Joyful Jubilant Learning

Digital Learning and Choosing Your Learning Communities

Our April theme of Digital Learning has illustrated something quite clearly for me:

Whatever Digital Learning we choose will also determine the conversations we have with our globally scattered friends and neighbors, and how we have them.

Conversely, you may choose a virtual community (like this one, our Ho‘ohana Community on JJL) or a social media network first (such as Twitter or LinkedIn). However in making that choice, you will have to learn whatever it takes to communicate with everyone there if you are to fully engage with them (and they with you) in the best possible way.

Pure and simple: We choose how and if we engage

What is that “best possible way?” Well, “best” is pretty relative to each of us individually, and there’s the rub: Best for you may not be perceived as best for the rest of the community.

And there is another truism which frequently emerges: What happens more times than not, is that whatever is easiest for you isn’t necessarily deemed best for everyone else too: Getting to what is optimal for both of you takes some work. Sometimes, it even means building new habits. At some point, people make decisions about what is good enough and they give up on the pursuit of optimal.

That’s life. We all have to arrive at our own reasonable balance.

Marketing guru Seth Godin became an example of this recently when he received some criticism for his decision to write about Twitter. Just one problem: He doesn’t use it. What he wrote was positive, but as someone who is not engaged with the Twitter community he lost some of his credibility with those who are, and feel they are more devoted and fully engaged.

As a Twitter newbie myself, about a week short of a full month’s engagement, I have learned much about the cultural norms there, and feel like I am learning how to speak a completely brand new language, just 140 characters at a time. When do I choose updates that are publicly broadcast, @directed, @included or direct-messaged? Which is the best way to reply to each? Why can’t I get just one stretched picture on my profile page versus the tiled one like others can? When does link-sharing deteriorate to anything less than sincerely appreciated or loved by your followers? When are you perceived as gregarious and generous versus strictly self-promoting and spammy?

And most of all: Why bother learning?

Twitter has taught me an awful lot this month, and I have come to realize that it does take time to learn enough to make a reasonably intelligent stab at answering that “Why bother?” question. It takes time, transparency, and vulnerability: While you are learning you have to engage; there really isn’t any other way.

Further, the community sets the rules of engagement, not you.

When you choose some kind of digital learning you are often choosing a community too, and you are rarely learning alone.

Even when you use something like Del.icio.us, normally entered into strictly for individual book-marking, it turns out to have some kind of social component to it. After I had been using my Del.icio.us toolbar bookmarklet for all my link tagging over quite an extended amount of time, I remember being so surprised the day I went back into my account again to learn how to bundle my tags, and discovered that I actually had a network and fans there –how had that happened? Who were they? Where did they come from? Was I expected to communicate back with them or reciprocate in some way? I went into this mini panic worrying about how unintentionally rude I may have appeared until I learned more about the way that networking happened there.

With Twitter, I am conversing regularly (that is, “tweeting”) with people across the globe who seem to have no interest in anything else I write over and above those 140-character updates. In the beginning, it floored me that those tweets were enough value for my new twitter-friends, jumping into conversations with me just as easily as my older friends established elsewhere did. They click my blog link at my bio to quickly check me out, but even if they choose to follow me (adding me to their chosen Twitter village) they may never read one of my blog posts again (much less my book and about my mission), and have no interest whatsoever in an RSS or email subscription. Twitter is an instant community of sharing humanity in real time, not in experience-driven stories or bloggy thesis presentation. Your Twitter connection can become more as links are followed (and as you choose who you will follow), but not necessarily.

Social has become a pretty literal word.

There has been some rapid and totally unexpected spill-over for me as I surrender my “Why bother?” learning time. I have noticed that my blog posts are getting shorter and less frequent (finally!) for now that I “get” Tumblr and Twitter I more fully understand how short attention span has become no matter how much people may love or admire you. It ain’t personal: When they choose new learning of their own, some time may be stolen from old-style conversations. Our capacity for life has this wondrous yet annoying way of stretching much larger than the time we manage to stay awake and function well! Twitter (and the books I purchased after A Love Affair With Books) has had a pretty dramatic effect on my own RSS feed-reading: Blogs that were “on probation” now have a much shorter time in which to make the cut with me. Am I being more efficient, or less patient?

And the duplicity of reciprocation and paying it forward is not lost on me: I am completely aware of how I may be in the same boat with someone else judging my citizen publishing – and me as publisher.

Let’s bring this back to Joyful Jubilant Learning

What more can we learn from the aha! moments we experience within our Digital Learning here and elsewhere? Most, if not all of us participate in several virtual communities: What experiences can we bring back to this one here at JJL, evolving in our best possible way? How is our own Ho‘ohana Community to get better within the conversations had here, and more supportive of the learning initiatives of all who wish to engage with us?

Please share your ideas, for I am quite positive that every single author here would love to hear them.

~ Rosa Say

Earlier this month: Talking Story and a JJL Twitter Soiree

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Post author Rosa Say is the author of Managing with Aloha, Bringing Hawaii's Universal Values to the Art of Business, and she currently writes for Managing with Aloha Coaching, Value your Month, Value your Life.

Rosa also serves as the managing editor of Joyful Jubilant Learning; her letter for 2008 can be found on our About Page.

For all of Rosa's writing aggregated in just one place, visit her Tumblr, Ho‘ohana Aloha.

Talking Story and a JJL Twitter Soiree

Okay, I cannot write about talking story in a short post.

It’s Saturday: You’ve got some time, right?

Got a tweet from the ever-traveling Starbucker yesterday:

“@rosasay, I gather you are liking this Twitter thing - that makes two of us!”

Yes, I’ve become all a-Twitter too. I do like it. I’ve begun to think of Twitter as the digital, global way to “talk story.” For me, Twitter-lingo “tweets” are like pidgin; the local vernacular (more slang) of the islands.

First “talking story” (Then I’ll get to the JJL Twitter Soiree)

Talking story is a big part of the local Hawai‘i culture. At its purest form, to talk story is to shoot the breeze with someone because you have some laid-back, easy-going, relaxing time to do nothing but swap stories with each other about everything that is personal but light and joyful with you. You talk with someone like you have known them forever; you are direct and to the point, no posturing or pretense, and asking questions freely, but never crossing that line of intimacy that even the best of friends would never cross without invitation. You don’t need much context in way of introduction; you just jump in and talk to someone just because they are there smiling at you, and you have this positive expectancy that aloha lives and breathes within them. What more do you need to know?

There is so much in life that is happily light-hearted, and that’s what talking story celebrates. The less serious the better; talking story is best when there is tons of smiling, laughter and kidding around about stuff that is pure nonsense. You laugh with each other, and at the silliness and yes, even the stupidity of life. Then, when the talking story is over, it is over. Goodbyes are said with hugs and aloha. No promises made, no commitments to be honored, no follow-up calendared (unless it’s for a party somewhere) —you just go merrily on your way again as carefree as a mynah bird.

Talking story happens in the workplace too; there it’s kind of a warm-up exercise that opens people up for when they need to roll up their sleeves and get into more serious matters. However you don’t get into those serious matters of work that will surely mix personal and professional into a people-pungent stew-and-rice mixed plate (come on now, it’s to be expected after all), unless you have a talking story relationship with all those people first, one that has been built on aloha.

Then there is the talking story of community, which is kind of an ebb and flow of everything, depending on what kind of neighborhood or community it is… sort of like JJL: Lots of ebbing and flowing (and honking), lots of talking story, lots of aloha-built relationships, lots of people passing on virtual “streets” we call comment conversations, and now, voice threads!

So what were we talking about? (You tend to lose your place a lot in talking story and just keep going…) Oh yeah, Twitter!

About a week before April started I began to deliberate in earnest about our JJL theme-to-come of digital learning, wondering what I’d write about when it came to be my turn to pitch in for the month. There are several digital tools I use on a regular basis (truth is, I am geeking out more and more these days), but I wanted to really concentrate on the learning part over and above the digital part, so I wondered what I could jump into that would be new for me: What could I share with you having just a mere beginning of some learning?

I was ripe for the Twitter-picking

I was in the mood for some experimenting.

That might have been part of the reason, but in every talk story I’m likely to have about it, I will probably blame my Twitter leap on my friend Todd Storch (and thinking of Todd always brings such great stories to mind for me). Todd and I had become blog-buddies, and when he stopped blogging I made sure I always reached out to him one sure-fire way: on his birthday. (I like celebrating birthdays.) Todd would answer my email, and I’d look at his signature in the hope he’d fired up his blog again. This year, there was only one line under his name, and it said:

Follow me at Twitter: http://twitter.com/ktoddstorch

I sent my first tweet as his birthday present. Now my Twitter anniversary will be the same day as Todd’s birthday; March 28th.

So here I am, about two weeks and 120 tweets later. You’ll find blog posts all over the place by people more articulate about it than I am as to the reasons why. I’ve already told you my biggest reason; it’s like a global version of talking story, and I LOVE talking story.

I think Twitter is one of those things you have to jump in and just try to “get it.” So, to follow Todd’s lead…

Follow me at Twitter: http://twitter.com/rosasay

Try it: Just like we’ve been trying the Voice Thread with Joanna.

Here’s the JJL Twitter Soiree part

If you’re around, let’s have a JJL Twitter Soiree this weekend! Go to http://twitter.com and set up your account – it’s easy, and you JJLers are smart!

Jump in and tweet a message, and get a bunch of us JJLers to follow you: We’ll talk story.

“Following” is a way of connecting up; if you are not yet on Twitter you might be familiar with following from Tumblr or another micro-blogging lifestream app (I LOVE my tumblr… another talk story another day). The whole concept of following people with these newer social media apps is fascinating to me, and I wish there was a way to add following to all of my blogs too (not just Twitter folk, but ALL readers): Any true techie out there know if it can be done? Leah? Adam?
 

Your friends follow you —“friends” being people you know— but readers you don’t yet know follow you too; the way I look at it, it takes blog-lurking to a higher place. Followers you don’t personally know yet are kind of telling you “I’m lurking, but since it is so one-click easy to tell you I’m lurking, I will… I don’t even mind that you’ll be able to see my avatar and short bio stuff too.”

But again, to tweet, is to talk story! When you tweet, you are saying, “Hey there! I have a minute to talk story: Do you?”

If I am not yet following you on Twitter, as one of your tweets (your update-messages), type this in so I can find you there, and will know you’ve decided to JJL Soiree too:

Aloha! A JJL tweet to @rosasay, @________________
fill in the blank using as many other JJLer addresses as you can fit into those first 140 characters.

I was not the earliest adopter! To find more JJL Twitterers, just move your curser over the avatars you will see on my page – you will recognize the names and faces.

If you are already there and I have missed you, tweet me! Let’s talk story.

Just one thing: This will post when I'm asleep as so many of you start your day in earlier time zones than I do, but not to worry, I'll catch up with you in the morning.

And I am sure the other JJLers will be welcoming you too... there are some things I am pretty sure of :)

As Karen said, we Reach out and touch somebody... learning the high-touch way

As Steve said,

“JJL is a glorious place for making connections! One of the best tools anyone can get for free!”

Twitter (In Plain English) from The Common Craft Show.
Love how Lee LeFever does these: Less than 3 minutes to watch it.

If you have more Twitter tips for all of us, add them to the comments (told you I am just a two-week tweeter too), or give us your own Follow me at Twitter message!

Why are you tweeting, hmm?

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Post author Rosa Say is the author of Managing with Aloha, Bringing Hawaii's Universal Values to the Art of Business, and she currently writes for Managing with Aloha Coaching, Value your Month, Value your Life.

For all of Rosa's writing aggregated in just one place, visit her Tumblr, Ho‘ohana Aloha.

This picture is the avatar you will find for Rosa on Twitter. Tweet to you soon!

Added to the JJL Calendar: Pangea Day 2008

In 2007 Blog Action Day affected many of us far more than we had anticipated it would.

I have a hunch that will happen in 2008 with Pangea Day, coming on May 10th.

I learned about Pangea Day via the TEDBlog's call for submissions, and my greatest wish of this moment is that I were a film-maker capable of producing a video that would do justice to the importance of the Managing with Aloha movement.

From the Pangea Day site:

We're looking for films that will make us laugh, cry, and gasp. They can be fiction, nonfiction, real life, animation, or your own unique mixture. But they should hold our attention for every second. And above all, they should tell a story that someone else on the other side of the world will be able to relate to.

As you plan your film, try to imagine millions of people in different countries gathered around in the flickering light, waiting in hushed silence for your tale to start. What story will you tell? What images will you show them?

Pangea Day will present a program  broadcast live to the world through the Internet, television, digital cinemas, and mobile phones --- I suspect it will be a fantastic example of the audio/visual web that Kevin Eikenberry brought our attentions to in this posting: Seven Online Tools for Web-Based Learning - What are yours?

Pangea Day came to be when visionary documentary filmmaker, TED Prize winner, and Pangea Day founder Jehane Noujaim spoke to an audience of “the world’s leading thinkers and doers” at the 2006 annual TED Conference, and unveiled her inspiring wish to change the world through the power of film.

My understanding is that 'pangea' is a Greek word for "all lands" and this effort is one intended to engender world peace via global community, and the straight-forward yet challenging assumption that we'd live together more harmoniously if we knew each other better.

Click in to www.pangeaday.org to watch the trailer and listen to Noujaim's TED presentation. I'm sure you'll then add Pangea Day to your calendar too, for it promises to be extraordinary.
~ Rosa Say, JJL Contributor, and author of Managing with Aloha Coaching.

From the JJL Archives: Learning from the Blog Action Day story by Joanna Young

A Promise to the JJL Community: We will Make A Difference

How has your learning already made a difference, or how do you know it will? What is the difference you are learning to make, and what are you doing to make it happen?

I received a blog tag from Terry Starbucker this past Monday. I’m going out on a limb here, and taking the liberty of responding to him on behalf of the entire hui (group) of contributing authors we have here at Joyful Jubilant Learning.

My feeling is that this is not a conventional blog tag meme, but one that speaks into a commitment you decide to make to uphold the honor of what blogging can, and should be. Like any medium, dignity and honor is created for the whole by the actions of the individuals within it. This does Make A Difference; a big difference.

Thus, I wanted to squeeze my response into our current forum, for it seemed to fit so perfectly. Therefore, I ran short of time to run my draft by my fellow authors here, but knowing them and their intentions as I do, I didn’t feeling forging forward with this was that big a risk: I know that each and every one of them wants to write for a blog that strives higher; one that is committed to making a difference. They are Alaka‘i ka ‘ike, Guides in Learning who lead by their great example [alaka‘i.]

In fact, a few of them have already committed to this Blogger’s Promise (initiated by Joe Hauckes, author of Working at Home on the Internet). You can read what was said by our authors individually:

1. Terry Starbucker: I'm Making Joe's Promise
2. April Groves: Remembering Who I Am with a Promise
3. Joanna Young: Respect for the authentic conversation: comments, links and all that jazz

All of you who read Joyful Jubilant Learning are very important to us. You inspire us in the penning of every word here. We always write in the hope you will decide to join our conversation one day, for then you become teacher and we your willing, eager student. However an online presence can be scary for some, and joining an online community can seem to be too consuming a commitment. We understand, and even if you never choose to add your voice to these conversations, we want you to be proud of us, and proud to learn from us, and with us, silently in your own way.

So I, and I am sure my fellow authors here, do not hesitate to make this commitment to you. In sharing this blogging promise, and joining the ranks of many people we admire, we start with our values:

  [Badge designed by Rick Cockrum at Shards of Consciousness.]

Because we are committed to Aloha and Ho‘ohana,
[i.e. We write with the Intention of unconditional Aloha]
Because we are committed to Collaborative, Lifelong Learning,
Because we are committed to the Inclusiveness of Community,
Because we are committed to the Possibilities We Create within our Humanity,

We, the Authors of Joyful Jubilant Learning do Ho‘ohiki
[We make this Promise]

We will add value and conduct ourselves with distinction in the blogging community.

• We will be sure to comment on other Blogs if we can add to the conversation in our spirit of collaborative learning.
• We will respond to comments on our own Blog.
• We will acknowledge any links to our Blog with a comment on or trackback to the linker’s Blog.
• We will continue to link to other Blogs that are pertinent to our posts’ content.
• We will commit to being a Vital part of the Blogging Community, in full acceptance of our responsibility in Learning Leadership.

And you know what? We do collaborate here: No post is ever set in stone forever … Consider this a first run, and jump in with your feelings my fellow authors, for I am happy to keep editing this until we have a manifesto we proudly shout from the blog-tops in one clear voice, Lōkahi.
~ Rosa Say

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Footnotes to references above:

• on Ho‘ohana: By Blaine Collins: The Body Ho‘ohana

• on Ho‘ohiki: On Ho‘ohiki: Keeping your promises

• on Lōkahi: Lōkahi Teams: The ties that bind are your shared values, and Lōkahi Teams: When they are Virtual and Voluntary.
  
  By Joanna Young: Lōkahi: the language of collaboration.

• on Making A Difference: Our Compilation Page.
  

Social Network Fatigue? Depends how you define your purpose with using it.

You may recall a post I did here a few weeks ago, that was a shoutout for your opinion on Facebook and other social networking sites: Learning Best Practices on the Internet. I had come to this reckoning:

I’m okay with changing my place on the bell-curve

Being an “early adopter” is getting less and less attractive to me; I am regressing back into my Safe Sally habits, making my reservations at restaurants with staff who have already gone through nearly every breaking-in scenario imaginable to find they (and the restaurant) are still in business.

Benjamin gave us this side of the coin: Facebook: Friend or Foe?

Facebook is a  powerful resource for me to share my message with more people, and the more people I share my message with, the more profit the marketplace rewards me with.

Just like a blog, facebook is a platform from which you can provide value.  If you've built a business model where you are rewarded for value (and you should, since profits are better than wages), this will result in increased revenue to your business.

Well, this didn't take too long... This is from Rojo:  

Facebook fatigue is setting in. Jason Calacanis declared social network exhaustion but summoned the energy to write a thousand words describing his feelings. Without a trace of irony, Om Malik provided tips on better Facebook use, while Scobleizer crowed about how Calacanis's retirement meant fewer competitors for him. Oh, the popular kids can't handle all the activity, blogs Web Worker Daily, while allfacebook is sure Calacanis cries himself to sleep from all the invite pressure. On the other hand, Rob Hyndman sympathizes with Calacanis as a doer, not a talker, while WinExtra flies above the fray, treating Facebook as a flavor of the month, just like Twitter and Pownce.

Even without Calacanis, Facebook still faces problems. Just as mainstream users are adopting Facebook, their employers are blocking the site, blogs Profy. Worse, the outages that Facebook initially called "upgrades" (via CNET) were actually security problems and outages, writes The Register. And then there's always Pownce peeking around the corner. ... (via Social Media).

[Yes, I stripped the link-fest it contained, for that isn't really my point, and you can find them all at the post itself on Rojo.]

Now please understand that I am NOT saying this is happening for Benjamin too, in fact, this gets me to admire how much smarter Benjamin is! Facebook - past the tipping point.

While Jason Calacanis and the others Rojo strategically gives their link love to may be are in a whole different universe than me, I couldn’t help but take some satisfaction in sticking with my not-for-me decision when I stumbled across the Rojo update.

I had mentioned my friend, new media guru and community builder Chris Brogan when I wrote Learning Best Practices on the Internet, and here is an update from Chris's site; I think he puts it all in perspective well in this opening paragraph:

Sometimes we forget that social networks are more than just software. We forget that beyond a bunch of friend-adding, and asking for links or votes, that there’s more to building online communities and keeping relationships. A strong social network requires some tending and care, just the way real live relationships need attention and deliberate effort.

Here are some ideas on how to tend your digital networks and reach the people on the other side of the screen. ... [Read the rest at Improve Your Social Network.]

Benjamin DID inspire me to think purpose versus playground, and I just chose a different kind of social media, seeking to improve and optimize what I already was using. My TypePad toolbox is keeping me as busy as ever these days, and if you have a moment, please visit my Talking Story reinvention I have called Managing with Aloha Coaching, newly published on August 1st. I would be very honored to have you click into the email-subscription box there, or pick up a feed!

There at MWAC and here at JJL, we’ll continue to navigate our way through the maze of what is offered online together. Mahalo. Thank you for coming along for the ride!
~ Rosa Say

Finally Useful

“I think I was always misunderstood…”

Chris Brogan keeps me reading because he finds (and says) such insightful things! Check out this video clip; Chris shares it as a wonderful example of story-telling (and it is) however, it made me think within another context — our Learning Project #2 and the strengths revolution.

The video is a mere 2 minutes long, and you'll love it, whether you are interested in the story-telling angle, or the strengths one — or perhaps another one!

Watch it, then come back here and consider these questions.

• Who might work with or for you right now, who has their strengths misunderstood?

• How can you be the guy with the newspaper, who takes an interest, and sees them with strength-tinted glasses, helping them manifest their greater possibility?

“I finally feel useful. You know, that’s something.”

Learning to Play Tag

Okay, that may be a stretch, but the theme of JJL is all things learning, right?

Rich Griffith issued a challenge, and while it may take me a while to answer them at times, I’m not one to back down from blog challenges! From Rich’s place;

“Rosa Say over at Joyful Jubilant Learning has a meme-free zone I think, (and I agree with her about the widgetification of blogs adding to clutter and distracting from content) but I’m going to chance it because I find myself really curious about what song is a real ‘pick me-up’ for her. The aural cup-o-joe for the mood as it were.”

Rich’s challenge came within a game of blog tag started by JJLer Hilda Carroll (remember her community profile here?) called Songs that make your heart sing.

So hard to pick just one, and if I try I will never decide, so here is one I just listened to on my car’s CD player. One of those instances where you buy an album for one song, and then a track you’ve never heard before ends up to be your favorite one instead; it’s called My Front Porch Looking In, written by Don Pfrimmer, Frank J. Myers, and Richie McDonald and sung by Lonestar on their From there to here Greatest Hits album.

The only ground I ever owned was sticking to my shoes
Now I look out my front porch at this panoramic view
I can sit and watch the fields fill up with rays of golden sun
Or watch the moon lay on the fences like that's where it was hung
But my blessings are in front of me it's not about the land
I'll never beat the view of my front porch looking in
There's a carrot-top that can barely walk with a sippy cup of milk
A little blue-eyed blonde with her shoes on wrong that likes to dress herself
And the most beautiful girl holdin' both of them
Yeah the view I love the most is my front porch looking in

I like it because of the reminder that beauty is where we look for it, and we’re usually sure to find it in the people we care for most. There is an AOL Video which plays it here, and all the lyrics for the Lonestar greatest hits album it's on are here.

You found me out Rich; I’m a huge country music fan. Easy to sing along with, not afraid to be silly, loving and home-spun simple, meant to be for everyone and anyone.

By the way, we’re not really a meme-free zone! Don’t forget that we have one of our own called Rapid Fire Learning EVERY month, posted when we still have five full days left before a new month – a day each to conquer five new learnings for that month. Play learning tag with us next on Monday, June 25 when Phil Gerbyshak hosts Rapid Fire Learning for us for June.

What was Rich’s happy song? Click in here to find out. Great choice Rich!

I've traveled here and everywhere following my job
I've seen the paintings from the air brushed by the hand of God
The mountains and the canyons reach from sea to shining sea
But I can't wait to get back home to the one woman made for me
Cause everywhere I'll ever go and everywhere I've been
Nothing takes my breath away like my front porch looking in

Okay JJLers, ready to play Tag? If you have commented here recently (and offered us your site's link), your name should be on this list! The rules say three, however we go for the gusto in our learning and in everything else, palena 'ole; no limits!

• Andrew Hartley
• Herman Najoli
• Bob Glaza
• Nic Darling
• Jacob Share
• Robert Hruzek
• Rebecca Thomas
• Billy Smith
• Nick McCormick
• Debra Estep

All JJL contributing authors - you too!

You're it! What song makes your heart sing? Send a trackback to Rich and to Hilda, and here if you wish.

Learn to Cut that out! Step 4, Strategy 1 … just like Spiderman.

Imagine that you’ve just walked out of the theater after seeing Spiderman 3.

When those thrilling web-slinging sequences danced their magic before you, the action was fast, furious, and spell-binding. No comic book was ever like this: Spidey 3 has an underground subway fight, an airborne battle, and a five-way main character showdown finale set at a skyscraper construction site. You could hardly keep track of all the dazzle on that big screen, and when it was over two hours and twenty minutes later, you felt you’d only been sitting in your seat for half that amount of time. Yet somehow, the movie still felt complete; you knew the story.

You could’ve felt like you were there much longer, and you would have, if not for that brilliant film editing technician who left all the wasted, this-shot-didn’t-matter film on the cutting room floor. He went through nearly a thousand CG shots to please you. If not for him, you’d have sat there thinking, When will we get to the good stuff?

As it ended up, you never missed what wasn’t there, because of what was.

... Now let’s imagine learning to approach the work we do within this same kind of strategy.

Trombone Player Wanted

Trombone Player Wanted: A 6 set DVD series by Marcus Buckingham.

Chapter 1: So, What's Stopping You? 15:06min

Do you play the trombone? Do you want to play the trombone? Were you ever forced to play the trombone when you really wanted to play drums?

Marcus Buckingham has created and narrated a savvy well designed and informative DVD series on strengths that parallels the book: Go Put Your Strengths To Work. You can work with the book or work with the DVD series, but they work powerfully together to reinforce the message of being part of the minority of people who put their strengths in their work and put their strengths to work.

The DVD series is an exceptional resource for people who are interested in learning more about strengths but lack the time and energy to plow through the 270 pages of the book. The DVDs are engaging with the majority of shots being close ups of Marcus Buckingham sharing personal stories and interesting anecdotes.

Woven through the whole series is a story about a young boy who dreams of being a drummer but is cast as the trombone player in his school band. Often as Marcus is talking we will see images of the boy, the band, and the band's development. Unfortunately, you never hear any vocals or music from the band but the background music on the DVD is captivating.

The DVD appeals to a very diverse audience. My 17 year old son caught some of it while I was watching and said , "cool." Now that's a compliment from the next generation for the workplace.

Marcus Buckingham exudes charisma as he appears to gaze right at you as he looks into the camera. He shares examples ranging from the competitiveness of his young son Jack to how Marcus worked and worked on his confrontational weaknesses and eventually went from being terrible to really bad! He firmly believes a much better use of his time and energy would have been on his strength development.

So What's Stopping You is an overview of the strengths perspective in the workplace with Marcus Buckingham encouraging you to be in the 2 out of 10 people who use their strengths at work. He believes what is stopping you are 3 common myths:

1. As you grow, your personality changes.
2. You will grow the most in your areas of weakness.
3. A good team member does whatever it takes to help the team

Watch the video to learn how these myths undermine a strength approach and how you can replace these myths with 3 strength-based truths. (Related JJL Post: Bust The Myths)

Marcus is on a mission to get you to play to your strengths. I think the child images woven through all the videos is to encourage us to be young at heart and find the inner strength that has always resided in us. The video ends with Buckingham encouraging us to put more of our precious minutes around our strengths not our weaknesses.

The video has a link to the simplystrengths website. You can get a handout for each DVD that offers powerful questions to prime your strengths quest.

The series makes an ideal 6 session lunch and learn program at work.

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David Zinger, M.Ed., has been writing about strength based leadership for a year and a half at http://zingeronleadership.blogspot.com/. 

His blog began, November 11, 2005, the day Peter Drucker died. David writes the blog to honor Dr. Drucker's contribution to create a workplace that capitalizes on strengths. David also writes an employee engagement blog at: http://davidzinger.wordpress.com/.

Photo Credit: Jordan makes light music by - http://flickr.com/photos/jasoneppink/80772526/

TEDucation

Do you TED? I do and I won't stop.

TED stands for Technology, Education, and Design. TED provides an eclectic education in technology, entertainment, design, business, science, culture, arts, and global issues.

If you are passionate about learning, I encourage you to make regular visits and watch or listen to some of the exceptional speakers that have been at previous TED conferences. BMW sponsors the site and does some gentle marketing in their sponsorship.

To get you started I recommend Richard St. John's 3 minute 8 word talk on success for TEDsters. From there you can transition to longer talks from Bono, Clinton, Gladwell, Gilbert, Schwartz, etc. Most of the talks are about 20 minutes in duration.

I have been visiting TED for the last year and always enjoy getting my mind thinking in new ways with TED. As a joyful jubilant learner, a stop at TED is like a stop inside the dendrites of many of the world's most insightful minds. 

If you are already a frequent visitor to TED, I hope this post reminds you to revisit the site. In addition, today they have relaunched an improved and reorganized site with a greater sense of community.

I would love to hear what the JJL community thinks of this source of learning. Do you have a favorite speaker? What have you learned?

Behind the Scenes: Collaboration on 12 Days

Objective: do something with the twelve days of Christmas for JJLN

Inspirations: Rosa's first challenge, Toni chimed in, Blaine goes with the flow, Steve adds his two cents, Terry makes a good suggestion, Rosa comes back, Steve finishes it

Rosa's challenge

Another idea/ day marker:

How about a joint posting from all of us on a Christmas Day message for
the blog on 12/25? Something short and sweet? Thoughts?

Since there are 12 of us, we could do something on the 12 Days of
Christmas spin?
Rosa

Toni chimes in

I am not much of a singer, but would it go something like this?

<insert 12 days of x-mas music> On the 1st day of learning, my teacher
said to me "Go and log into JJLN"

On the 2nd day of learning, my teacher said to me

Hehehehe,  wow still pre-coffee, but I like the idea of the 12 days of
Christmas.  Can it be a list of "If I could give a gift of learning to
my special someone, I would give...." Mine would probably be fearless
curiousity, or a great mentor.

Again, just thoughts off the top of my head.
:)
Toni

Seasonal Music

Music has played a role in my life popping tunes into the circumstances of life such that they trigger memories of the time when ...

My father was driving the car taking me to drill team practice at the American Legion post on the other side of the city. I was about 15-16. I loved being part of the team, it really was a great experience but I also wanted to play basketball. The freshman high school team practices created a conflict with the drill team so I had to make a choice. After much discussion and thinking about it, I had finally decided to leave the drill team to play basketball. This was going to be my last practice. The radio was playing and as we entered the last block approaching the Legion hall, the Rolling Stones began playing "You can't always get what you want..."

or when ...

In college, the cross country team was headed to Plymouth, NH for a big meet. We boarded the bus in the pouring rain. It continued to pour on the way there. We were dreading running in this weather. We had run the course before and it was challenging when it was dry. Just the thought of running it in the big meet in a monsoon-like condition left the bus in a somber mood. The windshield wipers marked time with the beat of the radio. As we crested a long rise, the clouds suddenly broke, the rain stopped, the sun peaked through and the radio played "I can see clearly now, the rain has gone..."

As we approach this holiday season, there are songs we hear (or will hear) that we have not heard since this time last year.

On Thanksgiving my wife, daughters and I have developed a tradition to listen to the whole of the Arlo Guthrie classic..."Alice's Restaurant".  The tradition has evolved over time. We used to be driving from NJ to RI when it was on the radio. One station used to play it annually and we would be on the road to hear it. We now own our own CD copy to play it on our schedule on turkey day, usually when the family is together in the car and heading to Dolores' mother's house for dinner.

At Christmas, the season would not be complete without some carols. The family gathered around a piano, several reading over the shoulders of the pianist as he/she plays to sing all the verses. The remainder in the room or nearby,chiming in on the chorus to the classics like "White Christmas" , "The little drummer boy" and "Silent Night" to mention just a few of the many.