Serendipity and Learning

 When was the last time you did something new? Mine was last weekend. When I tried my hand at creating youtube videos. I looked at a few video editing softwares, downloaded it (or used it off the cloud). Obviously, I was not very happy with my first few attempts and kept the video in a private mode.  A few hours later into this trial and error process, I realised that this is no different from blogging - where more than getting the writing right - it is all about getting the idea out there and continuing to work on it - and not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.  So, I put out my first few videos on the Coolture Designs video channel.  And the friend who had instigate this had warned - your first few videos are going to crappy and you will not have views - but keep at it - videos are the mode of the future (as much I am a reader and a consumer of the printed word more than videos) - so you better learn this skill.  So, that was last weekend. This weekend,...

 2021: Day 1 of school. Teacher asks the kids, "If you could invite a celebrity or two to your house who would that be?" Pause for a moment. If your mind thought, sportspersons, actors, artists - anybody who is conventionally well known - yes, anybody - were the answers the children gave - no. Apparently all the celebrities were YouTubers - rather, famous on YouTube. They were artists, diy-ers, singers, dancers, people who teach various things from workouts to yoga to making things - and almost all of them were non Indian.  The generation of today has a different meaning of celebrities. For them, the celebrities are not the ones covered on TV/newspapers - most of them don't watch TV as TV anyway. For celebrities are internet celebrities. And many of these are not celebrities in the conventional sense - some of them are conventional celebrities in other countries possibly, but mostly they are just someone with a YouTube channel - but of course, someone who has poured their...

This is a question I often ask in my interviews and expect to be asked whenever either I go for an interview (or equally first time meeting with a potential client). What I answer you will know when we meet, but on the other side, very often there is no answer to this question - what's new in the OD space or tell me something new. For me this question is important because it means you as a practitioner are thinking about new things. Second, it means, you are not content with status quo and you are trying to push the envelope. The trick here is to not fall into the usual trap of 'what is supposed to be cool'. So, pushing jargons here is a sure disaster - like digital detox, micro learning or the so called problem of millennials and attention span (guess why this is wrong). One of the issues with 'new' is also that the learning and OD space still has a lot of old research - most of which is quite relevant and pertinent and that has become a comfort zone of sorts ...

I finally managed to complete a MOOC. This is the second one I had signed up for – from Coursera. The first one I could not complete. So, what made the difference? Amidst both the MOOC’s, something happened that I fell behind by a week. But in the first instance, the deadline was a hard deadline (much before the end of the course) with no leeway. And having fallen behind once, I lost the enthusiasm to try. In the second instance, all the deadlines were a common deadline towards the end of the course – so having slipped back, it was a matter of completing 2 modules in the space of one. So, I was able to claw back in, just in the nick of time. Some more questions: Was the course good? Both the MOOC’s were good. The first one, I thought was a little more intense than the second one – and I really wish I was able to complete it. How was the content?  Both had really practical content. How much time did I have to spend? In the first one, I had to spend...

I saw this post yesterday at The Domino Project on a new e-book - they are giving away for free named Flinch. More than the name, the cover made me curious. What the hell is this about. The preview on Amazon was superb. (It resonated with something I was doing!) And instead of me expounding it, go download this glorious ebook on Kindle - Flinch which does it so well . For some strange reason, it is free. So, dont waste your time and go download and read it (it works in India as well). I have started reading it and the book is lively and punchy!