Social Learning: the human experience

I ran across this online and it immediately resonated with me: "An important facet of learning within a social context is social proof. Simply stated, when someone just like me does something, I’m more likely to try it myself."

The first person to deviate from the norm is a leader: someone doing something risky (yet positive) that eventually attracts another risk taker, then another, until ultimately many join in to create truly meaningful solutions or memorable experiences.

This You Tube clip illustrates the point. Watch what happens, and think about this in terms of a social learning process. Be patient. Reward your positive deviants. Some will follow right away, others will wait. Many will be inspired. Change happens.

source: www.positivedeviance.org

Attention Deficit Nation?

One more study that seems to suggest we have shifted from an experience economy (one that requires a certain degree of engagement to appreciate) to an attention economy (one that relies of increasing efforts to capture consumer attention for every engagement/experience).

Social learning (with leaders and followers) requires a significant amount of energy expended in an "attention attraction" function.

In this environment, there is growing evidence that workers do not actually manage the surplus of information (distractors). Instead of multi-tasking, they are responding to tasks with a focus deficit, or an increasing inability to focus on detailed topics or lengthy processes.

What does this mean for...Communication? Learning? Work? Relationships? There are certain to be pros/cons to all this. Here's the meat of this particular study. I'll keep chewing on this bone for a while.

According to a new study from Iowa State University, viewing television and playing video games each are associated with increased subsequent attention problems in childhood.

The study, published this week in the medical journal Pediatrics, examined 1,323 kids in "middle childhood" over a 13-month period.

Moments with McDade!

My name is Debi McDade, and I travel the world - waaayyy too much. But, that makes for great experiences, and lots of stories to tell.

I meet many people everyday, from airport agents to harried hotel clerks to small children with no locks on their lips. Some people I like are hot-roasted nuts (especially the kids). Others are just plain nuts. ("Will you be my friend?" mmmm, can I take a pass on that?) The same goes for places, cities and businesses. In fact, some of my best stories are random encounters I have along the way.

Russ asked me to share my travels with you. Besides, he tends to write about work all the time, and I want to write about the silly stuff that happens in between, mostly when I least expect it.

My job: take the seriousity down a notch. Or twenty.

He might have created a monster, because I can think of three great moments to share with you right now...

Debi

Debi McDade is a performance consultant for a Fortune 500 company. She will be a guest contributor, sharing her experiences from the road with us here.

Here's an interesting heads-up on future employment demographics (note: training impact) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - Employment Projections: 2008-2018 Summary

• The number of persons age 55 years + in the labor force is expected to increase by 12.0 million, or 43.0 percent, during the 2008-2018 period
  
• The labor force in 2018 will be more diverse (Asian workers +29.8%, Hispanics +33.1%)
  
• Service-providing industries will add 14.6 million jobs, or 96 percent of the increase in total employment
  
• Occupations that require a post-secondary degree are expected to account for nearly half of all new jobs
  
• Short and moderate-term on-the-job training are the most significant sources of post-secondary education for 17 of the 30 occupations projected to have the largest employment growth

What does this mean for...

• corporate talent recruiting & development efforts?
• efforts to make work spaces welcoming for a diverse talent force? 
• support for emerging leaders?
• internal talent development and learning programs?

The 63rd Annual Roasterium

Why? Because it's hot out there!

Date: Thursday, July 8
Time: 6:30PM
Where: The Globe Coffee Lounge, downtown St. Pete
Food and Drinks: special menu items, plus $3 specials on beer and wine
Cost: Free and open to everybody
donations to benefit the Literacy Council of St. Petersburg

The original Roasterium was a gathering of 500 outdoor writers on July 8, 1947. Attendees feasted on " roast 'possum, cracklin' bread and swamp cabbage." I ran across a report of the event during research for a book and was struck by the wild name, wilder menu and the schedule of activities that yelled "Floridana". I proposed the idea of resurrecting the event (in name only) to our little writing group, affectionately known as the Prose Posse.

The 63rd Annual Roasterium may not have any charm school graduates, but we will try to give it our own funky spin, while providing an opportunity for local writers to network with each other, swap stories and promote their work. We are inviting writers and readers of all genres to join us and celebrate the art of writing.

Besides, "Roasterium" is like Laundamat and Dine-a-rama; it's faux Latin and pop culture, quirky and strangely appealing all at the same time.

Ya'll join us, okay?

Here's a great case for why we need new thinking and business leadership with vision, by Yves Smith (Naked Capitalism) and Rob Parenteau, the head of a global financial advisory firm and the editor of The Richebächer Letter.

IMHO, simply selling all the apples on the table while neglecting the tree is a recipe for disaster, not a better pie. Here is an excerpt of their case:

"Over the past decade and a half, corporations have been saving more and investing less in their own businesses..."

"...public companies have become obsessed with quarterly earnings. To show short-term profits, they avoid investing in future growth. To develop new products, buy new equipment or expand geographically, an enterprise has to spend money — on marketing research, product design, prototype development, legal expenses associated with patents, lining up contractors and so on.

Rather than incur such expenses, companies increasingly prefer to pay their executives exorbitant bonuses, or issue special dividends to shareholders, or engage in purely financial speculation. But this means they also short-circuit a major driver of [long-term] economic growth."

The Federal Government can't save the economy, businesses must do this. We need thinkers with a long-term design POV who will Invest in organizational development, withhold a portion of savings for reinvestment, explore new technologies and apply employees to R&D: activity that will pay future dividends beyond any item sold today.

My Experience Scorecard
Here are three simple questions to pinpoint learning / leadership opportunities, with a focus on the customer experience:

1. Where is the best customer experience to be found in this organization?
(learning, leadership, sales, service, or some other operational area)


2. What seems to be the source of these unexpectedly great experiences?
(one individual, a particular team, a leader, a process, a tool/technology)


3. How could this type of experience be created in other areas/departments?
(better learning, better process, better leadership, better communication, better tool, other)

Authentic, Action Oriented and Accountable

William D. Green, CEO of Anderson Consulting, states the organization’s role succinctly when he tells his clients their focus should be less on an emerging leaders’ litany of accomplishments and more on the employee’s character, the way they respond to experiences and if they approach these opportunities with a confident work ethic.

Anderson measures a leader’s character and their work ethic with three “C”s: comprehension, commitment, compassion.

If you find yourself in a company that cares more about process than the 3 “C”s, your best recourse is to seek authentic leaders, people who understand their words and actions cause consequences, and that these consequences either help or hinder a team’s ability to create positive outcomes (profit) for both customers and the organization.

Here’s a $1.2 billion company and the leader that got the equation correct: putting people first creates better profits (www.deliveringhappinessbook.com)