Rise of the Underdog - #Believe

St.Mirren football club hadn't scored a goal at Hampden since 1987 when they last won the Scottish cup. In fact they hadn't beat Celtic at Hampden since 1959. Today they put three goals past the Celtic keeper and sealed their place in the League cup final on March the 17th. To say I had a good day is an understatement, but today was not the lone victory for the underdog, it has been a weekend of great victories for so called "lesser" teams. So what has made the difference?

Belief?

In the last 5 days names like Bradford, Luton, Oldham, Leeds and indeed my Mighty Buddies have hit the headlines after being written off by almost every sports journalist and pundit alike. The underdog is given no chance of success in the build up to the game, no credit for the fact they bothered to turn up and generally snubbed by opposition fans as they prefer to sit in the house or pub and watch the game with a drink of choice as after all, they are only playing a diddy team, how difficult will it be?

While the big teams this week have been preening their interests in bigger things such as facing champions league opposition and spending millions on the next big thing the underdog has been working on their belief model. A belief model built on the training ground where the preparation would have been the most critical aspect. Key to that would have looked at players strengths, highlighting things that went wrong in the previous game, being honest with ones performances and most of all looking for weakness in the opposition to exploit (Saints new loan signing Isma Goncalves arrived earlier in the week speaking little english but asked for DVD footage of the defender he would be facing. He never lost out to him all game). Having the right tactics and strategy is also important but this is all built on the back of that preparation and then turning that into the right attitude on the park.

That belief was in abundance over the last few days, and in fact for each wee team that won it fanned the flames of that belief and each wee team said, why not us?

I have that belief whenever I go to a game and always think we can and after today it is not so much the rise of the underdog but a fall for the non believers.

KTF SMTID





That Learning Dude

High street nostalgia and Gunnery Highway

Indulge me this week. I had a dream the other night, an unconscious spark of enthusiasm about days gone by. It was around 1992, HMV were opening a flagship store in Glasgow and sent out a call for the most talented video games fans to join them as they set out to bring games to the high street like never before. Those who answered the call (and me) were whittled down to a chosen few and a legend was born. It was a time when Commodore began to kill off the Atari ST with the launch of their Amiga 1200 (The superior ST was discontinued one year later). Ecco the Dolphin told Greenpeace hippies that games could be cool for the environment and Nintendo released the SNES in Europe.

Okay so this was not so much a dream but a trip down memory lane but here is the thing, it's been 21 years since I started with HMV (16yrs since I left) and since then in my world I have had to, (quoting Gunnery Sergeant Highway) "improvise adapt and overcome" You do this according to the circumstances and surroundings at the time.

It is well documented that HMV was slow to tackle it's biggest competitors i.e. the online challenges by amazon, play.com and others etc and even slower to launch an online store but what annoys me more is the fact that the media and average person in the street is quick to blame the supermarkets and out of town malls. No blame on government cutting perceived loopholes that allowed HMV (and others) to compete with Amazon by distributing CD's etc from Jersey and Hong Kong and yet turn a blind eye to corporate tax returns. There is also little accountability from us as consumers despite the many nostalgic stories of Saturday afternoons heading up town to buy the latest 12" single, album, cd single, mini disc, cd, video, DVD, blu ray etc etc  and there are a couple of reasons for that. We move with the times.

So back to Sergeant Highway. Things happen, things advance and things evolve. To stay in charge and on top we have to sometimes IMPROVISE. You never quite know how some things are going to turn out so although it could be a blind leap of faith you are able to take control and work around any situation if you sit back and think about it. Only today I was struggling to get an image to fit to the right size and area for an eLearning module I was designing but I took a step back and had a wee think and a thought about it. Then with a nip a tuck a tweak and a twang and a sprinkle of improvisation. It worked. Not the way it should have worked but it worked :-)


The next thing we do when faced with adversity is we ADAPT. Evolution is all you need to know about how to adapt. Analyse situations and take a look at what works and what doesn't. Being flexible in your role or life can help make the transition easier and the more adaptable you are the more opportunities tend to come your way.

Finally we OVERCOME. You can beat anything you put your mind to. Pushing yourself to do something is better than being pushed by someone else. Yes you need support and encouragement by those around you but you do it for yourself.

Those retail giants who have fallen or are in stages of falling continued to pursue business models that failed to make changes quick enough. HMV looked at online retailing and thought everyone would still want to buy the CD and rather than looking to the music that made them what they were they filled shelves with iPods and MP3s to let people download and discard the need for the CD, they couldn't improvise as they had no channel to do so. Without that fall back the ability to adapt was limited and the only thing they were overcome with was debt. I believe they will survive but at a third of their size and I only hope they learn from the past.

That Learning Dude @learningxdude

What happened to creation?

When asked recently how he would like his room redecorated Jr Dude responded with a resounding shout for a “Lego room” 

I have to admit I was expecting something more along the line of Angry Birds etc but hey Lego would be cool. In fact Lego was an awesome response, Lego….the epitome of colourful, innovative and imaginative creation. Plans were quickly afoot to transform the outdated Pixar CARS look into a room fit for an 8 year old boy. New bed with plenty storage, colourful walls (including one with Blackboard and chalk), Evolution of Lego Man and Lego brick decals, ah yes this was fun, this was creative and this was all done with minimal fuss, pain and confusion. It was also incredibly well received. “Nothing like what I expected” “Awesome” “Wait till my friends see it” 

There is little that can dent the smile on two happy parents when you get that kind of response :-)

  

Fly forward to Christmas day. I was excited (as always) at the prospect of tackling the box of Lego that appeared in my stocking but I also looked across the room with envious eyes at the collection of Lego boxes amassed by Jr Dude. Although happy and content with my Captain America/ Avengers kit I couldn’t help but hope that my skills would be employed as a contractor to work on the slightly larger scale projects waiting to go ahead once the attention focused on Tablet, Telescope, Ghost Hunt and Air Craft Carrier etc had began to wane…….and wane it did..........supported by the fact the battery had drained from the Samsung Galaxy Tab. "Daaaaaaaad……..Can you help me with my Lego?"

No need to ask twice, and we opened box number one, this contained a 4x4, motor cycle trailer, two motor cycles and riders all conveniently placed in separate itemised and numbered bags. Each bag was carefully opened to avoid volcanic eruption-esque explosion of blocks and wheels and laid in neat piles on the floor. 

From here we selected the instruction manuals and began the task of interpreting the pictures to build as per specifications brick by brick, section by section and piece by piece. Once completed we stepped back and marvelled at our creations before launching into the resulting movie sequence which usually involved a chase scene of French Connection Gene Hackman proportions and a Hollywood style crash and explosion. There was one problem though, and it got me to thinking, as I do.

This wasn’t our creation. What has happened to LEGO?

To any self respecting 8 year old this is Lego, you buy a box off the shelf depending on the flavour off the month, Star Wars, Harry Potter or Avengers etc. You take it home, open the box, it tells you what to make and you follow the easy steps and can be playing with the completed product in a short space of time. What then follows is the box and instructions are cast into the bin and the said constructions remain (mostly) as the toy on the box.

Flash back to my own childhood and I remember getting a box of Lego. This box consisted of a wide range of bricks and probably had a picture of a boat, plane or house on the front. AWESOME !!!!! This wasn’t a box of Lego bricks this was a box of imagination. You emptied the box in a pile in the middle of the room risking the most painful late night injury know to humankind and built.......you just built, what you wanted, how you wanted it and in any order you wanted it. No need to start with joining the body of Lego man to his legs before adding head and choice of wig......oh no, I could do that at a later date, hey it's Zombie season, who says he needs a head?

I created and invented. The blocks let me think for myself, innovate and really fire my imagination. Ask anyone I know and they will tell you about my obsession about how in learning today we need to deconstruct, break things down to individual components and allow the ability for the individual to rebuild and suit their own needs. 

There is no doubt that Lego still rules but a little bit of love has gone out of it and although you can still buy the boxes of random bricks what would kids prefer? that or a £700 Lego Deathstar?

So as I thinked and thunked and thonked it led me to another thought about changing ways. There is a phrase I hear way too much lately and that is Learning is Changing. The top advocates use another over coined phrase to convince us by citing the fact "we live in an ever expanding digital world" and how we take information onboard faster and slicker with learning at our fingertips but lets be honest, Learning isn't changing. The way it is marketed is changing to match the options and availability of it. Look at any directory that drops onto your desk and see what they offer. The other day I got one that boasted over 2000 courses and 1500 eLearning modules. To squeeze this all in they offer multiple ways to gain access to that content. Short on time and want to do something on your coffee break? try our short espresso range. Can't get away from the office? We'll come to you. Can't come to you? Try our online range. Hate the lack of tutor? How about online with a tutor at the end of the phone.......hey did someone say phone? Have you tried our app?

The learning doesn't change. 

Okay, so what about Lego? Perhaps it was thought it had to change because we felt our kids are growing up too fast but by doing so we have taken a little bit of fun and imagination out of the box that makes them kids in the first place. Learning is exploratory and the biggest win is when you discover something you never knew before, like when you first demonstrate that your Lego car does work (despite some fundamental aerodynamic flaws). Having the freedom to learn create and innovate in a way that suits you is key to ensuring we fully embed what we learn. The only guide for the Lego should say, "it's not what you need to build, you just need to build" Ultimately it doesn't matter if it looks exactly like the Deathstar, in fact I reckon the empire had only put a coat of primer on it before it's destruction so it's your job to finish it in red, yellow and blue bricks.

Learning doesn't change and like Lego the process should always end with look at what I achieved.

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude