Now That's What I Call Learning Vol 1

Have you ever admitted to owning something and the response you get it from others when mentioning it is........ "Oh oh, someone is showing their age"

In most cases you laugh it off, say you were talking about a friend and try and run away before further mocking. However in the case of Now That's What I Call Music there are something's that are timeless and seem to have been around long enough to capture the hearts and minds of so many people that suddenly we are 14 again and buying our first records...........yes I know. that's right....I said records......yes yes showing my age........but you know what I could have said cassette !!!! and a double cassette at that, but, be it cassette, record, CD or download the timeless wonder that is the "Now that's what I call music" brand is under threat.

As part of the approved takeover of EMI by Universal for £1.2 billion pounds, they had to agree to sell EMI's 50% stake in the Now brand. This could spell the possible demise of the franchise as finding a buyer may be something of a struggle for many reasons, the main one of which is we no longer buy music in the same way. The Now format started back in 1983 at a time when people made their own compilations by taping their favourite songs off the radio chart show on a Sunday night and signalled the death knell of the old C45.............now if you remember that, you ARE getting old..

In preparation for the potential passing of this legendary musical institution, That Learning Dude would like to take a short historical tour and provide you the only track list you will ever need for every training course you'll ever run.

So November 28th 1983 is our starting point as we fly back to the very first Now that's what I call music release. Phil Collins took to the stage and told us you can't hurry love and he was definitely singing to every customer out there that wants training and wants it now.......perfection takes time and time is what you should factor in to every training project to ensure you deliver the right product . Not content with that, Duran Duran said is there something I should know......eh well I hope so! Why else would you be in my training session? So if they are there to learn something ensure you source information from only the best of Subject Matter Experts. Malcolm Mclaren warned about the dangers of churning out poor quality material decrying that such content is hard to follow and mostly Double Dutch

By the time Now 18 had come along in 1990 The Beautiful South had decided there was more reflection required on training needs analysis and requested a little time to find out more about individual requirements, in part this was because Belinda Carlisle was fed up attending the same thing although some people like Public Image Ltd had no interest in participating in the TNA and said don't ask me. Poor Kylie Minogue it seems though wasn't sure about where the training was going either and just suggested we step back in time, causing much eye rolling from Belinda.

1994 brought forth Now 29 and a time of evaluation for Eternal and in tribute to the session they attended wrote a song about it called so good. Louis Armstrong found himself wanting to ask more and more questions about the chosen topic for this event and despite the workshop running from 9-5 insisted that we had all the time in the world. Robert Palmer wasn't convinced though and told Louis he should know by now and the Cranberries suggested that if they stayed any longer they would feel like a zombie

On Now 52 Scooter were convinced more than ever that thing made sense with the logical song and Kelly Llorenna felt the session should be more in tune with her needs and said tell it to my heart. Mary J Blige however thought it was becoming a bit soap opera with all the role play and demanded no more drama. All this while Nelly struggled to concentrate with the faulty air conditioning in the room and wanted to know if it was just him or if indeed it was getting hot in here?

In 2008 and the age of Now 69 the Feeling failed to return after lunch with the only excuse provided as I thought it was over and the Sugababes with all the issues of swapping members of the band registered for the course but admitted that attendance would be subject to change. 

Now 77 brought it's own problems for Cee Lo Green and forget you was something he often said about pre course material. Not that we ever got round to discussing it on the course as Jason Derulo brought a suitcase full of hypothetical questions and asked what if?

And yay it comes to pass that November this year could see the last ever Now That's What I Call Music compilation. At time of writing this there is no published track list but you can be sure there is much to learn from it.





When all is said and done though, just like the demand for a presentation skills course, I don't think it will die.

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude

P.S. Stop the rise in Open University Tuition Fees http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22316

For a McFly look at Unlearning go Back to the Future

A couple of things got me thinking today. The first was due to a comment about unlearning after I overheard a conversation about a change of system and process. "Am I supposed to just unlearn everything I have been taught over the last few years?" The answer given to them was a simple "yes" and then the killer question was driven home, "so how do I unlearn?" You could hear a pin drop, then a few cogs, then an overheating neural processor before finally the manager uttered the words "just forget about it" 

You could see this was not the answer the person was looking for and I felt it was time for That Learning Dude to ride to the rescue but I stopped myself. You see, it is something I have heard a few times now in the last couple of months and I should have responded along the lines of "we are made up of our experiences, our culture, our interactions. A product of ourselves, however sometimes if you want to continue to personally evolve etc etc you sometimes have to unlearn, challenging ideals that you may have held for sometime etc etc etc blah blah blah. Imagine a cup full of water, imagine yourself pouring the contents of that cup out and watch as it soaks into the earth. The earth quickly dries up and your water  is gone, that water is the water you once"......STOP ! I have a better idea. That Learning Dude was also sourcing a Back to the Future clip and that got me thinking.

I then have to admit, I got lost in thought....

If you got sent back in time, what are the things you know now that would help you learn then to be better now? Unlearning Back to the Future Style.

Take Marty. A lot of what Marty experiences is the process of unlearning in order to create a better life for himself in the future although it is not necessarily his intention. The pursuit of happiness for Marty is also beset by rejection as his band fails to make the grade in the audition for the high school dance. It is interesting to note that a lot of his success as rock n roll legend is not provided by unlearning the style or instrument of his future success but by unlearning the experience of rejection. His rendition of that future hit from his past Johnny B. Goode excites Marvin Berry enough to call his cousin Chuck with that great new sound he'd been searching for........oh how Marvin could have unlearned from helping his cousin and made it HIS new sound instead.

Now Marty isn't the only one that has to go through the process of unlearning, although Doc Brown has a slightly different journey. What he knows in 1985 about the 1.21 Gigawatts of power required to power the flux capacitor in order to travel back and forth in time is perceived by his 1955 self as unthinkable and therefore he has to unlearn or unconvince his current conviction that this is a truly unthinkable thing to think. However, Marty through the medium of a portable TV studio and the Docs ability to remind himself in a letter to pass to his future self to tell himself from the past of what to do in the future is enough to keep a good story line going...................although I think I may unlearn that one for the benefit of my own cranium.

All in all though the Doc demonstrates many of the thoughts I have on unlearning. There is something in it but I am not fully bought in to the empty the vessel type examples and certainly wouldn't advocate it because for me things we learn are all connected to either lessons learnt or lessons still to be taught and also I think there are somethings that will never be unlearned......just ask Biff.........he never stopped hating manure !



Now if you'll excuse me I am heading out to see if my little car can hit 88 miles an hour, I think I spotted a spelling mistake in a post from July, if successful you will never have noticed it.

That Learning Dude @learningXDude

If at first you don't succeed....rewriting the Bruce, Murray style.

Andy Murray, US Open champion. Amazing ring to it, a Grand Slam now in the bag, defeating the defending champion and climbing back up to world number 3. It has been a long time coming but it is testament to that age old saying of if at first you don't succeed try, try again.

You see it was Robert the Bruce (legend says) when driven into hiding by the English happened upon a spider as he sat in a cave pondering his next move. Bruce watched the spider as it attempted to spin its web and indeed fail a number of times and fall from the cave wall. However, undaunted by the failure the spider pressed on and continue to slowly climb back up and try again. It was this observation that led Bruce to rally the troops if you like and in later years defeat the English at Bannockburn.

So from one legend (and a little bit of poetic licence) to another. Andy Murray. He has shown that with determination, focus and direction that you can achieve greatness. It may not happen over night and each time you fail, climb back up, dust yourself down and start again.

All of this achieved with an unbelievable amount of pressure to succeed with a million eyes upon him and a million points of view. Outstanding really when you think about it.

Nothing is really impossible, no seriously. If you are committed, have the desire to harness a talent and stay the course then you will succeed.

When things may seem to be impossible, that is when some people throw the towel in. Start to think of things in the context of possibility. Bruce looked at his situation and dismissed the impossible, yes he had suffered defeat, yes he had been driven from his cause but he began to believe in the possible and this led to success

Andy Murray had pressure on him from day one of his tennis career, his older brother Jamie would beat him in local tournaments as a young boy but rather than give in he would harness what he learned in those defeats to motivate himself to improve and succeed. I firmly believe that there is no more a challenging task than wanting to beat an older sibling at anything.

Now there is no pill to instant success but you can write your own prescription (ensure you can read your own handwriting ). Start by looking what you want to achieve, and by that I mean really achieve. Make sure you are as bold and bright as possible about what that success will look like. The more vivid and the more real you make things then the better an understanding you will have of what you have to do. On that note if you rely on others to help you, coaches, mentors, fans !! etc, make sure the role they have to play is clear as well.

It is also important to think a little about how you will cope in the event of failure, do not walk away, walk towards it. If you have failed at something, this has happened for a reason, analyse results, look for areas which you can make changes in and then try again, do this until it brings you what you desire. There is also a lot to be said for bringing in people who truly understand what you are going through or trying to achieve. Andy Murray has worked with some great coaches over the years each bring him success but neither could truly understand what he was dealing with in his quest to win a grand slam, that is until Ivan Lendl came along. First came Olympic success, then the ultimate goal. A grand slam. Ivan Lendl lost his first four grand slam finals before finally nailing nirvana at his fifth attempt. Andy lost his first four before Mondays win. Lendl went on to win a further 7 grand slam titles, perhaps Murray just found his new sibling motivation :-)

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude

Don't blame Millennial's. Keep up !

When the Who sang about My Generation it was a rebellious angst driven blast at the lack of understanding by the older generation about what was happening and the fact that they just "didn't get it"

So what was "it"?

Well I've read a couple of versions about the songs origin. Pete Townsend is reported to have written the song after being inspired by the Queen Mother who was alleged to have his hearse towed off a street in Belgravia as it offended her on her daily jaunt around town.

Later, Townsend is also reported as saying when Roger Daltry sang " I hope I die before I get old" that by "old" they meant rich, so perhaps the origins were based on fear that maybe you don't have long to do what you want before you are expected to be rich in knowledge, standing and experience?

Now the reason That Learning Dude is writing about this tonight is I have just read an article in the Wall Street Journal about how companies are beginning to bend over backwards in order to retain the skills and talents of Millennial's (GenY) by offering a number of additional perks that accommodate faster promotions and greater responsibilities.

 Now there is a business case to address that has plenty of data to show that within the next eight to ten years as much as 40% of the workforce in the USA will consist of millennial's so of course a business is going to get a bit panicky and many CEO's recite the well trodden line that indicates they have no choice to bow to demands in order to retain the top talent.

In one company a number of exit interviews conducted to try and understand why turnover was so high reflected that there was too much bureaucracy, not enough comms, lack of fun or use of talents and little in the way of flexible hours.

Other data critical to support a business points to what millennial's bring to the modern day office. For a start they have fresh skills and in most cases tech savvy. They will be socially connected and more collaborative and also likely to be more culturally and racially diverse. Not a bad CV  before they even start but it is easy to see why older workers could be disgruntled when exhibit A starts on the Monday and already has 300+ friends, follows (not stalks) 600+ individuals and organisations and is connected to 250+ people which in the grand scheme of first, second and third connections gives them a network of a squillion people from Alaska to Auckland !! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Data zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Nothing new. Really, it's nothing new, there has been and always will be a gap between generations and as the older generation will always know better from past experience where as the current generation will always know better from future preferences. The fact the Who sang about wanting to die before they get old was a cry to avoid the handover point when they have to communicate with that generation to say give me the knowledge you have so I can progress and that is where the clash happens.

Millennial's are sometimes criticized for being impatient but surely that comes from a lack of understanding of things like how they like to communicate i.e. fast paced, social and virtual.

Seek first to understand, then be understood - Covey.

So here is the thing, I'm Gen X (happy at that as it sounds cool in a Billy Idol style) but I can't be critical and dismissive of something I know nothing about, I need to embrace the way millennials learn and want to communicate, but The Who said "don't try to dig what we all say" therefore it is not about trying to be like them and suddenly getting down with the kids, wearing your baseball cap in whatever the current jaunty fashion is.......that would be waaaaaay too uncool for skool. (sorry was that too hip?)

So here is the thing, if you are that person that is complain about the next generation up getting more opportunity than you,  what are you doing to keep up with the world? Sorry if that is being direct, i'm not trying to cause a big sensation, just talking about my generation !

That Learning Dude - Follow @LearningXDude