Joyful Jubilant Learning

Social Networking Services: An Incomplete List

First, just want to say hello to everyone, I have been out of pocket since December caring for my Mother. She is doing very well now and has completely recovered from pneumonia. She was proud to note that the lady at the Lancome cosmetics counter thought she was 65, she is actually 85 years young. I will post more about what I have learned about "Caring For Our Parents" in another post soon.

Today I am sharing the Social Networks Services I use online.

Social Network Services

This "voice thread" was inspired by Joanna's post on the topic "What Difference Does Voice Make".

This voice thread is a incomplete list of the social networks and services I use to connect with people online.  I am having a real blast getting reconnected using these tools.

You can leave text message, voice message, video, or annotate and doodle on the screen. I would love to hear comments, ideas, and if you are using any of these networks - how is it going for you?

Click this link for a Larger Version

Rapid Fire Learning: Make a Difference September 2007

What a month of Learning How to Make a Difference!

I did a complete review of this months posts and counted 20 authors, 31 posts, and 191 distinctions that I pulled out of the 31 posts I reviewed. I am certain that had I spent more time, I could have identified more than 191 distinctions.

I also developed a Mind Map of all the posts, authors, and distinctions. The map was so big that I had to look elsewhere for a solution to display it. You can find a live mind map I built and you can move, zoom in, zoom out, and click links to specific posts that interest you.

I had planned to do more but my son decided to share his cold with me.

Five Distinctions or Learnings

Having reviewed 31 posts and 191 distinctions, I will be digesting this meal for quite awhile I think. Here is my list of learnings and distinctions for September:

1) September is a pivotal month for me. In 2006 on September 1st I set a BHAG to impact a million business owners. This month I got confirmation of a contract to license some of my content that will impact 250 business owners this year. Since this is a B2B situation then as they use the tools to help their business owner customers I conservatively estimate impacting 5,000 more. Learning: think big, live large, ask better questions.

2) Our vision and dreams get fulfilled in unexpected ways. if we allow it. I had a vision to license my content and training but had never identified a B2B business as a potential prospect. Learning: be open, the universe knows how to deliver what I need and do it simply.

3) Live Large! because shrinking does not become you. I lived so many years in the shadow of an inferiority complex pronounced to me by school counsellor. I decided that I was no longer that child who only heard the word inferior and that I decide what I will allow to define my life. I am learning everyday how to live with trust, faith, and expectation.

4) Think Compassion. Each one of us is someone's child, brother, sister, or cousin. We each travel the road of life with to the best of our abilities as we know it. When I defined my BHAG, I knew I would have to grow, learn, and change - now I realize how to shine my light. Learning: to step into the life I deserve, fulfill my potential, and touch those with whom I come to know.

5) Beyond Learning, Toward Integration. I have learned to commit to integrating what I learn into my life. Knowledge in and of itself is nice. Action is Omnipotent.

My Challenge To You - Give the Gift of Confidence

Review this months posts and pick one distinction or learning that really resonates with you and integrate it by putting it into action in your life. Then make a point by letting the author know what you learned and what you did to integrate what you learned from their words. Taking this extra step will help to build their identity, confidence, and teach you to recognize those who have impacted and helped you.

On behalf of the Joyful, Jubilant Learning Community,

Greg Balanko-Dickson

P.S. Remember, to take a look at the live mind map.

Entrepreneurs Make a Difference: Celebrate and Thank Them

I am always amazed at the contribution entrepreneurs make to our society. Stop for a moment and try this exercise.

Take a look out the window, what do you see? Businesses, buildings, homes, or cars? A delivery truck? All right, now think about what type of businesses created and built what you are looking at. What did they have to do? What was their vision? Can you imagine a time when those things never existed? How does that make you feel?

Whenever I do this exercise I am always in awe of the ability of entrepreneurs to manifest and build something from nothing. It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Perhaps it's because as a third generation entrepreneur I have seen the multi-generational impact that a business can have on their loved ones, community, and employees. They have a knack for bringing their visions and dreams to life and in the process adding significant value to everything they touch.

Value Added

Creating and adding value is the one constant obsession in my consciousness. It drives everything I do and yet in many ways remains a mystery and what I call my magnificent obsession. When I look out my window and see all the homes, offices, and businesses that have been brought to life - I feel invigorated, renewed, and refocused.

The entrepreneurs that created all these structures and businesses were simply focused on doing what they were good at and doing it profitably. Over the years they gradually grew wealthy because they paid attention to the customer and constantly adjusted, improved and developed innovations within their business. They are the new pioneers and slowly became an economic engine to their community by making small incremental improvements.

Small Incremental Improvements

The Japanese call this Kaizen, a Japanese word for constant and never ending improvement. The entrepreneurial version of “never ending learning, change, and professional development”. The biggest mistake I have made more times than I care to admit is making massive changes and adjustments.

Learning to Live Large!

September 1 st, 2006 I was moved reading one of Rosa's posts when something she stated got my attention:

"And yet… not a day goes by that I do not wonder, Did I end up to be who I am, doing what I am doing as my mission because it IS my calling, and it IS my innate talent, or because I ENDED up believing it is? Am I at a place of knowing, or of way TOO practiced believing? Could this MWA journey actually be just another chapter for me, and do I still need to do some self-discovery myself? What will be that BHAG I’m pretty sure I still want to come up with?" Via LEARNING: A Place of Knowing and of Practiced Believing

I responded with the following comment on her 2006 post:

"Your posts are so full of many deep and wonderful observations. As I was reading I was thinking of my own ‘Ike loa and when you spoke of coming up with your own BHAG - I saw it ever so clearly - I need my own BHAG.

I have a recurring vision where I am surrounded by hundreds, even thousands in a celebration of abundance. People from all walks of life, especially young adults who have accomplished amazing business achievements.

Whether that vision is fulfilled in this life or the next matters not. Today I choose to believe that we can and do experience a taste of heaven if we dare to believe.

Today I declare that my Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) of impacting the lives of 1,000,000 business owners before I leave terra firma.

May your Aloha be visible and vibrant, may you experience a new found sense of Mahalo and be willing to embark on your own version of ‘Ike loa.

Aloha fellow Explorer!"

This was an unusual step for me. I had never set a BHAG at this level before that day. In fact, I always avoided people with large goals, which I now know as Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) and anyone that seemed to over-hype their business or opportunity.

What I did not realize until recently, is that when people set a BHAG they do it for themselves. To awake themselves from the deep sleep of complacency and mediocrity.

Mediocrity and complacency, that is where I found myself and it was time to change...

Live from New York, It's JJLN

Live on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 114 from 8 AM until 9 AM (Eastern time) on Monday July 16th Benjamin Bach, Greg Balanko-Dickson, Phil Gerbyshak, EM Sky and Steve Sherlock will join host Karen Salmansohn on the the Be Happy, Dammit! show for what is sure to be a fast and furious 60 minutes of conversation.

Can't catch it live? Don't worry, check out the Be Happy Dammit archives, especially this great show with Keith Ferrazzi, and soon, you'll see the JJLN show there too!

We'll be talking about all things learning, and no doubt learn a thing or two from Karen! Hope you can hear us soon!

Accelerate Learning: Read and Stimulate Your Reticular Activating System

In this article I cite Thomas Edision, Wikipedia, and Jim Newton (Edison's friend) to answer these questions, "How do we learn? What is learning?"

"That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you'd understood all your life, but in a new way." - Doris Lessing - Author

We Have Been Given a Wonderful Gift

You may or may not know but we each have been given a Reticular Activating System (RAS). It acts as the brains control center, the  center of consciousness, attention and learning.

Your RAS is the key to “turning your brain 'on',” and seems to be the center of motivation and is essentially:

"your unconscious auto-pilot filter that constantly judges what’s important and what’s not about each and every bit of stimulus occurring physically around you and mentally inside of you. Or, to quote an expert:

“[It] alerts the brain to incoming information from the senses, and from the centers of thought, memory and feeling. More than that, it adjudicates the relative importance of that information. . . In a way the RAS is like a vigilant secretary, sorting out the trivia from the incoming messages.” - Ronald H Bailey, et al. The Role of the Brain, 1975

The amazing thing about the reticular filter is that you, through your own intentions and focus, can influence what it lets in and what it keeps out. If you have ever had the experience of buying a car and then noticed that all you see on the road around you are other cars just like yours, you’ve experienced the power of the reticular filter.

The trick is to consciously set up your reticular to look for input and ideas that will lead you toward SUCCESSFUL outcomes, not unsuccessful ones." Via David Allen Co.

We use our RAS each and everyday whether we realize it or not. The information and stimulus we gain in the process of learning is the seed of awareness that our RAS uses to draw our attention, to notice something we might have otherwise missed.

Example of Your RAC Working

Can you remember when you bought your first new car? What was the make, model, and color? Do you remember suddenly noticing many of the same cars with the color as yours?

Coaching, Manipulation, or Collaborative Learning?

In the last few months I have had the opportunity to work with a client to help them develop develop an Emergency, Disaster, and Contingency Plan for the business.

In the past, the business owners I worked with wanted to write and develop the plan themselves. The owner wanted a Emergency, Disaster, and Contingency Plan but actually did not want anything to do with it. Recognizing the opportunity, I suggested that we could use this to develop the project with the employees and that I could lead the team to collaborate and get the project done.

My condition was that he would be just another member of the team and I would facilitate the process, coach the team, and lead the project meetings. The process was not without its bumps along the way, bottom line, it has been an amazing experience.

Structure

I created a template/example of the emergency, disaster, and contingency planning (EDC) process, a writing guide, and then led the team virtually to identify the specific areas our plan should address.

Then each team member  was assigned a specific event to research, write, and develop a EDC Response Plan based on that specific scenario and/or event.

Roles

This was the first time the company had taken on a collaborative project and the first time the CEO did not lead, manage, and drive a project. I took the role of facilitator but my little secret was that I planned to 'coach' only - as my goal was to draw out new leaders and raise the 'players' game.

I knew that eventually, the CEO and team would become frustrated because they saw me as the manager and facilitator of the process - in fact I was coaching, encouraging, and drawing people out in our meetings - the team took on the role of manager and facilitator.
 

E Learning is Shallow Yet Has Potential

I have great hope for the future of E Learning but in it's current state, E Learning is shallow and ripe for innovation. I was discussing this with Rosa and she asked me to share my thoughts with the JJL community.

Why is E Learning Shallow?

The challenge with E Learning is it tends to be impersonal, lacking one-on-one interaction, and reciprocal action.

Learning is an experience.

Learning cannot be bottled, controlled, or packaged - learning is the experience of acquiring knowledge or skills through practice, experience, or study. A teacher, mentor, or speaker can impact a students experience, direct their attention - despite that, learning is very much a personal journey.

Solitary E Learning offers flexibility, self-paced, and self-study opportunities that traditional approaches cannot match.

It is the exchange of ideas, debate, and exploring on an idea or concept between two or more people that creates a plethora of learning opportunities. Unless we can create a synchronous  electronic environment that provides for interaction, collaboration, and synchronous (at the same time) conversations.

We Need to VAKOG E Learning

We learn through our five senses and its a unique combination of visual, auditory , kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory (VAKOG) stimulus that creates the 'learning experience' and until E Learning can simulate more of a interactive, live learning environment it will not reach wide acceptance, by learners.

I am not suggesting that people cannot learn via E Learning, just that its potential will be limited until we can create a rich, live, and interactive user experience.

• Are you aware of any E Learning platforms that provide a synchronous and rich experience?
• What has been your experience with E Learning? What did you like or dislike?
• Why do you think E Learning has become popular?

Greg Balanko-Dickson is a Business Performance and Lifestyle Coach that helps entrepreneurs to have their business and a life too.

Strengths, One Side of a Multifaceted Story

Most of my coaching and consulting career has been working with small business owners and solo entrepreneurs. These businesses do not always have the resources to outsource, delegate, or hire someone who possess a strength to offset one of their weaknesses.

As I look back, the single greatest contribution to my business succeeding was figuring out (by trial and error) how to help my clients overcome a weakness that had grown into a problem.

Rosa Asked Me To Share My Story

Yesterday, Rosa and I were discussing the Go! Learn to Lead with Your Strengths Project and I told her that I had no interest whatsoever in the JJL Strengths project. It has nothing to do with Mr. Buckingham, and I have not I read his book.

The reason I was not going to participate in this project is that I am aware of my strengths. It is my weaknesses that became stumbling blocks, slowed my progress, and created 'noise' in my life and work.

Perhaps it's my tendency to mismatch and see the discrepancies in life, business, and relationships or just about anything. Let me clarify, when I look at a partially filled glass of water I first see that the 'glass is half empty'. I can also see it as half full, I first see that it is half empty.

A Kaizen Transformation

Every since I can remember I have always focused on transforming any identified weakness to ensure that I would not be hindered in achieving my goals. The Japanese have a word for it, Kaizen.

One: The Art and Practice of Conscious Leadership

I have been reading One: The Art and Practice of Conscious Leadership, by Lance Secretan. I must state that I have only read 2/3-rd's of this book. I made a commitment to review this book for our March Love Affair with Books and this was as far as I could get. I developed a detailed index of my observations of this book (inside of the cover of my book). So, today I want to write my impressions of this book to date.

The premise of the book is One, or oneness and that we are all seeking connection or oneness. So far, The strongest part of the book for me were chapters One, Two and Four.

Imperative of Oneness

Chapter one does a good job of framing what Secretan calls The New Imperative of Oneness. The most compelling part of Chapter one is found on page 22, "...the fear-based, egocentric leadership model - the leader as hero or charismatic personality -  is ineffective. The results it produces are inconsistent."

As Secretan points out, these leaders are trying to control and win versus connecting and cooperating. In the end of this first chapter Secretan hints at one of the six principles outlined in the book, authenticity when he asserts that "...were looking at each other and asking, Who are you really? What do you stand for and what values do you represent?"

Oneness Lost

Chapter Two, is titled "Oneness Lost" where the opening line is "Oneness may be the ideal, but separateness is the habit. And habits are hard to break." On page 27 Lance advocates "...a renewed acceptance of the mysteries of the universe..." He quotes Albert Einstein who said, "There are two ways to live your life: one is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as though everything is a miracle."

The other gem of this chapter is found on page 29 he says that "We can trace the roots of how we interpret and think about life to the early Greek theorists, especially the pre-Socratic philosophers." Which was not news to me as I have studied this topic back in 1998/99.

The important point he illustrates is how these philosophers were the first to reject traditional mythological explanations. They began to utilize reason and observation as to reveal the true nature of the world. I sometimes wonder if they were the early attorney, lawyers, and scientists.

Myth, Mystery, Magic

Growing a successful business requires moving beyond the numbers as Lance explains on page 39, "... we can grow our successes by consciously leading organizations with a greater awareness of the importance of myth, mystery, and magic."

He also states that great leaders have a "... holistic approach to life and work, one that encompasses both science and the ability to measure things on the one hand and willingness to appreciate myth, mystery, and magic, and the values they hold for us, on the other.

The Castle Principles

This review would not be complete if I did not introduce the six Castle principles from chapter four:

1. Courage
2. Authenticity
3. Service
4. Truthfulness
5. Love
6. Effectiveness.

There is no doubt that Lance Secretan has much life and business experience as the former CEO of Manpower. I found the rest of his book is full of powerful and meaningful insights that I could identify with, but felt like I was left hanging, to sort that out for myself.

Perhaps this is a book that I will have to pick up again at a later time to finish. Maybe then I will have sorted out those powerful and meaningful insights I identified.

This book is worth investing the time to read and have in your library, especially if you enjoy a more cerebral read.