I had a lively discussion with Euan Semple today about life, the universe, and everything.
Euan doesn't like the word "teach" to mean the very broad set of activities by or from which people can learn. He's right -- it implies a top-down, Victorian style classroom behavior that is more broadcast than conversation.
Equally, I don't like the word "coach" to describe the activity through which an individual works to improve his or her presentation skills through interaction with someone who understands performance.
Again, it implies a top-down set of behaviors.
As I am called both a teacher and a presentation coach and find the lack of readily available and suitable vocabulary irritating.
Anyone got better words for multi-directional interaction through which learning takes place on all sides?
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Play Within Structure: More on Giving a Successful Pitch
On the subject of practical tips on giving a pitch, here's anecdote about working with a very successful client.
This client is an advertising executive -- let's call her Lucy. Lucy had been effectively selling ideas to companies for years. But she felt that something was missing. (More on that here).
A Different Way of Depending Too Much on Content
Lucy is a strategist and excellent at what she does. However, when it comes to doing her pitch, there always seems to be too much information to relay in the time allotted.
Furthermore, Lucy has many slide decks to present every week. She would need a photographic memory to remember it all. So she compensates by looking quickly at a slide's headline and improvising on each topic. To remind herself of where she is, she uses industry jargon to get her from one subject to another rather than telling a story that could stand on its own for anyone.
The effect? Lucy hits a heading, wandered around a topic, hits yet another, and rambles again. All the information is there. But there seems to be no emphasis, either within or among the paths that lead between sign posts.
You can follow the plot line, but it isn't exactly gripping.
Creative Performance Depends on Structure
When in doubt, impose a structure.
In this case, I suggested Lucy should ask a Question (or State a Premise/Heading), explain step-by-step how to get from the question to the answer, and end with a So-What? Clause.
For those of us who are new to this blog, a So-What Clause is the content with which you should conclude all presentations -- written, or oral. Time and space is valuable real estate when selling an idea. You've already told them the WHAT. Now tell them why they should care.
It Worked
Lucy was thrilled with the results. She said she hadn't been able to reconcile her feeling of being lost with her thorough knowledge of the subject area and experience presenting. She had gotten bored and hadn't really addressed her audience. She felt she was focusing instead on her content.
Lucy concluded enthusiastically by saying she wished she had met me when she was 20.
I must admit I was chuffed.
This client is an advertising executive -- let's call her Lucy. Lucy had been effectively selling ideas to companies for years. But she felt that something was missing. (More on that here).
A Different Way of Depending Too Much on Content
Lucy is a strategist and excellent at what she does. However, when it comes to doing her pitch, there always seems to be too much information to relay in the time allotted.
Furthermore, Lucy has many slide decks to present every week. She would need a photographic memory to remember it all. So she compensates by looking quickly at a slide's headline and improvising on each topic. To remind herself of where she is, she uses industry jargon to get her from one subject to another rather than telling a story that could stand on its own for anyone.
The effect? Lucy hits a heading, wandered around a topic, hits yet another, and rambles again. All the information is there. But there seems to be no emphasis, either within or among the paths that lead between sign posts.
You can follow the plot line, but it isn't exactly gripping.
Creative Performance Depends on Structure
When in doubt, impose a structure.
In this case, I suggested Lucy should ask a Question (or State a Premise/Heading), explain step-by-step how to get from the question to the answer, and end with a So-What? Clause.
For those of us who are new to this blog, a So-What Clause is the content with which you should conclude all presentations -- written, or oral. Time and space is valuable real estate when selling an idea. You've already told them the WHAT. Now tell them why they should care.
It Worked
Lucy was thrilled with the results. She said she hadn't been able to reconcile her feeling of being lost with her thorough knowledge of the subject area and experience presenting. She had gotten bored and hadn't really addressed her audience. She felt she was focusing instead on her content.
Lucy concluded enthusiastically by saying she wished she had met me when she was 20.
I must admit I was chuffed.
Monday, August 24, 2009
More Tips on Presentation: Don't Rely on Your Content
I promised to unpack the post from last week a bit -- the one that talks about how to give a better presentation.
Here's a start.
When Last We Saw Our Hero(e) . . .
I was recently with a very accomplished fellow who interviewed me for a project at a cafe in Mayfair. He asked me the usual questions -- what qualifies you to do performance coaching? (20 years of doing it), how did you get to London? (brought here to establish and run a charity), what's formal credentials do you have (PhD in drama and five years of teaching from Brown University), and so on.
Then he surprised me by asking me to review his performance.
I thought this a very canny move. Most people don't think of conversation as performance. However, in business as in life, all interactions are an opportunity te sell yourself.
Information Can't Sell Itself
The conversational mode is a little intimate for this level of direct talk on first acquaintance. So the question demonstrated an unusually high level of self-confidence in the face of possible criticism.
Just that piece made me want to work for him.
What I Said, and What Might Be Useful to You
I told client that he relies on his content to sell itself rather than using eye contact to get his point across. His charm, too -- which is considerable -- was interrupted and the effect eradicated when his eyes wandered away.
This is true regardless of the fact that the content my client offered would have been tremendously engaging if I hadn't been so distracted by what seemed like careless or lazy delivery. I followed his line of thought because he's a client -- but if he hadn't been, my mind would have wandered several times.
The Lesson?
Even if you've been to the moon, don't expect the story to stand on its own. You need to sell it, although a tale of space travel probably requires a lighter touch than, say, doing your laundry.
And Now, Back to Our Story
The client agreed. He told me that it's difficult for him to hold someone's gaze -- that it's uncomfortable. He mentioned that perhaps it's because he's British and culturally determined.
Everyone faces internal obstacles in some process or other. These can be either overturned by new habits or, if deep-seated, they can merely be adjusted for. Ultimately, it depends on how much time you want to put into the process.
The Easiest Route
If you find yourself with the same challenge, try the suggestion I made to this client.
At the point of feeling uncomfortable, look away in a deliberate manner rather than allowing your eyes to wander off. The latter looks rude and undisciplined. The former makes the speaker seem as though he were thinking -- or, at least, seems to connect the intermittent periods of eye contact. This connection gives the listener an impression that he or she is being attended to in a focused way, regardless of the moments of disconnected eye contact.
And So . . .
It seemed to work for the client. If any of you try this, please report back on the results of how you feel -- and how it works.
Here's a start.
When Last We Saw Our Hero(e) . . .
I was recently with a very accomplished fellow who interviewed me for a project at a cafe in Mayfair. He asked me the usual questions -- what qualifies you to do performance coaching? (20 years of doing it), how did you get to London? (brought here to establish and run a charity), what's formal credentials do you have (PhD in drama and five years of teaching from Brown University), and so on.
Then he surprised me by asking me to review his performance.
I thought this a very canny move. Most people don't think of conversation as performance. However, in business as in life, all interactions are an opportunity te sell yourself.
Information Can't Sell Itself
The conversational mode is a little intimate for this level of direct talk on first acquaintance. So the question demonstrated an unusually high level of self-confidence in the face of possible criticism.
Just that piece made me want to work for him.
What I Said, and What Might Be Useful to You
I told client that he relies on his content to sell itself rather than using eye contact to get his point across. His charm, too -- which is considerable -- was interrupted and the effect eradicated when his eyes wandered away.
This is true regardless of the fact that the content my client offered would have been tremendously engaging if I hadn't been so distracted by what seemed like careless or lazy delivery. I followed his line of thought because he's a client -- but if he hadn't been, my mind would have wandered several times.
The Lesson?
Even if you've been to the moon, don't expect the story to stand on its own. You need to sell it, although a tale of space travel probably requires a lighter touch than, say, doing your laundry.
And Now, Back to Our Story
The client agreed. He told me that it's difficult for him to hold someone's gaze -- that it's uncomfortable. He mentioned that perhaps it's because he's British and culturally determined.
Everyone faces internal obstacles in some process or other. These can be either overturned by new habits or, if deep-seated, they can merely be adjusted for. Ultimately, it depends on how much time you want to put into the process.
The Easiest Route
If you find yourself with the same challenge, try the suggestion I made to this client.
At the point of feeling uncomfortable, look away in a deliberate manner rather than allowing your eyes to wander off. The latter looks rude and undisciplined. The former makes the speaker seem as though he were thinking -- or, at least, seems to connect the intermittent periods of eye contact. This connection gives the listener an impression that he or she is being attended to in a focused way, regardless of the moments of disconnected eye contact.
And So . . .
It seemed to work for the client. If any of you try this, please report back on the results of how you feel -- and how it works.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Performance Coaching: Some Tips
For those of you who need performance help but do not live in London, I thought I'd share a few tips with those who feel nervous about presenting that I offer to my clients.
It's certainly not all there is to the process, but it should help.
Tips for Non-Actors
1. Good presenting skills are not mysterious. Here's the math:
95% of great performance is preparation and practice. Only 5% is inspiration and/or innate talent.
+
People are innately creatures of habit. Once we start, it’s almost impossible to stop. Effective performing habits can be learned.
= The odds are in your favor to become at least an above-average presenter - at best, excellent -- with practice. No matter where you are today, you can get there.
2. Inspiration is a meeting point of emotional and intellectual insight. So get that 95% preparation down cold – only then will you find a way to channel inspiration into your performance with consistency.
3. Empathy is a chemical reaction – you automatically effect the people in the room by being present. If it feels natural for you to smile, do it – it’s about the most effective sales tool you’ve got. But only if it’s genuine.
And, believe it or not, acting with sincerity can be learned.
4. The best way to channel nerves is enthusiasm. The alternatives are dire.
5. You’re most effective when you find your own presenting style. But steal whatever works from wherever you can get it.
Become aware of the way people move, sit, and stand around you. If there is something particularly effective in a gesture or expression (or particularly undermining), write it down with as much detail as possible. It will make you more aware of your own body language.
6. Practice. Slides never sold a thing, so don’t depend on them.
Pretend there’s only one word on every slide – the main idea, say “Opportunities” or “Management Team” – and then explain why it’s there. Don’t point or even look at the screen unless there is a very good performance reason.
7. Practice. The value of your performance reflects the credibility of your company. Half an hour a day. Every day. In front of someone who doesn’t know your material.
Don’t say you don’t have time. If you had a big bug in your software, you’d throw all resources into fixing it.
Think of your performance as the most important software you’ve got.
8. Practice. Find different emphases for different audiences, and have a few presentations up your sleeve. Make sure you can do them in automatic pilot.
But don’t. Ever.
More in the next post.
It's certainly not all there is to the process, but it should help.
Tips for Non-Actors
1. Good presenting skills are not mysterious. Here's the math:
95% of great performance is preparation and practice. Only 5% is inspiration and/or innate talent.
+
People are innately creatures of habit. Once we start, it’s almost impossible to stop. Effective performing habits can be learned.
= The odds are in your favor to become at least an above-average presenter - at best, excellent -- with practice. No matter where you are today, you can get there.
2. Inspiration is a meeting point of emotional and intellectual insight. So get that 95% preparation down cold – only then will you find a way to channel inspiration into your performance with consistency.
3. Empathy is a chemical reaction – you automatically effect the people in the room by being present. If it feels natural for you to smile, do it – it’s about the most effective sales tool you’ve got. But only if it’s genuine.
And, believe it or not, acting with sincerity can be learned.
4. The best way to channel nerves is enthusiasm. The alternatives are dire.
5. You’re most effective when you find your own presenting style. But steal whatever works from wherever you can get it.
Become aware of the way people move, sit, and stand around you. If there is something particularly effective in a gesture or expression (or particularly undermining), write it down with as much detail as possible. It will make you more aware of your own body language.
6. Practice. Slides never sold a thing, so don’t depend on them.
Pretend there’s only one word on every slide – the main idea, say “Opportunities” or “Management Team” – and then explain why it’s there. Don’t point or even look at the screen unless there is a very good performance reason.
7. Practice. The value of your performance reflects the credibility of your company. Half an hour a day. Every day. In front of someone who doesn’t know your material.
Don’t say you don’t have time. If you had a big bug in your software, you’d throw all resources into fixing it.
Think of your performance as the most important software you’ve got.
8. Practice. Find different emphases for different audiences, and have a few presentations up your sleeve. Make sure you can do them in automatic pilot.
But don’t. Ever.
More in the next post.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Teach Engagement, Not Content
Continuing from the last post on performance coaching:
To a large extent, great presenting is like great teaching -- Ben Zander's performance at PopTech! might shed some light on other aspects of such things.
The key, I think, is that everyone remembers a favorite teacher who inspired more than any other. However, it's the passion, not the content, that people remember most. I've covered this before, but it's worth restating here:
Teach your listeners, not your content. It couldn't be truer in business than it is in school.
To a large extent, great presenting is like great teaching -- Ben Zander's performance at PopTech! might shed some light on other aspects of such things.
The key, I think, is that everyone remembers a favorite teacher who inspired more than any other. However, it's the passion, not the content, that people remember most. I've covered this before, but it's worth restating here:
Teach your listeners, not your content. It couldn't be truer in business than it is in school.
Monday, August 03, 2009
Creativity Redux: How to Get Where You Want to Go
Following on the heels of the last post, how do you become more flexible in the ways you think about yourself and what you do for money?
I thought it worthwhile here to link to a post from 2005 on just this subject. No less true today than four years ago.
Funny how that works.
For those of you who just came aboard -- and to continue yesterday's discussion -- please take a look at why Creativity is not a singular quality. It's a practice. In business and elsewhere.
I thought it worthwhile here to link to a post from 2005 on just this subject. No less true today than four years ago.
Funny how that works.
For those of you who just came aboard -- and to continue yesterday's discussion -- please take a look at why Creativity is not a singular quality. It's a practice. In business and elsewhere.
Sunday, August 02, 2009
You Aren't What You Eat (or What You Do, Either)
The recession has made me think anew of the relationships among profession and our sense of identity.
The US is famous for 12-hour work days, short holidays, and a focus on profession to the exclusion of all else.
Europeans, who came up with the stereotype and like to look down on the US for this attitude, brags a higher quality of life with long holidays and much shorter work days.
But how different are the cross-continental individuals' sense of self based on what they do?
What Has Changed
So many people have lost jobs that there is a big push to "retrain". Not just in the US but everywhere. Look at how much effort the UK, for example, has put into new initiatives for just this.
It's going to be a problem.
Re-learning, on the other hand -- particularly learning how to learn -- is going to be the key to success in the new economy. Just ask a financial services leader.. Or for that matter, anyone in the world -- CEOs, policemen, teachers -- with charges to tend and grow.
I've banged on enough in past posts on the differences between training and learning. Long story short, the former is about mastering a specific set of skills, usually in a particular environment to accomplish a fixed group of tasks. Learning is about seeing the relationships -- among environments, ideas, skills, tasks, and so forth -- across disciplines and contexts. And it's process-driven as well as oriented toward results.
Again, ask a business leader in advertising who feels passionate about it.
And This Has Changed.
I've found in the past, when asked "What do you do?", most people describe a profession with conviction. Lately the statements sound a bit shakier. And they're amended with "But I've also done other things."
Being someone myself who has had a series of interesting jobs rather than a career -- and being forced to justify the relationship among them -- I find this encouraging.
Not just for me, either. Given momentum, it could be very good for the economy.
If we retrain, what happens if the new job goes away like the old one did? Retrain again?
Why not instead be the kind of effective learner that everyone is looking for -- from kindergarten through the Boardroom?
Just a thought.
The US is famous for 12-hour work days, short holidays, and a focus on profession to the exclusion of all else.
Europeans, who came up with the stereotype and like to look down on the US for this attitude, brags a higher quality of life with long holidays and much shorter work days.
But how different are the cross-continental individuals' sense of self based on what they do?
What Has Changed
So many people have lost jobs that there is a big push to "retrain". Not just in the US but everywhere. Look at how much effort the UK, for example, has put into new initiatives for just this.
It's going to be a problem.
Re-learning, on the other hand -- particularly learning how to learn -- is going to be the key to success in the new economy. Just ask a financial services leader.. Or for that matter, anyone in the world -- CEOs, policemen, teachers -- with charges to tend and grow.
I've banged on enough in past posts on the differences between training and learning. Long story short, the former is about mastering a specific set of skills, usually in a particular environment to accomplish a fixed group of tasks. Learning is about seeing the relationships -- among environments, ideas, skills, tasks, and so forth -- across disciplines and contexts. And it's process-driven as well as oriented toward results.
Again, ask a business leader in advertising who feels passionate about it.
And This Has Changed.
I've found in the past, when asked "What do you do?", most people describe a profession with conviction. Lately the statements sound a bit shakier. And they're amended with "But I've also done other things."
Being someone myself who has had a series of interesting jobs rather than a career -- and being forced to justify the relationship among them -- I find this encouraging.
Not just for me, either. Given momentum, it could be very good for the economy.
If we retrain, what happens if the new job goes away like the old one did? Retrain again?
Why not instead be the kind of effective learner that everyone is looking for -- from kindergarten through the Boardroom?
Just a thought.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Doug Rushkoff Redux
Following on from the post about Doug Rushkoff's ideas on a new CFO and Life, Incorporated, see Rushkoff's appearance on the Colbert Report.
There is very little Douglas Rushkoff says that isn't worth hearing.
At least twice.
There is very little Douglas Rushkoff says that isn't worth hearing.
At least twice.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
More on Emotion and Expression
Continuing on the theme of my recent Affect Labs' blog post about relationships among emotion, thought, and being human, there's a great site that talks about human facial expression worth investigating.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Nick Givotovsky: A Proper Goodbye
Dean Landsman wrote this beautiful tribute to Nick. It's worth reading.
Monday, July 13, 2009
People, Thoughts, and Feelings
I find it fascinating that there's no such thing as a neutral expression on a the face of a healthy human being. Our thoughts and feelings are so connected that it's obvious when the latter is missing. The former seems gone as well.
See this post I blogged for Affect Labs.
See this post I blogged for Affect Labs.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Proof of Concept: Working Social Media
For those of you struggling with what social media can do, here's a wonderful proof of concept.
This parody of West Side Story (and social media) was designed and distributed to enact, rather than show, how social media functions, its impact on those who participate, and how to market its producers at the same time.
You want to see how fast and widely it spread? Do a search for comments on Twitter. See how many hits it got that instigated public endorsement.
Fabulous.
This parody of West Side Story (and social media) was designed and distributed to enact, rather than show, how social media functions, its impact on those who participate, and how to market its producers at the same time.
You want to see how fast and widely it spread? Do a search for comments on Twitter. See how many hits it got that instigated public endorsement.
Fabulous.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Data Sets Old and New: Learning is Disorganizing
For those of you who have followed this blog for a while, you might remember a post on the disorganizing nature of learning.
A friend recently asked me how to shake up her staff because she (and they) are so used to working in particular ways. In fact, the entire team has put a lot of effort into working creatively together, but those techniques have hardened into habit.
So What Do You Do?
To sustain creativity, it's important to change your universe of data -- people, ideas, places, and the connections we've forged among them in order to come up with solutions to problems. If you apply old information to new challenges, you are unlikely to innovate.
Another alternative is to take a new process and apply it to the old data. Where would you find that thinking process, and how would you use it?
Crossing disciplines often works. If you use a strategy from one field and (thoughtfully) use it for another, who knows what you'll come up with? Introduce new people to your process. Or new places. Or new things.
Sometimes even unresolved results are better than old ones.
Above all else, remember to play. Process usually needs more care and feeding than results if you want to keep things fresh. And if you're one of those people who want one habit on which to rely, make it sustaining curiosity.
It's probably the most productive (and stimulating) rut that you could possibly (and consistently) seek.
ij3mre7cgu
A friend recently asked me how to shake up her staff because she (and they) are so used to working in particular ways. In fact, the entire team has put a lot of effort into working creatively together, but those techniques have hardened into habit.
So What Do You Do?
To sustain creativity, it's important to change your universe of data -- people, ideas, places, and the connections we've forged among them in order to come up with solutions to problems. If you apply old information to new challenges, you are unlikely to innovate.
Another alternative is to take a new process and apply it to the old data. Where would you find that thinking process, and how would you use it?
Crossing disciplines often works. If you use a strategy from one field and (thoughtfully) use it for another, who knows what you'll come up with? Introduce new people to your process. Or new places. Or new things.
Sometimes even unresolved results are better than old ones.
Above all else, remember to play. Process usually needs more care and feeding than results if you want to keep things fresh. And if you're one of those people who want one habit on which to rely, make it sustaining curiosity.
It's probably the most productive (and stimulating) rut that you could possibly (and consistently) seek.
ij3mre7cgu
Friday, June 26, 2009
Time Out for a Small Miracle
Just thought I'd take a moment for a brief advert.
It's Not Like You Haven't Heard This Kind of Thing Before . . . .
This is another one of those stories where the hero spent hundreds of dollars, went to every great doctor in New York, over a course of years (15), and was told there was nothing to be done (ankle problem, me).
Then, after asking a London friend for a suggestion about a back problem, she found out that there was something to be done after all.
Everything changes when you can walk without pain.
Who Is This Magician, You Ask?
Dave Gibson on England's Lane -- I'm not kidding. If you are having any health problems, limp over there as soon as you can.
It's Not Like You Haven't Heard This Kind of Thing Before . . . .
This is another one of those stories where the hero spent hundreds of dollars, went to every great doctor in New York, over a course of years (15), and was told there was nothing to be done (ankle problem, me).
Then, after asking a London friend for a suggestion about a back problem, she found out that there was something to be done after all.
Everything changes when you can walk without pain.
Who Is This Magician, You Ask?
Dave Gibson on England's Lane -- I'm not kidding. If you are having any health problems, limp over there as soon as you can.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Geeks Are Coming
For those of you who are interested in what's going on globally in social media, you can take it (at least partially) off-line next week if you live in the UK.
Some American bloggers coming to London, and there is a big agenda planned. Some events open to the public, some closed -- but certainly worth a look.
Renee Blodgett, publicist extaordinaire, has organised the week and done a remarkable job.
Check it out.
Some American bloggers coming to London, and there is a big agenda planned. Some events open to the public, some closed -- but certainly worth a look.
Renee Blodgett, publicist extaordinaire, has organised the week and done a remarkable job.
Check it out.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Worth Repeating: Feelings and Business
I've begun revising and posting some older pieces from this blog on Affect Labs' website.
As those who have followed me know, I've done a lot of research on the ways in which people learn, in business and elsewhere.
The bottom line:
The more resources of your own to which you have access, the more innovative and creative you can be.
Sounds Obvious?
In business, it's pretty clear that affect is frowned upon. Feelings are suspect; ideas are supposedly products entirely of the intellect. OK, Emotional Intelligence sold well back in the day, but how often is it actually applied in a board room?
Why is this Worth Repeating? And Why There?
Affect Labs is proof of concept. Their software crawls social networks for what is said about brand based on the feeling expressed in phrases. Jennie Lee, who invented it, says there are no algorithms quite like the ones she created to do this.
Jennie's pretty smart, so I believe her.
It seems like that site is the place to reposition the relationships among language, social media, learning, and business because Affect Labs can help companies benefit from them.
But first they have to believe it.
Feeling Presentable
This might be a good place to connect up how this is related to the way people present themselves and performance coaching.
But that's for another time.
As those who have followed me know, I've done a lot of research on the ways in which people learn, in business and elsewhere.
The bottom line:
The more resources of your own to which you have access, the more innovative and creative you can be.
Sounds Obvious?
In business, it's pretty clear that affect is frowned upon. Feelings are suspect; ideas are supposedly products entirely of the intellect. OK, Emotional Intelligence sold well back in the day, but how often is it actually applied in a board room?
Why is this Worth Repeating? And Why There?
Affect Labs is proof of concept. Their software crawls social networks for what is said about brand based on the feeling expressed in phrases. Jennie Lee, who invented it, says there are no algorithms quite like the ones she created to do this.
Jennie's pretty smart, so I believe her.
It seems like that site is the place to reposition the relationships among language, social media, learning, and business because Affect Labs can help companies benefit from them.
But first they have to believe it.
Feeling Presentable
This might be a good place to connect up how this is related to the way people present themselves and performance coaching.
But that's for another time.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
TheNextWomen.com
I'm now on the advisory board for TheNextWomen.com. It's one of the really good online magazines about women "heroes," generally women in new media.
And the founder, Simone Brummelhuis, is tremendously generous with her introductions. No politics, no nonsense. The spirit is genuine teamwork to get women some advantages in networking they might have missed (but that their male counterparts might take for granted).
What a relief.
Also will be working on a book for Simone -- so women heroes, step forward please. I'd be very glad to hear your stories.
And the founder, Simone Brummelhuis, is tremendously generous with her introductions. No politics, no nonsense. The spirit is genuine teamwork to get women some advantages in networking they might have missed (but that their male counterparts might take for granted).
What a relief.
Also will be working on a book for Simone -- so women heroes, step forward please. I'd be very glad to hear your stories.
Perfomance Coaching
I've begun a business doing several things, all of which fall under the category of business strategy:
--Advising on big-picture thinking on business plans and the steps that lead to where you want to go.
--Writing and editing website copy for best results, both for visitors and SEO.
--Coaching people on business presentations.
If you can't do any one of these things well, your business is probably in trouble. Out of the three, I find the last to be the most satisfying and the most misunderstood.
Business Coaching
I coached acting for 20 years and still work with people preparing for auditions. Along the way, I've picked up some executives who have felt their presentations could be better. Business coaching is both very similar and very different from what I did for the theatre.
What Are Actors Good For?
Actors (the good ones) are primed to be aware of their bodies, their pace, and so on. They build a relationship with the other actors on stage primarily by listening well. But they can't deviate from the script.
It can feel as though one's foot is nailed to the floor -- there is only so far you can roam from what was intended by the writer. And sometimes the playwright wasn't so smart.
What About People in Business?
Business people (the good ones) are less tuned in to the way they present themselves and more focused on a rehearsed, fixed set of content.
The problem? It's never strictly the content that sells a product. It's the presenter.
Given that business people can always change the script if the relationship with their listeners changes, a focus on fixed content (usually on power point slides) would not really be to anyone's advantage. Yet those slides seem to hold an almost mystical power over the presenters. They can't seem to let go.
Wouldn't it be better to focus on the relationship between yourself and your audience? Adjust your manner and even the content to the level and kind of receptiveness you meet?
Don't panic. It's just a matter of focus. And practice.
Emma Gilding wrote a nice piece about this. Take a look.
--Advising on big-picture thinking on business plans and the steps that lead to where you want to go.
--Writing and editing website copy for best results, both for visitors and SEO.
--Coaching people on business presentations.
If you can't do any one of these things well, your business is probably in trouble. Out of the three, I find the last to be the most satisfying and the most misunderstood.
Business Coaching
I coached acting for 20 years and still work with people preparing for auditions. Along the way, I've picked up some executives who have felt their presentations could be better. Business coaching is both very similar and very different from what I did for the theatre.
What Are Actors Good For?
Actors (the good ones) are primed to be aware of their bodies, their pace, and so on. They build a relationship with the other actors on stage primarily by listening well. But they can't deviate from the script.
It can feel as though one's foot is nailed to the floor -- there is only so far you can roam from what was intended by the writer. And sometimes the playwright wasn't so smart.
What About People in Business?
Business people (the good ones) are less tuned in to the way they present themselves and more focused on a rehearsed, fixed set of content.
The problem? It's never strictly the content that sells a product. It's the presenter.
Given that business people can always change the script if the relationship with their listeners changes, a focus on fixed content (usually on power point slides) would not really be to anyone's advantage. Yet those slides seem to hold an almost mystical power over the presenters. They can't seem to let go.
Wouldn't it be better to focus on the relationship between yourself and your audience? Adjust your manner and even the content to the level and kind of receptiveness you meet?
Don't panic. It's just a matter of focus. And practice.
Emma Gilding wrote a nice piece about this. Take a look.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Affect Labs: Feeling Social?
I have begun working as a strategist and partnership developer for Affect Labs, a start-up based in Scotland with a London office (mine).
Jennie Lees, a tremendously smart entrepreneur, has designed some software that crawls the web - social networks, blogs, you name it -- and comes back not only with positive and negative phrases aggregated around key words but also with star ratings. Phrases are given values, and the algorithms automatically update the stars as opinions change or as positive or negative opinions arrive to weight the star differently.
It's an amazing tool for companies that want to know what people are saying. And it's an important thing, this Emma Gilding, just for example, would say it could be the most important conversation a business can hold with its stakeholders.
This Time, With Feeling
I've also begun blogging for them -- in the spirit of how the Learning Lab began, in fact. Isn't what people feel -- and how they express it -- the same as what they think? Or close enough for rock and roll?
Keep your eye on the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year where we'll test out the software to help theatre-goers figure out which shows they'd like.
When I brought shows up in the 90s, our casts always made sure to be there the second week of the Festival to get random people's opinions of what was worth seeing.
Now the random people can be heard on the first day. Good for the audience, good for the shows, good for the festival.
How wonderful is that?
Jennie Lees, a tremendously smart entrepreneur, has designed some software that crawls the web - social networks, blogs, you name it -- and comes back not only with positive and negative phrases aggregated around key words but also with star ratings. Phrases are given values, and the algorithms automatically update the stars as opinions change or as positive or negative opinions arrive to weight the star differently.
It's an amazing tool for companies that want to know what people are saying. And it's an important thing, this Emma Gilding, just for example, would say it could be the most important conversation a business can hold with its stakeholders.
This Time, With Feeling
I've also begun blogging for them -- in the spirit of how the Learning Lab began, in fact. Isn't what people feel -- and how they express it -- the same as what they think? Or close enough for rock and roll?
Keep your eye on the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year where we'll test out the software to help theatre-goers figure out which shows they'd like.
When I brought shows up in the 90s, our casts always made sure to be there the second week of the Festival to get random people's opinions of what was worth seeing.
Now the random people can be heard on the first day. Good for the audience, good for the shows, good for the festival.
How wonderful is that?
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Emma Gilding and Brand: Part 3
To continue from the last post, Emma Gilding's group, Insite, at Omnicom sees brand as more than just another sales tool. Instead, the focus is on the ways in which brand encourages citizenship.
Or doesn't.
“Citizens opt into a brand's rules and regulations because they get benefits from adhering to them.” In order to sell, Emma believes that the product must fulfill its promise.
Emma often talks about her work in political terms. “Brand has to have a genuine value to citizens or they fail.
Before new technology, companies could get away with a top-down approach – people had to look to the governor of the brand for the value(s) of the product”. These citizens could never be sure if they were the only ones finding or not finding the value themselves.”
These days the Web forces transparency. There’s nowhere to hide. Consumer-led groups gather to hear from and tell each other about the value of the symbol.
If a brand is not persuasive, the product is no longer a symbol – it’s just a product. It won't distinguish itself among its competitors.
On the other hand, a coherent and responsive conversation between a company's brand and people they target is the only way for promises to remain credible.
Learning by Example
Perhaps the most famous illustration of a failure to really enagage with people who buy a product exists in the famous Mentos/Coke video. Mentos was thrilled and encouraged the distribution.
Coke, on the other hand, objected. Their brand stated “Coke is fun,” but executives put out the message that “this isn’t the sort of fun Coke means.”
“The citizens of the coke world spoke up – just like any civilization,” says Emma. “To them the explosion WAS fun.” In a democracy, if you deny the voice of the people, the brand fails -- or at least is weakened."
And no one will buy what you're selling.
Or doesn't.
“Citizens opt into a brand's rules and regulations because they get benefits from adhering to them.” In order to sell, Emma believes that the product must fulfill its promise.
Emma often talks about her work in political terms. “Brand has to have a genuine value to citizens or they fail.
Before new technology, companies could get away with a top-down approach – people had to look to the governor of the brand for the value(s) of the product”. These citizens could never be sure if they were the only ones finding or not finding the value themselves.”
These days the Web forces transparency. There’s nowhere to hide. Consumer-led groups gather to hear from and tell each other about the value of the symbol.
If a brand is not persuasive, the product is no longer a symbol – it’s just a product. It won't distinguish itself among its competitors.
On the other hand, a coherent and responsive conversation between a company's brand and people they target is the only way for promises to remain credible.
Learning by Example
Perhaps the most famous illustration of a failure to really enagage with people who buy a product exists in the famous Mentos/Coke video. Mentos was thrilled and encouraged the distribution.
Coke, on the other hand, objected. Their brand stated “Coke is fun,” but executives put out the message that “this isn’t the sort of fun Coke means.”
“The citizens of the coke world spoke up – just like any civilization,” says Emma. “To them the explosion WAS fun.” In a democracy, if you deny the voice of the people, the brand fails -- or at least is weakened."
And no one will buy what you're selling.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Back to Brand and the CFO: Emma Gilding Part 2
Continuing from the last post, how do executives reach out to consumers in a way that builds their brand?
Doug Rushkoff says that the ideal consumer for a company is an enthusiastic amateur. Rather than a top-down model of management as dictators and consumers as subjects, the company needs to be conceived more as a mandala.
A good example is Apple. At the centre is the impression, and, to a certain extent, the reality of Steve Jobs creating ideas and developing them. Around him, are people doing the same, with his ideas and their own. And at the edges, but within the overall structure, are enthusiastic amateurs who are creating and playing with the same sorts of ideas and products to improve them.
Emma adds that “people have always been creating things for the apple products. They have always been brand advocates. The Apps store was a way of channeling that effort.”
The Apps store has hit more than a million downloads. Something that started as a value-added opportunity for gave people the opportunity to contribute to the brand and feel part of it. It gave people the opportunity to participate in the conversation with the company.
Emma would say this is a demonstration of Apple succeeding because it lives its brand. “There should be no seams between an internal and external brand. The people in the building who are guardians of the brand should be customers of the brand. If you don’t live up to the brand value inside your company, you’re not inviting your employees in. You’re dominating them.”
Emma says this doesn’t work anymore because there is no belief system supporting the creation and distribution of the product. And those who buy the product get that.
“As a CFO, you need to walk the walk of your brand. What used to be a quiet but important job now has to be the conscience of the organization in a new way. Are we being true to the brand? That’s a tough ask for anybody.”
Emma Gilding has advice for executives, particularly on how to handle financials.
"Being a CFO used to be a defender role. Now it’s definitely an aggressor role. CEO payments are horribly inflated. What do you do as a CFO? What do you do about your incredibly loyal staff that are being underpaid? Or overpaid?"
Brand should be a guide and a beacon that helps you make the right decisions. So companies today need to re-experience their own brands to see anew what it stands for. They can’t take it for granted or it won’t be specific enough as a symbol. And the company has to be true to it.
“Look at banks,” says Emma. Success or failure has been determined by culture. The ones that have survived are the meritocracies – they put the brand first and the rest second.
“Now look at Lehman and Morgan Stanley – can you think of anything that they did according to their brand rather than according to their star traders?” Goldman, on the other hand, made decisions that worked with the brand. You can argue that these banks all had different histories and different circumstances. But it’s following the brand that created the decisions and histories and so on.”
More in the next post.
Doug Rushkoff says that the ideal consumer for a company is an enthusiastic amateur. Rather than a top-down model of management as dictators and consumers as subjects, the company needs to be conceived more as a mandala.
A good example is Apple. At the centre is the impression, and, to a certain extent, the reality of Steve Jobs creating ideas and developing them. Around him, are people doing the same, with his ideas and their own. And at the edges, but within the overall structure, are enthusiastic amateurs who are creating and playing with the same sorts of ideas and products to improve them.
Emma adds that “people have always been creating things for the apple products. They have always been brand advocates. The Apps store was a way of channeling that effort.”
The Apps store has hit more than a million downloads. Something that started as a value-added opportunity for gave people the opportunity to contribute to the brand and feel part of it. It gave people the opportunity to participate in the conversation with the company.
Emma would say this is a demonstration of Apple succeeding because it lives its brand. “There should be no seams between an internal and external brand. The people in the building who are guardians of the brand should be customers of the brand. If you don’t live up to the brand value inside your company, you’re not inviting your employees in. You’re dominating them.”
Emma says this doesn’t work anymore because there is no belief system supporting the creation and distribution of the product. And those who buy the product get that.
“As a CFO, you need to walk the walk of your brand. What used to be a quiet but important job now has to be the conscience of the organization in a new way. Are we being true to the brand? That’s a tough ask for anybody.”
Emma Gilding has advice for executives, particularly on how to handle financials.
"Being a CFO used to be a defender role. Now it’s definitely an aggressor role. CEO payments are horribly inflated. What do you do as a CFO? What do you do about your incredibly loyal staff that are being underpaid? Or overpaid?"
Brand should be a guide and a beacon that helps you make the right decisions. So companies today need to re-experience their own brands to see anew what it stands for. They can’t take it for granted or it won’t be specific enough as a symbol. And the company has to be true to it.
“Look at banks,” says Emma. Success or failure has been determined by culture. The ones that have survived are the meritocracies – they put the brand first and the rest second.
“Now look at Lehman and Morgan Stanley – can you think of anything that they did according to their brand rather than according to their star traders?” Goldman, on the other hand, made decisions that worked with the brand. You can argue that these banks all had different histories and different circumstances. But it’s following the brand that created the decisions and histories and so on.”
More in the next post.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Brand as the Key for the New CFO
Following on the heels of my discussion with Doug Rushkoff, Emma Gilding, head of Insite at Omnicom, gives her perspective on the key to a profitable business today.
Rather than changing economic models, Emma says that the most important alteration for any company is the attitude of the CFO. Rather than staring at balance sheets, the CFO should be reevaluating the company's brand in order to strengthen market positions.
What Makes an Effective Brand?
“Great brands,” says Emma, “are two way conversations in which there is satisfaction on both sides. The brand – or symbol – innately sets out rules and asks people for something. The symbol promises and delivers something in return.” Both participants must be satisfied for the brand to work.
How to Get From There To Here
Emma says that what a lot of CFOs aren't getting yet is that a focus on bean counting won't produce cost-effective results.
Echoing Doug, Emma adds the notion of “cost effective” for too many is based on economic models that have become dinosaurs.
Rather than focusing on balance sheets, CFOs need to think “what is the new financial value of this brand and how do I support it, both internally and externally?”
Emma is an anthropologist by training and sees business as only part of a much wider cultural landscape. This landscape is too diverse and complicated to measure strictly in numbers.
"Given what is happening sociologically in the economic downturns, the CFO has to be the bravest person in the company as he takes an entirely more strategic approach when it comes to brand."
What does a CFO do, for example, if the brand promises green practices, and the inexpensive supply chain refutes the claim? Or if the CEO is overpaid when the brand is all about tightening belts?
Everyone in the company must live the brand or it becomes an empty and ineffective symbol. This requires a new kind of thinking for those who have traditionally focused on cost rather than customers.
So:
How do you take a symbol and make its meaning pervasive and true to all your stakeholders? How do you make a brand robust and flexible enough to hold real conversations with those who use the product? How do you stop hiding behind rigid monologues broadcast from the top with no chance for people to say whether or not they want or believe it?
More in the next post.
Rather than changing economic models, Emma says that the most important alteration for any company is the attitude of the CFO. Rather than staring at balance sheets, the CFO should be reevaluating the company's brand in order to strengthen market positions.
What Makes an Effective Brand?
“Great brands,” says Emma, “are two way conversations in which there is satisfaction on both sides. The brand – or symbol – innately sets out rules and asks people for something. The symbol promises and delivers something in return.” Both participants must be satisfied for the brand to work.
How to Get From There To Here
Emma says that what a lot of CFOs aren't getting yet is that a focus on bean counting won't produce cost-effective results.
Echoing Doug, Emma adds the notion of “cost effective” for too many is based on economic models that have become dinosaurs.
Rather than focusing on balance sheets, CFOs need to think “what is the new financial value of this brand and how do I support it, both internally and externally?”
Emma is an anthropologist by training and sees business as only part of a much wider cultural landscape. This landscape is too diverse and complicated to measure strictly in numbers.
"Given what is happening sociologically in the economic downturns, the CFO has to be the bravest person in the company as he takes an entirely more strategic approach when it comes to brand."
What does a CFO do, for example, if the brand promises green practices, and the inexpensive supply chain refutes the claim? Or if the CEO is overpaid when the brand is all about tightening belts?
Everyone in the company must live the brand or it becomes an empty and ineffective symbol. This requires a new kind of thinking for those who have traditionally focused on cost rather than customers.
So:
How do you take a symbol and make its meaning pervasive and true to all your stakeholders? How do you make a brand robust and flexible enough to hold real conversations with those who use the product? How do you stop hiding behind rigid monologues broadcast from the top with no chance for people to say whether or not they want or believe it?
More in the next post.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
A Week with Astia, London: Entrepreneur Boot Camp
A few posts ago, I announced the weeklong conference at Astia's London base.
Since then, I had the privilege to attend most of the sessions. At the risk of sounding like I work on their marketing department, it must be said that the meeting was one of the most remarkable I've ever attended.
And I've been to a lot of conferences.
One Weak Spot
If there was a weakness to the conference, it was the way in which the volunteers were organized. This doesn't seem serious because the participants didn't seem to notice -- and because this was the first London event, the rough patches will probably be ironed out next year.
The rest was pure gold.
Where To Start?
Astia claims it offers three kinds of support for entrepreneurs:
--In accessing capital.
--In achieving and sustain high-growth.
--In developing the executive leadership of the founding team.
This is not empty talk. 60% of the start-ups chosen by Astia get funding.
What Else is Different?
Another of Astia's distinguishing characteristics is its dedication to supporting women in business. There were as many men at the conference as women, and in these cases, there was encouragement to put remarkable women into executive roles where currently there are none.
This is not your ordinary affirmative action, and again, it isn't empty talk. Astia offers to find extraordinary women for start-ups who could really use their talents.
Why Support Astia?
There were quite a few exceptional things about the week, not least of which was the intimate feel of each meeting. Astia brings together selected entrepreneurs and experts in finance, pitching, marketing, and everything else a start-up needs to succeed.
There were never more people in the room than could fit around a conference table, and all stake-holders seemed genuinely interested in understanding what everyone had to offer.
The feeling was more mentor/protégé than expert/novice. I've rarely seen anything like the straightforward way in which panelists and conference members interacted -- and in which CEO Sharon Vosmek facilitated conversations.
Even university seminars feel more political.
How it Was Organized
Evie Mulberry did an exceptional job of both securing top-notch speakers but of also combining high-level these experts in panels to complement each other’s professional strengths and personalities.
For a complete range of topics and speakers, check out their website. It's worth visiting anyway.
But Wait, There's (Always) More
At the end of the week, after tremendous knowledge exchange, practice at pitching, and honing of financial models, the entrepreneurs were given a real opportunity to pitch their cases before investors.
The funding opportunity is two-fold:
First, the start-ups could secure funding at the May pitch.
Second, the strongest pitches are selected, and their CEOs are offered mentoring for a month and a bigger funding opportunity in June.
When the winners are announced, I'll let you know.
Since then, I had the privilege to attend most of the sessions. At the risk of sounding like I work on their marketing department, it must be said that the meeting was one of the most remarkable I've ever attended.
And I've been to a lot of conferences.
One Weak Spot
If there was a weakness to the conference, it was the way in which the volunteers were organized. This doesn't seem serious because the participants didn't seem to notice -- and because this was the first London event, the rough patches will probably be ironed out next year.
The rest was pure gold.
Where To Start?
Astia claims it offers three kinds of support for entrepreneurs:
--In accessing capital.
--In achieving and sustain high-growth.
--In developing the executive leadership of the founding team.
This is not empty talk. 60% of the start-ups chosen by Astia get funding.
What Else is Different?
Another of Astia's distinguishing characteristics is its dedication to supporting women in business. There were as many men at the conference as women, and in these cases, there was encouragement to put remarkable women into executive roles where currently there are none.
This is not your ordinary affirmative action, and again, it isn't empty talk. Astia offers to find extraordinary women for start-ups who could really use their talents.
Why Support Astia?
There were quite a few exceptional things about the week, not least of which was the intimate feel of each meeting. Astia brings together selected entrepreneurs and experts in finance, pitching, marketing, and everything else a start-up needs to succeed.
There were never more people in the room than could fit around a conference table, and all stake-holders seemed genuinely interested in understanding what everyone had to offer.
The feeling was more mentor/protégé than expert/novice. I've rarely seen anything like the straightforward way in which panelists and conference members interacted -- and in which CEO Sharon Vosmek facilitated conversations.
Even university seminars feel more political.
How it Was Organized
Evie Mulberry did an exceptional job of both securing top-notch speakers but of also combining high-level these experts in panels to complement each other’s professional strengths and personalities.
For a complete range of topics and speakers, check out their website. It's worth visiting anyway.
But Wait, There's (Always) More
At the end of the week, after tremendous knowledge exchange, practice at pitching, and honing of financial models, the entrepreneurs were given a real opportunity to pitch their cases before investors.
The funding opportunity is two-fold:
First, the start-ups could secure funding at the May pitch.
Second, the strongest pitches are selected, and their CEOs are offered mentoring for a month and a bigger funding opportunity in June.
When the winners are announced, I'll let you know.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Part 4: Doug Rushkoff and the New Economy
Continuing from the last post, here's more on what Doug Rushkoff has to say about the effective way to build a business.
It's not news that people are looking for value. According to Doug, however, the most valuable business intelligence is at least as old as the Late Dark Ages: the rules we take for granted as necessary for doing business are only one group of many rules designed by the few people they benefit.
Doug says, “Most organisations are just holding companies – they don’t do anything but are just names on debt. They promote their stories to get more debt, and CFOs focus on spreadsheets – which can be manipulated.”
Other Misconceptions: Is Good for the Bottom Line?
Doug suggests that CFOs have to understand that the things they are doing to cut costs are really not effective. “Outsourcing is always a high investment to start – you think you’ll make it up later.”
Rather than making that investment externally, Doug suggests putting the money back into the business. “Outsourcing is a losing battle because currency speculators know what they’re doing. Businesses can’t win because it’s not a business they’re in.”
“Companies paint themselves into a corner again and again because they think they’re being clever about markets.” Doug says it’s better to stick to what you know about your business then try to beat speculators who are much better because it's they're specialty -- not yours.
Doug adds that competitive advantage is no longer a CFOs ability to get investors. It’s a CFOs interest in, passion about, and knowledge of what the business creates.
Another way to explain it: transparency is something that happens naturally on the Internet, and that companies need to engage with people “for real.” “A CFO needs to look at employees and customers as the same community. Your best customers are enthusiastic amateurs of what you do as a business.”
Over the course of the last 500 years, experts have been promoted to managerial positions in a wide-spread practice of decentralized management. They then hire the cheapest labor possible to do the jobs from which they've risen. Those in charge no longer do what made them successful, and those they hire can't do the job nearly as well.
On the other hand, if you who are experts produce what you sell, know your business, and engage with your community’s passion for your product, you’ll get a sustainable pay-off.
Seems like common sense, no?
Doug adds, “I hope the era of competence is upon us."
It's not news that people are looking for value. According to Doug, however, the most valuable business intelligence is at least as old as the Late Dark Ages: the rules we take for granted as necessary for doing business are only one group of many rules designed by the few people they benefit.
Doug says, “Most organisations are just holding companies – they don’t do anything but are just names on debt. They promote their stories to get more debt, and CFOs focus on spreadsheets – which can be manipulated.”
Other Misconceptions: Is Good for the Bottom Line?
Doug suggests that CFOs have to understand that the things they are doing to cut costs are really not effective. “Outsourcing is always a high investment to start – you think you’ll make it up later.”
Rather than making that investment externally, Doug suggests putting the money back into the business. “Outsourcing is a losing battle because currency speculators know what they’re doing. Businesses can’t win because it’s not a business they’re in.”
“Companies paint themselves into a corner again and again because they think they’re being clever about markets.” Doug says it’s better to stick to what you know about your business then try to beat speculators who are much better because it's they're specialty -- not yours.
Doug adds that competitive advantage is no longer a CFOs ability to get investors. It’s a CFOs interest in, passion about, and knowledge of what the business creates.
Another way to explain it: transparency is something that happens naturally on the Internet, and that companies need to engage with people “for real.” “A CFO needs to look at employees and customers as the same community. Your best customers are enthusiastic amateurs of what you do as a business.”
Over the course of the last 500 years, experts have been promoted to managerial positions in a wide-spread practice of decentralized management. They then hire the cheapest labor possible to do the jobs from which they've risen. Those in charge no longer do what made them successful, and those they hire can't do the job nearly as well.
On the other hand, if you who are experts produce what you sell, know your business, and engage with your community’s passion for your product, you’ll get a sustainable pay-off.
Seems like common sense, no?
Doug adds, “I hope the era of competence is upon us."
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Part 3: Doug Rushkoff and Better Business
Continuing from the last post . . .
How can money be earned into existence?
According to Doug, businesses need to deal in local currencies. “If you go into a town with a depressed economy, the people in the town will invest in your success there,” he says.
In Hasting-On-Hudson, NY, where Doug lives, The Comfort Restaurant was in danger of going into bankruptcy. They offered local people “Comfort Dollars” – 120 for 100 US dollars.
People got an immediate 20% return on their investment. They knew the restaurant's credit was good, and they ate at the restaurant anyway.
In return, restaurant could stay in business because it borrowed money at a lower rate from the community than they could from the bank.
Furthermore, Doug says, "There's a sense that local establishments give value to the town. Franchises take value. The best that people can hope for from a franchise is that their kids will get jobs there"
Where Did Comfort Come From?
Doug talks about the Late Middle Ages as the beginning of the end of local currency with the establishment of chartered corporations and centralized economic control. But he notes that the practice has been on its way back globally, particularly since the 1990s. Local currencies appeared during the economic crashes of Japan and Argentina. The practice continues to gain traction -- and even receives government support -- in an impressive number of countries.
There is not nearly enough space in one blog post to cover the history – or even recent history – of the global effects of local currency.
But it's worth checking out if you're a CFO and want to grow your business.
More from Doug in the next post.
How can money be earned into existence?
According to Doug, businesses need to deal in local currencies. “If you go into a town with a depressed economy, the people in the town will invest in your success there,” he says.
In Hasting-On-Hudson, NY, where Doug lives, The Comfort Restaurant was in danger of going into bankruptcy. They offered local people “Comfort Dollars” – 120 for 100 US dollars.
People got an immediate 20% return on their investment. They knew the restaurant's credit was good, and they ate at the restaurant anyway.
In return, restaurant could stay in business because it borrowed money at a lower rate from the community than they could from the bank.
Furthermore, Doug says, "There's a sense that local establishments give value to the town. Franchises take value. The best that people can hope for from a franchise is that their kids will get jobs there"
Where Did Comfort Come From?
Doug talks about the Late Middle Ages as the beginning of the end of local currency with the establishment of chartered corporations and centralized economic control. But he notes that the practice has been on its way back globally, particularly since the 1990s. Local currencies appeared during the economic crashes of Japan and Argentina. The practice continues to gain traction -- and even receives government support -- in an impressive number of countries.
There is not nearly enough space in one blog post to cover the history – or even recent history – of the global effects of local currency.
But it's worth checking out if you're a CFO and want to grow your business.
More from Doug in the next post.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Part 2: Doug Rushkoff on the Role of a CFO
Continuing from the last post, how do you fulfill your fiduciary responsibilities to customers, employees and to your community?
Doug Rushkoff says: don't take the rules of economics for granted.
The corporate model is one of centralised control is supported by the currency with which we make transactions, and visa versa. "The money we use is only one of many monies. We just take for granted that the economic rules we play by are the only ones possible."
Doug argues that in the Late Middle Ages, although there was "a coin of the realm" used for long-distance business, it was local currencies made communities prosperous. If you sold a hundred pounds of grain, for example, you received a piece of paper stating the value of that hundred pounds of grain that you could divide as necessary in your community to buy other goods and services.
Because the local currency tended to devalue with time, people would put it back into circulation as quickly as possible to buy what they needed. Communities made investments in themselves as well with the extra cash flow, Churches, for example, were built to bring pilgrims and tourists to town. Local areas, therefore, produced their own ecology of wealth.
Doug offers this as one solution for companies today: “Money can be earned into existence instead of lent into existence.” CFOs that are willing to remember and acknowledge this can participate in and generate real community activity. According to Doug, this is the only sustainable business model today and the strongest competitive advantage.
More in the next post.
Doug Rushkoff says: don't take the rules of economics for granted.
The corporate model is one of centralised control is supported by the currency with which we make transactions, and visa versa. "The money we use is only one of many monies. We just take for granted that the economic rules we play by are the only ones possible."
Doug argues that in the Late Middle Ages, although there was "a coin of the realm" used for long-distance business, it was local currencies made communities prosperous. If you sold a hundred pounds of grain, for example, you received a piece of paper stating the value of that hundred pounds of grain that you could divide as necessary in your community to buy other goods and services.
Because the local currency tended to devalue with time, people would put it back into circulation as quickly as possible to buy what they needed. Communities made investments in themselves as well with the extra cash flow, Churches, for example, were built to bring pilgrims and tourists to town. Local areas, therefore, produced their own ecology of wealth.
Doug offers this as one solution for companies today: “Money can be earned into existence instead of lent into existence.” CFOs that are willing to remember and acknowledge this can participate in and generate real community activity. According to Doug, this is the only sustainable business model today and the strongest competitive advantage.
More in the next post.
Friday, May 08, 2009
Interviewing Doug Rushkoff: The New CFO
Same Old, Same Old
One would think that the key to being a superb Financial Director (CFO for you Americans) is limited to deep knowledge of accounting, regulations, and cash flow if your reading were restricted to CFO Magazine or Finance Director,
Titles of lead articles, for example, include Insovencies are Not Our Fault, Accountancy Qualifications among FTSE-100 FDs, Since Sarbox, Non-audit Fees Dove from 51% to 21%.
You get the picture
And Now for Something Completely Different
Douglas Rushkoff, author of numerous books on business trends, argues that instead, competitive advantage depends on a new focus. I interviewed Doug to see how the role of the CFO can improve the economy from the inside out.
For those of you who don't have the time to watch Doug's talk from Ofcom, I'll go over some territory for the sake of context.
Doug believes that the underlying fault in business on all levels is that “cash fuels the economy.” He says, “This is actually a backwards notion that was invented during the renaissance to promote central banking over decentralized value creation.”
“Your fiduciary responsibility,” Doug adds, “are to your employees and to your customers. This is your community -- and you can adopt a sustainable growth model for and with them rather than a speculative growth model."
Doug's conclusion: "Once you've done this, you are really in a position to take advantage of the collapse of the top-down funding models all around you.”
More on what Doug means by this in the next post.
One would think that the key to being a superb Financial Director (CFO for you Americans) is limited to deep knowledge of accounting, regulations, and cash flow if your reading were restricted to CFO Magazine or Finance Director,
Titles of lead articles, for example, include Insovencies are Not Our Fault, Accountancy Qualifications among FTSE-100 FDs, Since Sarbox, Non-audit Fees Dove from 51% to 21%.
You get the picture
And Now for Something Completely Different
Douglas Rushkoff, author of numerous books on business trends, argues that instead, competitive advantage depends on a new focus. I interviewed Doug to see how the role of the CFO can improve the economy from the inside out.
For those of you who don't have the time to watch Doug's talk from Ofcom, I'll go over some territory for the sake of context.
Doug believes that the underlying fault in business on all levels is that “cash fuels the economy.” He says, “This is actually a backwards notion that was invented during the renaissance to promote central banking over decentralized value creation.”
“Your fiduciary responsibility,” Doug adds, “are to your employees and to your customers. This is your community -- and you can adopt a sustainable growth model for and with them rather than a speculative growth model."
Doug's conclusion: "Once you've done this, you are really in a position to take advantage of the collapse of the top-down funding models all around you.”
More on what Doug means by this in the next post.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Astia: Worth Taking a Look
Astia is a remarkable organisation that dedicates itself to developing the know-how for women starting up their own businesses.
In conjunction with other vc-supportive organisations, Astia's work seems to be paying off. Women's start-up's in the UK have done better than those run by men. There seem to be some unique opportunities in this economic climate that shouldn't be missed.
Astia works globally -- they have bases in in Silicon Alley, Silicon Valley, the London, and India. Look into what they can do for you.
Astia's London conference is next week. I'll let you know what I learn.
In conjunction with other vc-supportive organisations, Astia's work seems to be paying off. Women's start-up's in the UK have done better than those run by men. There seem to be some unique opportunities in this economic climate that shouldn't be missed.
Astia works globally -- they have bases in in Silicon Alley, Silicon Valley, the London, and India. Look into what they can do for you.
Astia's London conference is next week. I'll let you know what I learn.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Linked In
If you read the post from February 3, you'll know that Emma Gilding, anthropologist and business innovator, has begun a new blog - Thru Their Eyes.
Emma and I have very similar attitudes about the way people learn -- particularly about learning in business. She's made me a guest blogger.
I republish the post here to save you time from clicking around.
Corporate Training: is it Good for Innovation?
Even before the global economy found itself in peril, professional development seemed the solution for all organizational ills. If you find a hole in your process, fill it by prescribing a set of skills within a specific context or task.
Too often, training is the result of short-term thinking. An organization needs results quickly, so trainers limit a class to a narrow set of parameters. Then a particular problem can get solved immediately.
Don’t waste time making connections between contexts or tasks – why bother addressing problems that might arise later?
This is not helped by the fact that trainers tend to see their own goal exclusively to give clients exactly what he asks for rather than expanding offerings to include what they need.
Give Them the Fishing Rod (Not the Fish)
Training offers answers. But does it explore the questions in enough depth to do anything but maintain the status quo? Wouldn't it be better to improve the way business is done rather than just treading water?
Learning, on the other hand, focuses on process. It offers the facility to make connections among different contexts, resources, and so on. In fact, it's what makes a skill transferable. But more important it's learning, not training, that makes innovation possible.
On the other hand, the results of training are much easier and faster to control and quantify. They demand no messy emotional investment (read: engagement) that is required for inspiration and innovation.
So with training, you know what you get. But is what you want?
Emma and I have very similar attitudes about the way people learn -- particularly about learning in business. She's made me a guest blogger.
I republish the post here to save you time from clicking around.
Corporate Training: is it Good for Innovation?
Even before the global economy found itself in peril, professional development seemed the solution for all organizational ills. If you find a hole in your process, fill it by prescribing a set of skills within a specific context or task.
Too often, training is the result of short-term thinking. An organization needs results quickly, so trainers limit a class to a narrow set of parameters. Then a particular problem can get solved immediately.
Don’t waste time making connections between contexts or tasks – why bother addressing problems that might arise later?
This is not helped by the fact that trainers tend to see their own goal exclusively to give clients exactly what he asks for rather than expanding offerings to include what they need.
Give Them the Fishing Rod (Not the Fish)
Training offers answers. But does it explore the questions in enough depth to do anything but maintain the status quo? Wouldn't it be better to improve the way business is done rather than just treading water?
Learning, on the other hand, focuses on process. It offers the facility to make connections among different contexts, resources, and so on. In fact, it's what makes a skill transferable. But more important it's learning, not training, that makes innovation possible.
On the other hand, the results of training are much easier and faster to control and quantify. They demand no messy emotional investment (read: engagement) that is required for inspiration and innovation.
So with training, you know what you get. But is what you want?
Saturday, April 25, 2009
More on Doug Rushkoff: The Dark Side of New Media
Worth watching is a Frontline piece on South Korea's approach to young people's addiction to computer games.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Meeting Douglas Rushkoff
I met Douglas Rushkoff at a party the other week. Turns out we have a lot of good friends in common, and it's strange we've never met before. I've always been a big fan.
Because Doug is that very unusual combination of fascinating and generous, his arguments are almost impossible to resist. Even when you might want to disagree.
Doug gave a talk at Ofcom recently, and it's worth mentioning.
I'm perhaps most impressed by the way that Doug avoids jargon in order to unify what seem like unlike concepts. He breaks down ideas and examples so that anyone -- in any field -- could understand it.
In fact, Doug's communication style is proof of concept. For him, the rules of the current economic models should be redesigned to benefit people before corporations. That, in turn, will benefit the economy in ways we haven't seen since the Middle Ages.
So if you believe people create their own economic models, then you need to be able to speak to everyone.
How generous is THAT? How productive -- And how unusual.
I'll be interviewing him for an article tomorrow, and I'll let you know what I learn.
Because Doug is that very unusual combination of fascinating and generous, his arguments are almost impossible to resist. Even when you might want to disagree.
Doug gave a talk at Ofcom recently, and it's worth mentioning.
I'm perhaps most impressed by the way that Doug avoids jargon in order to unify what seem like unlike concepts. He breaks down ideas and examples so that anyone -- in any field -- could understand it.
In fact, Doug's communication style is proof of concept. For him, the rules of the current economic models should be redesigned to benefit people before corporations. That, in turn, will benefit the economy in ways we haven't seen since the Middle Ages.
So if you believe people create their own economic models, then you need to be able to speak to everyone.
How generous is THAT? How productive -- And how unusual.
I'll be interviewing him for an article tomorrow, and I'll let you know what I learn.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Good: This Time With Feeling
Good and Bad
Last night, I saw a screening of a film called Good, the journey of a professor in pre-war Germany from ordinary citizen to SS officer.
I note it here only to reinforce the notion much discussed in this blog that emotional reactions are the basis for intellectual convictions -- and if one doesn't take notice (and responsibility) for the first, one can not answer for the second.
All sound obvious? Take it out of context and apply it to business. Still a commonly held notion?
Yes, But Did It Work?
The film succeeded because it persuasively demonstrated that value and intolerance rose and fell according to the rise and fall of the pride in identity of ordinary citizens.
Strangely, this seemed clear for all the characters except the lead, Halder. The film failed because one had no idea what he felt, and though he behaved in ways that implied conviction, it was impossible to be clear about what he thought.
Jason Isaacs, who spoke after the premier, explained that the cinematic format precluded clear articulation of Halder's feelings. I suggested that it's really more a question of what the director chose -- cinema is a pretty plastic medium.
In any case, any popular political rallying point -- that creates a strong sense of identity and belonging -- persuades just from these causes. Not a surprise? Again, what happens if you apply this principal to other contexts?
Last night, I saw a screening of a film called Good, the journey of a professor in pre-war Germany from ordinary citizen to SS officer.
I note it here only to reinforce the notion much discussed in this blog that emotional reactions are the basis for intellectual convictions -- and if one doesn't take notice (and responsibility) for the first, one can not answer for the second.
All sound obvious? Take it out of context and apply it to business. Still a commonly held notion?
Yes, But Did It Work?
The film succeeded because it persuasively demonstrated that value and intolerance rose and fell according to the rise and fall of the pride in identity of ordinary citizens.
Strangely, this seemed clear for all the characters except the lead, Halder. The film failed because one had no idea what he felt, and though he behaved in ways that implied conviction, it was impossible to be clear about what he thought.
Jason Isaacs, who spoke after the premier, explained that the cinematic format precluded clear articulation of Halder's feelings. I suggested that it's really more a question of what the director chose -- cinema is a pretty plastic medium.
In any case, any popular political rallying point -- that creates a strong sense of identity and belonging -- persuades just from these causes. Not a surprise? Again, what happens if you apply this principal to other contexts?
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Unemployed? A Perfect Excuse to Rebrand
Every economic and political crisis has its opportunities. It just takes some imagination to find the ones you can make the most of.
Who said that luck happens when opportunity meets a ready mind?
When Last We Saw Our Hero . . .
I was recently asked to help a company to create marketing collateral for their current services. This organisation specialises in outsourcing particular financial functions for small to medium sized businesses.
In order to make the most of the marketing opportunities, I suggested that that they activities and collateral that will expand their brand.
With expertise in all aspects of finance, why not take the opportunity to find the cream of the financial market's unemployed, retrain them, and place them in new jobs?
In a world where there are hundreds of talented financial people who are newly unemployed, you have a market keen for any way to find a job.
Likewise, companies need talented people -- always. And they would prefer to outsource functions that require high overhead in salary, benefits, and so on.
So why not make a business of rebranding people from the City? You make money training. You make money placing people. Win-win.
You Who Have Lost Your Jobs: This Is Where You Come In
You who are smart and agile, this is your chance. The current situation allows high-level thinkers to take advantage of the opportunity for new career directions by re-branding yourselves.
What are you most passionate or curious about? What sorts of businesses or business functions have you demonstrated an impact other than whatever was contained in your job description? Where can you get that extra expertise quickly and efficiently to fill in gaps for a job you'd like to have?
Speaking from Experience
My own career path has been entirely about re-branding in order to explore and learn exactly what interests me. I worked in the theatre, I earned a PhD in drama, I became a journalist, I worked in Silicon Alley and consulted, worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers as strategist and negotiator for the global website, and then I ran a charity for children in London.
Contrary to those who advocate single career paths, employers have not found me flaky. In fact, I've found the threads that connect my passions allow me to see things new in ways that make me seem more, rather than less, committed and qualified. Cross-disciplinary thinking and making connections among unlikely resources is high in demand. In fact, my research shows that in every field employers are looking for people who can show this sort of creativity.
And those who do this can find great success.
Re-branding is a big topic, and I'll get back to it in later posts. For now, there's a great (if old) Fast Company issue that offers some very good ideas. Check it out.
Who said that luck happens when opportunity meets a ready mind?
When Last We Saw Our Hero . . .
I was recently asked to help a company to create marketing collateral for their current services. This organisation specialises in outsourcing particular financial functions for small to medium sized businesses.
In order to make the most of the marketing opportunities, I suggested that that they activities and collateral that will expand their brand.
With expertise in all aspects of finance, why not take the opportunity to find the cream of the financial market's unemployed, retrain them, and place them in new jobs?
In a world where there are hundreds of talented financial people who are newly unemployed, you have a market keen for any way to find a job.
Likewise, companies need talented people -- always. And they would prefer to outsource functions that require high overhead in salary, benefits, and so on.
So why not make a business of rebranding people from the City? You make money training. You make money placing people. Win-win.
You Who Have Lost Your Jobs: This Is Where You Come In
You who are smart and agile, this is your chance. The current situation allows high-level thinkers to take advantage of the opportunity for new career directions by re-branding yourselves.
What are you most passionate or curious about? What sorts of businesses or business functions have you demonstrated an impact other than whatever was contained in your job description? Where can you get that extra expertise quickly and efficiently to fill in gaps for a job you'd like to have?
Speaking from Experience
My own career path has been entirely about re-branding in order to explore and learn exactly what interests me. I worked in the theatre, I earned a PhD in drama, I became a journalist, I worked in Silicon Alley and consulted, worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers as strategist and negotiator for the global website, and then I ran a charity for children in London.
Contrary to those who advocate single career paths, employers have not found me flaky. In fact, I've found the threads that connect my passions allow me to see things new in ways that make me seem more, rather than less, committed and qualified. Cross-disciplinary thinking and making connections among unlikely resources is high in demand. In fact, my research shows that in every field employers are looking for people who can show this sort of creativity.
And those who do this can find great success.
Re-branding is a big topic, and I'll get back to it in later posts. For now, there's a great (if old) Fast Company issue that offers some very good ideas. Check it out.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Thru Their Eyes
Emma Gilding, an extraordinary innovator and Crain's Under 40 at 32, was trained as an anthropologist and brought her talent to advertising. She has a new blog: Thru Their Eyes that covers a variety of topics around creativity and management. Worth taking a look. I particularly like the elegance of Three Notes to Collaborate.
Starting a Discussion
I've been considering Emma's distinction between collaboration vs. cooperation. I think it needs refining, although I'm not sure exactly how.
Emma defines collaboration as a lofty goal, and I agree it's a difficult process to maintain, particularly in business.
Emma says:
Collaboration is difficult because it requires critical thinking skills and creativity and that we have one goal and that we be innovative in the way that we seek to fulfill that goal.
On the other hand:
Cooperation requires that we seek to fulfill the same focused goal but using the same skills in the same way. This strikes me as a much more achievable goal as we have been doing it for years.
The distinction is an important one, but I think it needs some tweaking.
Critical Thinking
The difference here seems to be twofold: collaboration requires critical thinking, creativity, and innovation aimed at one goal. Cooperation requires using one, rather than three, sets of skills in the same way toward (again) one goal.
Is it possible to do anything without creativity, innovation, and critical thinking in some form?
Even digging a ditch requires overcoming obstacles that arise, and all tasks done as a group require consideration about how to work together. Last, is everyone doing exactly the same task? All of these negotiations to me seem to require some analysis and creativity, even if we've become unconscious of the processes.
By the same token, would a musician's jam be classified as collaboration or cooperation? Each is performing different tasks, they are certainly creative, and the result is often innovative. However, again, the critical thinking aspect is intuitive. It's not self-consciously articulated.
So -- is the real distinction between cooperation and collaboration a group's awareness about the differences in roles, outcomes, and processes? Each cooperation and collaboration requires agreement, and although collaboration tends to be an explicit understanding, cooperation doesn't have to be.
Or does it?
Maybe it would be worth breaking down further what goes into assessment, analysis, mastering, and performing with one voice -- from the previous post. Defining terms is always useful.
Emma? What do you think?
Starting a Discussion
I've been considering Emma's distinction between collaboration vs. cooperation. I think it needs refining, although I'm not sure exactly how.
Emma defines collaboration as a lofty goal, and I agree it's a difficult process to maintain, particularly in business.
Emma says:
Collaboration is difficult because it requires critical thinking skills and creativity and that we have one goal and that we be innovative in the way that we seek to fulfill that goal.
On the other hand:
Cooperation requires that we seek to fulfill the same focused goal but using the same skills in the same way. This strikes me as a much more achievable goal as we have been doing it for years.
The distinction is an important one, but I think it needs some tweaking.
Critical Thinking
The difference here seems to be twofold: collaboration requires critical thinking, creativity, and innovation aimed at one goal. Cooperation requires using one, rather than three, sets of skills in the same way toward (again) one goal.
Is it possible to do anything without creativity, innovation, and critical thinking in some form?
Even digging a ditch requires overcoming obstacles that arise, and all tasks done as a group require consideration about how to work together. Last, is everyone doing exactly the same task? All of these negotiations to me seem to require some analysis and creativity, even if we've become unconscious of the processes.
By the same token, would a musician's jam be classified as collaboration or cooperation? Each is performing different tasks, they are certainly creative, and the result is often innovative. However, again, the critical thinking aspect is intuitive. It's not self-consciously articulated.
So -- is the real distinction between cooperation and collaboration a group's awareness about the differences in roles, outcomes, and processes? Each cooperation and collaboration requires agreement, and although collaboration tends to be an explicit understanding, cooperation doesn't have to be.
Or does it?
Maybe it would be worth breaking down further what goes into assessment, analysis, mastering, and performing with one voice -- from the previous post. Defining terms is always useful.
Emma? What do you think?
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
A Thought on How We Think About Teachers
Why is it that teacher-directed websites usually look like they've been designed for children?
This isn't a big point -- just something I've been chewing on as I do organisational research this morning.
Take a look at any site for educators. Unless these educators are administrators, you'll probably find pictures of apples (for the teacher, presumably), ruled paper, and cartoon characters with blackboard pointers in their hands (hooves? claws?).
Here's My Experience
When I was hired to produce an interactive site for Troll Communications (at the time, Scholastic's chief competitor), the consistent image across pages was an owl with a flat, square graduation hat (what are they called? You know, the ones with the tassles?).
That owl was first on my hit list, especially because he also wore spec's. But the whole situation seemed revising from the bottom up.
Don't trolls EAT children? (Tip: don't ask this question at your first meeting with a CEO. It doesn't encourage the kind of change you're after.)
Kids Think Teachers Don't Exist Outside of School
This isn't a big point either. Anyone who's taught, and then runs into a student in a coffee shop or the supermarket, has seen the shock register.
I chalk it up to some sort of delayed object permanence problem. Kids tend to have a pretty fixed idea of how their worlds function. Even when I taught university, my students would express shock usually reserved only for a broken law of physics if I were sited anywhere outside the English Department.
How Much Thought is Given to Teachers Anyway?
We'd expect more from grown-up's.
But from the websites I've seen, non-educators seem so completely to merge teachers with their kids that they forget they're adults.
It's a strange phenomenon. I might give it to NASA to chew on.
On the other hand, how surprising is it really that teachers aren't paid very much if we forget they exist outside the classroom -- you know, paying rent, driving cars, or doing an activity with other adults?
Anyone, please find me a website designed for teachers that looks sophisticated, that treats its target audience as though they have some design sense or have ever been to the opera.
And those text-only sites don't count. They're just lazy.
Anyone?
This isn't a big point -- just something I've been chewing on as I do organisational research this morning.
Take a look at any site for educators. Unless these educators are administrators, you'll probably find pictures of apples (for the teacher, presumably), ruled paper, and cartoon characters with blackboard pointers in their hands (hooves? claws?).
Here's My Experience
When I was hired to produce an interactive site for Troll Communications (at the time, Scholastic's chief competitor), the consistent image across pages was an owl with a flat, square graduation hat (what are they called? You know, the ones with the tassles?).
That owl was first on my hit list, especially because he also wore spec's. But the whole situation seemed revising from the bottom up.
Don't trolls EAT children? (Tip: don't ask this question at your first meeting with a CEO. It doesn't encourage the kind of change you're after.)
Kids Think Teachers Don't Exist Outside of School
This isn't a big point either. Anyone who's taught, and then runs into a student in a coffee shop or the supermarket, has seen the shock register.
I chalk it up to some sort of delayed object permanence problem. Kids tend to have a pretty fixed idea of how their worlds function. Even when I taught university, my students would express shock usually reserved only for a broken law of physics if I were sited anywhere outside the English Department.
How Much Thought is Given to Teachers Anyway?
We'd expect more from grown-up's.
But from the websites I've seen, non-educators seem so completely to merge teachers with their kids that they forget they're adults.
It's a strange phenomenon. I might give it to NASA to chew on.
On the other hand, how surprising is it really that teachers aren't paid very much if we forget they exist outside the classroom -- you know, paying rent, driving cars, or doing an activity with other adults?
Anyone, please find me a website designed for teachers that looks sophisticated, that treats its target audience as though they have some design sense or have ever been to the opera.
And those text-only sites don't count. They're just lazy.
Anyone?
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Inspiration Redux: Some Things are Worth Repeating
I've recently been asked to do fund raising for the CAGSE Foundation, and I'm finding that speaking to people about learning is challenging when they have never taught -- or at least, have never felt comfortable teaching.
When I worked in Silicon Alley, we always said that all clients think they can write and design a logo for effective branding. Generally, when left to their own devices, clients give you muddled visual concepts and run-on sentences instead.
Talking to non-educators about learning has led to something a little different from this -- although the reaction is similar to that of the people for whom I consulted for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The standard line: learning is an intellectual exercise.
This Time, With Feeling
Many blog posts ago, I defined inspiration as the meeting point of intellectual and emotional insight. You can't innovate without engagement. You can't learn without it, either. Engagement is as much emotional as intellectual.
The trick to great teaching is to bring your students to an understanding of the beauty, passion, extraordinary nature of what it is you see in what you're teaching.
And students define great teachers with feeling as well. They remember the great teachers they've had by the passion the teachers inspired. The feeling lasts much longer than any particular piece of information relayed.
Do you remember much of what your favorite teacher told you? Or are there one or two "aha" moments that generated the passionate gratitude you feel today?
How much more emotional could a process be? And why do we continue to insist on denying it?
When I worked in Silicon Alley, we always said that all clients think they can write and design a logo for effective branding. Generally, when left to their own devices, clients give you muddled visual concepts and run-on sentences instead.
Talking to non-educators about learning has led to something a little different from this -- although the reaction is similar to that of the people for whom I consulted for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The standard line: learning is an intellectual exercise.
This Time, With Feeling
Many blog posts ago, I defined inspiration as the meeting point of intellectual and emotional insight. You can't innovate without engagement. You can't learn without it, either. Engagement is as much emotional as intellectual.
The trick to great teaching is to bring your students to an understanding of the beauty, passion, extraordinary nature of what it is you see in what you're teaching.
And students define great teachers with feeling as well. They remember the great teachers they've had by the passion the teachers inspired. The feeling lasts much longer than any particular piece of information relayed.
Do you remember much of what your favorite teacher told you? Or are there one or two "aha" moments that generated the passionate gratitude you feel today?
How much more emotional could a process be? And why do we continue to insist on denying it?
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Ellen Marden Interviews Yours Truly
Ellen Marsden interviewed me at PopTech! about CAGSE and all we do to connect the past to the present, school to the world outside, and other ideas of similar note.
Ready for my close-up?
Ellen wanted me to skip the linguistic aspects of the project and talk in broader terms so that we could focus on historical and cultural issues. She's got kids of her own and is very interested in education.
So what should we learn, and how should we learn it?
Culture and History: Dead or Alive?
Nothing is dead if someone alive learns it. The process of learning, on its own, immediately connects what is learned to everything happening at the moment of understanding.
That's the magic of context.
Think of the word "history" as a living thing - something in which we live and that we create as we breathe rather than something that is over. Nothing is unconnected to anything else. People sometimes use the word "culture" to name human experience, but history and culture can't exist without each other.
My 15 Minutes of Fame
If you don't believe in Latin's cultural and historical relevance, here's information about our storytelling programme included in every Latin class CAGSE teaches. It's only part of the story, but it's one worth telling.
For more on the relationships among culture, history, and learning last week's post.
Ready for my close-up?
Ellen wanted me to skip the linguistic aspects of the project and talk in broader terms so that we could focus on historical and cultural issues. She's got kids of her own and is very interested in education.
So what should we learn, and how should we learn it?
Culture and History: Dead or Alive?
Nothing is dead if someone alive learns it. The process of learning, on its own, immediately connects what is learned to everything happening at the moment of understanding.
That's the magic of context.
Think of the word "history" as a living thing - something in which we live and that we create as we breathe rather than something that is over. Nothing is unconnected to anything else. People sometimes use the word "culture" to name human experience, but history and culture can't exist without each other.
My 15 Minutes of Fame
If you don't believe in Latin's cultural and historical relevance, here's information about our storytelling programme included in every Latin class CAGSE teaches. It's only part of the story, but it's one worth telling.
For more on the relationships among culture, history, and learning last week's post.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Rap That
Among our tremendously talented staff at CAGSE, we have a a charming and gifted rapper called Jonathan Goddard. He ain't no slouch as a Latin teacher, either.
Jonathan makes grammar sound urgent, compelling, interesting (even). Check it out, Yo.
Jonathan makes grammar sound urgent, compelling, interesting (even). Check it out, Yo.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Latin in Conversation
By the way, if you believe Latin is on its last legs (as many do, see last post), take a look at this video on language from PopTech!
Sara Canullo, assistant director of Latin studies for CAGSE, added a translation in for about a third of the video. Just to prove a point:
Latin might be ancient, but it can capture even the most contemporary ideas in new ways.
Every language offers interpretation of concepts just by articulating them. If you speak or read more than one, check out the different translations for this talk. Although if you speak more than one language, this is something you know already.
You might not agree with elements of the talk, or the content might not interest you at all. However, DotSub is a useful app -- worth exploring if you need translations of videos for multilingual audiences.
On the Web, that's EVERY audience. Guaranteed.
Sara Canullo, assistant director of Latin studies for CAGSE, added a translation in for about a third of the video. Just to prove a point:
Latin might be ancient, but it can capture even the most contemporary ideas in new ways.
Every language offers interpretation of concepts just by articulating them. If you speak or read more than one, check out the different translations for this talk. Although if you speak more than one language, this is something you know already.
You might not agree with elements of the talk, or the content might not interest you at all. However, DotSub is a useful app -- worth exploring if you need translations of videos for multilingual audiences.
On the Web, that's EVERY audience. Guaranteed.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Not Drowning but Waving: Latin Dead?
Dead or Alive?
I've been talking a lot about the value of Latin lately, and each day, eventually, I wait for the argument that is supposed to stop me in my tracks.
Latin is Dead.
Actually, it's not. It's alive and well and living in English, German, and all the Romance languages. We use it every day in its original form (ad finitum, et al, eg, re:, etc.) It's even branded on Anglina Jolie and David Bekham's skin.
You don't get much more hip and culturally current than that.
What Are People Arguing About?
At root, it seems that schools and anti-Latin pundits are arguing for training over learning. Corporate culture has invaded our schools in more ways than sponsorships.
Corporate training offers a set of limited skills to be used in a narrow set of circumstances (the desk chair) for relatively narrow purposes (getting a particular task done at work). Some examples (in case you haven't worked in an office): how to use computer programs, how to fill out a time sheet, how to better communicate with your staff on particular issues, -- did I forget to say etc.?
Not Training But Learning
Training is limited by the very purpose for which it's offered: skills are intended for targeted use in particular contexts.
Learning, on the other hand, is as much about how you think about a problem as the particular problem itself.
Manderin and Romance languages are taught in schools because we have relatively short-term goals for our kids. Get trained, and you can do particular tasks when you finish. On the other hand, Latin isn't spoken in full sentences (generally, in most circles, anyway). Relegate it to the dustbin.
One caveat: I think all languages are valuable if taught correctly. Just throw Latin in with the rest.
Dangerous Precedent: What if Demanded Skills Change?
If we limit our kids to skills rather than offering them tools for larger thinking processes, we'll never get the innovation we're looking for -- either in the classroom or outside it. More important than any particular thought is an awareness of how that thought connects to others, how it arrived, and where you go from there.
Because language represents thought and doesn't merely describe it, Latin shows historically how we've got where we are as English speakers. If you teach it with learning in mind, you can give kids Latin and they'll see patterns across languages. Moreover, they will see where ideas came from that are contained in their own language in importantly similar and different ways.
Latin offers students a view of the long Western history of philosophy of language, of thought, of culture.
Not a bad return for an hour a week from CAGSE.
By the way, Richard Gilder recently wrote an articulate piece on the known value of Latin in English literacy. Check it out.
I've been talking a lot about the value of Latin lately, and each day, eventually, I wait for the argument that is supposed to stop me in my tracks.
Latin is Dead.
Actually, it's not. It's alive and well and living in English, German, and all the Romance languages. We use it every day in its original form (ad finitum, et al, eg, re:, etc.) It's even branded on Anglina Jolie and David Bekham's skin.
You don't get much more hip and culturally current than that.
What Are People Arguing About?
At root, it seems that schools and anti-Latin pundits are arguing for training over learning. Corporate culture has invaded our schools in more ways than sponsorships.
Corporate training offers a set of limited skills to be used in a narrow set of circumstances (the desk chair) for relatively narrow purposes (getting a particular task done at work). Some examples (in case you haven't worked in an office): how to use computer programs, how to fill out a time sheet, how to better communicate with your staff on particular issues, -- did I forget to say etc.?
Not Training But Learning
Training is limited by the very purpose for which it's offered: skills are intended for targeted use in particular contexts.
Learning, on the other hand, is as much about how you think about a problem as the particular problem itself.
Manderin and Romance languages are taught in schools because we have relatively short-term goals for our kids. Get trained, and you can do particular tasks when you finish. On the other hand, Latin isn't spoken in full sentences (generally, in most circles, anyway). Relegate it to the dustbin.
One caveat: I think all languages are valuable if taught correctly. Just throw Latin in with the rest.
Dangerous Precedent: What if Demanded Skills Change?
If we limit our kids to skills rather than offering them tools for larger thinking processes, we'll never get the innovation we're looking for -- either in the classroom or outside it. More important than any particular thought is an awareness of how that thought connects to others, how it arrived, and where you go from there.
Because language represents thought and doesn't merely describe it, Latin shows historically how we've got where we are as English speakers. If you teach it with learning in mind, you can give kids Latin and they'll see patterns across languages. Moreover, they will see where ideas came from that are contained in their own language in importantly similar and different ways.
Latin offers students a view of the long Western history of philosophy of language, of thought, of culture.
Not a bad return for an hour a week from CAGSE.
By the way, Richard Gilder recently wrote an articulate piece on the known value of Latin in English literacy. Check it out.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Best Practices in Teaching: In Business and in School
As I mentioned in my last post, I just came from PopTech! where (again) extraordinary people meet and speak, both on and off the stage.
Every year, Camden Maine, October. Amazing.
Ben Zander Inspires
One of the highlights of the conference was Ben Zander's presentation. Ben is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and about the most exuberant person I've ever met.
In this talk, Ben offered two models of thinking: one of "The Downward Spiral" (linear thinking in binaries) and one of multiple possibilities. He then led a 15-year-old cellist called Nicolai through a Bach piece several times. Each time, Ben coached Nicolai so that by the end of the session, the piece sounded as good as it could be. It was a pleasure to watch.
One last point worth noting: Ben told Nicolai that when he makes a mistake, rather than making a face and drawing down his body, he should throw up his hands and say "How Fascinating!" The fear of making mistakes is perhaps the biggest challenge to learning in our culture, both in business and in school. We're trained to guess what our superiors or teachers want us to say.
Everyone rose to their applauding furiously when Ben was done. It was an extraordinary performance.
Later That Evening . . .
In order to continue the conversation about models of possibility, Ben and his ex-wife Roz invited us to a local inn to continue the conversation about how Ben inspired his student.
The meeting presented a frustrating experience -- both Ben and Roz spoke in abstract and extreme terms about their rival models.
The possibility model offered no hierarchy between expert (teacher) and novice (student or employee). It left every option open. Solutions were infinite.
The other model, by contrast, was a false habit we've learned of competing with each other, satisfying ourselves with winning when others lose, and offering only binary solutions.
What Happened Next
A few people got up to ask how to apply Ben and Roz's philosophy to non-artistic fields -- how does a boss inspire employees? How does a physics professor -- when there are right and wrong answers -- offer his students the option of infinite possibilities?
No one in the gathering had taught like Ben. Many were business people with disaffected employees who had never taught formally at all. After several questions from the crowd, it became clear that no one was sure how to articulate what was wanted from the speakers.
And like many great teachers, Ben's teaching gift is instinctive. He couldn't quite connect people's questions to what he could offer.
Frustration is Good
I got up and offered a compromise. I pointed out that there was indeed hierarchy in Ben's relationship onstage with Nicolai. There always is with a teacher and student. I offered that what Ben did was lead Nicolai to see what it was that HE saw.
If a student or employee doesn't see the beauty and value of what the teacher or employer sees, it's the teacher or employer's failing. The challenge is both seeing the beauty or miraculousness oneself AND seeing where the blocks are for the student so that we can break them down. Once a student sees the vision as the teacher does, he or she will move toward it.
It was helpful for me to be frustrated. I now know what I think great teaching is.
How about you?
Every year, Camden Maine, October. Amazing.
Ben Zander Inspires
One of the highlights of the conference was Ben Zander's presentation. Ben is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and about the most exuberant person I've ever met.
In this talk, Ben offered two models of thinking: one of "The Downward Spiral" (linear thinking in binaries) and one of multiple possibilities. He then led a 15-year-old cellist called Nicolai through a Bach piece several times. Each time, Ben coached Nicolai so that by the end of the session, the piece sounded as good as it could be. It was a pleasure to watch.
One last point worth noting: Ben told Nicolai that when he makes a mistake, rather than making a face and drawing down his body, he should throw up his hands and say "How Fascinating!" The fear of making mistakes is perhaps the biggest challenge to learning in our culture, both in business and in school. We're trained to guess what our superiors or teachers want us to say.
Everyone rose to their applauding furiously when Ben was done. It was an extraordinary performance.
Later That Evening . . .
In order to continue the conversation about models of possibility, Ben and his ex-wife Roz invited us to a local inn to continue the conversation about how Ben inspired his student.
The meeting presented a frustrating experience -- both Ben and Roz spoke in abstract and extreme terms about their rival models.
The possibility model offered no hierarchy between expert (teacher) and novice (student or employee). It left every option open. Solutions were infinite.
The other model, by contrast, was a false habit we've learned of competing with each other, satisfying ourselves with winning when others lose, and offering only binary solutions.
What Happened Next
A few people got up to ask how to apply Ben and Roz's philosophy to non-artistic fields -- how does a boss inspire employees? How does a physics professor -- when there are right and wrong answers -- offer his students the option of infinite possibilities?
No one in the gathering had taught like Ben. Many were business people with disaffected employees who had never taught formally at all. After several questions from the crowd, it became clear that no one was sure how to articulate what was wanted from the speakers.
And like many great teachers, Ben's teaching gift is instinctive. He couldn't quite connect people's questions to what he could offer.
Frustration is Good
I got up and offered a compromise. I pointed out that there was indeed hierarchy in Ben's relationship onstage with Nicolai. There always is with a teacher and student. I offered that what Ben did was lead Nicolai to see what it was that HE saw.
If a student or employee doesn't see the beauty and value of what the teacher or employer sees, it's the teacher or employer's failing. The challenge is both seeing the beauty or miraculousness oneself AND seeing where the blocks are for the student so that we can break them down. Once a student sees the vision as the teacher does, he or she will move toward it.
It was helpful for me to be frustrated. I now know what I think great teaching is.
How about you?
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
And For All You Bad Spellers Out There . . .
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
How Do We Learn the Meaning of Words?
Erin McKean, lexicographer extrordinaire and myth buster about language, recently gave a talk at PopTech! to announce her new project, Wordnik!
Wordnik! is still in it's beta phase, but when it's released, it will help much more than any traditional dictionary.
What is a Dictionary For, Anyway?
As Erin has pointed out in many other talks, there is a misconception that a dictionary prescribes fixed and correct definitions for words. In fact, lexicographers scan both current electronic and paper sources for the ways in which words are used NOW. Rather than fixing language, editions of dictionaries demonstrate how English changes over time.
Why Wordnik?
Erin's point is this: We don't learn new words from dictionary definitions. We learn through context. One definition of genius -- a concept that is introduced for the first time that sounds absolutely obvious.
Erin is certainly that.
Wordnik, like Wikipedia, allows everyone to add sentences that offer enhancements or alternatives to those already recorded.
To that end, Wordnik is a living dictionary that will be more accurate at any moment than any printed work.
How useful is that?
If you feel, however, that talk is cheap, visit Erin's site A Dress a Day instead.
Wordnik! is still in it's beta phase, but when it's released, it will help much more than any traditional dictionary.
What is a Dictionary For, Anyway?
As Erin has pointed out in many other talks, there is a misconception that a dictionary prescribes fixed and correct definitions for words. In fact, lexicographers scan both current electronic and paper sources for the ways in which words are used NOW. Rather than fixing language, editions of dictionaries demonstrate how English changes over time.
Why Wordnik?
Erin's point is this: We don't learn new words from dictionary definitions. We learn through context. One definition of genius -- a concept that is introduced for the first time that sounds absolutely obvious.
Erin is certainly that.
Wordnik, like Wikipedia, allows everyone to add sentences that offer enhancements or alternatives to those already recorded.
To that end, Wordnik is a living dictionary that will be more accurate at any moment than any printed work.
How useful is that?
If you feel, however, that talk is cheap, visit Erin's site A Dress a Day instead.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Pay Attention, Kids -- Romans Go Home
Anyone remember "Life of Brian"?
The Centaurian John Cleese forces a Latin graffiti politico to correct his case endings. In anti-Roman slogans on a stone wall. 100 times, I seem to remember, and then the dissident is dragged off to prison.
Put two familiar lessons together that are usually kept apart, and you might learn something. The trick is finding the right two lessons and deciding what is really worth learning.
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
How important is it that kids learn Latin and about the culture that used it? Is the language really dead that reveals concepts applicable to every century?
The recent New York Times article asks us to revisit what we learn (and how we teach it) by likening the current financial crisis to the fall of Rome.
If only bankers had studied ancient culture differently (or at all, even), maybe none of this would never have happened. How much history do they teach in business school anyway?
Doomed to Repeat Ourselves?
Contemporary cultures too often treat the peoples who lived before them with a condescension that only comes from ignorance.
Progress is inevitable, right? We must have learned a tremendous amount in the centuries since the ancients invaded, stayed, and fell over themselves in England. How could we not?
The New York Times begs to differ. Understand cultural history -- yours, those around you, and the ways they are connected. Make it a priority in schools. It's as important as cutting bankers' bonuses if we want to move away from past mistakes. Big, big ones.
The Centaurian John Cleese forces a Latin graffiti politico to correct his case endings. In anti-Roman slogans on a stone wall. 100 times, I seem to remember, and then the dissident is dragged off to prison.
Put two familiar lessons together that are usually kept apart, and you might learn something. The trick is finding the right two lessons and deciding what is really worth learning.
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
How important is it that kids learn Latin and about the culture that used it? Is the language really dead that reveals concepts applicable to every century?
The recent New York Times article asks us to revisit what we learn (and how we teach it) by likening the current financial crisis to the fall of Rome.
If only bankers had studied ancient culture differently (or at all, even), maybe none of this would never have happened. How much history do they teach in business school anyway?
Doomed to Repeat Ourselves?
Contemporary cultures too often treat the peoples who lived before them with a condescension that only comes from ignorance.
Progress is inevitable, right? We must have learned a tremendous amount in the centuries since the ancients invaded, stayed, and fell over themselves in England. How could we not?
The New York Times begs to differ. Understand cultural history -- yours, those around you, and the ways they are connected. Make it a priority in schools. It's as important as cutting bankers' bonuses if we want to move away from past mistakes. Big, big ones.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Mind Games' Legacy: Mind-Body Connections for Learning
Richard Gilder wrote a wonderful, cogent post about the relationship between the mind and body -- the topic explicitly was the Olympics.
However, it's the same in school. When we present abstract concepts to Years 4, 5, and 6 in State schools across London, we always involve the body to engage the mind more fully.
I can't sing (trust me), but last year I taught a song about case endings to 25 classes. I asked them to stand up, use hand movements, and use their voices in different ways while singing.
After a long summer, the kids have forgot a lot. But they still know their case endings.
A Legacy
More important even that children learn the material with which they are presented, they are learning how to learn. Simple strategies such as standing up, or creating gestures, creates a legacy of understanding how they think. We've seen that this works both for pupils who are considered high achievers and low.
In other words, CAGSE is working to efface this distinction between pupils.
Now THAT would be a legacy.
However, it's the same in school. When we present abstract concepts to Years 4, 5, and 6 in State schools across London, we always involve the body to engage the mind more fully.
I can't sing (trust me), but last year I taught a song about case endings to 25 classes. I asked them to stand up, use hand movements, and use their voices in different ways while singing.
After a long summer, the kids have forgot a lot. But they still know their case endings.
A Legacy
More important even that children learn the material with which they are presented, they are learning how to learn. Simple strategies such as standing up, or creating gestures, creates a legacy of understanding how they think. We've seen that this works both for pupils who are considered high achievers and low.
In other words, CAGSE is working to efface this distinction between pupils.
Now THAT would be a legacy.
Friday, September 19, 2008
It's Not Just In Your Head: Let's Talk
Continuing from the last post:
Using the body and mind together makes teaching exponentially effective, regardless of subject area.
Obvious?
This all might seem tremendously obvious, but if it is, why isn't the mind-body connection used more? Pupils can stand up or change tables while learning without chaos ensuing. Even such simple additions to chalk-and-talk help.
Classroom teachers are burdened with so many deliverables (as they say in the business world) that many have given up on the creative potential that got them into teaching in the first place. One can't blame them for giving up.
Here's a way to be creative and effective that takes very little work. If any of you try it, let me know how it works. Furthermore, let us know what you invent -- we're always looking for new strategies related to the body-mind connection. And contact me if you'd like to know more about what we've used (and what has worked well) so far.
Using the body and mind together makes teaching exponentially effective, regardless of subject area.
Obvious?
This all might seem tremendously obvious, but if it is, why isn't the mind-body connection used more? Pupils can stand up or change tables while learning without chaos ensuing. Even such simple additions to chalk-and-talk help.
Classroom teachers are burdened with so many deliverables (as they say in the business world) that many have given up on the creative potential that got them into teaching in the first place. One can't blame them for giving up.
Here's a way to be creative and effective that takes very little work. If any of you try it, let me know how it works. Furthermore, let us know what you invent -- we're always looking for new strategies related to the body-mind connection. And contact me if you'd like to know more about what we've used (and what has worked well) so far.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Training Day At CAGSE
When Last We Saw Our Heroes . . .
They were arranged in a circle in a training room at the Swiss Cottage Library. Zanna Wing-Davey, Director of Latin Studies for CAGSE, had each teacher throwing bean bags at the others after first catching the recipient's eye. This followed a game in which bags could only be thrown after a name was called (the correct name for the correct teacher) before catching an eye and tossing.
The exercise was simple but so effective that 12 strangers got to know each other's names and general tendencies in about 5 minutes.
Latin Games
The two days were full of such connections between ideas and the way the body responds to the world outside it. Jen Pearcy offered ways to create discipline, all through theatre exercises.
Jonathan Goddard did a piece on how to keep an entire class engaged when the pupils in it start at different levels of achievement and understanding. Again, mind-body connections integrated into intellectual strategy.
More in the next post.
They were arranged in a circle in a training room at the Swiss Cottage Library. Zanna Wing-Davey, Director of Latin Studies for CAGSE, had each teacher throwing bean bags at the others after first catching the recipient's eye. This followed a game in which bags could only be thrown after a name was called (the correct name for the correct teacher) before catching an eye and tossing.
The exercise was simple but so effective that 12 strangers got to know each other's names and general tendencies in about 5 minutes.
Latin Games
The two days were full of such connections between ideas and the way the body responds to the world outside it. Jen Pearcy offered ways to create discipline, all through theatre exercises.
Jonathan Goddard did a piece on how to keep an entire class engaged when the pupils in it start at different levels of achievement and understanding. Again, mind-body connections integrated into intellectual strategy.
More in the next post.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Best Way to Think? Get Out of Your Head
Driving Change
For those of us who run on inspiration like cars do on petrol, it is no small thing. Unfortunately, gas stations are much more common than sources of remarkable conversation.
Or fortunately.
Because when a chance meeting occurs, and you know you have a colleague -- at least in spirit -- the sun comes out for quite a while over whatever project you're working on.
Even if you never see the person again.
In This Episode . . .
I had just such an inspirational encounter with Natalie Pinkham yesterday through an introduction by Ethan Zohn. Before getting to Natalie, in addition to being a lovely and generous person, Ethan is a tremendous warrior for good on his own. Check out what he did with the money he won from Survivor.
Chapter 1: We Drank
Natalie and I met at a French cafe (one of the few genuine ones in London, she tells me), and we talked about Access Sport, Natalie's own charity and ours. Natalie also told me about Kids Aid, the charity her mother recently founded, and we three strangers all seem to have something in common: children's intellect and choices are influenced by, absorbed through and built on emotional reactions.
In other words, learning requires strong feelings. We are taught that there are rules that define right and wrong answers, but anyone knows this intuitively (dare I say "emotionally"?)
If you want to read more on school or business and emotional in-put, please see some past posts (1, 2, 3 etc.) on this blog. They're written about corporate innovation, but grown-ups are often only kids with very bad habits.
Happily, not always.
But Wait, There's (Always) More
This might sound obvious, but if you're not feeling productive at work, get up and leave. Go find someone who or something that inspires you. Inspiration, like curiosity, creates energy and confidence that finds ways around obstacles.
The strategy goes along with those promulgated (if one can use that word in a positive sense) by CAGSE, Kids Aid, and Access Sport.
Your mind can't run if your emotional system is depleted, damaged, or simply out of gas.
Creativity does not exist without feeling. Without getting out of your head, innovative work for grown up's becomes the equivalent of a bored 5-year-old pushing peas around on a plate.
You can choose your own sustenance now -- mom lives elsewhere.
Go find it.
For those of us who run on inspiration like cars do on petrol, it is no small thing. Unfortunately, gas stations are much more common than sources of remarkable conversation.
Or fortunately.
Because when a chance meeting occurs, and you know you have a colleague -- at least in spirit -- the sun comes out for quite a while over whatever project you're working on.
Even if you never see the person again.
In This Episode . . .
I had just such an inspirational encounter with Natalie Pinkham yesterday through an introduction by Ethan Zohn. Before getting to Natalie, in addition to being a lovely and generous person, Ethan is a tremendous warrior for good on his own. Check out what he did with the money he won from Survivor.
Chapter 1: We Drank
Natalie and I met at a French cafe (one of the few genuine ones in London, she tells me), and we talked about Access Sport, Natalie's own charity and ours. Natalie also told me about Kids Aid, the charity her mother recently founded, and we three strangers all seem to have something in common: children's intellect and choices are influenced by, absorbed through and built on emotional reactions.
In other words, learning requires strong feelings. We are taught that there are rules that define right and wrong answers, but anyone knows this intuitively (dare I say "emotionally"?)
If you want to read more on school or business and emotional in-put, please see some past posts (1, 2, 3 etc.) on this blog. They're written about corporate innovation, but grown-ups are often only kids with very bad habits.
Happily, not always.
But Wait, There's (Always) More
This might sound obvious, but if you're not feeling productive at work, get up and leave. Go find someone who or something that inspires you. Inspiration, like curiosity, creates energy and confidence that finds ways around obstacles.
The strategy goes along with those promulgated (if one can use that word in a positive sense) by CAGSE, Kids Aid, and Access Sport.
Your mind can't run if your emotional system is depleted, damaged, or simply out of gas.
Creativity does not exist without feeling. Without getting out of your head, innovative work for grown up's becomes the equivalent of a bored 5-year-old pushing peas around on a plate.
You can choose your own sustenance now -- mom lives elsewhere.
Go find it.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Intellectual Olympiad -- Let the Training Begin
I've taken a break and am back to report on some of the remarkable things I've seen in education this summer.
Talking to strategy directors in some of the boroughs in London, it seems we are in a rather precarious situation. One borough was missing two or three consultants in maths, literacy and other major areas with prospects of newly graduated staff in September.
Happily, the person in charge of primary school in this borough is more than competent to steer the boat, even with beginners. She's experienced, smart, no nonsense, and she knows what's important.
What sort of Mayor demands this kind of heroism from his front-line team? Is he even checking up on the welfare of the guardians of the kids he claims to care about so much?
This was the worst of what I heard, but other things (which I won't repeat but were told me quite freely) were not that much more heartening.
What's To Be Done?
I've been told by more than one Londoner that millions of pounds of tax money go into preventing the schools from getting worse. If we wanted to make the system better, we'd have to bankrupt most of Europe.
As Europe is having it's own economic problems these days, there should be a better solution. In fact, money, although helpful, is not usually the answer on its own. You don't have to be a brain surgeon (or even a professor) to figure that one out.
So What's the Answer? Only a Beginning . . .
We need a change in attitude about what constitutes education, how it's measured, and how it's delivered. To educators -- who struggle with box ticking and more courses than fit in a day's timetable -- this is not news.
However, for politicians, the SATs have more problems than simply not being graded (which wasn't so hot either). They need to go away entirely. Giving * next to an A in A levels is grade inflation -- an A is the standard of greatest excellence. Period.
Teachers, on the other hand, did not get into a profession -- to suffer as much stress as an investment banker without the profit -- because education should be measurable.
We teach because we care about kids and supporting their intellectual and emotional growth and health in whatever fashion it manifests itself.
Isn't an understanding about HOW to learn and think what we're teaching really?
Bottom line: You can't measure how well a child has learned to learn. You can measure some ways in which this is true, but the results are deceptively narrow.
A Reason to Teach Latin in Your School
The organisation I run can't fix all the problems schools face, but it can help. We teach Latin in order to see how the mind works when learning a language. This breaks down into the way in which meaning is constructed, and although for Years 5 and 6 much of this happens through games, songs, and stories, the abstract truth of this is not negated by the fact that it isn't even mentioned.
Latin is certainly not the only way to do this, and we're certainly not the only charity to dedicate itself to this sort of goal. But unlike the classroom teachers enslaved within the system, we have the freedom to support these colleagues tied to the curriculum.
Let us help. Latin isn't as crazy as it sounds, even to a Lefty, when you know what's behind it.
We all want intellectual athletes to match the physical prowess we'll show in 2010, don't we?
Talking to strategy directors in some of the boroughs in London, it seems we are in a rather precarious situation. One borough was missing two or three consultants in maths, literacy and other major areas with prospects of newly graduated staff in September.
Happily, the person in charge of primary school in this borough is more than competent to steer the boat, even with beginners. She's experienced, smart, no nonsense, and she knows what's important.
What sort of Mayor demands this kind of heroism from his front-line team? Is he even checking up on the welfare of the guardians of the kids he claims to care about so much?
This was the worst of what I heard, but other things (which I won't repeat but were told me quite freely) were not that much more heartening.
What's To Be Done?
I've been told by more than one Londoner that millions of pounds of tax money go into preventing the schools from getting worse. If we wanted to make the system better, we'd have to bankrupt most of Europe.
As Europe is having it's own economic problems these days, there should be a better solution. In fact, money, although helpful, is not usually the answer on its own. You don't have to be a brain surgeon (or even a professor) to figure that one out.
So What's the Answer? Only a Beginning . . .
We need a change in attitude about what constitutes education, how it's measured, and how it's delivered. To educators -- who struggle with box ticking and more courses than fit in a day's timetable -- this is not news.
However, for politicians, the SATs have more problems than simply not being graded (which wasn't so hot either). They need to go away entirely. Giving * next to an A in A levels is grade inflation -- an A is the standard of greatest excellence. Period.
Teachers, on the other hand, did not get into a profession -- to suffer as much stress as an investment banker without the profit -- because education should be measurable.
We teach because we care about kids and supporting their intellectual and emotional growth and health in whatever fashion it manifests itself.
Isn't an understanding about HOW to learn and think what we're teaching really?
Bottom line: You can't measure how well a child has learned to learn. You can measure some ways in which this is true, but the results are deceptively narrow.
A Reason to Teach Latin in Your School
The organisation I run can't fix all the problems schools face, but it can help. We teach Latin in order to see how the mind works when learning a language. This breaks down into the way in which meaning is constructed, and although for Years 5 and 6 much of this happens through games, songs, and stories, the abstract truth of this is not negated by the fact that it isn't even mentioned.
Latin is certainly not the only way to do this, and we're certainly not the only charity to dedicate itself to this sort of goal. But unlike the classroom teachers enslaved within the system, we have the freedom to support these colleagues tied to the curriculum.
Let us help. Latin isn't as crazy as it sounds, even to a Lefty, when you know what's behind it.
We all want intellectual athletes to match the physical prowess we'll show in 2010, don't we?
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Celebrating Triumph: Years 4, 5 and 6
Continuing from the last post . . . .
We've Done the "Why": Now a Little How
CAGSE offers samplers of the Latin programme for boroughs who are interested in offering it in their schools. Most often, we rent a venue, invite local schools, and do one interactive performance for several classes at once.
When asked, we also work with one class or several classes from the same school in their assembly hall.
What Comes Next
We begin by talking about Roman heroes and what they have in common with the kids' heroes today. Even Thomas the Tank Engine is honest and brave, so it's usually not much of a stretch.
More, But Different
We have a professional story teller present the origins and exploits of a Roman hero -- recently, it's been Aeneas -- ending with the bit about the armour created with his victories and exploits in mind. We then ask the children to close their eyes and imagine their greatest triumph -- if they were going to create a shield, what would they have on it? How would they articulate their greatest success? The kids are encouraged to consider their past experiences and also to envision their futures.
We then distribute paper shields and crayons, and we ask them to draw what they are most proud of -- or what they plan to be most proud of -- in ten minutes. We also ask them to give the pictures a title. We post all the shields in one place, and we talk about the impressive aspects of each.
If you'd like to see some, click here or here. They're not all posted yet, so stay tuned.
And Last . . .
Just for a sense of Latin's accessibility, we teach the kids a little chat. Hello, how are you, I'm fine, how are you, I'm fine -- that's it. In Latin.
They practice with a partner, they shout it as one large group to another, and there is usually a lot of laughter. Many of these children speak languages other than English at home. This just makes Latin another -- another that they can master.
If You'd Like Us to Come to Your Borough or Your School . . .
Please contact us through the CAGSE site. We've found the effect to be the same everywhere we go. Latin is fun, easy to learn, and connected to the culture (and land) in which all the children live.
We've Done the "Why": Now a Little How
CAGSE offers samplers of the Latin programme for boroughs who are interested in offering it in their schools. Most often, we rent a venue, invite local schools, and do one interactive performance for several classes at once.
When asked, we also work with one class or several classes from the same school in their assembly hall.
What Comes Next
We begin by talking about Roman heroes and what they have in common with the kids' heroes today. Even Thomas the Tank Engine is honest and brave, so it's usually not much of a stretch.
More, But Different
We have a professional story teller present the origins and exploits of a Roman hero -- recently, it's been Aeneas -- ending with the bit about the armour created with his victories and exploits in mind. We then ask the children to close their eyes and imagine their greatest triumph -- if they were going to create a shield, what would they have on it? How would they articulate their greatest success? The kids are encouraged to consider their past experiences and also to envision their futures.
We then distribute paper shields and crayons, and we ask them to draw what they are most proud of -- or what they plan to be most proud of -- in ten minutes. We also ask them to give the pictures a title. We post all the shields in one place, and we talk about the impressive aspects of each.
If you'd like to see some, click here or here. They're not all posted yet, so stay tuned.
And Last . . .
Just for a sense of Latin's accessibility, we teach the kids a little chat. Hello, how are you, I'm fine, how are you, I'm fine -- that's it. In Latin.
They practice with a partner, they shout it as one large group to another, and there is usually a lot of laughter. Many of these children speak languages other than English at home. This just makes Latin another -- another that they can master.
If You'd Like Us to Come to Your Borough or Your School . . .
Please contact us through the CAGSE site. We've found the effect to be the same everywhere we go. Latin is fun, easy to learn, and connected to the culture (and land) in which all the children live.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Samplers for Latin: But First, a Quiz
Background
I run an educational consultancy called CAGSE, which stands for Curriculum Articulation for the Global Support of Education. "Curriculum Articulation," you see, instead of "Development". The real trick before you teach is to clarify what you want to accomplish. Then you need to be precise about the reason to choose a particular activity to accomplish this.
For those who have not taught, articulating your goals and objectives is probably the hardest part of the job. Discipline is probably the second most difficult in primary school, particularly if you are not the regular teacher, but it can be mitigated -- or eliminated -- by a beautifully planned and executed lesson.
So really, articulation is the key, both for yourself and for your class. Everyone needs to be on the same page.
What We Teach
Latin. In State schools. Years 4, 5 and 6. In London.
For Americans, that means third, fourth and fifth grades in public school.
Why? I've written about this earlier, so if you've read it all before, please move on to the next post.
But If You Haven't Heard . . . .
A lot of benefits, particularly in London schools. The political valence of Latin here is heavy. It's a gentleman's language, taught to the elite. With few exceptions, it's taught to middle- to upper-middle class kids in fee-paying schools. And it's usually considered a subject for only the highest achievers. In other words, do well at everything else, and you will be rewarded with Classics.
This reinforces a class system that is as much about education as it is about breeding and money (similar, but not exactly the same, as in the States where money plays a much bigger role and breeding a much smaller one).
For the hundreds of thousands of non-European immigrants and their children, who wouldn't fit into the class system even with the fanciest education or an influx of dosh, Latin can help both with confidence (they are as smart and special as fancy English kids) and with their English (it's the best English grammar education they can get).
What's more, Latin is an inflected language. Most of the kids of immigrant parents' share languages that are also inflected. Learning Latin allows these kids to feel that English and the place they live belongs to them in a new way. Add the fact that their home town used to belong to the Romans, and the sense of connection is complete. Latin can be the passport that allows these kids to have ownership over the place they live and to the languages they speak.
But Wait . . . There's (Always) More
The benefits grow the more you think about them. Romance languages become easy to learn once Latin is under the belt, and there is a modern language requirement in primary schools here to be implemented universally by the year 2010.
One parent in Hampstead believes that regardless of the "modern" language taught in her daughter's primary school, Latin should be taught, too. What if the primary school teaches French, and the secondary school teaches Spanish (or visa versa)? Latin will level the playing field for every kid.
Last But not Least, It's Fun.
Unlike the older ways of teaching Latin, CAGSE uses age-appropriate activities in addition to traditional methods. Although I can't sing, I went around to classrooms all over London teaching a song about case endings. There were hand movements, loud and soft versions, and a lot of standing up. The kids loved it. More important, they remembered it.
For more on this subject in a more universal context, please see Via Facilis for extensive discussion of this topic.
For further ways CAGSE empowers kids through Latin language and culture, please see the next post.
I run an educational consultancy called CAGSE, which stands for Curriculum Articulation for the Global Support of Education. "Curriculum Articulation," you see, instead of "Development". The real trick before you teach is to clarify what you want to accomplish. Then you need to be precise about the reason to choose a particular activity to accomplish this.
For those who have not taught, articulating your goals and objectives is probably the hardest part of the job. Discipline is probably the second most difficult in primary school, particularly if you are not the regular teacher, but it can be mitigated -- or eliminated -- by a beautifully planned and executed lesson.
So really, articulation is the key, both for yourself and for your class. Everyone needs to be on the same page.
What We Teach
Latin. In State schools. Years 4, 5 and 6. In London.
For Americans, that means third, fourth and fifth grades in public school.
Why? I've written about this earlier, so if you've read it all before, please move on to the next post.
But If You Haven't Heard . . . .
A lot of benefits, particularly in London schools. The political valence of Latin here is heavy. It's a gentleman's language, taught to the elite. With few exceptions, it's taught to middle- to upper-middle class kids in fee-paying schools. And it's usually considered a subject for only the highest achievers. In other words, do well at everything else, and you will be rewarded with Classics.
This reinforces a class system that is as much about education as it is about breeding and money (similar, but not exactly the same, as in the States where money plays a much bigger role and breeding a much smaller one).
For the hundreds of thousands of non-European immigrants and their children, who wouldn't fit into the class system even with the fanciest education or an influx of dosh, Latin can help both with confidence (they are as smart and special as fancy English kids) and with their English (it's the best English grammar education they can get).
What's more, Latin is an inflected language. Most of the kids of immigrant parents' share languages that are also inflected. Learning Latin allows these kids to feel that English and the place they live belongs to them in a new way. Add the fact that their home town used to belong to the Romans, and the sense of connection is complete. Latin can be the passport that allows these kids to have ownership over the place they live and to the languages they speak.
But Wait . . . There's (Always) More
The benefits grow the more you think about them. Romance languages become easy to learn once Latin is under the belt, and there is a modern language requirement in primary schools here to be implemented universally by the year 2010.
One parent in Hampstead believes that regardless of the "modern" language taught in her daughter's primary school, Latin should be taught, too. What if the primary school teaches French, and the secondary school teaches Spanish (or visa versa)? Latin will level the playing field for every kid.
Last But not Least, It's Fun.
Unlike the older ways of teaching Latin, CAGSE uses age-appropriate activities in addition to traditional methods. Although I can't sing, I went around to classrooms all over London teaching a song about case endings. There were hand movements, loud and soft versions, and a lot of standing up. The kids loved it. More important, they remembered it.
For more on this subject in a more universal context, please see Via Facilis for extensive discussion of this topic.
For further ways CAGSE empowers kids through Latin language and culture, please see the next post.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Latin It All Hang Out
I haven't written in ages, primarily because we've been getting the CAGSE Latin program in order for next year. I have much to tell about children's love of Latin, how Latin aids children's English (a sneaky side-effect), and the fun we've had this term in London schools.
For the latest work we're doing, see our site for news, primary school kids interpreting the Aeneid in our free sample sessions, and our classes blogging about Latin. For some commentary on our success, please stay tuned . . . .
For the latest work we're doing, see our site for news, primary school kids interpreting the Aeneid in our free sample sessions, and our classes blogging about Latin. For some commentary on our success, please stay tuned . . . .
Friday, May 16, 2008
Calling All Excellent Teachers: CAGSE Needs You
Are you an experienced, enthusiastic teacher? Do you love kids? Do you live in England or do you have a work permit to do so? Do you love language, and do you learn quickly?
CAGSE is recruiting teachers of all disciplines who either have done Latin or would like to learn it -- teachers who focus on storytelling and other unusual ways of engaging kids.
CAGSE focuses on Years 5 and 6 in London State schools, and we have a wonderfully collaborative process.
If you think we suit you and you us, please get in touch (info@cagse.com).
For more information, see www.cagse.com.
CAGSE is recruiting teachers of all disciplines who either have done Latin or would like to learn it -- teachers who focus on storytelling and other unusual ways of engaging kids.
CAGSE focuses on Years 5 and 6 in London State schools, and we have a wonderfully collaborative process.
If you think we suit you and you us, please get in touch (info@cagse.com).
For more information, see www.cagse.com.
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