What is Required of ME as a Digital Learner in 2008?

Preface:

This is the second article in a 4-part Series for our Sunday Mālama in February, in which we kick off our Braver Experiments [with] Digital Learning initiative for Managing with Aloha Coaching (MWAC) in 2008.

If you missed it, this was part 1: Who is the Digital Learning Coach in your company?
In part 1 we met Brex.

You ask, “What is required of me as the Digital Learner in 2008?”

Well, in the spirit of Kuleana, the value of responsibility we are studying this month, we'd likely agree that the digital learner has to primarily take personal responsibility for the way they communicate with everyone else in the world — and take a heightened interest in doing so. That goes for both sides of communication;

1. The GIVING side, how we initiate our messages for others, and how we give those messages shape, clarity, and warmth. We want to invite and engage others, not just broadcast to them, creating unwelcome noise.

2. The RECEIVING side, how we welcome messages from others, taking some responsibility with establishing and maintaining a good way for them to get through to us. Sure, we want our privacy respected. On the other hand, a hermit wouldn't be the person you choose as a communications coach.

With those assumptions as our givens, we can make this easier, taking care of a couple of things at once: Let's re-phrase the question in my title slightly, and be more specific.

What if our requirements as adult learners were the same as the ones Brex has?

Wouldn't that help us understand each other better, and help us work together (and learn together) toward filling the same need?

In part one of this series, I gave you a link to this video clip. Even if you watched it before, it's been a week, so indulge me okay? Take the next 4 minutes to watch it again. When it's over, write down what you are thinking, or say it out loud. What sticks with you?

When I first watched the video, I was already struggling with those I am feeling so behind impressions I'd described to you in part one. What I now do is pretty effective, and I love it, yet I know I must accelerate my learning curve with digital communications if I am to serve the MWA movement better than I now do. The video was telling me, screaming at me, Ho'o - get moving and make this happen. Now.

Second, much as the video pulls at you to help in some way with our youth, this K-12 arena isn't one presently in my circle of influence, and my focus immediately shifted to the workplace and the adult learner. What about us? The oldest Boomer is only 62 and has a lot of years left. A lot of years, and a lot of Aloha with which they can make a Ho'ohana-inspired contribution. And what about me? I have to learn it before I can coach with it!

The www as “whatever, whenever, and wherever” communication jumped out at me in the clip, and this realization: Communication is already such a loaded topic in our organizations, and I'm continually blogging about just the talking part of it. Our digital ‘advancements’ are complicating things more than they already are.

This jumped out:

“I will have 14 jobs before I am 38 years old.” and, “Most of those jobs don't exist today.”

Last Sunday, I asked the question, “Who is the Digital Learning Coach in your company?” without giving you my answer. Seth Godin wrote about it as a shortage, and Holly Buchanan added some terrific insights to his quick analysis from a consumer standpoint. If you can teach, and you have an entrepreneurial mindset, there are pretty sweet freelancing opportunities here. Brian Clark of Teaching Sells pitches thinking even bigger than that:

As big as that opportunity [of helping people get the most out of new and existing digital technologies] is, the basic idea of digital coaching extends well beyond helping people with technology. And there’s also a way to structure an entire systematized business model around digital coaching that builds your authority, creates multiple revenue streams, and leads to higher quality leads and better client relationships.

Much as I agree with Brian about how exciting this opportunity is (and if you can do what he suggests, do), I say we bring our discussion back to the workplace: How we can seize our responsibility for leadership (Kuleana!) within our existing workplaces versus creating more consultants? How can we re-work what's already going on before we add to it unnecessarily? The consultants who are doing this well can jump in and help us, but only if they understand we have a train-the-in-house-trainer goal here.

We'll look at just one part of this today: our needs as individuals and what we can take personal responsibility with. Then next week we'll shift our focus to the organizational culture.

Digital Learning Coach is one of those jobs which don't exist today.

The rare bird (dog?) doing it somewhere out there isn't enough to qualify as noteworthy existence for me. I can't say I've run into a similar position in all the companies I've worked with since I've been a management coach. We love our IT guys, we really, truly do, but they are process specialists, and we need coaching specialists (more about this distinction here, in the Role of the Manager Reconstructed).

So until the workplace catches up and gives you some help with this, here is your reality: You're largely on your own in getting your coaching.

And THAT my friends is today's reality of what is required of the Digital Learner in 2008.

Before you write a hit-list of what you want to learn (that's coming up in part four), think about what you want to achieve besides that broad-brush desire to be more modern and keep up with technology. I can tell you from personal experience, that the new, cool and sexy software platforms now available to us online are usually more multi-layered and complex than they first appear to be. Web developers have gotten really smart about sucking us in with the free, more user-friendly starter kits they offer first, and if you don't know what your primary intention is, you can fall down rabbit holes very, very easily. Yeah, you're having fun, but where did the time go, and what did you actually achieve so far?

I also recommend you focus on the learning versus the digital technologies themselves. Learning is the skill: The digital technologies are what you will apply your learning savvy to. As the adage goes, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Those 16 Digital Natives starring in the clip gave us their suggestions on what will be required for them in their Brex-like learning: “Teach me to think.” “Teach me to create.” “Allow me to create using technology.” and most of all, do whatever it takes to “Engage me!”

Kuleana: One of the things you have to take personal responsibility for is your own engagement, and placing yourself where you are self-motivated and stimulated to actually learn. Don't just go through the motions of a 9-5 mentality j-o-b (which is the polar opposite of the Ho‘ohana we always talk about here).

If you have a boss who needs convincing that dramatically increased employee engagement is a worthy benefit, don't waste your time in the argument. Update your resume and find a new boss (Yes, I am very serious).

Don't go it alone: Get a great partner, and help each other.

One thing I did learn a long time ago, is that if you have questions, ask them of the people who have better answers than you can come up with on your own.

I no longer have someone like Tony working with me (however you can bet I am working on partnering with a new-generation Tony). If I was still in a company with an IT guy or gal, the first thing I'd probably do — like, right now, saving this article in mid-sentence to complete later — would be to buy them cinnamon tea (or a beer) off-site and drill them for their feelings about all of this, asking questions like these:

Would you want your IT job reinvented in some way? Describe your dream job for me.
(This is a leading question on purpose. Expect to patiently sit through their rant about how technologically inept we all are, and how they continually clean up after us. You have to admit they're right, you might learn something, and it's a good idea to let them spill all this out first so you can drill down deeper into their intellectual good stuff, which they have a ton of.)

What do you think about this notion of a brand new job getting created, one called something like Digital Learning Coach? I know I need one; would that help you too? (See how getting their rant was good? Now you're trying to immediately offer a solution possibility with your next question.)

Is that something you'd want to do? Is it even possible that you could do that on top of all the stuff you do for us already?
(Don't make assumptions... he or she may be more coach than process expert than you think they are, and how great would that be, huh? They might offer to coach you!)

Wow. Do you mind if I write some of this stuff down?
(If anyone is aware of how little most of us remember from the conversations we have, understanding why our follow-up usually sucks, it's the people in IT.) Then, go for getting a new friend, partner, and agreement:

If I start to champion this thing, will you help me?

An important P.S.

Emailing this link to your IT department to read is not the same as having the conversation, and it might would probably backfire on you, moving you way up in ranking on their jerk list. Think about that for a moment as you recall the last thing they had to fix for you...

So ante up for the tea and the time, and have the conversation. Then when you're done, say thank you. If you've stuck with me this far, I'm assuming you're planning to follow up with them, right?

By the way, if you already work with me, you'll know what I'm up to the next time I visit and ask you to introduce me to your IT guy.

Next Sunday, February 17, we continue with part three: What are the changes Digital Learning requires of your organizational culture?

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Postscript: Another view of the 21st Century Learner:

As the mother of two children who are now in college, and whom often complain about their “boring” and unimaginative teachers, (despite knowing I will tell them that getting engaged is their Kuleana) attending to Brex's needs hits painfully close to home with me.

On Ho'ohana Aloha (my Tumblr) you'll find another video clip called A Vision of Students Today created by a professor at Kansas State University and the 200 students enrolled in his ANTH 200 class, an Introduction to Cultural Anthropology.

It was done in the Spring 2007, and I believe it to be the ancestor of the clip I have in this posting. The added intrigue on this one for me is the involvement of the college-level students in this digital ethnography class. When I read it for the first time, I couldn't help but wonder — how much of this reflects the students’ passion for the message (or was it just another assignment), and how much of it is the professor’s?

Apparently that was Professor Michael Wesch's concern too:

Of utmost concern to me, was the nature of questions I was hearing from students, which tended to be administrative and procedural rather than penetrative, critical, and insightful. My least favorite question was also the most common: “What do we need to know for this test?” Something had to be done...

Photo Credits, as found on Flickr CC: Hello! by malthe, Belinha by betta design, and Cinnamon tea by Al- Fassam [ Online! :D ].

Comments

[Steve Sherlock]

Rosa, I think the "digital learning coach" is already here, just known by one of many other names. Within the business office, for example, there is a prairie dog effect when something happens. People pop up over their cubes to find out if their neighbor had the same problem. When something like this does occur, the neighbors gravitate to the "one", the "go to" person, the neghborhood geek. If they are not available, the "Help Desk" is staffed with folks who do this for a living, providing on the job training "just in time".

That much said, I agree that we all have a responsibility to be more self sufficient in the technology area. If we do not keep up, we will fall behind. One could easily find themself not prepared to take one of those "new jobs" being created.

It is a challenge.

[Rosa Say]

Steve, I agree that we already have a substantial amount of collective skill and knowledge in most organizations that can be tapped into, and probably should. It is great when the prairie-dogging you describe does happen and there is collaborative learning...
- when everyone is comfortable asking for help,
- when collaborative learning versus a comedy of errors does in fact result,
- when no one (the "neighborhood geek" for example) finds their work continually interrupted because of the asking,
- or when there is something like a Help Desk (missing in many, many workplaces) people can turn to and get as timely a response as customers get (the ones not trapped in the holding pattern in telephone answering automation ... sorry, couldn't resist).

There is also a challenge in that most bosses will not be willing to create new positions that do not presently exist [something we'll talk about in part three] so let's see what other collective wisdom we can get!

I appreciate you getting the conversation started Steve, mahalo.

[Rosa Say]

By the way Steve, I saw the announcement you did on Hitchhiker about NewBCamp 2008...
http://hgttb.blogspot.com/2008/02/newbcamp-2008.html

...and I think events like that are a great way to step into the digital learning fray with others who are equally motivated. The "un-conference" trend is a pretty cool way to build a network too.

[Steve Sherlock]

Rosa, as you well know, the opportunities for learning are everywhere, not just here and there. Folks just need (1) to be open to finding them and (2) take the time to take advantage of them.

The unconference in particular has been a great opportunity. Especially for me living in a metro area like Boston, and centrally located in New England, I can get to events fairly easily. When they are free or cheap (NewBCamp is $10), I can afford to be there.