Serendipity and Learning

Perhaps too early to say, but curated content for which you have to pay through your nose is probably dead.  For one, most content creators have bloated content. A typical course is broken into so many videos (yes, in theory, all are short), but there is still too much noise. Getting to the core of the course is difficult.  Second, most course creators create their own framework - and with good reason because it is their brain at work and is based off their experience (and sometimes, common frameworks are probably copyrighted or just too common). As a company, those frameworks may not work for you because you may not like that framework or you may have an alternate framework in use.  Third, people (atleast in startups) and leaders (everywhere) have no time, so the overall usage of this content is quite low.  Fourth, for the most part, searching for good content is like searching for something to watch on Netflix - impossible to know if any course is good, unless you ...

The internet is a great barrier reducing machine. It removes hurdles from the path of most types of creativity.  Some years ago when blogging was at its peak, it almost threatened to disrupt normal courses of reading. Normal courses were books, magazines - both of which were highly restrictive and had fairly high walls. So, the more connected ones got opportunities regardless of talent. When the talented ones did get opportunities and they mostly returned the favour by making the walls higher. In those days getting published in a newspaper was a big thing. Once blogging came about, anybody could become a writer. It also changed the way people consumed information by breaking down barriers and making the consumption of information a two way process. From blogs to twitter it was a short hop. If it was not for the incessant blogging, there is no way I would have written daily and managed to eventually write my first book. If you are an aspiring writer, the time to start writing is now...

 A few years back I worked with a consultant as a freelance trainer. They said they were content specialists. And that they would want to work with expert facilitators and so on. And I said yes.  Then they got their client, supposedly understood the requirements and came up with a content pack for 4 hours.  I went through the content and the content was a pot pourri of slides. There was no structure or framework. All the content was unattributed images from Google with a single text line (after all that was the latest in slide design). Every few slides there was an engagement activity (sometimes directly connected with the topic at hand - at other times irrelevant). Then there were quizzes where chocolates had to be thrown to the audience for answering correctly or making the right points. And there were group discussions where the audience was grouped into teams and left to discuss. Then there were role plays.  The entire content was grouped like a bad movie. A set ...

 Recently, I worked on an assignment for a youngish audience. The audience was just out of college and getting used to corporate life for a year or two in most cases. These would be people who are in their mid twenties. Born in the late 90s - this audience is our first experience of the generation gap. The generation gap is a big one for facilitators. For many reasons, but the outcome of that is that the audience doesnt connect with you.  By the time the 90s kids were in school - they would have had access to the internet and have been largely techno savvy.  That was the problem statement. How do we build content in a way that it resonates with this audience.  And thats when it struck us - to use gaming as an analogy. And showed corporate life from a viewpoint of a game that they need to play, collect coins, gain power ups and move up levels.  This simple construct, resonated so well with the audience - we had not imagined it striking such a strong chord.  ...

Many years ago, a senior leader was addressing a gathering of newbies. Email was relatively new then and people still diligently read forwards. And he shared an example of the General Motors and Ice-cream story. Needless to say, the audience did not clap, they went 'meh'. Why, because information is free. Once you have email - it is a matter of time before every known forward made its way to its inbox. Exactly the same way, you will notice that the same set of forwards keep circulating in all your whatsapp groups within a day.  So, if everybody has the internet (and we google and call it research) and you are picking stuff that everyone knows into training material, you have got something wrong.  So whats the answer? It is the same - there is space beyond this easy keyboard hunting...there is space beyond the obvious and beyond the crowded 'easy'

The title should have a some in it, but then it isn't quite dramatic. I am part of multiple LnD forums and groupchats on Whatsapp - mostly. All day mostly they are looking for 'content' for a training program or for 'activities' for something. The other activities that happen are asking for a trainer or pointer to some topic or marketing their own work. What is not happening is debates on how to do things (better?) or what are the new advances and challenges. And even with that not happening, the best place to get content is google. And the worst. Because the laziest content seekers go with the first page on wikipedia or whatever else they can find. And if this is your idea of content, you are dead on arrival. Why not read yourself? Talk to people? Find out more? Go beyond google? Luckily, it is some people. The rest are doing a better job of it...

I had to give a lecture on Prototyping. This is a difficult task because prototyping is all about doing. But one hour was all we had and a lecture to be delivered. So, here is what I spoke about... Define prototyping beyond the conventional definition Staying away from cliched stories of prototyping Examples of prototyping - offbeat examples Takeaway - we are all creators, makers and tinkerers Examples of not having to prototype Wicked problems versus well defined problems The perfect being the enemy of the good Propensity to not ship (and how companies are working to overcome it) Shortening lifecycles of companies and products Real life examples Methods like Lean start up, Design Thinking How to prototype (methods) And finally, a thought on leading our lives as a prototype!

Stumbled upon this beautiful representation of the solar system . It is quite difficult to explain the size of the solar system - it is clearly beyond comprehension for most ordinary people - leave alone kids. This beautiful representation shows how to make it comprehensible. Things like this make one go a-ha. The best thumbrule for most ideas is "Why did I not think of that" and this one gets there, by a mile.

One of my favourite analogies to test how effective any material is the Airline safety placard and and the airline safety instructions. I ask people the last time they flew, did they really hear what the instructions were or did they just hear some noise. The thing is that most people dont. Like google ads, they dont 'exist' because your mind is so attuned to it that those instructions just do not register. The attendants are doing their job -because it a regulation and you are there as a captive audience. This is a great example of how many of our trainings are. The moment they come into a 'class' see the familiar settings, the familiar templates - thats it - it is a cue for the mind to switch off. In both these examples, there are two arguments. One is that content need not be exciting, because it is their job/their responsibility whatever. The other is that the content can and should be different (if not exciting) because very often the mind ne...

Over the last few months, I have been busy creating learning courses, attending some courses and watching people teach - this will continue to be a big part of my own learing and I strongly suspect that what I have seen so far is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. And this has led to some interesting thoughts in my head. One is that, I dont think we emphasize enough on getting content right. Content has to fine tuned every now and then to a) meet the needs of the audience b) to reflect contemporary reality and research c) updated with relevant pedagogy. I have found trainers sheltering under the argument that goes that fundamental stuff does not change, hence our course does not need to be updated. But that is a fallacious argument. The underlying content may not change, but the language has to reflect the reality. For example, if you are showing a video in which the conversation and look and feel is distinctly 1990, the language used and the settings are a distraction from...