Get Out of the Way
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.
Visioning with People with Vision
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
Begin with the End in Mind
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!
Stop Reading and Start Writing
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
How To Get the Most from Training Groups
We’ve all spent time wondering what it is that training departments and trainers do all day. In fact, if you read my blog often enough you’ve probably caught some posts about the change in training departments from being all formal learning to being a full-service provider of learning including multiple modalities, multiple styles, and multiple approaches. My research is focused on one such activity: the learning impact of using blogs and poscasts in corporate training.
I’ve spent my career becoming a learning and performance professional. I study the profession, experience the profession, and think about the profession. A lot. Just as you study your jobs and careers, I study mine. It is, in fact, what makes us professionals. You won’t catch me going around claiming to be a professional in another venue and yet I often find people coming along to pretend to be professionals in mine without the experience, education, of skills to do so.
That said, or written, some recent activity in my experiencing of the profession has caused me to think about how best to work with professional training departments. For those in the know and not-in the know, feel free to add to the list below:
- Staff the department with people who demonstrate an understanding of learning and performance.
- Involve the department early in your projects and processes so they get the benefit of knowing what is going on and how to make that sound training for your people.
- Be a partner, not an autocrat, that listens to the advice of these professionals and works with them to a mutually beneficial end.
- Assist in finding performance benchmarks that can be used to evaluate learning beyond the ‘smile sheets’
- Get the group involved in communities of practice so they can continually enhance and evolve the learning in your organization
- Provide the department realistic resources to do the job expected of them
- Insist that learning and performance leadership ‘sit at the table’ with you
- Incorporate more learning modalities, styles, and approaches than PowerPoint driven classroom training
- Don’t send your cast offs into training departments. We don’t want them either.
- Don’t constantly ‘move the ball’ on the training department. Leaders stick to the plan.
I am sure there are a lot more, but the essence you should draw from this list is that this group should aid in leading your organization. Moreover, the new economy is going to be creative and thought leadership; you’d be well advised to position your organization for that change now.
Image Source: Scoobymoo
War Movies and Leadership
I couldn’t sleep last weekend. I’d had a rough Friday and rough week with people who exhibited little or no good leadership ability. It got me wondering if there were any real leaders left anymore of if we’d commoditized leadership for the sake of corporate-speak. I was up most of the weekend wondering about why I view leadership with a strong sense of integrity and committment. Too often, I think people who call themselves leaders do so to make a point, argue a point, get you to do something, or sidestep an important issue.
Saturday night I was up quite late and caught myself in a set of war movies. The first was We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson playing Hal Moore during Vietnam. In the movie Moore, played by Gibson, gives two great speeches that talk directly to leadership.
Moore: When Crazy Horse was a baby, he nursed at the breast of every woman in the tribe. The Sioux raised their children that way. Every warrior called every woman in the tribe “Mother”. Every older warrior, they called him “Grandfather”. Now, the point here is that they fought as a family. Take care of your men. Teach them to take care of each other. ‘Cause when this starts… each other is all we’re gonna have.
This quote reminds me that leaders call on lessons of the past to support the current and future mission. It shows the importance of the unit, the family, the team and everyone needs to be involved or it just won’t work. The second speech includes this excerpt:
Moore: I can’t promise that I will bring you all home alive. But this I swear before you and before Almighty God: that when we go into battle, I will be the first to set foot on the field, and I will be the last to step off, and I will leave no one behind. Dead or alive, we will all come home together.
Some people mistake leadership for not asking people to do what you yourself would not do. I agree with this to some degree but the meaning has become bastardized to mean something I would be willing to do, not meaning do. This quote and the subsequent scene in the movie showing Moore’s boots hitting the field of battle first, demonstrate that a leader is there with the team. Not just in spirit but in actuality. What benefit does this have? Well firstly that the leader sees first hand what is happening, directs action, makes educated decisions, and ensures that support and resources are committed to the mission at hand.
The second movie I caught was Saving Private Ryan with Tom Hanks. The movie is filled with leadership moments but one toward end stands out. Tom Hanks character is dying on the bridge and pulls Private Ryan close to whisper:
Earn this
Earn this. Earn this! A simple two word phrase that for me sums up leadership in so many ways. Earn this. Too often we think leadership should be thrust upon us for no real effort and many times it is just that and we all suffer the consequences of people who ascend thanks to good PR. Earn this! Leaders must earn it everyday. Leaders must continually pay forward the gifts of strength, characterm judgement. They must build and support the followership at all times.
I’ve never been to war. I am in awe and appreciation of all those who have. Make no mistakes, I do not pretend to understand what it is like on a battlefield and by God’s grace will not ever need to find out firsthand.
I was talking to my Dad today. Himself a Vietname Veteran, successful businessman, and hell of a Dad. He was apologizing to me for instilling a strong sense of character and integrity. He felt that life might be less frustrating if I could just fall into line with crappy managers who claim leadership and just go along with them. I don’t doubt it would be easier to just lie down and let the system support and fend for me. I don’t doubt it would be easier to lie down and let people without scruples use and abise me for the paycheck I take home each week. I don’t doubt that my life would be awful just lieing down and taking it.
Last weekend’s accidental movie marathon reminded me that leaders support the mission first hand and lead through the strength of followers. Leaders lead with integrity and not just intent.
Image source: j-fin
Vote for My Pic on FailBlog.org
This is a little sideline of the normal post but I was selected for failblog.org’s voting page. The picture is one I took some time ago but held onto for the comedic value.
Go vote for the picture.
more fail, owned and pwned pics and videos
Studying While Distracted
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.
- Ask for help
- Accept help
- Re-evaluate the Big Rocks
- Schedule Big Rocks first
- Guard your time
- Break out goals and large tasks into smaller more accomplishable tasks
- 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
Talking in Circles
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
Logical Fallacies
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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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