d much rather had Jesus as a boss because I could always count on him believing in me. That’s the kind of teacher or boss or coach I want and that’s the kind of Leadership Jesus provides.

He believes that we can do “even greater things” especially when we believe in him.

What are the “even greater things”? It boggles the mind at first to think of any we could do that is greater than the works of Jesus. But after a lot of thinking, I developed some ideas.

I don’t expect Robin has ever delivered a sermon on what Jesus didn’t do. But I would like to take a few minutes and explore some things that Jesus never did.

Jesus never played a musical instrument. He never was in a band nor sang in a church choir. Our band and the music program here at Marshall brings a lot of joy to many people.

He never wrote a song. Jesus never play a part in a musical production. I know for many people – the M & M Kids productions are unforgettable.

Jesus didn’t have the opportunity or challenge or joy of being a parent or grandparent. The most important role we can have in life.

Jesus didn’t have the responsibility for caring for elderly parents – such as the example we heard about at our last service.

Jesus was never a doctor or a nurse or a paramedic or a fireman or a policeman and all the challenges and “care” these professions have for our lives.

Jesus never committed himself to being the spiritual guide for several hundred families over a number of years.

Of course Jesus did inspire some of greatest music makers and compelling theater productions. He inspired countless caring parents and children, compassionate healthcare and protection workers and committed clergy.

In his message this morning, Jesus leadership goal is to inspire us to do “Even Greater Things” with our gifts and talents. And as our slide show this morning has shown us – we can – when we believe in him!

Tagging hchy

2005-02-02T13:50:00.000-05:00

When tagging items relate to the Healthy Communities / Healthy Youth concept use the tag: hchy

What are tags? They are a simple category name. More...

Links and bookmarks can be tagged at del.icio.us

Photo's at Flickr.com hchy photos

And found at Technorati tag: hchy

Acoustic Archaeology

2005-01-13T13:44:00.000-05:00

Watched and listened to an amazing show last night on the History Channel (Canada) about Acoustic Archaeology.

A good introduction to it "Early Rock" is found at Orkneyjar Archaeology News - Were some ancient sites designed to be acoustically, as well as visually, awe-inspiring? http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/earlyrock.htm?

"These (ancient) sites contain passageways leading to large circular chambers, and have a resonant frequency (at which sounds naturally echo and reverberate) of about 110hz - the frequency of the male baritone, the second lowest singing voice. Standing waves, whereby sounds are reflected off walls and superimposed on to one another, and other acoustic curiosities, have been observed in these and other sites. Stone circles including Avebury and Stonehenge also appear to reflect sound in distinctive ways.

Archaeologists have suggested that chanting, singing and drumming at these sites would have produced reverberating echoes that might have been interpreted as voices of spirits or gods; they may also have induced physiological and psychological changes in people, adding to their potency as sites of spiritual importance."

Thousands of years ago - people may have been able to see sound waves: "Experiments in a replica of the Newgrange passage, at Princeton University, showed that if a site was smoky or misty, standing sound waves would become visible as they vibrated particles in the air."

Found it very interesting!

2004-05-04T16:18:00.000-04:00

Knowledge today sounds like the Human voice

A quote from David W. that I heard from his talk on CSpan.

Peter Block believes in Asset Based Community Development

2003-09-15T14:33:00.000-04:00

http://www.designedlearning.com/insights/CityBeat_Sept2003.asp

My highlights below:
.......

It's the citizens who make neighborhoods safe, control the traffic, educate children and decide how healthy they will become.

"Who's responsible for your health?" he says. "Your doctor? Or you?"

Block tells a story about Naperville, Ill., where residents of a neighborhood complained to the transportation department about unsafe traffic. They wanted stop signs, speed bumps and better enforcement. Then a study found that 70 percent of those speeding through the neighborhood lived there.

The police department challenged neighbors to call a meeting of residents. They settled on a "pace car program" in which everyone agreed to drive the speed limit.

http://www.naperville.il.us/emplibrary/03bridgesjulaug.pdf

"Citizens were both the cause and the solution to what they were worried about," Block says.

.......

"Most of us are busy answering the wrong questions," he says.

Try these questions instead, he suggests: What did we do to help create this situation? What do we want to create together here? What's the conversation you've never had before? What's the commitment?

He especially likes this question: What is worth doing?

"As soon as you ask that, you go against the culture," Block says. "Most of us medicate ourselves with speed and efficiency, and technology is the drug of choice."

Cell phones illustrate his point.

"I still have nothing to say, but now I can call you anytime," he says.

........

"Implied in all of this is the idea that engagement is the design tool of choice; it is how social and cultural change happens," he wrote in The Answer to How Is Yes. "For complex challenges, especially when we create a system that goes against the default culture, dialogue itself is part of the solution. We need to believe that conversation is an action step."

........

This year Block also helped City Manager Ray Patchett of Carlsbad, Calif., develop a conference called "Connecting Community Place and Spirit" to discuss the design of a planned civic center.

First, as always, they shaped the question: "What is a civic center? Is it a place where bureaucrats hang out or where citizens convene?" Patchett says.

Carlsbad's citizens decided a civic center should be a space for connecting and for reinforcing ideas, so they designed a structure to make conversations happen. Offices occupy only part of the building; there are also indoor and outdoor meeting spaces, an "outdoor living room" and amphitheater, Patchett says. They plan to create a web of public facilities by building trails between the civic center, other neighborhoods and the community's eight parks.

The conference and the "engagement teams" formed in response also set in place a community architecture that allows citizens to convene quickly around any issues that arise.

........

Block insists that we must focus on people's gifts rather than their deficiencies, because paternalistic efforts to help people, well, don't.

"When is help helpful and when is it disabling?" he says.

John McKnight, Director of Community Studies at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, uses a medical term -- "iatrogenesis," or doctor-created disease -- to describe the phenomenon.

Twenty years ago, all professional ideas about how to help poor people or older inner-city neighborhoods were couched in the assumption that they were "needy," according to McKnight.

"If you cared about these people, the way you started was defining their needs," he says.

Professionals identified the alcoholics, the drug addicts, the school dropouts, the buildings below housing codes. They decided what was wrong and then what they could do to fix the "needy" people and their places.

McKnight's research found that approach had an "iatrogenic effect" because it assumed that what was most important about people was their brokenness and, what's more, they couldn't do anything about it.

People started to believe they were the problem but not the solution. Local organizations, associations and churches were ignored because "they had nothing to do with the building of the community" undertaken by outside groups, government officials and other professionals. A culture of dependency developed.

McKnight's work, called "asset-based community development," focuses instead on the "skills, capacities and capabilities" of individuals. It identifies the unpaid associations, organizations and churches doing good things in the neighborhood and the local institutes whose resources and capacities could be reoriented to enhance the local community. He describes it as "identifying the full half of the glass."

Block saw the parallels between McKnight's work in neighborhoods and his own with large organizations. Instead of a top-down approach, they identify the greatest asset as the intelligence, creativity and values of workers and individuals.

http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/abcd.html

Technorati Tags: asset-based

Caring for Your Introvert

2003-06-30T13:30:00.000-04:00

by Jonathan Rauch

Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice?

If so, do you tell this person he is "too serious," or ask if he is okay? Regard him as aloof, arrogant, rude? Redouble your efforts to draw him out?

If you answered yes to these questions, chances are that you have an introvert on your hands—and that you aren't caring for him properly. Science has learned a good deal in recent years about the habits and requirements of introverts. It has even learned, by means of brain scans, that introverts process information differently from other people (I am not making this up). If you are behind the curve on this important matter, be reassured that you are not alone. Introverts may be common, but they are also among the most misunderstood and aggrieved groups in America, possibly the world.

I know. My name is Jonathan, and I am an introvert.

Oh, for years I denied it. After all, I have good social skills. I am not morose or misanthropic. Usually. I am far from shy. I love long conversations that explore intimate thoughts or passionate interests. But at last I have self-identified and come out to my friends and colleagues. In doing so, I have found myself liberated from any number of damaging misconceptions and stereotypes. Now I am here to tell you what you need to know in order to respond sensitively and supportively to your own introverted family members, friends, and colleagues. Remember, someone you know, respect, and interact with every day is an introvert, and you are probably driving this person nuts. It pays to learn the warning signs.

What is introversion? In its modern sense, the concept goes back to the 1920s and the psychologist Carl Jung. Today it is a mainstay of personality tests, including the widely used Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Introverts are not necessarily shy. Shy people are anxious or frightened or self-excoriating in social settings; introverts generally are not. Introverts are also not misanthropic, though some of us do go along with Sartre as far as to say "Hell is other people at breakfast." Rather, introverts are people who find other people tiring.

Extroverts are energized by people, and wilt or fade when alone. They often seem bored by themselves, in both senses of the expression. Leave an extrovert alone for two minutes and he will reach for his cell phone. In contrast, after an hour or two of being socially "on," we introverts need to turn off and recharge. My own formula is roughly two hours alone for every hour of socializing. This isn't antisocial. It isn't a sign of depression. It does not call for medication. For introverts, to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating. Our motto: "I'm okay, you're okay—in small doses."

How many people are introverts? I performed exhaustive research on this question, in the form of a quick Google search. The answer: About 25 percent. Or: Just under half. Or—my favorite—"a minority in the regular population but a majority in the gifted population."

Are introverts misunderstood? Wildly. That, it appears, is our lot in life. "It is very difficult for an extrovert to understand an introvert," write the education experts Jill D. Burruss and Lisa Kaenzig. (They are also the source of the quotation in the previous paragraph.) Extroverts are easy for introverts to understand, because extroverts spend so much of their time working out who they are in voluble, and frequently inescapable, interaction with other people. They are as inscrutable as puppy dogs. But the street does not run both ways. Extroverts have little or no grasp of introversion. They assume that company, especially their own, is always welcome. They cannot imagine why someone would need to be alone; indeed, they often take umbrage at the suggestion. As often as I have tried to explain the matter to extroverts, I have never sensed that any of them really understood. They listen for a moment and then go back to barking and yipping.

Are introverts oppressed? I would have to say so. For one thing, extroverts are overrepresented in politics, a profession in which only the garrulous are really comfortable. Look at George W. Bush. Look at Bill Clinton. They seem to come fully to life only around other people. To think of the few introverts who did rise to the top in politics—Calvin Coolidge, Richard Nixon—is merely to drive home the point. With the possible exception of Ronald Reagan, whose fabled aloofness and privateness were probably signs of a deep introverted streak (many actors, I've read, are introverts, and many introverts, when socializing, feel like actors), introverts are not considered "naturals" in politics.

Extroverts therefore dominate public life. This is a pity. If we introverts ran the world, it would no doubt be a calmer, saner, more peaceful sort of place. As Coolidge is supposed to have said, "Don't you know that four fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still?" (He is also supposed to have said, "If you don't say anything, you won't be called on to repeat it." The only thing a true introvert dislikes more than talking about himself is repeating himself.)

With their endless appetite for talk and attention, extroverts also dominate social life, so they tend to set expectations. In our extrovertist society, being outgoing is considered normal and therefore desirable, a mark of happiness, confidence, leadership. Extroverts are seen as bighearted, vibrant, warm, empathic. "People person" is a compliment. Introverts are described with words like "guarded," "loner," "reserved," "taciturn," "self-contained," "private"—narrow, ungenerous words, words that suggest emotional parsimony and smallness of personality. Female introverts, I suspect, must suffer especially. In certain circles, particularly in the Midwest, a man can still sometimes get away with being what they used to call a strong and silent type; introverted women, lacking that alternative, are even more likely than men to be perceived as timid, withdrawn, haughty.

Are introverts arrogant? Hardly. I suppose this common misconception has to do with our being more intelligent, more reflective, more independent, more level-headed, more refined, and more sensitive than extroverts. Also, it is probably due to our lack of small talk, a lack that extroverts often mistake for disdain. We tend to think before talking, whereas extroverts tend to think by talking, which is why their meetings never last less than six hours. "Introverts," writes a perceptive fellow named Thomas P. Crouser, in an online review of a recent book called Why Should Extroverts Make All the Money? (I'm not making that up, either), "are driven to distraction by the semi-internal dialogue extroverts tend to conduct. Introverts don't outwardly complain, instead roll their eyes and silently curse the darkness." Just so.

The worst of it is that extroverts have no idea of the torment they put us through. Sometimes, as we gasp for air amid the fog of their 98-percent-content-free talk, we wonder if extroverts even bother to listen to themselves. Still, we endure stoically, because the etiquette books—written, no doubt, by extroverts—regard declining to banter as rude and gaps in conversation as awkward. We can only dream that someday, when our condition is more widely understood, when perhaps an Introverts' Rights movement has blossomed and borne fruit, it will not be impolite to say "I'm an introvert. You are a wonderful person and I like you. But now please shush."

How can I let the introvert in my life know that I support him and respect his choice? First, recognize that it's not a choice. It's not a lifestyle. It's an orientation.

Second, when you see an introvert lost in thought, don't say "What's the matter?" or "Are you all right?"

Third, don't say anything else, either.

2003-06-16T13:35:00.000-04:00

Leading from the Inside Out - by Jim Clemmer

A leader may or may not be appointed to head a group or organization — to be put in charge. Whether formally in the role or not, a leader makes things happen. A leader takes action. A leader doesn't say something must be done about this, a leader does something about it. Leadership is a verb, not a noun. Leadership is action, not a position. Leadership is defined by what we do, not the role we are in. We all need to be leaders, regardless of the roles we may be in.

Action is the outer expression of leadership. But leadership isn't just what we do. It's also something that we are, which then drives what we do. At The CLEMMER Group we've found that we can teach people many leadership actions. We can teach how to influence others, how to lead teams, confront issues, solve problems, and so on. We can teach leadership doing. But we can't teach leadership being. That's an inside job. It's an unending journey of personal discovery and learning. We can guide, direct, and support becoming a leader, but we can't give anyone a pre-set formula or key actions.

Some people are good leadership performers. They can "do their leadership thing" and put on very convincing acts. But in time, superficial leadership wears thin. We eventually see through to the real person. It's not a pretty sight. Superficial leadership destroys trust and zaps energy. People feel manipulated. They often become cynical and suspicious. In this environment, ever stronger threats or incentives are needed to get others to "get with the program."

The deepest and most lasting leadership comes from the inside out. It's authentic. It's real. It's genuine. Author and consultant Robert Cooper made several trips to Tibet as part of his research on the inner side of leadership. He quotes a wise elder who became a mentor and guide, "It is from the heart." He touched his palm to his chest. "In Tibet, we call it authentic presence. It means, literally, 'field of power.' When we live from here, from the inside, we can talk openly and honestly with each other, and say the things we deeply feel, even when it's hard to say them. We hold ourselves, and each other, accountable to our best effort in all things. We search for our calling, for the path we are born to take." Cooper goes on to reflect on the conclusions of his leadership studies, "In essence, it is a silent sphere of energy that emanates not only from the mind and physical form but from your heart — which conveys moment by moment, the emotional truth of who you really are, deep down, and what you stand for, care about, and believe... When you live from the depths of the heart, you walk your talk, heed your conscience, and don't hesitate to take a stand. Your voice rings true and gets heard. It is through emotional depth that we begin, for example, to discover, and commit to, the unique potential which defies our destiny and leads us to the fulfillment of our larger purpose in life."

2003-05-12T14:07:00.000-04:00

You know how it is hard to imagine what life was like a 100 years ago or more.
Dealing without so many things we take for granted like basic health care, electricity, cars, etc...

I think that some time in the future - 50 - 100 - 200 years from now - people will not have any understanding of how we live without a societal understanding / focus / effort around social capital and community. Asset Based Community Development, Assets for Youth, the amazing difference that can be made to an entire human life - in the first three years, etc... I think at some point there is going to be a large shift in societal thinking and it is going to make a world of difference.

Some people understand it now, some people do live with all kinds of social capital in their life now, in many ways the communities of 50 and 100 and more years ago - had lots of "social capital".

I think there will be a big shift to it sometime in the future.
Richard Hamilton

2002-09-17T09:23:00.000-04:00

Getting Mileage out of Coaching Amanda Levy
In professional and amateur sport, anyone who is serious about improving performance hires a coach. Those who want to achieve Olympic status, those who want to earn a place on a top team, those who want to lead the league, all see a coach as essential.

In business we seem to think differently. The ones who are ‘ear-marked’ for coaching are those in trouble, those who have not responded to conventional management direction and those who are diverted by serious personal challenges. Those who are considered to be potential top performers are left alone, to their own devices. There’s no direct support, little real guidance and almost no recognition. This doesn’t make much sense to me.

What exactly is ‘coaching’? There’s no universal definition as far as I can determine, so here’s my attempt. A coach is a person who assists another to achieve an optimal level of personal mastery. This means that it’s the responsibility of the person being coached to identify the required goals and standards, to find the internal resources and to manage the relationship. The coach is a ‘facilitator’, one who guides, supports, encourages, critiques performance, supplies external resources, and provides ongoing feedback as needed.

The focus for the coach is on process – how things get done, not on direction – what gets done. This is the primary task of the person being coached. So, if I am your coach, please don’t ask me what you should do. Certainly, I can help you to think through the goals and standards, but ultimately they are yours. You’re the one who intends to benefit from investing effort and time in improving your personal performance - so it’s your program.

If we need a coach to help us to develop and grow, we’ll need that person around us when we’re in ‘growth mode’, more so than when we’re trying to handle a crisis. The coach has to be present when we are actually performing in order to help us perform better. We could also use a coach when we're not performing, but it's our task to address the issue and get back on track. The real value in having a coach is gained when we are energized, focused and striving to do even better.

An effective coach knows how to intervene without interfering. A good coach will enhance performance not redirect it, reconstruct not redesign, catalyze not substitute. Many of us need a coach to assist us achieve our dearest ambitions for there are so many distractions and diversions along the road of life. We must, however stay in the ‘driver’s seat’ and decide for ourselves which road we shall travel.

This is how it appears to work best in sports, so why not do likewise as we apply valued coaching to the other important aspects of our life?

2002-06-07T10:38:00.000-04:00

The ORID technique

The ORID technique ensures that the group visits each rung of the ladder of inferencetogether. Here is how it works. After the group shares a common experience (informational presentation, document, etc.), lead them through the following five steps:

1. O (for Objective) - Ask the members what they recall seeing or hearing and list their answers on flip chart paper. Caution: Keep people focused on what they observed with their senses. Disallow interpretations and opinions at this stage.

2. R+ (for Reflective positive) - Ask members what they had positive reactions to and list their responses.

3. R- (for Reflective negative) - Ask members what they had negative reactions to and list their responses. What will be positive for some may be negative for others. That ís okay and exactly why you are doing this.

4. I (for Interpretive) - Ask members what sense they make of the data and record their responses. Hint: It's easier to assign meaning by thinking about what headline a reporter might write about this data.

5. D (for Decisional) - Ask the members what decisions they can now make as a group. Help them work individual proposals into consensus decisions.

If you want to learn more about ORID there is one page on the ICA Canada site where you can get a simple demonstration.

http://www.icacan.ca/template/foundations/orid.cfm

From the article - "A magical tool for group discussion."

School Ends, Education is Lifelong

2002-06-04T09:02:00.000-04:00

Father Michael Oleksa

Comment

(Published: June 2, 2002)

All over the world, children are completing another year of schooling this month. Millions of graduating seniors are marching down thousands of aisles to the same martial music the Western world has played for 200 years. And millions more parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are looking proudly on as their children move another step toward adulthood -- and can finally get a paying job.

About five millennia ago, when writing systems were invented and the first libraries and schools were founded, there must have been the equivalent of today's commencement exercises, probably without mortarboards. One might assume that before the invention of the alphabet and the grade book, little education existed. In the sense that kids did not sit in classrooms or take written exams or earn grades, that's certainly true. But education is older than schooling, and it is dangerous, I think, to confuse the two.

Education is whatever a person learns that proves to be useful, meaningful, relevant to life. Schooling is what we do in schools. And let's be honest: Not everything we do in school is useful, meaningful or relevant to everyone. In fact, having gone to school for almost half my years, I can think back on entire semesters of college material that ultimately turned out to be useless, meaningless and irrelevant. And we paid lots of money for those courses.

Nevertheless, in the world today, being educated in this formal sense -- passing tests, writing papers, earning credits and becoming a certified professional in a specialized field -- is an economic as well as social and political necessity. An illiterate person cannot participate fully in the global society that has evolved on this planet in the past 30 years.

But a child also must learn to be a human being. Research conducted over several decades, involving hundreds of thousands of students around the world, indicates that resilient kids, who can bounce back from setbacks and resist the temptations of alcohol, drugs and risky sexual activity, have had at least five caring adults in their lives.

They have been loved and encouraged by family, friends, neighbors, pastors and teachers. They learn in safe, caring environments, in which high standards of ethical as well as academic performance are the rule. They are active in cultural and/or musical groups, care for others, keep their word. They behave like human beings.

The Search Institute of Minneapolis names these positive protective factors in a child's life "Assets." The name may be new, but the concept goes back to the time before education came from a book and progress could be measured by a test.

After I spent an evening explaining the Assets framework in an Alaska Native community, an elder rose from amid the assembly and announced, "The wisdom of the elders has withstood the research test of time." That's one of my favorite quotations from the wonderful book "Helping Kids Succeed -- Alaska Style," published by the Alaska Association of School Boards. Every student and parent should read it and think about its message. The back cover features a drawing of a child holding an elder's hand with another wonderful

quote: "Every adult needs a child to guide. That's how adults learn."

Where in modern society do we teach human values to youths? When can we say with some confidence that we have educated a youth to be a compassionate, caring, honest and self-regulating adult?

We hope most of those millions receiving degrees and diplomas are aware of the need to grow in their humanity, for it is a course from which we never graduate. Becoming fully human is a never-ending, eternal process, and only the saints and sages of the past can guide us toward that goal. And even they will have little impact on us if we don't have a loving, caring elder, parent, aunt, uncle, grandparent or godparent who has supported and encouraged us.

How many kids would name you as one of the significant five adults in their life? Assets are a framework each of us must build deliberately if we want our children to be productive citizens in the modern global society and also to know what it means to be a "real" person and seek someday to become one. Some of the kids who dropped or flunked out had few Assets in their lives -- fewer than five caring adults to offer encouragement and support and serve as appropriate role models. We all have an impact on youths. Everyone, after all, is some kind of role model. Some are just more positive than others.

Graduates, now that you have completed a milestone in your schooling, be sure to spend extra time with older friends and relatives. We all want you to become a complete human being and are eager to help you achieve that goal any way we can. If you are done with classroom learning, seek out grandparents and with them continue your education for the rest of your life. Elders are our greatest Assets, not just smiling down upon graduates at commencement but forever, as long as we are blessed to be with them. That's where education begins, and it never ends.

The Rev. Michael Oleksa is dean of St. Innocent Orthodox Cathedral, 6724 E. Fourth Ave. He can be reached at frm31647 at hotmail.com.

Technorati tag: hchy

2002-05-21T11:39:00.000-04:00

“We can choose to build kids or we can choose to build prisons”

– Retired General Colin Powell.

Attended a Healthy Communities/Healthy Youth Conference in Batavia, New York, yesterday. Some thoughts related to the key note speaker's presentation.

We live in the most age-separated society ever. Think of what adults do when they approach young people, adults avert their eyes and don’t speak or acknowledge the kids. The non-verbal message received is one of rejection.

How many adults does it take to raise a child? In generations past, every child had several adults exerting influence, now many children have NO significant adult influence in their lives. The needs have not changed, they are just not being met!

The news media is about mayhem and problems with kids. Two-thirds of all news is negative. Positive language is needed. Kids need to hear supportive and encouraging commentary from adults.

How to spot a caring successful healthy kid? A recent study showed the following data:

Every young person had at least one caring adult at home
At least six adults know their name
Relationship is important to them
A faith commitment is an important part of their life
They make rational choices

The work of raising successful healthy kids is a work of a people. Development of adult to child relationships is important. Each adult should get to know at least six kids. Know the names of at least 12. TALK TO KIDS. Look them in the eyes, making eye contact and ask them relationship questions.

All it takes is CARING. Raising successful kids is a cultural issue. We must change the way a community thinks about its youth AND we must change the way a community behaves toward its youth. Schools, churches, industry and corporations…all these institutions can help.

Tag: hchy

Service versus Community

2002-05-07T14:42:00.000-04:00

Another article by John McKnight which again illustrates how "service" can hurt community.

He writes:

In a small, relatively isolated community on Martha's Vineyard, about every tenth person used to be born without the ability to hear. Everybody in the community, hearing and non-hearing alike, spoke a unique sign language brought from England when they immigrated to Massachusetts in 1690. In the mid-twentieth century with increased mobility, the people ceased to intermarry, and the genetic anomaly disappeared.

But before the memory of it died - and the sign language with it - historian Nora Groce studied the community's history. She compared the experience of the non-hearing people to that of the hearing people.

She found that 80 percent of the non-hearing people graduated from high school, as did 80 percent of the hearing. She found that about 90 percent of the non-hearing got married, compared to about 92 percent of the hearing. They had about equal numbers of children. Their income levels were similar, as were the variety and distribution of their occupations.

Then Groce did a parallel study on the Massachusetts mainland. At the time, it was considered to have the best services in the nation for non-hearing people. There she found that 50 percent of non-hearing people graduated from high school, compared to 75 percent of the hearing. Non-hearing people married half the time, while hearing people married 90 percent of the time. Forty percent of the non-hearing people had children, while 80 percent of hearing people did. And non-hearing people had fewer children. They also received about one-third the income of hearing people. And their range of occupations was much more limited.

How was it, Groce wondered, that on an island with no services, non-hearing people were as much like hearing people as you could possibly measure? Yet thirty miles away, with the most advanced services available, non-hearing people lived much poorer lives than the hearing.

The one place in the United States where deafness was not a disability was a place with no services for deaf people. In that community all the people adapted by signing instead of handing the non-hearing people over to professionals and their services. That community wasn't just doing what was necessary to help or to serve one group. It was doing what was necessary to incorporate everyone.

2002-02-25T11:57:00.000-05:00

You can only learn that which you already know

John McKnight uses this story to illustrate the idea that wisdom is found within a community. I didn't have a written copy of the story so did a search on Internet. This is copied from an interesting sermon given by a Dr. Philip Amerson: http://home.bluemarble.net/~fumcb/sermons/000806.htm

I would like to begin today with a story that is one of my favorites. It is a favorite precisely because it is so rich with meaning. The texture of possible meanings is deep and broad. You can choose to hear the story in new ways each time you hear it. It is a story that comes from the Sufi Muslim tradition. It is a story that informs me over and over again. I haven't told it too many times so I don't know that most of you have heard it.

The story is told of a Sufi Muslim village that was faced with an important decision. The village council met and decided they would send for a wise person who lived miles away across the mountain. Perhaps this great sage could help the people solve their problem.

You need to know that in this Sufi culture, there is an understanding about the world. It is a motto and a way of seeing the world that goes like this: "You only learn what you already know." And so the wise man came and stood in front of the village. He looked at the villagers who were gathered there and he said, "How many of you know what I am going to tell you?" None of them raised their hands, and so the wise man said, "In our culture, you can only learn what you already know so there is no point in my being here" and he left and went back across the mountain.

The council thought about it and said, "What can this mean?" They decided how they would handle it. They invited the man to come back. It took several days to get the message to him and then several days for him to return, but the villagers were ready for him this time. He stood before them and said, "How many of you know what I am going to tell you?" Everyone raised their hands," and the wise man said, "That's wonderful! I don't need to say anything," and he left and went back across the mountain.

The villagers held council again trying to decide what they should do. They met together and had a plan. They sent for the wise man one more time. He came across the mountain and stood in front of them and as always before he said, "How many of you know what I am going to tell you?" Everyone on this side of the town square raised their hands and everyone on the other side did not. The wise man said, "That is wonderful! I want all of you to tell all of them what I am going to say."

2002-02-15T12:37:00.000-05:00

Don't Empower Your Staff Liberate Them!

Oren Harari is a writer, a business consultant formerly with the Tom Peters Group, and a professor of business at the University of San Francisco. He recently spoke with us on a subject about which he has some strong opinions: empowerment.

Empowerment is a buzzword that's been floating around management circles for several years, but you've criticized it frequently. What's wrong with empowerment?

There's a couple of problems with empowerment. The most obvious one is, people just don't do it. They talk a lot about it. They talk about giving other folks a teeny-weeny little bit more power--a little bit more discretionary decision-making authority, a teeny-weeny-weeny little bit more budget control, a tiny raising of the bar on performance expectations. It's really something that does not have much real impact.

What other problems do you have with empowerment?

Empowerment assumes that people are passive and weak, and it is the job of a manager to somehow inject them with this magic potion called power. Then their eyes will pop open, they'll spring up, they'll whistle while they work, and all good things will occur. I think there's a fundamental flaw in that.

What's the flaw?

People are incredibly powerful to begin with. They have computers, they contribute to community activities, they run budgets for their home, they raise their kids, they're often involved in entrepreneurial startups on the side, and somehow they do all that without a supervisor. Yet, when they come to work, they're immediately put into little boxes called job descriptions, with highly restrictive policies and procedures. Then some yo-yo says he's going to empower them. Empowerment assumes that the all-seeing, all-knowing boss is going to do something to employees that will somehow make them powerful. That's a con.

So what are managers supposed to do?

The issue is not to empower people; the issue is to liberate them. You should assume that people are strong and ask yourself, as a manager: What do I need to do? Do I need to break down barriers to information? Do I need to provide them with better technology? Do I need to give them better training and development? Do I need to eliminate certain levels of hierarchy that do nothing except delay and distort information? It may very well be that the best thing I can do is GET OUT OF THE WAY.

But don't many managers resist giving up their power?

Much of it has to do with managers feeling that they can't let go. They're thinking, "Wait a minute, my job as a manager means I've got to control people." The irony is that by doing all this you gain more power. If you've got more powerful people working for you, doing exceptional things and taking responsibility, guess what? You're more powerful. You're still the leader, but a different kind of one. Your leadership is not based on barking orders--it's based on your ability to mold a team.

Doesn't this new freedom also frighten some employees?

People very often are distrustful of management's motives. You may get a reaction like, "Wait a minute, this isn't what work is. Work is you telling me what to do and me doing it." Managers can't automatically expect that employees will do cartwheels with joy for this. On the other hand, if management does approach it sincerely, there will be a tremendous amount of receptivity; there are very few people now who say, "All I want to do is meaningless, highly constrained work to get a paycheck."

Can you share some examples of unsuccessful empowerment and successful liberation?

In one company I studied, management had made their numbers look good by downsizing, but they didn't get rid of the inefficient and unnecessary work. Management said, "You're empowered." But what they did was dump the inefficient work on top of the shell-shocked survivors, who now had to do double and triple duty. Another time, though, I visited a manager at a different company and noticed that her clerical assistants were calling up customers to ask how they liked the company's product. When I congratulated her on delegating that task to her staff, it turned out she had no idea they were doing it. She had discussed their common purpose and what they wanted to achieve, and she said, "I leave it to them to figure out how to best get from here to there." And then she said something that I recommend every manager paste on his or her bathroom mirror and repeat three times before going to work each day: "I know that whatever it is they're doing is exactly what I'd want them to be doing if I knew what they were doing." How's that for a statement of trust?

Mr. Harari is coauthor of Jumping the Curve: Innovation and Strategic Choice in an Age of Transition (Jossey-Bass, 1994).

2002-02-14T13:17:00.000-05:00

When Choosing Our Thoughts We Choose Our Future

by Jim Clemmer http://www.clemmer.net/excerpts/when_choosing.shtml

... A wise old sage hosted a dinner. Toward the end of the meal, everyone was given fortune cookies and told that they're holding their future in their hands. The guests eagerly opened them to read the words of wisdom they contained. The paper slips inside each cookie were blank.

"Is this a joke?" they asked. "Is our fortune so bleak or so full of emptiness?" "That's up to each of you. The choice is yours." the sage replied. "Many people are eager to have soothsayers predict their future. Fewer are willing to take responsibility for writing their own fortune. Your future is a blank sheet of paper waiting for you to create what is to come." ...

2002-02-12T09:57:00.000-05:00

Why Motivation Is Free

by R. Gately, PE, MBA
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gately/pp09ybuy.htm

Managers are seldom equipped psychologically to talk to their people on a personal basis. One reason is that many people are managers because of their technical ability not because of their people skills.

We should reward our technical experts with higher salaries but not with promotions into management. We would be far better off if we promote to management the people who have good managerial and people skills and poor technical skills -- which will solve two problems:

1 - Improve the technical aspect of the team
2 - Improve the managerial performance as well.

As long as the top executives do not know how to select future effective managers, management will be stuck with the Peter Principle. When managers are asked to list the ten top motivators for their employees the list looks something like this:

Managers Perceived top ten motivators for their employees.

Money Items

1 - Salary
2 - Bonuses
3 - Vacation
4 - Retirement
5 - Other Benefits & Perks

Communication Items

6 - Interesting work
7 - Involved in decisions
8 - Feedback
9 - Training
10 - Respect

Note that the managers rank items that are equivalent to "money" as the top five motivators. However, when employees are asked to rank their top ten motivators the list is:

Employee Motivators as reported by Employees

Communication Items

1 - Interesting work
2 - Involved in decisions
3 - Feedback
4 - Training
5 - Respect

Money Items

6 - Salary
7 - Bonuses
8 - Vacation
9 - Retirement
10 - Other Benefits & Perks

Note that the employees rank items that are equivalent to "money" as their "bottom five motivators".

The managers' top five motivators are the employees' bottom five motivators. The managers' top five motivators are more related to the need of the managers to avoid personal contact with employees than the needs or desires of the employees.

Managers pick the top five motivators because these are the things that managers can "give" their employees without ever having to ask what the employees want or need,i.e., no involvement on a personal level is needed and all decisions can be made behind closed doors--while avoiding personal contact even to the detriment of the organization.

By the way, managers give the same sequence as their employees when asked to rank their own motivators.

Robert F. Gately, PE, MBA
GATELY CONSULTING

2002-02-11T13:32:00.000-05:00

Multiverse Theory

"One of the most astonishing of recent trends in science is that many top physicists and cosmologists now defend the wild notion that not only are universes as common as blackberries, but even more common. Indeed, there may be an infinity of them!"

Interesting and very deep idea.

The article is at: http://www.csicop.org/si/2001-09/fringe-watcher.html

Linking Healthy Communities / Healthy Youth and Rural Economic Development

2002-02-07T13:24:00.000-05:00

I've discovered a very interesting connection being made to Healthy Communities / Healthy Youth activities and Economic Development - especially in rural communities.

Three examples you can read about at http://www.search-institute.org/assetmag/autumn01/:

Mason City:

"like many other small towns in America’s heartland, Mason City, is shrinking. And the first to take off are youth: about half leave Mason City, demographers report.

“Here’s our reality,” says Lori Henry, a city council member in this town of 29,040. “We have an aging population. WE NEED TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN OUR YOUNG PEOPLE TO KEEP OUR BASE. So we need to get our young people to connect to the community, to get them to return here and raise their families here.”"

Union County Iowa:

"“There’s nothing more important for a community long term than developing young people,” Karl Knock (Banker)says. “If you grow up and leave your hometown and it was terrible, if it ground you down and bored you, you’ll never come back. BUT IF THE TOWN NURTURED YOU, YOU MIGHT JUST COME BACK."

To help foster such a nurturing environment, the bank recognizes and uses its position as the first contact many groups in a rural community make when attempting to establish a new venture. So when an arts project, a Habitat for Humanity home, and a school-based weather station approached the bank, the Knocks made sure to hook the projects up with Youth Plus as well."

Hampton, VA :

"Want a glimpse of state-of-the-art youth involvement? Then visit the port city of Hampton, Va., where more than 600 young people a year are involved in leadership, policy, and decision making. Now known across the country for its dynamic youth-adult partnerships, HAMPTON HAD AN ECONOMIC MOTIVATION TO REMAKE ITSELF INTO AN ASSET-BUILDING COMMUNITY.

Back in 1990, the town was sinking economically. To fight back, the community rallied around a carefully wrought strategic plan, resulting in today’s diversified economy, low unemployment, and emphasis on youth and family."

The page I have linked to also has this great example of community assets approach:

Fast-Food Restaurant Serves Up More Than French Fries in Hartford, Kentucky:

The Hartford McDonald’s serves as something of a community center: the Bookmobile visits the parking lot, high school students read to preschoolers in the Play Place area, and, on Valentine’s Day, dimmed lights and candles offer teens a low-cost alternative to more expensive restaurants.

Technorati Tag hchy

2002-02-05T16:13:00.000-05:00

The Q12 Index

From http://www.managementmag.com/

In the best-selling change management book First, Break All the Rules (Simon & Shuster, May 1999), based on that research, Gallup found that business units whose employees scored in the top quarter percentile on their Q12 index showed a 50% higher productivity rate, reported 13% lower turnover, 44% higher profit, and 50% higher levels of customer service over businesses in the lower quartile. The Q12 index is based on worker response to the following 12 questions:

Do you know what is expected of you at work?

Do you have the materials and equipment needed to do your work right?

At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?

In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing
good work?

Does your supervisor or someone at work seem to care about you as a person?

Is there someone at work who encourages your development?

At work, do your opinions seem to count?

Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important?

Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?

Do you have a best friend at work?

In the last six months, has someone talked to you about your progress as
an employee?

In the last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

2002-01-02T15:45:00.000-05:00

What determines health? Community does.

I was included in a holiday email from Sam Coghlan in which he wrote about his new understanding of "Social cohesion."

He writes: "Social cohesion" is what brings us together. It is our community glue.

(Just like the conference organizers said: "Social cohesion is the ongoing process of developing a community of shared values, shared challenges and equal opportunity within Canada, based on a sense of trust, hope and reciprocity among all Canadians.")

His email reminded me of this article:

Why do some people get sick and others don't?

A Conversation with J. Fraser Mustard, M.D (Canadian)

http://imaginewhatif.com/Pages/Mustard.html

Some quotes I pulled out:

"See how this story starts to come together. With that information we can now say, "What happens to you in the first three years -- in terms of the quality of nutrition and nurturing -- is going to determine your basic skills throughout the rest of your life. It will determine how well you perform in the school system. It will determine how well you cope with what you have to do as an adult. And where you live, and how your work is structured, will have a huge influence on your vulnerability.

Kids in poor communities where there are strong social support networks and extended families appear to do all right.

Large urban centers like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York will have devastating effects on children, because it is not as easy to build a rich social support structure as it might be in a place like Iowa, where the social structures are pretty good even though the region may not be that rich.

So the determinants of health turn out to be these closely-related factors: how well you can cope with challenges, in what kind of environment you were brought up, and what kind of community support you have.

We have six auto assemblers in Ontario. Because they have to be part of our workers' compensation system, we have begun looking at their job structures and their sickness/absence rates. The biggest assembler -- General Motors -- has 10 percent of its labor force off work every day. Honda has less than two percent off every day. The structure of work and control in the two plants is fundamentally different. In the Honda plant they work more in teams, and they take more control.

The "readiness to learn" measurement is like birth weight: It could be collected across the whole community, because the teachers can make the assessment. In the US, where this assessment has been made and aggregated by state, you can look at, say, grade eight math performance. If the state has a higher proportion of kids not ready to learn when they come into kindergarten, that state doesn't do as well in the math performance in the eighth grade.

We are pretty comfortable that the same measure -- "readiness to learn" -- will also predict health burdens as people move into adult life

Neither the U.S. nor Canada has yet designed as full a mechanism for supporting organizations in improving the health of the population, as it has for supporting organizations that provide treatment for people who are sick. It is a basic failure in our society.

The biggest failure in your culture and mine is that we argue about poverty and welfare. We don't argue about how to sustain a reasonably cohesive and integrated community which optimizes human development -- for everybody.

If we want to make that happen, our recreational systems, our educational systems, our health promotion, our health care systems, and our economy need to all work together. You can't run a good business if you don't have a reasonably high quality population as a work force and as consumers, and if you don't have a reasonably secure society. "

2001-12-31T10:19:00.000-05:00

JOHO

Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization

December 31, 2001
Editor: David Weinberger (self@evident.com)

My original link to Blogging and several other information bits - Dr. Weinberger writes:

Out
with the Old, In with the New

(Or: Blog me, baby. Blog me hard.)

JOHO is inevitably merging with my weblog (www.hyperorg.com/blogger).
Much of this issue reprints blogged material ("bloggerini").
This merging will continue in ways I haven't yet entirely determined.
Your opinions and ideas are welcome.

I also encourage you to visit my blogger. I write in it just about
every day.

2001-12-14T14:23:00.000-05:00

Monks Learning Paradigm

Posted to RuralTalk by Chuck Bokor on Monday, 29 November 1999.

Did you know that lecturing was invented by the monks a few centuries ago? The reason? ....there was only 1 book....

In this day and age, professors, teachers and trainers routinely use lectures and other 1-way instructional methods to impart their wisdom on others.

We are starting down the path of online, web-based training for Ministry clients. For example, during a factsheet authors meeting last week, we talked about using factsheets for more than just clients to download hardcopies for reading. What about making them interactive?

In a new book called Virtual Learning, Dr. Roger Shank explains that natural learning comes from failure. We do something, fail, and correct. Facilitators of learning (teachers?) should intervene only at the failure point - to provide guidance and some coaching to the learner. He talks about simulations as the way to enhance a learner's experience online, using the technology to enhance rather than hinder the experience.

Dr. Shank was a keynote speaker at the recent Ont Society for Training and Development (OSTD) conference. If you want to know more about how the education system is not working, why it needs to be fundamentally changed, and to what, please contact me - I bought the book! chuck

I have Chuck's copy of the book if you are interested. RBH

2001-12-12T12:58:00.000-05:00

The Rules for Being Human

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.

2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time, informal school called "life". Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons, or you may think them irrelevant and stupid.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error, of experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works".

4. A lesson is repeated until it is learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. Then you can go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. "There" is no better than "here". When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that again looks better than "here".

7. Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need; what you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. The answers lie inside you. The answers to life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen and trust.

10. You will forget all this.

11. You can remember any of this whenever you want.

2001-12-11T09:11:00.000-05:00

How to judge e-Learning Quality

According to Dr. Gillis, Charles Allen's "Show-Tell-Do-Check" approach (to learning) used with shipyard workers in 1917 is equally relevant today. Both recent neurological evidence and Piaget's cognitive constructivism support the idea that learning takes place when learners are active doing something meaningful. In other words, in the "doing" or "experiencing" of something meaningful we create new neural pathways that form the basis of new and increasingly complex mental models or schema.

In keeping with this theoretical grounding, the quality criteria e-Learning categories consist of:

1. communicate purpose of learning opportunity
2. engage the learner and maintain motivation
3. elicit relevant knowledge the learner already has
4. show examples and demonstrations
5. provide practice and feedback
6. provide integrative practice
7. promote transfer of learning
8. offer instructional help
9. use media effectively and
10. assess learning.

If we pursue this approach, next generation learning will be characterized by more engaging courses, more robust learning activities that allow for better transfer of learning, more realism in learning activities, and more use of live mentors for help and guidance. Ultimately learning will be seen as more of an exploratory activity and less of a "canned" or linearly progressive activity. Differential learning contexts and experiences will allow learners to direct activities more and thereby construct more appropriate meaning for themselves as we move to more "plug-and-play" and immersive learning environments.

From the article "What About Industry Standards?" in the December 2001 issue of OSTD OnLine newsletter.

2001-12-05T12:54:00.000-05:00

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada

Learned this from an article on Tech Apps interesting links.

George Radwanski points out the differences between:
-privacy (the right to control information about yourself),
-confidentiality (your obligation to protect other's information)
-security (the process of addressing threats to information).

2001-12-04T16:30:00.000-05:00

On Practicing Community Capitalism

"Practicing community capitalism is about building and sustaining whole wealth: a broader notion of wealth that embraces natural, economic, human and social capital.

Creating whole wealth is obviously about more than making money. It's about having abundance in all the things we care about in life. Sure, some forms of wealth can be measured in output, productivity increases and shareholder return. But whole wealth includes the riches of family and friends -- of healthy workplaces, neighborhoods and natural areas. It considers the well being in our schools, civic spaces and public places. Ultimately, healthy, wealthy communities are places where each of us has the ability to fully express our gifts and promise in a sustainable natural world.

Reflecting on the whole wealth compass (below), please consider how your choices impact whole community wealth. Use it at home, work and in the civic sphere."

Reminds me of the CED triangle. RBH

2001-11-30T21:37:00.000-05:00

Jann Arden's Journal

A very personal journal she has posted on her web site. Today's included: I don't know myself physically. I don't look like myself somehow. I don't feel how I actually look. I look differently in my head. I really do see my body differently, my face differently.

Lyrics from her new song "Never Mind"
"What I am is too far in for you to see
What I am is too far in and can’t be found"

2001-11-30T11:25:00.000-05:00

Changing Education for a Changing Economy

Snips of an article by Tod Maffin

"Today’s net generation needs schools that recognize the student’s role as co-discoverer of knowledge, with the teacher responsible for seeing that the discovery takes place. Today’s learners are demanding tools to experience their world directly, rather than absorbing it through the filter of an adult world. Children are beginning to see themselves as intellectual agents -- members of real and virtual communities, expressing themselves across boundaries of geography, culture, language, and age.

With the right support, classroom learning can become student-driven, interactive, experiential and collaborative. Students will no longer passively ingest information, but will manage and integrate it and even contribute to it. They will become not only takers, but creators of knowledge."

So more "Adult" like in their learning?? I have always believed that "Adult Learning Principles" should not be restricted to adults. Just think 4-H - "Learn to do by doing."

2001-11-29T13:53:00.000-05:00

Michael Rosicki, CEO, Parmalat Canada

Luncheon guest speaker at OSTD 2001 Conference.

"Good things from Milk" and Mr. Rosicki was an inspirational speaker to be sure. Some of the key points from his presentation:

"Human Resources is the only resource that appreciates in value. All others depreciate." Parmalat has doubled it's training and development budget every year since he took over.

"Move away from Training to Releasing Human Potential"

Once Vision, Mission, Values and Guiding Principles have been established, success come from:
1 - Walking the talk.
2 - Showing people.
3 - Focused measurement.
4 - A priority on changed behaviour as a result of training.

Parmalat did say good bye to three or four V.P.'s who didn't buy in to the new vision.

For me - it was just great to see a successful leader of an organization attributing his success to the key appraoches I believe in when I am in a leadership role. RBH

2001-11-29T11:28:00.000-05:00

All Learning is Self Learning

From the Lecture 3: Orientations to Teaching and Learning.

Dr. Walter Gong, a noted educator now retired from San Jose State University, has developed a model for learning that focuses on the responsibilities of the learner. This model, Dr. Gong says, is the simplest case of all education and learning and involves self-motivation and a natural desire to learn and grow.

According to Dr. Gong, students should be expected to "capture" and "expand" upon coursework, and by this method make up for any deficiencies that an instructor might have.

A learner learns to "capture" information by recognizing certain categories that all information generally fits in. Once information is captured the learner is then morally obligation to "expand" upon that information and personalize it, thus bringing about greater understanding and meaning. As the learner "teaches" it to others, the application is reinforced in the learners mind and others are benefited. Finally the learner must "evaluate" in order to improve the learning experience.

This is exactly why I am so keen on the design of the "Quest" program. "Quest" is a personal development program for staff. The key to the design is participants are set up in teams to research a topic of interest - and then develop and present a learning opportunity for the other participants. Ask me about it!!

2001-11-28T10:47:00.000-05:00

WHAT'S A BLOG?

I learned about "Blogs" Monday. They are along the lines of e-newsletters / daily journal. Similar to OMAFRA Agri-Phones?

"Blogger offers you instant communication power by letting you post your thoughts to the web whenever the urge strikes. Blogger will publish to your current web site-or help you create one. "

Not sure if it has any use in OMAFRA. You can have multiple editors - so whether a "Swine" one would be of regular interest to swine farmers??? Some of the Leads or Specialists might have a following for their own Blog??? Would a unit such as the Contact Centre use one to share hot questions/information/resources with each other and other staff or clients. Don't know.

Might be an alternate way to do OMAFRA Gleanings or some of the Regional Information Coordinator e-Letters.

Discuss your ideas for uses for Blogs here - (or tell us if you think there is no use for them too).

Another example (and where I heard about GLOGS) is found at: http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/index.html

2001-11-27T11:16:00.000-05:00

Model for Designing Technology-Based Training and Education

This model from the Future Learning Solutions website could be useful.

I think a key point is the middle box. "Design Technology-Based Training" involving:

Content Expertise - OMAFRA leads and specialists

Educational Expertise - do we formally have in OMAFRA????

Technology Expertise - OMAFRA's Technology Applications Unit etc...

2001-11-27T11:07:00.000-05:00

QUALITY LEARNING

Design with adult learning principles.

Relevant and problem-centred.

Actively engages the learner.

Uses technology to support learning where appropriate.

**The most important part of e-Learning is the Learning. Learning has not changed. Technology and e-Learning provide us with more options for the delivery of education and training.

2001-11-26T16:00:00.000-05:00

WHY e-LEARNING FAILS

From Keynote presentation by Tod Maffin.

1. Fixation on self-paced curriculums.

2. Trying to do too much too early - video, audio etc...

3. Reinventing the wheel. Taking a PowerPoint presentation and changing it into some fancy format - instead of using conversion available already within the program.

4. Little attention paid to quality curriculum development.

5. Emphasis on teaching, not learning.

2001-11-26T09:54:00.000-05:00

NEVER ACCEPT KNOWLEDGE FROM A STRANGER.

The four major points from the presentation by Dr. Nancy Dixon at last weeks Ontario Society of Training and Development conference were:

1. Start with seekers of Knowledge

2. Knowledge can only reside in the mind of a human being.

3. To take in "new" knowledge, the seeker has to connect it to "existing" knowledge.

4. People are delighted to share what they know - if they know the person appreciates the information.