Corporate culture, what does this term mean to you?  In almost every industry these days the terminology around a strong and "robust" corporate culture abound.  

There are many industry examples one can use to identify the elements of a positive and effective corporate culture, consider Google, Disney, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Apple and Nordstrom.  Now consider the companies that you feel don't foster a positive corporate culture, I will reserve my own judgments as the purpose of my blog is not to foster any negativity.  In the interest of transparency though I certainly have a list of companies where I think "thats probably not a great place to work, or be a customer". 



Ask yourself two questions;

Out of fear we...  Throw pillows around the issue...

or,

Out of spite we... Blame, shame and hold them accountable...

So, what are these results achieving for you?

What would it look like to let some fresh air into the room? what is the most vulnerable thing you could do within your organization right now?  For some organizations, simply showing up is already a death defying feat, for others, it involves that "gulp" moment where you interpret the results of the annual engagement survey. 

If you find yourself frustrated by "these people" or find yourself blaming the woes of the organization on a specific group, as any good leader should do, ask yourself these questions;

"If I am being critical, I should look first in the mirror, where am I responsible for this current state?"

or

"I want to celebrate our success, who and how many people/teams do I need to thank?"

The common opinion these days is "we need to hold them accountable!".  The question that should be asked after a leader states this is "what aren't we doing to motivate them?".  

I had a great conversation the other day with a very engaged, young and up and coming leader within the organization.  We were discussing the leadership skills gap that exists in another organization and he finally turned, looked at me and said "what are you actually talking about?".

I found this very telling.  I shared the thought that leaders are not promoted, leaders choose to be vulnerable, present, honest, accountable and authentic.  Any person can be promoted to whichever position, they then have the choice to be a leader and the results they see are a direct result of the choices they make, not the limitations of whichever century or year is taking place. 

This is the first in a series of leadership reflections, and much is to be reflected upon.  In short, people are lead by inspiration and cultural "fuel", not by fear. 

Lead well, 

Jeff

The incredible growth of the ice bucket challenge for ALS has caused me to reflect a lot about how we use social media.  Before I go any further in this post, I would be remiss not to plug the challenge.

If you have not been nominated to take part, I hereby nominate you.  I challenge you to donate via www.als.ca or www.alsa.org then, film and post your own video of you dumping ice and water over your head.  Much inspiration can be found just searching youtube or your own Facebook newsfeed.  My own challenge video can be viewed at the bottom of my post. 

The purpose of this challenge is not necessarily to teach people.  However, when I think about what I have learned the past few weeks I think about what I have learned at a deep level, and that is, people really DO care.  Secondary to that, after watching the many videos posted by my friends, colleagues and family I actually learned the following that I did not already know:

1. The challenge was started by Pete Frates
2. The purpose of pouring ice into the water is to simulate the sensation that those with ALS feel all of the time.  Numbness and tingling all over their bodies

The challenge has gone "viral" and from when the challenge started the American ALS society has earned over $40 million and the Canadian contingent has brought in over $1.7 million.

Why has this happened? and what caused this campaign to take off the way it has?

I believe that we are so connected via social media that this has migrated to our news feeds and subscriptions and because it is so simple that we pay attention.

What does this tell us about learning and social media?  I think that the genius within social media is that learning can happen without even realizing it.  Also, social media learning is very experiential, one post on Facebook can involve reading, videos, and commenting or discussion.

How can we leverage these benefits further? in our classrooms and within our eLearning blogs? I know that I am going to try more within my learning design.  Stay tuned.

Good luck in your ALS ice bucket challenges

Jeff  

That inevitable moment when someone asks "what do you do?"... The conversation then usually turns towards the "huh?" factor.

"well" I say;  "I am an instructional designer"... 

Blank stares, uncomfortable shifting and then one of two usual responses;

"What does that mean?"

or

"Oh! so you design buildings?"... "No" I reply, "that would be industrial design"... 

There are many people that have to explain and provide additional context for exactly what it is that they "do".  This causes me to wonder.  How many learning activities take place on any given day, in any given organization where the learner has no clue about the time, care and design that has been placed in their particular learning experience?

After several years of working on my "elevator speech" explaining exactly what I think it is that I do, I feel no further ahead.  I certainly don't want to patronize or intimidate anyone, my intent is to share.  Not to alienate.  

So, my current elevator speech involves the following:

"I research and develop experiences that allow learning to happen in order to meet an established knowledge goal" and sometimes I expand with, "I collaborate with stakeholders and leaders and provide coaching services in order to surface and create a strategy for the learning needs of their team/department/organization". 

After I have stated the above, I almost always land on:

"I am a teacher"

To which large wide smiles and the look of "oh thank god!, he is done explaining all of that".

What I have recognized is that I should stick with the simplest answer "I teach".  This is not a bad thing, everyone instantly has a connection to some level of education and everyone seems to relate to the scholastic glue that holds us all together. 

On that serious note, what exactly "is" instructional design? If you want the wiki explanation here is it;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_design

If I could rewrite the wiki and explain what we (Instructional Designers) do, I would say; We research the learning needs of a project and then develop creative ways of helping learning to happen, with the end goal of the learner demonstrating what we expected based on the learning outcomes agreed to by the designer and the organization.      

I suppose, we are the "method to the madness"...

Learn well, 

Jeff

Reflecting on what ones first post should be can be rather stressful.  Searching around the interweb I found that many first posts are related to personal brand statements and the like.

My goal for my blog is to share on learning insights, challenges, "aha" moments, and other inspirational experiences.  

Learning is a complex thing.  Rather, learning is an experience. An experience held by the learner, the facilitator/coach/boss, etc. Also, the experience of the innocent bystander (sometimes).  I recently had the experience of sitting in two different Starbucks stores.  While I was there I happened to be chipping away at some work while enjoying my favourite "starbys" beverage.  While I was immersed in my warm and comfy brand experience I could not help but listen in on a rare "behind-the-scene" occurrence, the performance review of a barista by the store manager. 



My first experience was at a beautiful and large concept store located in British Columbia's lower mainland.  The second, was back home in Alberta at my "local" store.

First and foremost I admired the tone and professionalism of the manager in the BC store, she had several pieces of constructive feedback to share with her staff member and what I noticed was that she was clearly following a format/process and was clearly trained on how to conduct a performance review.  However, I was impressed that she was extremely comfortable in stick handling excuses and rebuttal on the part of the barista "no, you cannot wear jeans to work and this was explained previously on....".

This manager was able to match the expectations of the companies store policies with outcome statements that the employee was able to agree to as very clear and attainable.  In the realm of learning, a clear outcome statement is essential in  painting that "future picture".  I liked this so much because this was a great example of blended learning where the leaders are passionate and capable of carrying out the expectations of the organization.

My local experience within the same week back home in Alberta was not the same.  Prior to listening in on a review I noticed that the store was not clean, the staff were not working effectively together and during the review of the barista a person who worked in a nearby store (non Starbucks) was allowed to walk behind the counter and help herself to ice in the back room.  

These two experiences caused me to reflect on what I "feel" about this organization.  Billions of dollars in sales and yet such wildly different experiences.  What this tells me is that an organization can have the best processes set up, the highest standards, yet the execution of this vision within the company lies with each person.  Like a link of chain, if one is broken, the learning stops.

Until next time, 

Jeff