Friday’s Finds

Here are some of the ideas and insights that were shared via Twitter this past week, just to show that what happens in Vegas, gets posted to the Web ;)

Steve Rosenbaum: We need thoughtful filters with humans replacing algorithms so it becomes more about ideas than data – via @Smartinx

“if learning happens all around us, and we strive to create “learning organisations” how can we justify the LMS as a content management tool?” – by @mollybob

Brenda Sugrue: “When a client asks you to consider Learning Styles or Bloom’s Taxonomy it should be a BIG instructional design red flag” #DevLearn – via @rec54

Innovation is Not ‘Best Practice’ – via @hyponastic

• Innovations start out as best practices, but best practices all become uninnovative.
• Best practices can blind us to more things than we might realize at first.
• Innovation is not about agreeing on things.
• Best practices are too complicated.
• Everything works some of the time, nothing works all of the time.

Anything that does not contribute to learning is waste – by @eskokilpi via @davidgurteen

Management theory needs to leave behind the industrial, mechanistic model of reality and the belief in the linear, if – then, causality. The sciences of complexity, non-linear dynamics, uncertainty and creative learning are the foundations of modern, human-centric management.

The task of managers is not reduction of uncertainty but to develop capacity to operate creatively within it. Ilya Prigogine wrote in his book “The End of Certainty” that the future is not given, but under perpetual construction:

“Life is about unpredictable novelty where the possible is always richer than the real.”

 Here are some of the insights and ideas that were shared via Twitter this past week.

Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face ~ Mike Tyson – via @DickBeveridge

Working Wikily: “It is ultimately to everyone’s benefit when we see ourselves as a node within a network …”

Say goodbye to the organisational hierarchies please – by @sig

This focus on efficiency over effectiveness should remind us of what Peter Drucker once said: “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” And today, thanks to modern IT we do things very efficiently, especially the 60% that which need not to be done at all.

@DavePollard – The Metamovement: Moving Beyond Marches and People in the Street

THE CHALLENGE OF BALANCING GROUP AUTHORITY AND INDIVIDUAL AUTONOMY

From what I have seen, the major challenge the Occupy groups are dealing with is about who is authorized to do what on behalf of, or binding upon, participants, without infringing on individual participants’ autonomy. For example, if someone wants to organize a march, does it need to be put forward as a proposal and agreed to by consensus of the whole? Since it only needs to be agreed to by consensus if it is put forward as a proposal at a General Assembly, does this encourage people to circumvent the collective decision-making process by just saying “I’m going to do this — who’s with me?” instead of putting forward a proposal to the group?

@JeffMerrell – WSJ: Peter Cappelli on why companies aren’t getting employees they need. “The problem is an illusion”

Some of the complaints about skill shortages boil down to the fact that employers can’t get candidates to accept jobs at the wages offered. That’s an affordability problem, not a skill shortage. A real shortage means not being able to find appropriate candidates at market-clearing wages. We wouldn’t say there is a shortage of diamonds when they are incredibly expensive; we can buy all we want at the prevailing prices.

The real problem, then, is more appropriately an inflexibility problem. Finding candidates to fit jobs is not like finding pistons to fit engines, where the requirements are precise and can’t be varied. Jobs can be organized in many different ways so that candidates who have very different credentials can do them successfully.

like a horse and carriage – by @snowded

“Economists and workplace consultants regard it as almost unquestioned dogma that people are motivated by rewards, so they don’t feel the need to test this. It has the status more of religious truth than scientific hypothesis.”

“The facts are absolutely clear.
There is no question that in virtually all circumstances in which people are doing things in order to get rewards, extrinsic tangible rewards undermine intrinsic motivation” (New Scientist, 9 April 2011)

Here again is why I do Friday’s Finds. It’s part of my sense-making process:

I added a sense-making activity about two years ago when I realized I was losing track of what I was finding on Twitter. I could have saved interesting tweets to my social bookmarks but instead I decided to do a weekly review of what I had found. This requires little effort during the week, other than clicking the “favorite” star. At the end of the week, I re-read these tweets and their links and then decide which ones are still of interest. The activity of reading, writing and perhaps commenting helps to internalize some of the knowledge. The result is Friday’s Finds and a byproduct is that some other people find them interesting and useful as well.

Here are some of the observations and insights shared via Twitter this past week. 

In a Complex World, Continuous Learning & Simple Truths Prevail by @CharlesJennings

Despite the sophistication, the big brains and the resources available to the traders and executives in Lehmann Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and the rest, it appears they failed to see this simple truth. That no matter how smart you are, you still needed to carry on learning.

It also appears they were unaware of another simple truth – that continuous learning is the only sustainable asset in a world of constant change.

This study of 25,000 people across 19 countries debunks some assumptions about Gen Y work preferences – via @aaronsilvers

For example, we frequently hear that Gen Y are beating the drum for new working practices – demanding the freedom to work remotely, make use of stimuli such as social networks and to continually have the latest ‘must-have’ technologies.

But the study found that the reality is very different. In fact, younger staff expressed 15-20 per cent less desire than their older colleagues to choose their time and place of work – they actively seek out every opportunity to be in the office in the closest proximity to their boss.

Siri: the hole in the dam for natural language computing –  by @DonaldClark

1. Talking means better learning
E-learning usually puts something between the learner and content – a device. It can be a keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, joystick… whatever. This physical device requires cognitive effort and almost certainly distracts and diminishes the cognitive bandwidth available for attention and processing by the learner. Ideally, there would be no such device. Voice is, in fact, how most everyday communication takes place. We see and speak to each other without any interloper. You didn’t have to learn to speak and listen but you did have to spend years learning how to read, write and use computers. It’s good to talk as it’s how we learn.

Hans de Zwart: 1) Technology is not just a tool, it is not “neutral” 2) You can help change technology for the better – thoughtful presentation on digital civil rights:

Interesting finds that were shared on Twitter this past week include:

“You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence is not an event it is a habit.” ~Aristotle – via @simpletonbill

“Innovation – a definition: (in a holistic sense) – the realization of new ideas that contribute to sustainable changes” @JonHusband

“If innovation means we are temporarily incompetent because it’s new, then continuous innovation means continuous incompetence.” @Downes

“the single most important management skill to develop is a tolerance for ambiguity” ~ @TimKastelle

How does the traditional world view of knowledge management fit in the world of social business? by @sumeet_moghe

Useful content doesn’t come up by magic. Content also doesn’t come up as a result of an imposed structure. Content arrives on platforms because some people feel a strong ownership for it and believe that there’s value in sharing it. Over a period of time they use metadata such as tags, ratings and comments to provide a layer of information and commentary to the content. Given a reasonable amount of time, the structure for all the content on the platform starts to emerge. Tag clouds help create a map for users so they can browse through the content. Search engines start throwing intelligent results for searches. User commentary, ratings and flags provide a layer of quality control over the content, helping all members of the community find the best content for the purpose.

Knowledge Management = experience-sharing NOT information-sharing – Knoco Stories

In most of the training courses I run, I ask the question “where does knowledge come from?”
Always, every time, I get the answer “Experience – Knowledge comes from Experience”. Never does anyone answer “Knowledge comes from Information”.
Never
If you don’t believe me, try it yourself. Ask people “where does knowledge come from”? and see what they say.

General McChrystal “we had a frighteningly simplistic view of recent history”

We didn’t know enough and we still don’t know enough,” McChrystal said. “Most of us, me included, had a very superficial understanding of the situation and history, and we had a frighteningly simplistic view of recent history, the last 50 years.”

Here are some of the observations and insights that were shared via Twitter this past week.

I have a fairly busy speaking schedule for this year, so this tweet, via @SusanBannister was quite relevant ;)

“This cartoon was in the Times referring to Ed Miliband but could refer to many a keynote speaker perhaps.”

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@Britopian: This is huge! Labor board ruling has businesses buzzing about workplace rules on social media, via @RossDawson

The September decision found that five workers at Hispanics United of Buffalo, a New York social services nonprofit, were fired illegally for criticizing a colleague on Facebook, and should be reinstated because their actions were protected under federal labor law. The case is part of a boom of complaints brought on behalf of workers challenging their employers’ right to fire them for Tweets, Facebook posts and YouTube videos that didn’t sit well with their bosses. But this ruling marked the first time an administrative law judge with the National Labor Relations Board weighed in on the matter.

Nature’s own stimulus package via @SandyMaxey

To shorten the recession, we’ll need to teach better and work smarter. Students learn better when schools promote place-based learning in the largest classroom of all: the natural world. In Scandinavian countries, where “all-weather” schools require students to spend time outside every day, kids get fewer colds and flu. And outdoor classrooms cost less than brick and mortar.

A Master’s Degree in Leadership and Organization Development, and Coaching, by @MarkFederman

What I think will distinguish the program we are developing from others that nominally offer a similar focus is a fundamental philosophy that organizational leadership has no meaning without the context of organization development. By this I mean that contemporary leadership does not stand on top of, in front of, or in any way apart from the uniqueness that is the organization-in-relation, that is, the valence-conceived instance of an organization. Contemporary leadership must be thought of as being embodied and enacted by process-and-people throughout the entire organization among all its member constituencies, integral to its continual emergence and autopoiesis. In this sense,leadership development and organization development are one and the same, enabled by approaches to individual and collective coaching that are not simply tied to sports-metaphor-laden, rah-rah, motivation-of-the-minute.

Here are some insights and observations that were shared via Twitter (and Google+) this past week.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Hugh Macleod – @GapingVoid @GapingVoidArt – and watching him in action this week at Sibos-Innotribe in Toronto. Here is one of my favourite cartoons:

Quotes of the Week:

“The Internet is the largest and most expensive human artifact ever created.” ~ Stowe Boyd via @GapingVoid

“10 year old daughter: ‘Are you going in for work or for meetings?’ Even she knows there is a difference! ;-)” – by @KevinDJones

“What it means to be skillful is going to change when information is universally accessible.” ~ Lawrence Summers via @willrich45

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Evidence-based HR: How many Deloitte HR consultants does it take to jelly a stapler?

I recently had the misfortune of finding myself diverted by this report and my immediate reaction was to ridicule its pretensions and verbosity but words fail me – it is beyond ridicule.  As someone who is well-used to the rhetoric of large consultancies I still find it difficult to conceive how an organisation like Deloitte can employ so many supposedly intelligent people, who take themselves so seriously, and yet are happy to discharge such large volumes of untreated sewage into the HR ‘sea’.  Or perhaps I under-estimate Deloitte – maybe they know exactly what their HR clients like to wallow in?

If you don’t have social interactions at work, how can you be productive in a creative economy? How playing Games at Work Can Help Boost Your Creativity by @elsua

[We should] do another piece of research or study on the impact of NOT having social software tools, or games, to build trust, connect, collaborate and share your knowledge with your peers, customers and business partners.

How internet time is changing business – by @Om

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Finally, I reiterated on Twitter that My blog is my “outboard brain” where I put many thoughts and ideas. If people read them, that’s fine; but it’s mainly for me.

Here are some interesting things that were shared via Twitter this past week.

@SebPaquet ~ “Make something idiot-proof and somebody will make a better idiot.”

@CharlesJennings ~ “we deliver milk. we facilitate learning. we transfer funds. we help build knowledge.” [on ‘learning transfer’]

@StevenBJohnson ~”you can’t have an epiphany with only three neurons” – Where Good Ideas Come From [innovation is about networks]

Marc Benioff [CEO Salesforce.com]: We learned that the key to success with social collaboration is integrating social into workflow. Collaboration is not an island. – via @JayCross

The Physics of Finance: The more chaotic our environment & less control we have, the more we see non-existent simple patterns, or as Valdis Krebs pointed out, seeing fictitious patterns in random data is called “apophenia”

This is interesting in this limited context of discrimination and how the orderliness of physical environments might influence it, but the effect described seems in fact to be far more general — it reflects a human longing for order and simplicity whenever faced with too much uncertainty.

People Are Close to Revolt (James Fallows, The Atlantic) via @SteveBrant

All of the people I know who are capable of rational thought also understand that the combination of (we’re rural so pretty much everyone gets climate change) climate change and energy issues, lack of jobs, and the refusal of government to provide us with basic services means that a new revolutionary social movement is needed. Food prices are soaring, gas prices are making it hard for people to get to low paying jobs, and the amount of suffering because of lack of access to medical care is dire. [US Midwest University Librarian]

Situated Technologies: interesting future-oriented reads HT @JonHusband

The Internet of People for a Post-Oil World [available as free PDF]
Spring 2011 – Christian Nold and Rob van Kranenburg

The authors articulate the foundations of a future manifesto for an Internet of Things in the public interest. Nold and Kranenburg propose tangible design interventions that challenge an internet dominated by commercial tools and systems, emphasizing that people from all walks of life have to be at the table when we talk about alternate possibilities for ubiquitous computing. Through horizontally scaling grass roots efforts along with establishing social standards for governments and companies to allow cooperation, Nold and Kranenberg argue for transforming the Internet of Things into an Internet of People.

Will you soon be able to make Amazon’s Kindle at Home? by @SteveDenning [reminds me of Cory Doctorow’s book, Makers]

Igoe and Mota point out that digital manufacturing is beginning to do to manufacturing what the Internet has done to information-based goods and services. Just as video went from a handful of broadcast networks to millions of producers on YouTube within a decade, a massive transition from centralized production to a “maker culture” of dispersed manufacturing innovation is under way today.

Here are some of the insights and observations that were shared via Twitter this past week.

@SteveDenning “If you’re not hearing laughter, it’s a sign you’re still in the land of traditional management.” via @JurgenAppelo

@HildyGottlieb ” When we plant seeds of moral outrage, we eliminate the possibility for action on what we have in common.”

Learning Organizations Then and Now – by @Driessen

The learning organization sees companies as communities (organisms). A very interesting statement is made towards the end of the book [The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook]:

The lifeblood of the organization as community is dialogue, not only within teams but in the whole organization. If intellectual capital is the most important production factor than the capacity to have deep discussions about important topics is essential for breakthrough thinking and innovation.

Has the recession created a freelance utopia or a freelance underclass? via @MsRasberryInc

The country’s freelance nation has always been a diverse lot, some of whom were pushed out of full-time jobs and others who actively pursued this pathway with entrepreneurial zeal. But the recession has forced a growing number of people to grudgingly pursue this path. Do some of them end up “loving it”? Of course. Will some devote their extra free time to creative pursuits, perhaps to become indie rock darlings? Sure. But those who want to pursue the freelance life to support themselves full time are having a far harder time doing so.

Douglas Rushkoff: What we lack is not employment, but a way of fairly distributing the bounty we have generated through our technologies

The question we have to begin to ask ourselves is not how do we employ all the people who are rendered obsolete by technology, but how can we organize a society around something other than employment? Might the spirit of enterprise we currently associate with “career” be shifted to something entirely more collaborative, purposeful, and even meaningful?

China adds $6.50 of value per iPhone. iPod supported 14000+ jobs in the US – by @TimHarford

A similar story seems to hold for jobs. Greg Linden, Jason Dedrick and Kenneth Kramer of the University of California, Irvine, look at the jobs created by the old faithful iPod. Their study reckons that the iPod accounted for almost 41,000 jobs worldwide in 2006, and only 30 of those were in manufacturing in the US. But the iPod supported more than 6,000 engineering or other professional jobs in the US – as well as almost 8,000 lower-paid jobs in the likes of retail and distribution. Linden and his colleagues reckon that US workers earned more than two-thirds of all the wages paid to workers in the iPod value chain.

Guardian: Ecology is the new economy. via @JenniferSertl

The basis for this thinking is that the linear way in which the world economy currently operates fuels a culture of consumption and creates more waste than is sustainable in the long term. In contrast, the living world operates in a circular cycle where the waste of one species provides the food for another and resources flow.

Here are some of the things that were shared via Twitter this past week.

“The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea” ~ Isak Dinesen – via @jhagel

@tom_peters – “Best practices” are to be learned from — not mimicked.

@bankervision – “In a decent democracy the police dance at a street party and don’t lose control of the crowd!”

Think You’re An Auditory Or Visual Learner? Scientists Say It’s Unlikely – via @SharonLFlynn

In fact, an entire industry has sprouted based on learning styles. There are workshops for teachers, products targeted at different learning styles and some schools that even evaluate students based on this theory.

This prompted Doug Rohrer, a psychologist at the University of South Florida, to look more closely at the learning style theory.

When he reviewed studies of learning styles, he found no scientific evidence backing up the idea. “We have not found evidence from a randomized control trial supporting any of these,” he says, “and until such evidence exists, we don’t recommend that they be used.”

@PenelopeTrunk – “Voices of the defenders of grad school. And me crushing them.” – via @lemire

It’s pretty well established that non-science degrees are not necessary for a job. In fact, the degrees cost you too much money, require too long of a commitment, and do not teach you the real-life skills they promise.

Yet, I do tons of radio call-in shows where I say that graduate degrees in the humanities are so useless that they actually set you back in your career in many cases. And then 400 callers dial-in and start screaming at me about how great a graduate degree is.

Here are the six most common arguments they make. And why they are wrong.

“Jaron Lanier on economics, the Internet, advertising — very interesting video:  @SamHarrisOrg”  via @edge

… It can become such a bizarre system. What you have now is a system in which the Internet user becomes the product that is being sold to others, and what the product is, is the ability to be manipulated. It’s an anti-liberty system, and I know that the rhetoric around it is very contrary to that.

Finally; it’s really amazing what gets passed on via Twitter!