It Killed the Radio Star and it's still on the Run

I've been reading a lot about MOOCs lately, partly because one of my favourite blogger's Donald Clark has written a fair few articles on the subject but also because I have this thing about the current education system which from experience through childhood to adulthood I forget about and then when I became a parent I suddenly started to take an interest again.......and I have to say I have some real issues and concerns about the current state of play but that is not for now....I will keep that until parents night.

Anyhooo... I was pointed to an article about video the other day, its growing use in education and the MOOC  (Massive Open Online Courses) revolution (the authors word not mine). A lot of the article referred to Futurelearn and how it plans to change the way MOOCs are viewed. There was a couple of references from one person to the next, mostly one company versus another. Futurelearn say that early MOOCs were little more than some videos with content wrapped around it, interestingly their radical approach is eh....some videos with slides and discussion broken down into blocks and units !!! Okay.....erm......so very different? Okay to be fair to them they are talking about starting with mobile and working up instead of retrofitting and that could be a big plus but something still doesn't sit right with me just yet......I still need convinced.

                                      

Now Futurelearn do know a little about using video for education, after all how many of us stumbled in after a night out and found ourselves watching an Open University programme as we munched our way through a kebab?.....okay perhaps just me but given that they own Futurelearn it could be that they have a lead on some of their rivals like Udacity and Coursera but one of the things that strikes me most is that the Education sector is trying to stake a claim of ownership on what in business some people have been doing for some time and I get more than a little peeved as I read about how MOOCs are made out to be something new exciting and radical but really it's just higher education playing catch up after realising that the blank looks in the lecture hall are actually empty seats.

So, Open University are well placed to position themselves in the market which is merely an extension of what they already do and the likes of City & Guilds who with the recent acquisition of Kineo must be considering similar entrance into the land of MOOC but as bring your own device and curation are more to the fore now, is the day of the MOOC ever going to arrive or is academia going to continue to claim it for themselves and dismantle the very idea of it? All this happening because education can no longer dismiss what a lot of us have been saying and doing for years but it's the ferocity of which that has ramped up recently. Universities are adding MOOCs every other day but I still need convinced.

Speaking of the dismantle, MOOC ! Massive, Ooooh, is it 10, 100, 1000, 10000 users? it's irrelevant given the fact you have called it Open, Eh so anyone can join? but then I suppose OOC sounds rubbish. Online, okay we are getting somewhere. Then finally you come to Course, why do we ever use this word? Far too structured for my liking. Okay, I know it requires some structure but there needs to be more freedom and flexibility around the content yet the juggernaut keeps rolling on and the education playground has become a battleground and that only adds to my frustration, and I wonder is it all a Wrath on Khan?

Salman Khan, an M.I.T grad started producing video tutorials back in 2006 and posting them on You Tube. Doing this meant he could offer sessions to a wider audience. This concept grew quickly to the point that Salman left his job in 2009 to commit full time to the company. Now despite MIT open course ware and MOOCs kicking around at the same time, the fact that Khan Academy has had about 5 times the number of views on videos as the MIT stuff and twice as many subscribers, you wonder if it is this success that has contributed to the sudden push on creating courses. Is it with this they sat up and wanted to create their own success? Who knows......If executed well it could be a good thing as perhaps they are now more open to change and bringing what was for some seen as potentially elitist in terms of accessibility but there is caution as mentioned before where they are trying to make this sound different and this could reverse the openness and goal that they set out to achieve....you only have to look at the word "change" in all of this. I read a comment about how a faculty to deliver MOOCs could be selected and rather than saying they would change the way they do things they said it would disrupt it. Okay maybe just a word but if you want to increase they way you make education more open to the world, keep it simple and clear.

Quality must be first and foremost in the mind of the curator who builds a MOOC. Build it to be different to the experience of the classroom, use the tools (like Futurelearn) that people use and make it as easy as reaching into your back pocket and pulling out a phone. Make the content suitable, not just some hastily pulled together slide pack and introduce flexibilty that lets people build their own. Make it as non academic as possible, if it's a chalk and talk experience like watching an old skool O.U programme users could switch off. Explore interaction, flash MOOC events online and offline. Just make it an experience.

Now I have actually be writing this a few days now as every time I sat down to type, I looked up a little bit more on MOOCs so take this as part one, I am going to delve a little deeper with the thought that I want my perception changed. Not as a person with an opinion but as a participant.

Stay Tuned.

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude

Sir Alex and the manager with the red face

Let me tell you a little story about the manager with the red face.

There are two versions, possibly because there are two managers with the red face. One was looking at a way to lead and the other is the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson.

The first felt that the best way to lead was to dictate authority, demand everything from his team, expecting nothing but 110% and offering no thanks or respect in return. The position held great power but power ultimately corrupts in the hands of the wrong person and when things went wrong the frustration was written all over the face of the manager. He grew weary of the constant battles that he faced not just from the external challenges that landed on his desk but from within his own team. Why were people rebelling? Why did he not command respect. As the leader he felt people should look up to him, but he was missing one thing, the one thing that leads to two things, then three, four etc etc etc. Follower's.

Derek Sivers spoke on his well known TED talk about the importance of followers and how this is a critical aspect of leadership, now I am not naive enough to think that it is the one and only thing but without that support in your team, or backroom staff you have nothing and face a struggle to maintain control. I have witnessed this type of person struggle to lead on more than one occasion and if ever they need some lessons on leadership they should look no further than the other manager with the red face, red as in red devil.

Now the image on the right may not seem like much but it is the starting point of the greatest football managerial journey spanning almost forty years. Firs Park may only have entertained Sir Alex for a few months but in that short time he gained a reputation as a disciplinarian and perhaps the origins of the hairdryer had begun? Authority is a critical leadership skill but to be used cautiously even by a trained professional. You can't just dish it out, you use it combined with other attributes. It isn't about being harsh or abusive but just telling it how it is with honest intentions.

His reputation attracted interest from St.Mirren who despite being a bigger club were below East Stirling at the time and failing to attract any more than a thousand or so fans. Sir Alex had another couple of leadership qualities in his kit bag at the time and that was a sense of Loyalty to East Stirling who had given him his first real managerial opportunity and a good Network. Through this network he sought advice from another great manager, Jock Stein, the man who managed the first British club to lift the European Cup and he advised him to join St.Mirren. Loyalty not only demonstrates commitment but also respect and helps to build relationships within networks from which you can look for support in when needed.

His first taste of managerial success came in 1977 winning the Scottish First division and one of the critical aspects of his team and indeed another skill in his locker was being able to recognise and Develop Talent. The average age of his team was nineteen and youth has always been an important part of the his development strategy in all his years of management. You must learn to seek out talent and look to people who you would follow, not just those who could follow you.

He joined Aberdeen in 1978 and in the eight years that followed with him he won further ten trophies including two European competitions.

At Manchester United in 26 years he has coached some of the greatest players in the world, brought out their best and been able to handle their worst. He is not one to suffer fools gladly which has been found out by many a player but he has always been the one left standing. It wasn't all plain sailing and his early years presented some huge challenges but they stuck with him, grew to love and support him and believed that he would get it right and was doing the right things consistently......and oh how it paid off.

Consistency is something that is integral to a great leader. Finding the formula that works, keeping it going and making tweaks that bring improvement and increased performance. Sir Alex remained true to his desire to win and bring success to all his clubs and players. This has rubbed off on players he has worked with, many who have gone on to great success themselves as players and managers alike by adopting his style, they were and are his followers. They brought him the success through their belief in him and he gets to know all them individually. This builds rapport and allows him to bring out the best in them. He never forgets them, and shows empathy with the squad through every battle not just a team but every single player, a real people manager.

There are so many more attributes that Sir Alex has that the red face manager can learn from but the final one I will leave you with is his Legacy. This is a combination of all your skills. It is what you should always consider when building and developing your team. What do you want to be known for? Set out the vision early and work with your team on the strategy that will deliver it. They will be your legacy by way of their actions. Do this and who knows, you could get your own statue.....and maybe a stand, or a CBE....and a knighthood.......why not?

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude

Franchise yourself but learn from Hollywood

I was reading an article the other day that referred to the premiere of Fast and the Furious 6 and what makes a successful franchise. From 50 years of Bond to seven Police Academy movies, Hollywood always has a way of making the most of a good franchise and the worst of a bad one. Often the need to make another movie is driven by the pressure of investors and scriptwriters are called upon to pen a sequel, a prequel and the eyebrow raising reboot but in Leadership, Learning and Life we are always looking for ways to improve and develop, so is there a unique formula that we can learn from? Let's take a look at some of the good and bad lessons

Keep things simple - Okay, so it may have slipped your attention if you are not a regular reader but I like Star Trek, and just last night I was in fully freaky geeky mode at the launch of the latest release Into Darkness, an awesome prequel from a different time line (now there's a twist) . Star Trek has both good and bad examples. In forty plus years the Star Trek franchise has got it right and got it wrong on many occasions, part of the reason was the due to of some of the characters and the story lines they ran with, take Data from next generation for example, a real classic case of Pinnochio syndrome, he wants to be human but then when you hit him with an emotion chip he wants to be android (iOS wasn't available at the time) then he has an evil twin, a crazy "father/creator" a Borg queen stalker and on and on it went. Perhaps if they hadn't tried to replace a Vulcan with an android it would have been better. The reason the latest films have worked is they have stuck with the tried and tested formula. The prequel is sometimes where you can look for help. If you have a situation or something you need to learn from sometimes you have to go back a little further, Data mining if you pardon the pun.

Familiarity - Who doesn't like Toy Story? What makes it so special? It's the association with the characters. We all had or have played with a Mr Potato Head, a Slinky Dog and pretended to make calls with a Fisher Price phone. What is even more incredible is that Pixar were able to introduce us to new characters such as Woody and Buzz Lightyear on the strength of the other toys and they have both become almost more iconic than the original real toys. The success of  Toy Story 3 is unrivalled as the highest grossing animated film of all time, unique in that it is rare for sequels to do better than the original and the formula of a successful sequel can be looked at when wanting to improve ourselves, build better teams and become great leaders. Toy Story believed in its ability to bring a story to life from another perspective. Stepping out of your own perceptions and opinions and thinking about how it looks through someone else's eyes is a good way to become familiar with another persons way of thinking. This will help to build understanding of a situation, relationships and ultimately success.

Warning..........let me advise caution. Rebooting the franchise, repeating mistakes and wasting time. Now first let me say that everything I have saw so far about Man of Steel looks good and I will no doubt be again front of the IMAX queue to see it......but...when you think of Superman what do you think of? Is it the late Christopher Reeve on his perilous journey of milking a franchise whereby the movies descended into farcical sequels? The awful sickly sweet Lois & Clark or the reasonable (if a couple of seasons too long) Smallville? So why didn't anyone think of Brandon Routh? and who is saying "who" right now? Well because it was really a non sequel. Superman Returns tried to think prequel, sequel and a little bit of reboot all at once and by doing so became forgettable and so it comes to pass that the next churn out of Superman is a reboot that will try repair the damage and wipe our memory of all that has went before by telling a story of a boy who falls to earth from Krypton, taken in by a farmer and his wife, struggles through adolescent years, gets looked up in the phone book by General Zod, dons a cape, wears his pants outside his trousers (and you can't go wrong if you do that) and saves the world. Now there is nothing wrong with a reboot but in most cases it's like doing what you have always done and getting what you always get. It's okay to take risks, don't always revert to type if things are tough. If you act too cautious sometimes people can get suspicious that the consistency is a fear of improvement, others a little more cynical that you just can't change. Only reboot if you can add something different.


Movies and Hollywood are great places to learn from, you just have to follow the script, your script.

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude

Resilience in the force........how the leader strikes back

"You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine"

An awesome movie, story of good versus evil and an iconic quote. In this one line Obi-Wan looks Darth in the eyes and says bring it on. The Jedi have to demonstrate resilience as they deal with a great deal of change and uncertainty. They have their rivals but despite facing volatile, complex and sometimes ambiguous challenges they survive and rise once more............................(which I am sure will be well documented in the movie a year from Disney)

Now there is many a lesson to be learned from Star Wars or at the very least it is a great excuse to watch the movies over and over again but resilience is something I always see in the films. However as great as the old order is, they really missed a trick until Luke came of age. There were a few critical indicators nobody picked up on, key risks mentioned in an article I read by Elle Allison on the resilient leader. Of course she wasn't directly talking star wars and I never understood what she was talking about until I watched all the films again..........again.  I can't say it would have saved the force from the untimely loss of power but in the face of change and crisis there are 5 risk alerts to look out for.

Learning stops - As things started to go wrong for Anakin the last thing he wants is change, so he cuts back on learning. As he spirals out of control he is consumed by the dark side and thinks he knows everything he needs to know. This is a standard leadership mistake but to be a resilient leader you must recognise that responding to change always requires learning. Luke at least had the sense to go back and complete his training.

Blame it on budget cuts - Palpatine had some pretty costly operations what with galactic conquer, fuel costs and not least the cleaning bill for the Stormtroopers uniforms but when faced with downturn the easy option is always to blame it on the economics of running a team........or an empire. A lack of resilience as a leader by the emperor led to some dreadful economic decisions. He found this to his cost when these cuts came home to roost as corners cut in the construction of the Deathstar left a two metre exhaust port exposed to the sharp shooting by "young skywalker". A resilient leader should be aware of the value in everything they do so that if the going gets tough the important things are not damaged by savaging budgets. 

Read the reports - Read the signs. A Resilient leader will analyse reports, data and other feeds of information to help him respond to changing dynamics and indeed spot future trends. Obi-Wan and other members of the council missed some blatantly obvious data conveyed by Anakins changing behaviour. You can't always blame it on teenage angst. A keen eye would have noticed the lack of colour in his wardrobe, strong passion for black, permanent scowl and what about pony tail? I bet you haven't thought about it to now but that pony tail was probably still under Darths helmet and cape !!!

Workload overload - Darth must have had a nightmare of an inbox. eMails from contractors on the Deathstar projects, Union issues over Stormtrooper pay and conditions (although he always seemed to get them to agree to his terms) and to top it all the usual anonymous leadership opinion surveys that HR carried out on him.......as his old mentor used to say "they're not the scores you're looking for". This workload left gaps and he spent more times fighting fires because of a number of initiatives brought on board normally without closing off older ones. Bruch and Menges referred to this as the "acceleration trap" in an article that appeared in Harvard Business Review in 2010. A resilient leader should grab hold of the priorities and learn to let go of those that don't fit with them. 

Celebrating Success - How many parties did you see the Empire throw? Did Darth and Palpatine go for a pint after giving Luke something to think about next time he turns up looking for a fight (they were never going to fall for the old I'm dressed in black that makes me pure dark side). Contrast this with the celebrations when Luke gets back from blowing up the Deathstar or the Ewok village at the end of Return of the Jedi..........not that they need much of an excuse to party. In times of change it is easy to fear the future but the resilient leader avoids this by celebrating the success and learn lessons that could provide current and future challenges with solutions. It doesn't matter if the success is small or large just celebrate and learn from it.

Resilience then is an inside job, You choose it. The resilient leader takes care of things while paying attention to the well being of themselves and others around them. This then helps them to take action. Just like Darth did in Return of the Jedi. He chose to take care of the Emperor despite all of the challenges, change and emotional issues that were going on around him. Choose to be resilient..................search your feelings. it is a skill your looking for

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude

By the power of Facebook, Home has the power !!!

"Today, our phones are designed around apps, not people. We want to flip that around" - Mark (the power) Zuckerberg - April 4th 2013

Of course the first thing you can say is, the way they are going to flip it down Facebook way is by re-inventing their app....eh......I mean change it around people but I have to say I am intrigued

So what has it got to do with He-Man? Well nothing much but it has got a lot to do with the power sword......in the same sense that it doesn't......Confusing as always I know..... You see young Prince Adam (above) had an alter ego aka He-Man, kind of like what Zuck has in Facebook but I am still not getting to the point.....so. When Prince Adam wanted to transform into He-Man he grasped his trusty power sword and shouted those famous words..........

"By the power of Grayskull, I....have...the....POWER !!!!"

But the thing was, the sword never held the power, the power came from Grayskull, the sword was just the device to harness it. The Sorceress in Grayskull granted Adam the transformative powers and also communicated with him telepathically, in other word she took one thing, turned it into another and was able to communicate on a whole new way

Facebook Home is the new social and simple (their words) way to harness the power of your phone. In fact the phone is irrelevant, it is a new way to harness how you use your phone. You are and always will be the device and Facebook is your operating system.....even if they say they are not building that. This is Facebooks way of selling billions of phones without selling the phones. It gives them a massive foothold in the phone market initially on android but with the potential to sync one and all.

Now as I said, I am intrigued, I do use Facebook a lot and probably 90% (guesstimate) of the time on my mobile. I prefer to call it mobile rather than phone as 80% (another guesstimate) of what I use it for has nothing to do with the word phone in the traditional sense. Mark Zuckerberg highlighted the fact that home makes it easier to communicate via text, tugging on the acquisition strings of late mixing instagram and messenger etc to create a new look and feel to the social experience.

Now. I know that me liking it presents this as a little one sided and especially given my track record for thoughts on the iPhone........oh that reminds me I haven't mentioned IOS but in the same sense I haven't mentioned Twitter and Google+ etc so just to balance things up. Skeletor (shown above with new HTC First box) wanted the power that Prince Adam had from Grayskull, his plans were quite sketchy but roughly said 1) Kill He-Man, 2) Not get killed by He-Man...."you can't kill me He-Man" 3) Steal Grayskull, rule Eternia 4) Open Hip coffee shop.

Okay maybe not number 4.......yet.... but Facebook Home will have it's critics, the launch made no mention of killing anyone, but squeezing other social mediums is always a possibility. Android is open, soooooo open was the cry, we want everyone to be flexible, we are open too but in reality the Social is so disconnected it may be a while before everybody gets together at the party.

So if the others aren't careful they may miss out and Facebook home will be a real big win for Zuck and Android and if they are not really careful we could always grab an Americano at Facebucks.

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude

Go team......Yaaaaay..... Go team...the A-Team.

In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team...........brrrrrrrm da da da da da da da da da da dih da, da da da da da !

I never set out to write about the A-Team, but it suddenly seems like a good idea, you see an article popped up in my inbox which talked about the preference of hiring the team player over the A player and it reminded me about a time a few years ago now when I was asked to roll out Top Grading recruitment training. Now I totally get the concept behind Top Grading, it's about hiring the best, you know like a crack commando, who has the ability to get out out of complex situations (metaphoric maximum security stockade) with the hope they are so good they don't get into them in the first place. The kind of top performing highly rated individual wanted by every organisation and if you find them maybe you can hire the A Player.....brrrrrm da da .....you know the rest.............however, you don't hire teams, you hire individuals and in most cases then expect them to perform in a team. 

Samson, Van Zanten, Goodwin, McAusland, Dummett, Teale, McGowan, Newton, McGinn, Goncalves, Thompson, Carey, Mair, Parkin, McLean & Adam. Those surnames won't mean too much to you (a lot to me) depending on where you live, but eight days ago they upset the odds to lift their clubs first trophy in 26 years through good old fashioned team work. When things weren't going their way they worked together, it wasn't one individual who secured victory it was a combination of individual skills and experiences that achieved success. Why it was almost like the team had been assembled that way. A real life A Team.

So back to the hiring of A players, the first problem I had with it was that when challenged about targeting the A's the response would always be "don't worry, we still need the B player" How motivating is that, hey.....you over there, yeah the B player ? Hmmmm go team you say. The mindset was always about hiring A players rather than creating the A team and that got me to thinking, the A player ain't all that....so how about the A-Team then...

The article I spoke of earlier talked about a couple of critical values and skills including Selflessness and camaraderie but I think the A-Team has others up their sleeve.

Hannibal - The Leader, his plans were always a bit elaborate but he had real foresight to see how it would all come together. Chief Skill - Visionary 

Face - As good as second in command, a keen eye for the ladies and big on the schmooz, his key role was in procurement of all things required on the mission - Chief Skill - Communication

Howling Mad - Pilot and all round nutter ( I like him), Mad Murdoch may live in a Veterans mental institution but it is hardly a lock up given how frequently he comes and goes depending on the mission. Chief Skill - Navigation

B.A - Adorned with enough gold to cash in for a european away trip B.A was the teams muscle and mechanic. There was nothing he couldn't build with the guts of a scrap car, a few pipes and some blu-tak. Chief Skill - Innovation

So there you have it, how hiring an A player is fine if they all bring enough skills to be the A-Team. Hire the skills and not the ego's, pull them together and implement your plans......also a blatant opportunity to mention St.Mirren but there is one final lesson I have to tell you about the A-Team. 

Always grow and further develop the teams skills on a regular basis and make sure you see that the success of a team lies with the skills and experience of the individuals and if you ever need to build another team do so with the same formula of hiring the individuals and never just try to recreate..........

.................that could spell disaster !

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude

Oh the learning you'll do if you let yourself to....

It's hard to believe that I got a little bit grumpy the other day when someone told me they didn't have time or the inclination to learn new stuff. They said they only want the learning they need when they want it, and how they want it...... and yet hasn't that been the point of everything I have been talking about lately? Well I just had to write about it but couldn't find the words......then something colourful and exciting happend.

If you let me you'll see you can learn so easy and I'll take you to places so fine

Where the knowledge does fly and the clock ticks on by cause to learn you just have to make time

I'll stop myself now before saying who, how and just cut myself straight to the point. 

Why when learning it's you with an excuse or two not to stop by the brain learning joint

I could keep up this rhyme and it isn't a crime if I want you to learn stuff this way

but it's not me you see that is blocking it's thee and you need to go open your mind

Okay, enough of this, for now......I love Dr Suess, always have, I do what I do because Suess told me to.....sorry, force of habit but the thing is, the likes of Green Eggs and Ham, Mr Brown can hoo can you and of course Cat in the Hat all have one thing in common, they make you think, make you imagine and make you want more. 

Think back to that childhood book, it doesn't have to be Suess, it doesn't even have to be a book but what was it that you loved as a child, couldn't get enough of and just had to find out everything you possibly could about it. Then ask why did I forget?

You learned how to unlearn, it stopped being your friend and you think that without it it's fine but what you fail to see is that learning is free and..........I really can't help myself.......ANYHOO ! You have to re-engage with stuff, things and more stuff.

The purpose of the learning community now is to make content available for you in multiple formats in a way that opens you up to untapped potential once again but they can't make you learn, that is up to you.

So from where did this come? Why this subject from me? and now where do I want it to go?

Where I want it to go is with you just like so and I'm sure that you'll take it on board, because what I have done is the grand sum of none as the learning was always inside. Go go go and begone and make learning more fun just like how you did back in the day and for sure and for how just remember that now you can have it and have it your way.

Thanks Dr Seuss.

 That Learning Dude @LearningXDude