"For a boy with a shinny new hammer, all the world looks like a nail." "If we have only one tool in our toolkit, while we may find creative new applications for that tool, we won't be able to do what we could if we had more appropriate tools for the requirements of the job."
In the early days of America, shortly before the Revolutionary war of 1776, many jobs were based on the master-apprentice model prevalent in Europe. A boy would be apprenticed to a trade. The owner would be a "master" craftsman and there would be other stages including journeyman and down to the level of apprentice. Variations on this model still exist today, including a popular concept of an "internship."
One of the purposes of such a model for acquiring professional skill over time was to have a wide variety of work experience allowing the learner to develop a repetoire of skills and tools with which to approach the professional challenges the learner would experience. The apprenticeship model also allowed people to move through the personal performance change curve (see slide 8).
In sales, many people rely on scripts developed to allow more junior sales personnell to cover key aspects of a sales transaction. When someone is obvious in using a script when trying to make a sale, the person who may be buying may be put off by the script. On the other hand, in professional management training, checklists are often used to make sure that managers follow the key steps in managing the appropriate interaction. While some employees may not like that their manager follows a script, others have claimed in the past, "Please follow the checklist. You are a much better manager now that you have one to follow."
That could be true for sales people and sales scripts as well.
Consultants, doctors, lawyers, teachers, pizza chefs, and many other professionals are expected to develop by practicing over time and by becoming reflective practitioners (learning by reflecting on their experience and improving their performance and outcomes).
Often someone comes up with a good idea that everyone likes and trys to implement. Peter Senge and the Fifth Discipline had a major impact on the consulting world. Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers) and Michael Gerber (eMyth Revisited) are both popular authors whose books have inspired many consultants and many follow-up ideas. Eliyahu Goldratt (The Goal, Critical Chain) has developed a series of books and concepts and teaches consultants to work with a Process of Ongoing Improvement ("Poogi").
Professional consultants can benefit from all of these authors and need to integrate relevant tools into their professional toolkits so that they can bring out the most appropriate tool for the situation in which they find themselves.
A problem with consulting firms with massive teams of consultants is that most of the consultants were university trained and focus on relatively low-complexity tasks. The firm brings a wide variety of resources with multiple consultants with varying seniority to meet the challenges of their clients.
When someone works with a smaller consulting firm, the consultant needs to be more flexible, with a solid background of expertise and a network of professional contacts who can be called on to supplement the consultant's skills and tools as needed.
LinkedIn is a good social network for consultants to connect with peers. Sometimes consultants with websites provide links to others in their personal network and sometimes contracts are written so that networked consultants can be brought-in on appropriate pieces of client work.
These ideas are all part of evolving the concept of developing professional competence in the 21st Century.
Showing posts with label wisdom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wisdom. Show all posts
Monday, November 9, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Perspective--One of the Values of Experience
Perspective, in the context of wisdom, can come from having multiple and varied experiences and learning from them. One of the values to be gained from experience is the perspective one develops over time. Some people seem to have the same experience repeated for many years. Others have multiple experiences throughout the same number of years.
When someone faces a challenge, finding someone who can share some perspective on the situation can be invaluable. This is one of the benefits of working with a "wisdom model" (see an earlier post).
Peter Senge, in his work with the Fifth Discipline, refers to "systems thinking." One way to look at systems thinking is to imagine a pebble in a pond and at all the things the ripples will touch. What connects to what other thing? Many times the changes being considered in response to a perceived challenge will produce consequences. Part of systems thinking is to explore the potential consequences and to refine the decision to minimize negative consequences. This is another of the benefits perspective can bring to a situation.
How do we find someone with that perspective and wisdom. A first thing to do is to look for him or her.
When someone faces a challenge, finding someone who can share some perspective on the situation can be invaluable. This is one of the benefits of working with a "wisdom model" (see an earlier post).
Peter Senge, in his work with the Fifth Discipline, refers to "systems thinking." One way to look at systems thinking is to imagine a pebble in a pond and at all the things the ripples will touch. What connects to what other thing? Many times the changes being considered in response to a perceived challenge will produce consequences. Part of systems thinking is to explore the potential consequences and to refine the decision to minimize negative consequences. This is another of the benefits perspective can bring to a situation.
How do we find someone with that perspective and wisdom. A first thing to do is to look for him or her.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Wisdom Models--Finding Them and Using Them
A "wisdom model" can be thought of as someone or some organization who can act as a mentor for one or more people. "Model" in this sense refers to examples of human behavior to be copied. "Wisdom" refers to the recognized ability to organize learning, experience, insight, and other relevant inputs in order to make appropriate and effective decisions regarding behavior and values. In short, a "wisdom model" is someone we choose to guide us in our learning and behavior for as long as we make that choice.
For infants, their wisdom models come from their environment--their immediate family or others who they interact with throughout their early life. Much of the influence of these models is unconscious. Unfortunately, infants may not be able to distinguish between positive and negative models in this stage of development. The history of many abusers shows that they, themselves, were abused at an early age.
Children often choose teachers as wisdom models when they reach school. As they become more independent, they may come to recognize some teachers as either positive or negative models. Teenagers, as part of their growing development to make their own choices, may shift their focus of wisdom models to people expressing behaviors not endorsed by the mainstream--for example, "gangbangers" and "gangbanger-wannabe's" in grades six through twelve.
When we leave school we may move through a variety of wisdom models. On a personal note, I have held some wisdom models in high esteem, then found that I did not want to do what they were successful at and I needed to change wisdom models to another that was more appropriate for me.
At certain stages in our lives, we can serve as wisdom models for our children and our friends and colleagues. There may be an element that one person has that is worthwhile to copy. Hopefully we become more descriminating as we move through our own stages of development.
Priorities in life will also impact who we choose as a wisdom model. Adults at an early stage in their working life (which may involve multiple careers) may embrace work behaviors that include overbalancing their lives in favor of work. At a later stage, they may want to move to a more evenly balanced lifestyle or even place more priority on family rather than earning and work.
Authors of many self-help books also serve as wisdom models--at least for their specific expertise if it is something we want to copy or to use. More and more self-help books are being published daily--via the Internet as well as in paper and audio form. We have a wide choice of wisdom models and may work with an abundance of them at any one time.
As we develop our own wisdom and expertise in working with wisdom models, we need to pay careful attention to the process we use to find them and then what we do with the examples and wisdom they provide. How we use our wisdom models is important to our daily life experience. Sometimes we may have them, then ignore their wisdom and exampleship.
Some key questions to ask ourselves:
Are we doing what we want to be doing in our lifes? Who is (are) our wisdom model for our life right now? How are we using the wisdom the model provides to our best advantage?
For infants, their wisdom models come from their environment--their immediate family or others who they interact with throughout their early life. Much of the influence of these models is unconscious. Unfortunately, infants may not be able to distinguish between positive and negative models in this stage of development. The history of many abusers shows that they, themselves, were abused at an early age.
Children often choose teachers as wisdom models when they reach school. As they become more independent, they may come to recognize some teachers as either positive or negative models. Teenagers, as part of their growing development to make their own choices, may shift their focus of wisdom models to people expressing behaviors not endorsed by the mainstream--for example, "gangbangers" and "gangbanger-wannabe's" in grades six through twelve.
When we leave school we may move through a variety of wisdom models. On a personal note, I have held some wisdom models in high esteem, then found that I did not want to do what they were successful at and I needed to change wisdom models to another that was more appropriate for me.
At certain stages in our lives, we can serve as wisdom models for our children and our friends and colleagues. There may be an element that one person has that is worthwhile to copy. Hopefully we become more descriminating as we move through our own stages of development.
Priorities in life will also impact who we choose as a wisdom model. Adults at an early stage in their working life (which may involve multiple careers) may embrace work behaviors that include overbalancing their lives in favor of work. At a later stage, they may want to move to a more evenly balanced lifestyle or even place more priority on family rather than earning and work.
Authors of many self-help books also serve as wisdom models--at least for their specific expertise if it is something we want to copy or to use. More and more self-help books are being published daily--via the Internet as well as in paper and audio form. We have a wide choice of wisdom models and may work with an abundance of them at any one time.
As we develop our own wisdom and expertise in working with wisdom models, we need to pay careful attention to the process we use to find them and then what we do with the examples and wisdom they provide. How we use our wisdom models is important to our daily life experience. Sometimes we may have them, then ignore their wisdom and exampleship.
Some key questions to ask ourselves:
Are we doing what we want to be doing in our lifes? Who is (are) our wisdom model for our life right now? How are we using the wisdom the model provides to our best advantage?
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
What have you done lately?--Common Practice vs. Common Sense
“What have you done lately?” --a question asked of me on Wednesday, August 12th. 2009.
Lately I've done what I have been doing throughout my 40+ year career, helping people and organizations learn to change to improve their quality of (business) life now and for the future. I incorporate research-based best practices, years of wisdom and experience with more than 100 organizations and thousands of individuals around the world, what I have learned over the years--including earning a doctorate and two masters degrees--and applying all of that in practical, step-by-step approaches that can be learned by children and adults.
A better question could be--who have you done this for lately? In the summer of 2009, my answer would be based on the different roles I have played.
As an educator--Since 9-11-2001, I have been working with English language learners (ELLs) in K-12 school systems in Illinois, helping them learn both academic skills and how to work and learn using English. In that time I have developed innovative techniques in helping students and adults to learn to read better by using audiobooks.
As a consultant--I have begun working on a project to do community needs analyses for chambers of commerce dealing with the workplace learning needs for their members. The process involves developing a survey, sharing it with the membership, and analyzing the results--offering the results to local school systems who can help fill the learning gaps identified in the surveys. The Chambers of Commerce take the credit for the survey with their members. The outcomes help build community resources and economic development.
As a researcher and author--I have recently published 13 research-based working papers in the Education Research Information Clearinghouse (ERIC) focused on various intervention strategies to improve learning for English language learners.
As a reflective practitioner--I have engaged in the process of reflecting on what I do so that I can reach more people who need to learn how to change and have been implementing a variety of communication vehicles on the Internet that will allow more people to work with what I offer to help the people and organizations they work with.
(By the way, to see what I'm doing currently, visit my Projects Wiki space using the link above. I have a well-started pilot project and may need more participants, if you are interested.)
Lately I've done what I have been doing throughout my 40+ year career, helping people and organizations learn to change to improve their quality of (business) life now and for the future. I incorporate research-based best practices, years of wisdom and experience with more than 100 organizations and thousands of individuals around the world, what I have learned over the years--including earning a doctorate and two masters degrees--and applying all of that in practical, step-by-step approaches that can be learned by children and adults.
A better question could be--who have you done this for lately? In the summer of 2009, my answer would be based on the different roles I have played.
As an educator--Since 9-11-2001, I have been working with English language learners (ELLs) in K-12 school systems in Illinois, helping them learn both academic skills and how to work and learn using English. In that time I have developed innovative techniques in helping students and adults to learn to read better by using audiobooks.
As a consultant--I have begun working on a project to do community needs analyses for chambers of commerce dealing with the workplace learning needs for their members. The process involves developing a survey, sharing it with the membership, and analyzing the results--offering the results to local school systems who can help fill the learning gaps identified in the surveys. The Chambers of Commerce take the credit for the survey with their members. The outcomes help build community resources and economic development.
As a researcher and author--I have recently published 13 research-based working papers in the Education Research Information Clearinghouse (ERIC) focused on various intervention strategies to improve learning for English language learners.
As a reflective practitioner--I have engaged in the process of reflecting on what I do so that I can reach more people who need to learn how to change and have been implementing a variety of communication vehicles on the Internet that will allow more people to work with what I offer to help the people and organizations they work with.
(By the way, to see what I'm doing currently, visit my Projects Wiki space using the link above. I have a well-started pilot project and may need more participants, if you are interested.)
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