Innovative approaches to design for students

Love this approach to design for students. It really engages them in the real world and how they can bring their ideas to life.

It supports the power of experiential learning and creates such an engaged learning experience.

Fan funding

Amanda Palmer's album was made with "a million raised from fans in a month" WOWZA!
Take a look at how she did it here

And it got me thinking about fan power within L&D.

Here's a bit more of the story first

She says "I have a long term relationship with my fans. Countless 10s of 1000s of hours connecting with my fans, I don't just get on the stage and play, I like to meet people, hang out.... I connect with my fans constantly, nowadays through twitter but it used to be through My Sapce, emails and meeting after a gig. You add up all those relationships and I have a real connection with my fans. I don't just send them a missive occassionally and hope that they support me, we all really know each other. They have also  been following my story about surviving in the music industry since leaving my major music label.

An example of her movement

Her music company objected to the exposure of her naked stomach. Her fans responded by blogging their own photos of bellies with messages on them saying "free the belly" - thousands of people around the globe responded with positive messages and photographs.

So how does this fit for us in L&D?

This, for me, a classic example of connecting with your world. It is easy to get suckered into general busyness, but, in reality, without a fan following how will you ever conjure up enough support for sustainable learning & development in your organisation?

So get out there, connect, make friends, show you care. Set yourself a target for building your internal network daily and ensuring that you show they are important to you, all the time.

Get creative, think what lessons can you directly take from this in the way your market your work to help build your fan following!

Enjoy success.

Can Business Nouse be taught?

Is having a ‘head for business’ instinctive, or can business savvy be taught?

In 1996 Michelle Mone started up her designer lingerie company, MJM International. Today her business is thought to be worth £50 million. Carol Savage has headed up marketing for leading brands such as Sara Lee and Disney. They tell Jenni Murray what they think on Woman's Hour. You can access it via this QR code.

They talk about the key being about determination, having a fire in your belly - your attitude sees you achieve.

Jenni compares two incredible business women. Michelle Mone who grew up with Richard Branson pinned on her wall instead of pop stars.  And Carol Savage who decided to study an MBA whilst pregnant and stumbled upon a great idea for business.

Their 3 key pieces of advice are:

1. Be prepared to build relationships that enable you to rely on people who have great skills e.g. in L&D build your relationships with marketing or finance so that you really do get to know the business inside out.
2. Challenge people strongly and positively to hone your understanding
3. Seek out ways to learn continuously.

So, yes the practicalities of reading balance sheets and understanding the theory can be taught but business nouse really comes from continuously challenging yourself, your understanding and the understanding of those around you.

Hidden talent in everyday things

Kelli Anderson is an artist and her aim is to find hidden talent in everyday things.
She says "The world is full of order that doesn't deserve our respect" and this got me thinking. What do we automatically respect that doesn't deserve it.

Take a look at her short Ted video and whilst you do ponder on that question?
Enjoy

Questions to ask as we introduce new ideas to someone

When you design learning what comes first in your design process?
Where do you seek inspiration from?
How do you check that what you are doing is pushing the right buttons for learners and the organisation?

Let's focus on getting learner buy in here.

Before people are prepared to take action, they will ask certain questions so make sure you have answers for all of these and share these answers as a way of getting learners on-board with learning.

·         Why should I listen to you?

·         Do I trust you?

·         Am I afraid of it?

·         Will this work for me?

·         Who says it's important?

·         What will my peers think?

These are all variations of one complicated thread: how will this process make me feel?

 

I had a maths lesson at my son's primary school today. The headteacher teacher started by explaining that the way we teach maths has changed, it's important not just to learn tricks of the trade like maybe you did but now they realise that children need to gain a deeper understanding and whilst we don't expect you to teach your children; we know that you'll want to support them in practice. So today is all about helping you to have fun with your children whilst they deepen their understanding.

Now what do you think of that? What a great expression of switching a group of adults on in a topic they were anxious about. She could have just gone straight into policy and what they do but this short introduction answered many of the concerns that parents had and you could see the group physically relax once this had been stated... and in doing so, making them ready to learn, to challenge, to question and to put it into practice.

Even though these questions are what leaners care about, i still see L&D practitioners often launch in to new ideas without ensuring that people are bought in – make sure you don’t make this mistake. Take time in your positioning and remember that this often comes even before learners have started their learning process.

How would you describe being a Learning Entrepreneur?

We made this little wordle to demonstrate the qualities of a learning entrepreneur - enjoy.

In extreme conditions

We have recently experienced floods in our Town and it was incredible to observe the sheer resourcefulness and resilience of people within that community. I guess we were lucky compared to many other people – it was only one street of 51 houses. But that is 51 families whose lives have been tragically and irrevocably been affected.

It is important to remember that people experience change in all sorts of different ways both inside and out of work and as we continue to cope with austerity it is critical to spend time in understanding, being compassionate and exploring options with people so they can move through their own cycle quickly.

Takae a look at our change articles for practical ideas to help - here's one for starters

What made you go WOW today?

Sometimes it is the simple things that have the most impact I found this article today and it made me go WOW take a look! 8 ideas, 10 guides and 17 tools for a better professional learning network.