A World Community Experience

There are no borders or boundaries in the Experience Nation.

In fact, I recently found myself passionately supportive of a one-man outfit in England that produced the best design software I had ever used. And then he sold his company (I am truly happy for him) although the product now sucks (how truly stupid of the new owner).

I didn’t care where he worked or what he ate for breakfast. I did care about his product. I was a beneficiary of the commitment he gave to it and the passion that was so self-evident in his blog posts. It made me feel like part of his team. I was part of his user nation.

Facebook has 500 million users, more “citizens” than the United States of America. Within that large number are smaller groups of friends who form communities and within those communities are little gatherings of friends. I may or may not participate fully in Facebook but I recognize the movement for what it is: a world community experience.

How cool to be suddenly connected to a person that writes the software I use and makes my life just a little bit easier.

The Experience Generation

Speaking about his 2005 book, “Blink”, the author, Malcom Gladwell remains fascinated by the “smallest components of our everyday lives--with the content and origin of those instantaneous impressions and conclusions that bubble up whenever we meet a new person, or confront a complex situation, or have to make a decision under conditions of stress.

I think its time we paid more attention to those fleeting moments. I think that if we did, it would change the way wars are fought, the kind of products we see on the shelves, the kinds of movies that get made, the way police officers are trained, the way couples are counseled, the way job interviews are conducted and on and on--and if you combine all those little changes together you end up with a different and happier world.”

For years, I have been speaking on the power of our personal experiences. Mostly, I have referred to interpersonal or “live” interactions. However, I don’t preclude the power of online interactions between individuals. In either venue, the fundamental commonality is our humanity.

We are a bundle of complex physiological, psychological and spiritual connections. We react physically and emotionally to situational events. The more powerful the stimulus, the more meaningful and memorable our responses become. Not surprisingly, emotional responses, not intellectual responses, make the most impact. Events that trigger our emotions are the most memorable and significant.

Try to measure one of those moments today. Be a witness to your own life. Like Malcom, I think a little more attention to each moment could fundamentally change the way we interact and begin to alter (improve?) the communities around us.

three thoughts this morning:

1. InstinctUAL decisions (rapid decisions based on previous experiences) take precedence over those that are planned through logic or reason.

2. Social Media is creatING a personal experience in an otherwise impersonal medium.

3. The sun is shining and my gut tells me I need a break from the internet. I'm still human.

: > )

You Grip a Spear By the Handle

Social anthropologists study patterns in human behavior and trends that we create through that behavior. They keep their eyes forward; they observe the edge of the trend, the "tip of the spear".

But what about those of us who make the donuts - the people who work everyday to help change the organization and bring the rest of us closer to that future state? Sometimes I am left scratching my head, wondering how to apply their wonderful observations in meaningful ways, ways that won’t cause me to spend dollars unnecessarily or by teach a set of skills that quickly become irrelevant.

I can think of several trends that once gripped employers like a fever. Can you imagine how many millions of dollars service organizations have spent on Zero-Defects consulting or Second Life applications? I am sure some people still find these tools useful, yet many more spent hours implementing them, only to find those skills ancillary, or worse - irrelevant, to their job or career.

Over time, I have come to realize the "secret" has already been shared. The individuals and organizations creating great experiences for you and me are the ones that act daily, they value learning in the moment, adapting in order to grow. Here is their secret.

1. TOUCH: by close contact, they clearly define and deliver an experience the audience wants.

Most companies are lucky if they can define their product (bagels). Great companies define the experience in a shared vision that responds to a customer’s challenge or desire (a flavor sensation in every bite). They know who a customer will contact, and where. They also plan how that experience will feel, both inside and outside the organization.

2. FEEL: through sustained contact, they measure the experience the audience receives (not just the number of units an employee delivers!).

There’s the older (visible) way to measure: “Let’s survey people on their way out and then adjust our services.” And, there’s a newer (invisible) way to gather data: “Let’s monitor what they are saying online so we can continue the conversation.”

Either way, their goal is to measure and evaluate the user experience in order to create additional opportunities for your staff and your customers.

3. GROW: through effective team development, they inspire new thinking in employees with support for actions that solve challenges in interesting and remarkable ways.

This is where average organizations fail, and great ones excel. A great company evolves over time - they readjust their grip and throw the spear again, and again.

Emerging leaders of the experience generation–those raised under an experience economy–view sales and service experiences as an ongoing opportunity to improve learning, leadership and evolve the sales/service/operational process.

In order to succeed, emerging leaders need some essential ingredients (among others) and help "throwing the spear". They need:

· an organizational commitment to transparency

· their executive leader's commitment to accountability

· fellow employee commitment to action

· an organizational willingness to let customers collaborate on big decisions

· an environment that is open to learning and change

What is / will be the next intersection of education, creativity and community development? As Barack Obama takes office, I wonder how a variety of funding and initiatives across siloed governmental departments could possibly be connected to create the kind of outcomes that can radically change the way we work, learn and interact.

Free and nifty development tools thrown around in workshop discussions:

Wirecast (video capture and cleanup)
Pagesucker (grab anything and tag it)
CAM Studio
Audacity (audio recording & editing)
Percourse (web development)
Fullshot (screen capture)
Tiddly Wiki (easy wiki creation)

...and these, provided by the LDS Church:

A photo from DevCon by Mark.

Here's the key nugget from my July keynote presentation: as learners and the web evolve, how do our strategies and tactics evolve with them? The LMS is dead, long live the LMS.

Here's an image of how the web may (or may not) evolve. From Web 1.0 to 4.0 and a more artificial intelligent agent.

My thoughts: our current approach to the Internet is akin to monks trying to track all printed material after the invention of the movable type printing press: first, overwhelming, then, impossible. Likewise, even the creators of the Internet think there is so much out there, even the best search engines like Google barely capture a fraction of it all. We feel overwhelmed by information; it is impossible to predict where learners will go and what they will learn.

So...

Let's work WITH the web and our students as they evolve, not against the change. Like monks trying to put our arms around a river of printed information, our efforts to "control" or manage Internet-based learning experiences is futile. They are ubiquitous, unplanned, informal, and virtually on every device. Perhaps we should begin by planning to track our learners' experiences, as opposed to pre-planning their every online experience or locking them into small, contained, and predictable Internet experiences.

In 1933, a mechanic simplified the complexity of the London Tube map. The same schema is still used to this day because it simplifies a very complex system. We need a revolution in learning; we need a way of mapping online learning that helps learners map their online experiences, not by planning their every move, but by creating a more "simplexic*" and less "sage on a stage" way of placing learners at the center of the learning experience.

* see "Symplexity"