Compass Learning News

What could be the emerging global tsunami in education and corporate learning that is going to save the world!

2012-02-24T06:57:00.004-08:00

How do you handle it when you live in the land of ‘disruptivehigh tech innovation’, and, due to a long running industrial dispute, you findyourself jam packed, on a very slow, early morning train to Tel Aviv? On theone hand, you are in a tightly enclosed space, like a proverbial ‘sardine in acan’, with at least, an hour’s wobbling journey to endure. On the other hand,you are scheduled to attend a one day cutting edge workshop, in the ‘city thatnever sleeps’, with one of the global leaders in this amazing developingtechnological space called ‘enterprise gamification’.

You adapt to the situation, of course!Doing the best you can with what you have!

Out comes the Ipod, tuning into recording of the Dalai Lama,as part of a discussion panel, at the Happiness Conference held in 2011, inSydney, Australia. Sadly, my home country, despite its natural wealth, fabulouslifestyle and affluence has one of the highest youth suicide rates in theworld. The panel of experts, along with His Holiness were discussing, why mightthis be so and what could they do about it?

Everything happens for a reason, my role was to find and fulfil it!

Whilst many factors were discussed, one of the key pointsraised in the conversation, was the impact of our materialistic and evidencebased Newtonian World, on children’s education. How science, rationality and reason havebecome the educational core, and how children are being taught to aspire mostlytowards academic and material success. His Holiness raised the point that the real sources of Happiness aremore heart centred, intuitive, and abstract and are also about being part of a communityand a well functioning family.

He suggested that for children to lead happylives, they need to have a sense of meaning and connection in their lives. Thatthey require more than sensible explanations for things, more than a single parenthome, more than a secular and material focus in their young lives!

“Education and knowledge by themselves donot bring inner peace to individuals, families or the society in which theylive. But education combined with warm-heartedness, a sense of concern for thewell-being of others, has much more positive results. If you have a great dealof knowledge, but you're governed by negative emotions, then you tend to useyour knowledge in negative ways. Therefore, while you are learning, don'tforget the importance of warm-heartedness”. Dalai Lama

What really amazed me was that he talked a lot aboutFacebook, and the role of social media in enabling young people to form theirown, new kinds of warm hearted ‘communities’. Where they are free to fully expressand be themselves, and make a stand, without any of the major family, school orsocial imperatives and injunctions!

As I finally made my wayto the Checkpoint Building, in downtown Tel Aviv, where my workshop was beinghosted, I wondered about how this might apply, or not, to the workshop I wasabout to attend?

Having spent the best part of my 20 year career in thecorporate learning space, I was curious as to how enterprise gamification mightfit into the whole field of experiential learning? Perhaps not only as anadaption of ‘learning by doing’ principles, but possibly the next evolution mightsee the integration of experiential learningand social media practices in ways that we may have never expected?

How might it serve as an alternate way of learning that was more intune with His Holiness’s criteria for Happiness?

So what did I learn?

Some Gamification Facts that I didn’t know previously:

- Wespend 3 billion hours a week playing online games.

- Averageplayer age is 37 years old: it costs a lot to buy video games (now)

- The‘Warcraft Game’, (pictured) has the second largest Wiki, (80,000 articles) afterWikipedia, globally.

- 97%of youth are playing computer or video games!

- Theratio of social to competitive players is greater than 3:1.

What really attractspeople to games is that they like to ‘try out stuff’, have fun and enjoymentwhilst totally engaged in pursuit of mastery!

They like to operateautonomously and not be at the effect of any ‘real life’ consequences when theymake a mistake, or fail to achieve one of their virtual missions!

This sounded very familiar to me, and I searched my mind tofind where exactly I had heard these very same points, yet in another context? Of course, from Dan Pink, who states thatpeople are motivated by purpose (doing something meaningful, like saving theplanet), mastery (be the best gamer on the global score board) and autonomy (Iam playing my own game, even if I am part of a gaming community).

"Reality is broken” says Gaming Master JaneMcGonigal,

(see http://janemcgonigal.com)“and we need to make it work more like a game. The best hope we have for surviving the nextcentury on this planet? Games”!

Her goal for the next decade is to try to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in online games.

(http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html)

She explains that there are four key reasons why people loveto game:

Creates urgent optimism.
Weaves a social fabric.
Results in blissful productivity.
Creates epic meaning.

She also says that gamers become super empowered and hopefulindividuals.

Our facilitator then questioned the group:

“What if we harness the energy andthe passion people expend on games to solve some of our major corporate,community and global problems?

“What if people could be enabledto engage and feel like that in organisations, about their day to daywork?”

“How would that impact onproductivity, innovation and overall organisational performance?”

Great questions to chew on!

Reflecting back as to how I started the day, I then askedmyself:

“How will our clever children evolveand adapt their successful virtual world discoveries into real world solutions,create warm-heartedness and really save the world?”

One in which their urgent optimismpermits mistakes that are not perceived as failures, finds a deep sense of wellbeing and profound connection points where they excel and be blissfullyproductive. Where they can embrace meaning, feel a sense of belonging, experience warm-heartedness and contribute to something greater than themselves!

I don’t know about you, I amjoining the emerging global tsunami that is changing the face and nature of educationand corporate learning on an unprecedented scale.

I am looking to see how I cancontribute, as a corporate trainer, facilitator and curriculum designer,towards Jane McGonigal’s unique and surprisingly deviant vision for saving theworld!

The Paradox of Indispensability | The Paradox of Indispensability - London Business School BSR

2012-02-22T04:29:00.001-08:00

Great article that reinforces the need need to take time to think about the important things and to make sure we do them, and not get caught up in 'hurry-sickness'.

The Paradox of Indispensability | The Paradox of Indispensability - London Business School BSR

What is the core ingredient for executive team effectiveness?

2012-02-22T01:55:00.000-08:00

I have found that trust is the lever that creates great teamwork, hard to build, easy to lose! We don't seem to talk enough about it, so here are some simple tips that will help build it!

http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2011/07/19/lead-change-post/

Thriving in Chaos, introducing the flux mindset

2012-02-20T10:13:00.000-08:00

This is an absolutely exciting must read, it reinforces and validates the need to flow with chaos and to embrace a disruptive and deviant mindset!

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/162/generation-flux-future-of-business

Startup Nation Factory by Innovation Israel

2012-02-05T05:55:00.000-08:00

A Fun animation that illustrates the Start Up Nation Factory

What is more critical for a successful business transformation, being a change or an adaptive leader?

2012-01-31T04:44:00.000-08:00

The balance point between certainty and uncertainty,stability and instability, complexity and simplicity is moving faster and moreoften that it has ever done previously.

Coupled with the increasing incidenceof ‘Black Swans Events’, those improbableand unexpected events that provide extreme impact and result in unprecedentedconsequences, have created the conditions for us to re-examine the way we, as organizationaldevelopment consultants approachbusiness transformation and change.

Change Programs Don’t Work!

My thirtyyears of corporate consulting experiences has led me to believe that organizationsand cultures don’t really change, not because they don’t want to, it’s because theyusually can’t! Too often I have seen CEO’s and OD consultants suggest thatthere is something ‘wrong’ about their organizational culture, and then embarkon a costly, complex, culture change program, that attempts to ‘fix’ it! The resultis often a mixture of frustration, denial and blame, usually around the timing,the change programs’ focus, structure or implementation, or ‘wrong’ consulting adviceor even the ‘wrong’ consultant!

Working with 'what is' and 'what could be'!

The first step is to work towards deciphering the current organisationalculture, through simple, accessible and focussed dialogue processes, ratherthan complex, prescriptive, tools based processes that are consultant dependent.This approach engages and involves the people, who work in the organisation, andunderstand it in all of its manifestations and possibilities. By doing this wehave made a positive first step towards understanding, at a very deep level, ‘what is’ as well as ‘what could be’.

What you resistpersists!

Wecan then assess what key factors drive the culture, and then, again throughsimple and focussed dialogue processes, that involve the people, determine howto stimulate and unleash more of the possibilities and positive energy andreduce more of the negatives. Rather than focus on solving business issues andproblems, the real work gets done when determining what the real adaptive challengesare and developing Innovative new ways of solving these problems.

Adapting and evolvingis not changing!

Nature has taught us that Disruption can be both destructiveand creative, and that, without it, nature’s eco-systems do not adapt, andreach new thresholds. Once we understandthat an organisation is also an inherent eco-system, that also requires adaptation, thenwe can create the ‘safe space’ to create Intentional Disruptions.

This stimulates the adaptive process and, if well led, can enable the organisation and its people to become passionate about solving its problems insurprising, imaginative and innovative ways.

What can you do to be a more adaptive leader and ensure that business transformation initiatives that you are involved with, deliver what they promise?

Shai Agassi Launches the Electric Car Today, in Israel, read his Inspirational Note to his Team

2012-01-23T08:40:00.000-08:00

Better Team,

Steve Jobs said that "while most people live within the boundaries of the world we know around us, very few people actually get to set those

boundaries, by not accepting them". When he mentioned those few people, he was talking about YOU.

Four years ago, we promised the president of Israel, mr. Shimon Peres, that by today we will have serially produced electric cars that would drive in the streets of Israel. It seemed like an impossible dream. Today we delivered those cars to people who will be driving electric cars daily as their only vehicle. We had to move mountains to get to this day, and we did. Yet we have many more mountains to move.

I'd like to take this chance to remind you why we embarked on this journey. We did so not because we search for riches, even though those riches will find us. Not because we want to end something, even though we most likely will. Not for political motivation or environmental bias, even though we will help the environment and most likely change geo-politics. No, we did so, because ever so rarely a simple idea resonates with so many people, with so much power, simply because we all know it is the right thing to do.

Since no single person can solve a problem as big and deeply rooted in our society, we have to offer every person a proposition that will better their own life, an option for them to switch. We will do so by relying on people's free will. And in the words of Carlos Ghosn: "the car will be a great experience - a fun car to drive". And Indeed the Fluence ZE is a fun car, just as he promised. We salute our friends and partners at Renault for their great achievement.

We have teams spread around the whole world, in Israel and Denmark, Paris and Palo Alto, Melbourne and Tokyo, teams of people who worked relentlessly over the last 1,500 days to deliver a complete system that no one has ever seen before. I thank every one of you from the bottom of my heart! We started from a white paper, full of ideas and many unknowns. While we have delivered most of that white paper, we still have more to do to prove our system works. We will only get better with time.

I also want to thank those who invested the company and stayed true to their commitment and trust. To Idan, our chairman, the entire board and every investor, big and small, we promised not only to make the world a better place, but to build a great company we can be proud of, one that will be profitable and growing.

And I want to thank your families, I know the days we passed and the days ahead will take us away from our loved ones in the name of our mission. Remember we are all working for our kids, because we promised them we will be saving their world. And we do as we promised.

Finally, as I was driving into today's ceremony, I asked my son how he summarizes our achievement over the last four years. His words ring so true. "Dad, today is just the beginning". we have not accomplished our mission, we are just starting now. I am so proud of you! And I am sure you feel just as I do today.

Isn't this a great beginning?

Shai

Train Your Brain to Focus - Paul Hammerness, MD, and Margaret Moore - Harvard Business Review

2012-01-19T09:11:00.000-08:00

When I am in overwhelm, it is really hard to focus!
These are great tips!

Train Your Brain to Focus - Paul Hammerness, MD, and Margaret Moore - Harvard Business Review

Non-invasive tool identifies Alzheimer's, depression and ADHD

2012-01-18T09:26:00.000-08:00

Those amazing Israeli's have done it again with their revolutionary new system!

Non-invasive tool identifies Alzheimer's, depression and ADHD

Zichron Ya’akov: Home of wine, and spies…

2012-01-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

This is an article about the beautiful town we live in, in Israel. It shows the landscape, explains the unique history and the wonderful wines that get produced locally!

Zichron Ya’akov: Home of wine, and spies…

The top 10 science stories of 2011

2012-01-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

Have a look at the amazing Innovations in Science from the incredible Start Up Nation!

The top 10 science stories of 2011

2011-12-26T06:31:00.000-08:00

How deeplyis technology impacting on our ability to learn as adults in organisations?

“Everything real must be experiencablesomewhere, and every kind of thing experienced must be somewhere real.”

William James

How is Adultand Corporate Learning being transformed by technology?

Having spent the best part of 25 years designing, developingand delivering customised corporate curriculum for the Top 100 companies inAustralia and Israel, I am constantly challenged as to how to best ‘blend’ anexperiential approach within the broadand ever expanding range of technological delivery options.
We all know that adults learn best by ‘doing’ and that focussedexperiential learning creates the space and visceral reaction for real mindsetand behaviour shifts to occur. Recent studies in neuroscience have alsorevealed that the brain is ‘plastic’ and reinforced the principle of the ‘beginnersmind’. That is, to create the space, in this case, the neural pathways, for thenew, we must discard some of the old!
Translating ‘theory’ into real andgenuine practices is the most significant challenge for both the corporatecurriculum, learning program designer and the adult learner.
Imagine how easy life could be if we If we couldeffectively ‘do’ everything we encounter online, without having to ever make amistake and encounter an uncomfortable ‘learning experience’?
So how canwe blend the best, most time effective, and valuable learning solutions?
David Kolb, the acknowledged master of Experiential Learning,in his latest work suggests that we create a ‘deliberate experiential learning’4 step process:

1.      Understand the Learners Identity

2.      Build Collaborative Learning Relationships

3.      Create Mindful Presence

4.      Install Deliberate Practice

To do this effectively, and to meet the needs of our ‘timepoor’ learner, we can customise and blend a cocktail of face to face, experiential and internetdelivery mechanisms.
Understanding the Learners Identity
The diehard ‘Needs Analysis’process can now be done via a blend of face to face or focus group interviewsand focussed and customised and gamified online surveys. The observant andskilled curriculum designer can then pace out the existing range of ‘fixed’ or ‘growth’mindsets that will either support or inhibit the learning process and solve thebusiness issue or problem.
Building Collaborative Learning Relationships
The overall approach includes a mixof partnering, mentoring or coaching, can be web based via teleconferences, learning pods, gamifications,online communities and web based journaling processes.
Creating Mindful Presence
The ‘must have’ experientialprocess to support and ‘bring to life’ the chosen theoretical framework! Whilst pre-readingand action learning assignments will enable further tailoring to the organisationsspecific business needs, they will not create the experience required for learning to occur.Learners benefit from experiencing ‘the power of now’, retreat and reflection,silence and deep attention. Residential retreats, with focussed emergence andcustomised, memorable and challenging activities are the prerequisites for successfuland enduring ‘learning experiences’.
Installing Deliberate Practice
The most often overlooked and mostcritical success factor in the adult learning process and also easily the most easily deliveredvia technology. Focussed attention, repetition, feedback, practice, goalsetting, correction, self observation and reflection processes can all be establishedand tracked via online mechanisms. Gamifying the experiential activity into aseries of targeted practice building webinar based business applicationsessions extends its usage, maximises the investment and establishes increased relevance.
Online communities, teleconferences, web basedjournals, group learning pods further embed and integrate the learning process.
So when designing and developing your next Corporate Learning Program youmight want to consider how you can best meet your clients needs and deliver realand enduring value by stepping back into the learning zone yourself!

“…there is only one primal stuff or materialin the world, a stuff of which everything is composed… we call that stuff ‘pureexperience.”
William James

2011-12-25T03:35:00.000-08:00

See the latest Israeli Innovation

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15970019

Calibrating Adult Learners Reactions to Learning and Change

2011-12-08T07:51:00.000-08:00

Our 25 years of experience designing and delivering corporate learning programs, have enabled us to observe that most adults experience deep, visceral, fear based reactions when confronted with learning and change.

It might be as simple as asking the learner to experiment with a more useful mindset, practice a different behaviour, or learn a new skill.

Each of these seemingly simple changes exposes a unique set of reactions, which, if not anticipated, and appropriately handled by the trainer, facilitator or coach will ‘freeze’ the learner in ways that inhibit and restrain the entire learning process.

So much investment in corporate learning programs is wasted, in both time and money, because many providers do not create the 'safe space' required to allow these fears to emerge, be acknowledged and paced into the overall learning process.

Professor Edgar Schein, in his legendary book ‘Organisational Culture and Leadership’, succinctly explains this phenomenon in detail.

He explains that a learner’s initial fear manifests as 'survival' anxiety. This is accompanied by a set of emotional, neurological, physiological and cognitive based reactions. This is because what the learner currently knows is being challenged, and it may actually be difficult to learn something new. We know that we need to make a change, but we are not sure if we can. The learner feels uncomfortable and even, ‘out of balance' in ways that ‘awakens’ them to what is going on.

As trainers, facilitators and coaches the next most critical challenge is dealing with the second round of fears: the learners ‘learning’ anxiety. If not acknowledged & managed, further 'move away' defensive behaviours and resistance to change occurs. It may be through denial (“I don’t need to do this”), passing the buck (“They need to learn this, not me”), dodging (“You can’t make me do this) and other aggressive or avoidant behaviour. (“Who are you to tell me what to do”)

Learning Anxiety is usually a combination of several specific fears:

- Fear if loss of power or position

- Fear of temporary incompetence

- Fear of punishment for incompetence

- Fear of loss of personal identity

- Fear of loss of group membership.

So how do we, as trainers, facilitators and coaches’ best handle this?

We focus on reducing their learning anxiety through creating ‘psychological safety’ by:

1. Intentionally facilitating safe ‘awakening’ processes.

2. Supporting people to acknowledge and resolve their personal discomfort

3. Enabling people to shift out of passive and aggressive defensiveness without making them ‘wrong’

4. Enrolling them in their own cause ‘to be the best they can be’ through co-creation of concrete and specific change goals.

If you can make the time to notice and focus your efforts on the range of fear based reactions occurring, not only will deep and sustainable learning occur, it could also become a pleasurable and memorable experience for everyone.

Israel Inside Trailer

2011-12-05T02:36:00.000-08:00

Another Perspective on Israel
The most exciting thing about living here are the unexpected discoveries that we uncover almost everyday!

The new silicon valley

2011-12-05T00:37:00.000-08:00

There are always fresh and dynamic approaches to technological innovation that continually delivers the unexpected!

Start Up Nation Website

2011-07-19T06:50:00.001-07:00

The most exciting book ever about why Israel is a source of cutting edge global innovation, it is full of fascinating stories and examples thatreally sets Israel apart from its neighbours.

http://www.startupnationbook.com

View our latest newsletter

2011-05-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

http://email.webchameleon.com.au/em/message/email/view.php?id=786305&u=26483

About Black Swan Events and Innovation

2011-05-11T07:37:00.000-07:00

“No technologies came from design and planning - they were just Black Swans. The strategies for discovers and entrepreneurs is to rely less on top down planning and to focus on maximum tinkering and recognising opportunities when they present themselves.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb “The Black Swan”

It is really interesting how often our thinking is both clouded and constrained by our individual and collective thought processes and our perceptions about what is ‘real’ or not.

To be innovative, we need to ‘break through’ these clouds and restraints through being open to what we don’t yet know. To come from a position of ‘anti-knowledge’. Until we can break through from our ‘blindness’ to ‘randomness’ and especially to large deviations from the norm, we can never be open to the ‘unexpected’ and the ‘inconceivable’.

An innovator is someone who has an idea that is not easily perceived by the current players. An innovator will operate differently from expectations, and the less their competitors who operate this way, the more likely the Innovator will succeed. Innovators maximise playing at the edges, letting go of the illusion that they understand what is really going on, challenging what they and others perceive and challenging current models and facts.

Whilst this may sound relatively simple, it is actually quite difficult to learn, apply and assimilate.

We are currently researching, analysing and creating an innovative new Israeli Start Up organisation, one which 'brings to life', in a totally unexpected way, the Innovate Like an Israeli Model, to create organisational innovative eco-systems where innovation flourishes!

Watch this space!

http://www.jpost.com/Business/Commentary/Article.aspx?id=214192

2011-04-05T05:07:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Israeli cows are the world’s champs in milk production? Amazing but true: Israeli cows, on average, yield about 12,000 liters of milk a year, compared to an average of 6,000 in the US and the UK, and between 3,000 and 4,000 in India and China.

http://www.jpost.com/Business/Commentary/Article.aspx?id=214192

They tried to kill us, we won, now we’re changing the world

2011-04-02T02:47:00.000-07:00

Saul Singer, co-author of the Israel-redefining ‘Start-Up Nation,’ urges Israel and its supporters to internalize just how profoundly our phenomenal capacity for innovation can better this planet.

They tried to kill us, we won, now we’re changing the world