I had a conversation with my academic adviser the other day. It is official, I am ABD! While some would think of this as mark of failure I don’t consider it that way at all. My intent is to finish not remain in this done with course work limbo common to some doctoral learners.

A plan fully in effect, I begin with my mentor in a few weeks and will have a draft ready for her on day one. That means a lot of work ahead of me. Time is a precious commodity these days and work seems to be increasing in demand. So, I am drawing a line in the sand. Across this line, no work shall pass. I need to block the time and protect it so I can make it to March 16 with a document ready for review.

Wish me luck!

The final grades came back from this last class. Despite all the trouble and apathy I earned a strong B in the course moving my on, officially, to the rest and final part of my doctoral journey.

Ok, a dated reference, sure but it is precisely how I feel being out of that last class. I’ve been out for 2 days and my goodness I feel good. I’ve been loading up my paperwork and plans for the coming dissertation class and reviewing my drafts. I’m not ready to get another draft going quite yet but I am getting closer. I feel that getting to the next draft needs a little more literature. To that end, I’ve been hanging out in the online library conducting reviews and gathering up the PDFs and citations in my EndNote.

All work and no play, right? Well, I am rewarding myself with a trip to Philadelphia with some friends this weekend. It will be a time to deprogram from work and school. I get to blow off some steam and recharge the batteries I need for what looks to be a long March ahead of me with both work and school.

So, for now…Calgon take me away. I’ll see you all on Monday for another post and update.

I was thinking about this last course throughout the night and this morning. My final postings showed my apathy for the content, curriculum, and instruction very clearly. I’m certainly not apologetic for being apathetic or showing it. It does lead me to wonder about apathy and engagement though.

I’ve always found that apathy from students can be headed off using some instructional and curricular techniques. In curriculum, I found that making the content relevant, applicable to performance, and entertaining was a magic combination for staving off apathy and boredom. For example, I created an information security training program once set to a wild west and bandits theme, linked in some important data and facts about the subject, and included some mocked up skits and games to keep the participants engaged in a rather dull topic.

Instruction requires both content knowledge and knowledge of facilitation. Finding ways to learn about the participants and their interest and link that knowledge to the course content in ways that are interesting and meaningful instead of obvious and dull. For example, in my information security training, IT professionals were required to go through the intervention too. This was an audience that clearly was inundated with security knowledge, data, and practices. By most accounts, the program I delivered was elementary to them. So I took the opportunity to ask them questions in the courses that allowed them to show off, stretch their application of knowledge, and provide more rationale for the rest of the class. This put that group in a different class of participant and also added to the value of the class for others. In fact, many people from those classes with IT professionals in them reported learning so much about protecting the company and themselves. A win-win-win for the stakeholders.

My point of this is to say, I was apathetic and felt that the content and curriculum lacked a certain entertainment and relevance value. More importantly, it lacked sufficient clarity to make the content even appear alive much less interesting. The instructor did try to engage me but did so in a way that I was singled out negatively and in ways that clearly violate my employee agreement with my employer, something instructors need to understand. The instructor’s feedback was also elementary and lacked sufficient content to provide information needed for subsequent assignments; further hampering my ability to engage the content in the most basic of ways-for the grade. I suspect that was not intentional with so many participants in class and all developing 20, 30, and 40 page papers but it is what came through.

My apathy led to disengagement on many levels. I was able to find distractions more readily and even seek them out when the thought of going to class was so unappealing that I couldn’t even log into the classroom space. I am disappointed with this last class and have expressed my disappointment to my academic team so they can work with the instructor and designers to make needed improvements to this course. My hope is that future students don’t suffer through this abysmal example of higher education.

As I stated earlier, I am eager to get onto my dissertation phase and will be making some prep for that course over the next few weeks. I will continue to blog my responses and reflections on that process. By this weekend I should have reviewed my drafted proposal and checklists again and have something more concrete to deal with regarding that process and set of items.

My final class is done tonight. I must admit that I completed the last assignment with a sigh of relief. The class has been less than engaging as you can tell from my earlier posts and I found it to be a poor use of my time. I should hope my grade is enough to move onto the next section which, from here on out, is about my dissertation. In some circles this would be called ABD.

For some people, ABD is the largest obstacle doctoral students can face. I’ll admit the thought of entering into this phase is daunting. Especially so because my last few entrees into the dissertation have lacked some enthusiasm and clarity. Alas, this is the year I am resolved to make things happen in my life by not letting ideas and thoughts pass me by for some other yo-yo to pick them up and find some success.

So, I am done with this class and my formal class work. I stand prepared and ready to enter into the ABD world. I have confidence in the plan I’ve formulated and continue to formulate. This year, I will end with Dr. Mike Berta.

So, I have a Committee Chairperson or as we call them, Dissertation Mentor. This process seems to me more individual than traditionally thought of programs where candidates do the research of their chairs or committee.

In the past my mentor has indicated that she would rather have the proposal ready to go and then bring on the other committee members. This seems like it might add time to the process, a commodity I am short of these days. So how to meet her expectations and still keep on my time line?

I suspect the process of finding committee members might take a few weeks of mutual interviewing and finally selection. It sure did for the mentor position. If it is all similar for the committee members it will be like finding a gem in a field of coal. I was fortunate to find a mentor once and then twice when my first had to step aside for another job. But in that process was a lot of no replies, odd replies, and some outright rude replies (something I am still disappointed with today some years later). I think I should expect some of the same.

Fortunately, as my mentor has explained, it is the mentors job to manage the committee and mine to be the expert and get the work done. In talking with some other doctoral students it would seem that being a committee member is a little more fluid than being a mentor and that is perfectly alright. What I am looking for is sound advice, respectful support, and someone to sign off on the proposal, research, and final product.

There are a few weeks of time before I begin the session with my mentor and I think I will use that time to search the available committee members and make a short list of possible candidates for the job. As I finish up my proposal with my mentor I would like to be bringing on committee members along the way. Perhaps this is a two-pronged approach. We’ll go up the middle and flank them too.

Lots to think about as I come into the hoe stretch on this dissertation.

A long day of work is done. I found my proposal draft and realized it was woefully inadequate. So, I printed it out on the few sheets of paper it required and did some searching. I searched, and found, other documents like checklists, change trackers, IRB/ARB submission guidelines and forms, and some internal research request forms.

At the end of the searching and printing, I had a noble stack of paper to sift through this weekend. Yes, this weekend. I know I seem gung-ho about getting this on track but I have to prioritize this final class. A class, I might add, that holds no interest or value for me (dare I say any student…I dare not. Let them have their own blog and feelings about this awful class).

So tonight and tomorrow are dedicated to re-writing a paper I’ve already written based on the feedback from my professor and learning team members. I also get the joy of writing up a plan for how I will or won’t incorporate feedback for this round and potential rounds. I can assure you that this final part will be completely conjecture and will never leave this classroom space and be applied in my real world. If you were ever baffled why public K-12 schooling was onerous and complicated take a few classes and realize that this is a group of professionals that just over-think everything. If there is a silver lining it is that I am more prepared to fight for my child(ren)’s education than ever before. /rant

Okay, where was I?

Right, there it is. So having found my proposal and gathered some other forms needed to submit a qualified proposal to my committee I need to make a plan for the weekend. First, re-read and make notes on my proposal draft. I think this will provide me some insights and reflection on my work and thinking around it. Second, start making a plan for completing the proposal using the guidelines and forms as my checkpoint and ruler. That should take most of the weekend.

Once I’ve finished with this, I think putting some writing in place daily will really help get me going. I begin my next session with my committee chair on March 16th and want to have a finished draft ready to go by the time I’ve hit that starting point with her.

I suppose ambition without a plan is tantamount to frantic busyness. As I drifted off to sleep last night thinking about my return to the Doc Blog and the months ahead I realized that I had no plan. Then a funny thing happened, I had a flash to Ghostbusters and the library scene:

What is missing in that clip is when Venkman says, “Get her!” That was your whole plan, huh, “get her.” Very scientific.”.

That how I felt last night. So, then if get her isn’t going to be the plan what is?

I think the answer lies in the work itself. I need to read my proposal as it stands now and begin thinking the processes it needs to go through out more clearly. I need 3 levels of approval beyond my dissertation committee’s. This means I need to get to work understanding my proposal and the needs of the approving bodies so I can ace this on the first couple of attempts.

So, no full fledged plan but a beginning point. Read, understand, write for approval, and submit. I suspect that in the process I will need to collaborate on some of the approval processes but that won’t be bad. I find teaching something makes that thing become real for me.

So beyond get her to something more concrete. Now, where did I leave that proposal?

So, I’m back.

I lost my direction with this blog and despite the energy and drive to want something to write here, I failed to make it come to fruition. Worse, I exclaimed my renewed dedication to posting only to let it wain a few days later. Call it a recurring bout of blogfade. Ugh! Is there a doctor for that?

So what has been happening?

School-wise I am finishing up my formal classwork this week and will be officially ABD next Tuesday. I must tell you that I loathe this last class. It truly is dull, a direct repeat of a class 2 classes ago, and fails to add any value to the program or my progress. I find the discussions dull and uninteresting. I find the assignments asinine busy work not befitting a doctoral student, and the facilitation too myopic to realize what a repeat this class really is for us. But, it is nearly over and I can dive headlong into my dissertation writing.

Dissertation-wise. I couldn’t even tell you where I left off or what I wrote last in it. I met with a supporter of my work last week to talk about another project and was suitably redirected to finish my dissertation so I can capture some opportunity. Good guidance and the plan for this week is to dig out of this crappy class and dust off the dissertation proposal and get it rewritten for submission and approval.

Personally, I’ve had a few ups and downs over the last couple of months. Work is very stressful and while my dissertation is directly related to the work, I can’t find a moment to get it fit into my thinking. Health-wise I was diagnosed with Diabetes Type II. No doubt related to my forced sedentary lifestyle and unending stress load. That said, I immediately went to work and realized that my life was certainly more important than that. I’ve lost about 35 pounds in 45 days (hit a plateau for a few days), got my energy, ambition, and drive back.

I also started a new blog called A Scout is.. It is a journey and exploration of the Scout Law. I am taking each of the 12 points of the Scout Law and dedicating a month to it. All of this in celebration of Scouting’s Centenary in America. I’ve been doing it since Jan 1. with a great deal of dedication. That led me back here to my first blogging project and a revisit to why I began it.

So, I am back and will be spending time here as I rewrite and write my dissertation. The blogging activity should keep my mind sharp, the roadblocks to a minimum, and show my progress on the project of a lifetime.

Look for more.

A meeting last week with my boss yielded a surprising “all in favor” response to asking about doing research within our job family and using resources other than me to complete it. Not that there is anything in the research that warrants a ‘no’ but I was surprised by the enthusiasm and vision of what this could mean for our job family in terms of training. It also beget a conversation about the things that could be coming down the road for this group. We both left equally excited.

Still there are some other hurdles to overcome.

1. Permission from the regional leaderhsip of the geographic location I intended to use. I am using something outside the Northeast United States to eliminate bias and potential other hurdles related to vision and allowances
2. Letters drafted for each leader to showcase to the various committees and boards needed to earn an approved proposal
3. The finalized proposal and executive summary for the various committees and boards needed to earn an approved proposal
4. Finally, some project planning to implement this. I honestly think we can carry out the research in about 2 weeks of time.

I also have to finish updating my literature review and fortunately, an assignment in my current class hits right on the topic I need to research so bingo.

I must say that for the first time in months, I feel good about this. I wish I’d felt this long ago, I’d be done by now. I need to finish this Spring though. There is some celebrations and plans moving ahead for the Spring, Summer and Fall whether I am done or not.

Image Source: Kristina B

Been dark around here for the last few weeks. Getting my proposal ready has proved more difficult than I anticipated and it all stemmed from something being in my way…ME.

I’ve been caught up in making the proposal perfect and that has led me down rat holes on literature searches, formatting reviews, reading, reading, reading. It got to the point where I was so caught up in being perfect in my proposal draft that I couldn’t move forward. The inability to move ahead led me to thinking that I might not be cut out for completing this journey. A dreadful and erroroneous thought.

Oh, I had false starts and hopeful determination for it to be “different this week” but I found myself spring the traps of perfection and distraction by other things that were moving ahead, or just plain time wasters. During these self-desctructive false starts I had a continual message being sent by loved ones and supporters: perfection isn’t possible and you’ll do fine, just get started again ad get something done, leave perfection to the process.

So, to those of you who have been telling me, thank you. The radio in my head is tuned to your station now. Thank you.

It was finally the message sent to me by my mentor, apart from the ball in your court message, you know perfection isn’t possible right? It played to my ego, it played to my knowledge. Of course, I know it can’t be perfect. The funny thing is that this is a message being sent in other areas of my career as well. Sometimes, just getting something done on the implementation is enough to let loose the flood gates and really make a mark on things.

So you say you are stuck. You say you need to start again. I say, I’ve been there and it feels good to get out of your own way. Get something down on paper, get things moving and trust the process of continual revision. Just like this post, not perfect but on paper. I can improve and revise as I move forward.

One of the things that I struggle with both professionally and in my doctoral studies is being in conversations with people who lack the skills needed or experience needed to see the vision and help craft the way. The red flag for me is someone who asks for your need, fails to respond to queues about possible enhancements, and delivers exactly what was originally outlined in the need.

Sometimes when I see the end goal or the vision, I cannot always see the intermediate steps or possible enhancements that could make the vision better. It is like seeing that tall building when you are in a city but not knowing exactly how to reach it. I like to work with people who have the skills and experience around a subject, product, service, or process so they can fill in the gaps and help map out the solution.

My last conversation with my mentor was one of the those golden conversation with someone that has vision. She was able to see the end and help me with the steps needed to get there. At the end of the conversation, I had a way and enhancements to make it better (along with some homework to do). Consequently, I am on my way to the proposal and ARB/IRB submission. Tremendous value!

Conversely, I’ve been working on some service offerings outside the classroom and find that the group I am working with do not have the “vision”. The service is being  hosted in some powerful and commonplace software for business knowledge management. However, most of the people that hold the keys are figuring out the software as they go and lack the experience or skills needed to really “get it”. They are well intentioned but just underdeveloped in regards to the software. Consequently, the products that come out look pieced together and rough. Tremendous opportunity cost!

Creative problem solving aside, sometimes we just don’t know what we don’t know and that has a cost associated with it.

There seems to be a value when we get people involved that actually possess the skills and experience necessary to bring a vision to life in a way that the original visionary might not have realized possible. At work this is a project that takes off and delivers outstanding results. In school this is getting over the hump or building an amazing project on something really cool.

I find it easier, more productive, and more valuable to vision with people who have vision and skills enough to help. It might have a direct cost associated with it but the indirect value far outweighs those costs.

Image source: rogiro

A phone conversation with my mentor a few weeks ago highlighted a problem I am having with my dissertation that is compounded by working full time (and more so in the last few months) and trying to still be present with the family; dropping the ball. My dissertation proposal has stalled in this state of being unsure about the problem, the research, the everything. It was so confusing that I was allowing myself to dig into working insane hours and agreeing to bad projects at work. I was trying to do anything vs. trying to do something.

My mentor and I agreed to speak via phone and talk through what was going on and the feelings I was experiencing of uncertainty, confusion, frustration, and inadequacy. The good news is that these feelings were commonplace at this phase of the process and compounded by the work full time-study full time aspect of going to school as an adult.

I was thankful to hear that I was experiencing something normal and that this was the real point of proving my metal. I was so thankful that I inquired about how I can press on vs. step out. My mentor informed me that sometimes beginning with the end in mind is helpful (who would have thought Covey was right on this? ha). Her guidance was to understand the problem in general and select a sample population then work from there on the design. It seemed like cheating to do that but in the world of being a scholar, practitioner, leader, we need to find a process that is academically and business sound. This might work.

We discussed a few other ideas for my project like using only podcasts or linking blogs and podcasts through a literature search. We talked about sample size and the statistical analysis. All helpful conversations. I felt re-energized with the project again.

So I’ve set off to get some initial documentation completed and working a bit backwards to accomplish the while goal. Thanks Maureen!

This course in my doctoral program is all about me working with my mentor to get things in line for my proposal. Alas, I’ve not been to active in class. Evidence of this came last night with a stern message from my Academic Counselor that cautioned me to post in class or risk being auto-dropped.

Why the inactivity? A few reasons actually but none enough to warrant my lack of activity. First, I’ve been reading a lot about my revised topic and problem statement. Second, I’ve been reading and writing a new employee onboarding program which has had the deadline moved up 4 weeks and been given no additional resources of staff to make this happen with the same quality. Third, I have a big idea (not something I want to share yet) about a potential business and have been doing the market trend research on that idea.

At some point this week I need to stop reading and start writing. Which is not to say, stop reading. It is to say start turning that reading into some activity. Start processing all the journals and all the knowledge into something valuable for my process as a doctoral student. This happened once before, I get paralyzed in wanting to know all there is to know about a subject and before long I am down the rat hole on topics I either don’t know or don’t need to know that much about.

Last night’s plane ride to Kansas City gave me the time to reflect on that behavior and I came to realize that my quality standards drive my wanting to know it all behavior. At some point, I need to take that quality standard aspect and turn it over into a quality of writing attitude. Blogging has been helping me move forward, just writing keeps the wheels greased so writer’s block does not set in.

Writing is important enough to my dissertation that I need to make this a priority today. Not only that but I was listening to Jeffrey Gitomer‘s How to not Suck at Sales audiobook on the plane and was reminded about how important writing is to the career of a knowledge worker. So, I am writing, this post and then my proposal. Look for something to be posted here as I get things re-written. I’ll caution you ahead of time that academic writing is boring on the highest order, but I’ll add some stuff that keeps you engaged; I promise.

Image Source: jsarcadia

It is no secret that I am a full-time employee and full-time student. Combine that with being a family man and community servant and there is no end to the distractions that can take me away from my classes and dissertation. The last few weeks have been filled with re-orgs, re-positioning, shortened time lines with compromised quality standards, and removals of job responsibilities only to be told new ones would be coming. These are tough economic times and remaining flexible is mandatory to retain a job.

When the normal routine gets to be extraordinary it poses a threat to remaining focused on other areas of life, namely school (for me). Rick Warren, in The Purpose Driven Life, wrote that when you have a purpose in life you find yourself doing less and more meaningful work. FranklinCovey, in the Focus: Time Management workshop, called attention to using your values to plan your weeks and days in order to remain effective and schedule the big rocks first.

Admittedly, I’ve been pretty distracted these last 4 or 5 weeks and that seems to happen to me enough that I began to reflect on it a bit. My mentor in class gave me the inspiration to do so with a kind empathy. She simply stated that is all I needed when I am trying to get my dissertation going.

So how to get back on track.

1. Ask for help
2. Accept help
3. Re-evaluate the Big Rocks
4. Schedule Big Rocks first
5. Guard your time
6. Break out goals and large tasks into smaller more accomplishable tasks
7. Communicate progress

There is no end to life’s distractions. Some people feel that not going back to school or not staying in school will allow them to focus on the rest of life’s little things and stay afloat. To them I say, going to school is not a weight, it is a set of swim fins. They can be a bit awkward but will help you stay afloat. I’ve learned one thing about being a working student, there is no perfect time to go to school (either enroll or remain in school), there certainly are worse times but there is no perfect time. So just get your swim fins on and jump in.

I’ve got to rework some important elements of my dissertation this week. It will take considerable time and investment or resource. Important? Yes. Urgent? A little. I am following my 7 steps and it will come. It might mean some late nights but that is okay.

Image source: underminingme

We’ve all been there. We’ve all argued in circles or been argued with in circles. Talking in circles refers to another logical fallacy known as the circular argument, circular reasoning, or begging the question. Essentially it is an argument that in some way is predicated on itself.

This is a fallacy that I’ve been catching more in my reading and listening. It happens at work, school, and all around me. For example, your function is moving out of the training department because it cannot be effective there; however you must still remain active in with department in many ways so you can be effective. This argument presupposes that effectiveness is not possible in the training department but that being heavily involved in the training department is required for effectiveness.

This is common enough argument that it is becoming almost humorous to find. One word of caution, people don’t like to be caught talking in circles. I tend to keep it to myself but use it to make determinations about whether or not that person has made careful or accurate decisions.

I think on of the reasons this and other fallacies happen is because we are moving so quickly that we can’t take time to think clearly before speaking. Ever notice how academics seem to move at a different pace? Slower maybe? Sure, is it because they don’t understand how it is in the real world? Perhaps, but more likely they are taking the time to be conscious and determined in both thought and response.

Businesses regularly report wanting more critical thinking people on the payroll. Critical thinking requires some prowess for logic and logical fallacies. Like all things, the more we practice the faster we will think critically. We need to be patient while the skills are built.

• What circular arguments to do you hear?
• What circular do you use?
• How can you stop using those logical errors and still get to the outcomes you desire?
• Does knowing more about circular reasoning help or hinder you?

In terms of study and research, being able to spot circular arguments is imperative to determining reliability and credibility in the work. I’ve read several articles that make this error and it is awfully easy to just ignore them to take what I need to make my own argument. Good researchers don’t do that though, they engage in reflective thinking and take care to use elements that make sense logically.

Still, I have more fun listening to people and finding the fallacy in the statements. This is particularly fun when you’ve already determined the argument is bunk. Be careful not to anger them though, people who think irrationally often act irrationally too.

Image source: Guille

Did you know I was a Toastmaster?

I’ve been in Toastmasters for 6 years now and have gotten a lot from the experience. One of the regular pluses to being a Toastmaster is getting the magazine each month. Sometimes, like any magazine, the articles lack appeal but most of the time the articles have some value to my work, my life, or my speaking.

This month’s magazine came with many articles on persuasion and one focused on logical fallacies. As a doctoral learner, the logical fallacy is a mine field of critical thought. One is always on guard for these persuasion pitfalls and then looks for logical reasoning to side step the pitfalls. I’d link you to it but Toastmasters holds onto some archaic tenets of play for pay and gives little in terms of members-level insights into the organization for visitors. This should not detract you from joining though.

Logical fallacies are easily defined as arguments that make logic mistakes. Many times these slip up the target audience and that person enters into agreement under some false pretense. It isn’t always tragically negative but it does happen. The article talks about 5 key fallacies.

1. Slippery slope arguments. If we make this school budget cut the children will all drop out and begin taking drugs. It is an argument that draws alludes to some chain of events that has no real proof or reasonableness that the final event will occur.
2. False dichotomy. Either you let me go out or I will just die right here. This is an either-or argument that implies that doing both are impossible or that there is no option (like the example given above).
3. Appeal to ignorance. No one saw Elvis lowered into the grave (in the coffin) so he could still be alive. This is an argument that suggests because there is no definitive proof supporting one side then the other cannot be discounted.
4. Appeal to emotions. You need to finish your food; there are starving children in Africa dying because you have extra food. This is an argument that has no real rationale but draws that the emotional strings of the intended target.
5. Red herring. How can George be good at balancing the books; he can’t even drive a car. This argument diverts the audience with another issue and attempts to draw a conclusion based on the information in that diversion.

- Thanks to Dave Zielinski for the summary article in Toastmasters magazine

These are a few examples of logical fallacies and obviously some extreme arguments made to illustrate the point. Many times the fallacies are more subtle. Picture a fast food commercial showing happy/healthy children playing after having some of that restaurant’s food.  Subtle, right? Who doesn’t want happy and healthy children? Who doesn’t like the idea of children playing? No one, that’s who. But the reality is that those images conjure up an emotional charge within us and so we fall into the fast food must not be bad for kids, look at those kids pitfall. It is an appeal to emotion.

These fallacies happen all around us in the media, our working worlds, our school worlds, our interactions with others. At work it happens often in a simple and common argument: Yanni is not a team player; he won’t do what I tell him to do. False dichotomy.

Critical thinking and logical reasoning are two really important skills to have. Here is a warning for you though. Punching holes in arguments will make you slightly less popular and could be viewed as argumentative or actively disengaged. Suggesting that you either become persuaded or you are a bad seed is a false dichotomy.

What logical fallacies do you see?

How can you overcome the pitfalls of illogical arguments and people?

What benefit can you gain from thinking more critically about the things you see and hear?

For me, this helps me read articles for my dissertation, tackle tough work issues, and build a stronger learning leader mindset.

Image Source: gutter

Clark Quinn, writing for TogetherLearn, posted an interesting response to criticism about the informal learning. Quinn’s point was simply that training is changing and a true professional will include elements of informal learning into the spectrum of services provided for clients and organizations. I couldn’t agree more.

In my research people often think that I am advocating the overthrow of classroom learning. I am not. Like Quinn, and others, I don’t think classroom learning will go away but it does need to change both in purpose and in implementation. Quinn talks about the purpose of classroom learning under the guise of formal instruction (which is more comprehensive than simply classroom learning):

there [is] a role for formal instruction (when you’ve new folks, or are moving to a new suite of skills)

he continues…

Most classrooms (live or virtual) focus on knowledge dump, don’t present appropriate practice, don’t assess in meaningful ways, and aren’t leading to the necessary changes in behavior.  Classrooms persist more because they’re efficient, not because they’re effective!

What you should be paying attention to is that expertise is no guarantee of quality.  Learning designed by listening to SMEs often is fact-heavy, and irrelevant. Experts don’t even know how they do things, and rely on the knowledge they’ve learned.

I’ve lived this all my training life, knowledge dumps, and it only sets me to take the materials and learn it on my own using informal techniques. Personally, this suggests the the role of formal instruction is to convey knowledge. In fact, I tell people this all the time…training closes knowledge gaps not performance gaps. I get a chuckle out of people that feel training is the hammer to fix all problems. It is expensive, time consuming, and according to research not meeting expectations or objectives.

When you think about how and what you learn everyday (and I mean really reflect on it) it is done through other means than formal instruction. Today that looks like website, web communities, podcasts, blogs, talking to people, emailing people, IMing people. Oh yes, people still attend the occasional class but that is to learning something new.

Quinn sums up, in a way I feel is spot on:

Yes, formal is part of the full spectrum, the full ecosystem, the full learnscape of solutions.  But the ‘classroom’ shouldn’t be the standard bearer.  We aren’t calling for the death of formal instruction, we’re calling for a) acknowledging and incorporating informal learning, and b) death of the classroom as a ’showup and throwup’ or ’spray and pray’ proposition.

Being a full spectrum provider means that you have a multitude of tools available that match the situation and need (not necessarily want). Think about where you’d rather shop. Do you want to drive all over town to hit the specializations you need or look for the mall or location that has the most things to offer. As a learning professional, I want to be the provider of as many things as possible, not a generalist but  a specialist in many areas. I also want to know about many things and have the connections to bring them in when needed.

For my dissertation this means that I am providing some further evidence to support one area of informal learning and help organizations make a conscious choice about what to use, when, and how.

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I’ve changed direction, again, on my dissertation. If you’ve been reading along you know that I dropped the blogs and wikis from my research fearing that the science would be messy. Not only that but the environment would also be messy and hard to isolate which factor would be superseding the others. The decision was not an easy one and it came with the cost of continuing to stew about the course change.

Admittedly, this has been a bit disabling. It is not easy to wonder if you made the right decision all the time and more difficult to separate the legitimate rationale for making another change from the invalid second guessing. I finally took some time away from my job to focus on myself and my work vs. them and their work (been feeling a little like they’re leeches lately). My reflections led me to recall an interview I gave recently about Web 2.0 and working environments. I don’t claim to be as much an expert as the few who are but I do consider myself a student of the phenomenon.

During the interview I remarked that blogs and podcasts are often seen together and rarely will you see a podcast without some sort of blogging component. I’ve never heard or used the phrase someone podcasted me back but have talked about people leaving comments or linkbacks to my posts. At the time I didn’t give it much thought but as the month wore on I really thought about that quip. Was there something to that? Could I combine the two and drop, what felt like a third wheel even at the beginning, wikis?

I inquired to my mentor. Our discussions led us to the conclusions that yes I could do anything I like and that the results will simply report what happens when you use blogs and podcasts together. I felt better about that. As such, I revisioned my dissertation to include blogs with podcasting. Now, I am writing up the thinking into a draft form so I can move forward.

The problem statement might need to change too. I am feeling that the problem might not be the ineffectiveness of classroom learning (although I feel that is a problem) but instead be the adoption of blogs and podcasts in corporate learning and no measurement on learning when using these technologies. I see a lot in terms of Kirkpatrick’s Level 1 and little in terms of measuring learning (Level 2), transfer (Level 3), or ROI (Level 4). All of this means, that I will be looking for some evidence to support what I feel is a problem (and of course, weighing the contrary evidence saying it is not a problem).

In working with my mentor there has been many discussions that are clarifying the process of completing the proposal. One of the discussions was around the testing instrument. I am choosing to do a pre and post test for my instrument founded in Kirkpatrick’s Level 2 evaluation of training programs. A related issue is the creation of the testing device.

The nature of the training intervention suggests that a custom test is deployed to target the instructed skills both in the test and control groups. Kirkpatrick, in a speech delivered to my local ASTD chapter, talked about designing such tests to be directly linked to the instructed concepts. In fact, he suggested that instructors use the test as the syllabus and give it out ahead of time to allow students to use it for the learning.

My concern would be the reliability and validity of a pretest and posttest designed by the researcher. Is there an issue with that? I suppose that as long as the test mapped to the learning objective and both groups used the same objectives and test it would be fine but I am still a little unsure.

Using an established instrument would alleviate the bias concerns. How would that established pretest posttest instrument be applicable to the training being delivered?

Lots of questions.

As I delve into the proposal writing, I am finding numerous situations that come down to the chicken and egg argument. To determine the ful study, I need to know this thing, to know that thing I need to know another but to know the last I need to know the first. Frustrating? Kind of frustrating, to be sure.

I feel like I want a template that steps through the process and links to assistance so effective decisions can be made. UPX provides a dissertation checklist but it does not have the you need to know this first, then this. Rather, it gives you what should be included in each chapter.

For now, I need to make some decisions about the statisitical analysis and experiment design. I have a conversation this week with a colleague offering some advice on the study process, experiment population, and working student dissertation issues. I am looking forward to it.

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The March 2009 issue of Atlantic Monthly featured an article titled, “How the Crash will Reshape America” by Richard Florida, a professor at University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. I caught the interview on NPR and the idea intrigued me to begin thinking about learning and creativity.

Florida’s primary tenet was that the economic reset the world is feeling know will result in a new economy driven by creativity and knowledge workers. As both a creative and knowledge worker, this was good news to me but caused some reflection about how learning can lead the economic reset and the next economic growth area — knowledge.

Tom Gram wrote about his reading of “The Elegant Solution: Toyota’s Formula for Mastering Innovation“, in a post named for one chapter, Let Learning Lead. Gram’s summary and captured points included how important learning was as the predeccessor for Toyota’s innovation, and in fact all innovation.

In it May argues that learning and innovation are intimately linked but that learning must come first–that it is a precondition for innovation. Through learning, ideas are converted into action.

A chief approach I use when leading training or learning interventions is that I want to create a thinking worker who can use learned knowledge, experience, and demonstrated skill to positively impact the organization. In other words, I don’t want robots, I want knowledge workers. Automatons just won’t do and if we heed Florida’s prophecy, automatons will not add value or grow the economy.

After reading Gram’s post, I headed off to Toastmasters, thinking about how learning was important to me. One of the speech’s delivered was titled, “Acres of Diamonds”. The speech, given by Jim Howe, was a throw back to Russell Conwell. Conwell was the founder of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Jim’s speech summarized Conwell’s Acres of Diamonds speech which Conwell delivered over 6000 times to raise money to establish Temple University. Jim concluded with the primary point of the speech was that learning, knowledge, are the precursors to growth and riches.

Last night, I lay awake thinking about all these things and something Jim said in his speech. Jim said, “Mike knows”. Apart from the dramatic imagery of using knows in a speech about knowing, the point that I have my acres of diamonds, my precursor to growth, my precondition to innovation and sustainability, and the prerequisite skills for a new economy was particularly salient.

Leaders have long known that learning is a foundational skill to leadership itself. Learning is why my research is taking the profession to a new area so that we understand the impact of using technology in learning interventions. With this new (and old) importance shed on learning as the root of the future, I am re-doubling my efforts to complete my dissertation and get onto the next economy.

I begin DOC/733 today, it is the second course with my mentor and one that I’ve been looking forward to completing for some time now. I had to delay the start due to some unexpected circumstances and bills. The purpose of the class is to prepare the proposal or Chapters 1, 2, and 3. This is a monumental undertaking for me. As most of you know, I stepped back on my research to focus solely on podcasted training and the learning impact of using podcasts.

This narrowing of focus should help my research but it does require me to get going and flesh out the research. I also need to get my research methods in order and secure an study group. Apart from that, I need to find a committee in the next few weeks so that my proposal can be thoroughly guided and built. There is a lot to do. Perhaps it is a good thing that I am being certified in FranklinCovey’s Focus Time Management series. I can use all the help I can get.

It feels like I am beginning again. It has been some time since my last class and the bad habits have snuck back in on me. I am breaking them now and it hurts. I know the road ahead is going to be a rough one but no doctoral program would be complete without these rites of passage. There are times that I wish I could be in a physical community of doctoral learners to keep the momentum. I realize, though, that would breed unhealthy competition for favor and attention from faculty. I also know that would mean being apart from my work and family; two things I am not willing to part with right now.

As I look ahead to the next 8, and likely 16, weeks I see clarification beginning to happen and a new sharpness and professionalism coming to this research. I know a lot of people are interested in the outcomes, so am I.

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Last week I was speaking to a few people about podcasting as a form of learning intervention. My research is narrowing to look at the podcasting technology solely and this gives me the impetus to reflect on the tool in terms of learning and other aspects. I began to think about podcasting in the ways the literature I am reading suggests, as a standardized communication of a message to a massive or varied audience. In my experience, though, podcasting serves largely as a 1-way method of communication. I have something to say, I record it, I podcast it, you receive it, done. Podcasting, again in my experience, has not been a 2-way collaborative modality. The quote I delivered twice last week was “no one ever podcasts back”.

This is not entirely accurate. Podcasts often beget other podcasts, some retort from another podcaster but rarely will people interact with a podcast by sending a recorded comment directly to the producer. Instead, podcasts often serve as the front of a large collaborative community filled with blogs, wikis, and other social media. Podcasts alone are like radio stations, you may react but I won’t hear you.

On the other hand, I sit in a lot of teleconferences where I can interact with the hosts. However, I sit in a lot of teleconferences originating from the same source but with different hosts. Along with that, a slightly different message. Sometimes this is valuable and sometimes it is not valuable. Regardless of value, it is interactive and people comment or collaborate back and forth.

Do I see podcasting as an inferior technology for collaborative learning? Not really. Of course, research will bear this out quantitatively. I am truly neutral on this matter; curious really.

I don’t theorize that podcasting needs to be 1-way or non-collaborative in nature. With the advent of microphones, low/no cost recording software, built-in cameras, and the like, anyone can create a recorded comment and podcast back as it were. Podcasts are hot items these days and I wonder about the impact on learning.

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Many years ago I made a decision to go into training and development. I loved the idea of educating job performers at something and watching it come to fruition on the floor (so to speak). A nice side benefit is the feeling of glory and pride when people know you and come to you for advice, counsel, and knowledge. What I quickly realized was that training departments and trainers were just the quickest path to knowledge and not necessarily the keepers of knowledge. It is a lesson I was happy to learn.

Harold Jarche blogged about Close the Training Department. Harold talks about the use of social media, or as I often call it collaborative learning technology, as a tool that is poorly used inside the traditional training mindsets.

I think that social media can be powerful tools for collaboration, working and learning, but they are rather useless inside a training box.

It is a trend to take social media devices and drop them into a training portal as if it were some oracle for people looking for learning services. I just completed a survey that showed a majority of people felt blogs, wikis, collaborative discussion forums, and the like were undesireable in a training portal (SharePoint in this case). However, the same respondent group felt that something being pushed to them would be more helpful. This went to another point Harold made:

Talk to the people at the coal face and find out what they really need. Few will say training. The days of developing & delivering are almost over. Connecting & Communicating should be the focus of learning and performance professionals in a networked environment.

I did and training was part of what they wanted but they wanted it delivered to directly to floor of the operation and not to some classroom. This leads me to believe that training is not a real need but a perceived need. People are smart, they need to know how to find knowledge quickly so it can be used effectively. So Harold’s point is well taken: connect people to knowledge and communicate it effectively for that group of people.

My realization of training as the quickest path to knowledge early on in my career enabled me to hone in my performance and deliver services that are needed. It is a paradigm shift for many training departments but as social media captures the interest of many in the training world, real learning and performance professionals are taking the reigns. We are trying to figure out if the tools impact learning, how the tools are used best, and what is needed by the performers of the job. Most importantly the transition needs to continue so that training departments become performance boosters.

The research I am doing helps address some of the popularity of social media devices with quantitative understanding of impact on learning. This can be expanded by looking at the real impact of using the tools in various ways.

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