Posted by John Abele on November 18, 2009 · Leave a Comment
I had the pleasure and privilege recently of participating in Elliott Masie’s innovative Learning 2009 meeting in Orlando, Florida. This was a gathering of over 1300 corporate education professionals whose job is to make sure that every employee is up to date in everything from corporate policy, new technologies, new products, regulatory requirements and the latest leadership strategies. Given these times of exponential change and tightened budgets, these learning leaders have challenging tasks to accomplish.
And it wasn’t just corporations. There were folks from professional societies and universities looking for new ideas. Many government agencies from the Veterans Administration to the CIA (The CIA has its own University) to representatives from each of the military services were present. Like many organizations today the theme was how to do more, better, for less.
The entire conference is loaded with innovative strategies that help participants learn faster and more productively. Some examples:
1. During plenary sessions everyone sat at 6 or 7 person round tables. It’s a huge room, but it is more friendly and encourages discussion.
2. Occasional 2 minute breaks were provided to encourage within-table discussions.
3. A Twitter feed was posted on a huge screen behind the speakers. The MC (Elliott) periodically resteered the conversation to address a question or comment.
4. An audience response system was employed periodically for assessing audience understanding and opinions, and occasionally to have fun.
5. Guest speakers were interviewed by Elliott, Meet the Press style, to focus their talk on the learning aspects of whatever they do.
6. Guests included Capt Sully Sullenberger (who had never landed a plane on water before his experience on the Hudson), Malcolm Gladwell (talking about high performance outliers) and Betsy Meyers (COO of Obama’s election campaign). Great learning experiences.
7. A few big names were brought in by low cost, high resolution video for a quick 5 to 10 minute interview. That’s walking the talk on cost effectiveness.
8. The many vendors were organized in a standardized format equipped with large monitors. The focus was content, application and learning, not hype. Everybody is a learner.
9. The majority of the meeting was spent in many small interactive courses run by experienced learning professionals. This was a great example of harnessing the collective intelligence of the participants.
10. Perhaps the most interesting activity was the presence of 6 students from Champlain College’s Emergent Media Division who were given an assignment at the beginning of the meeting to develop a learning APP for the iPhone (smart phones are an increasingly valuable tool for instant and convenient e-learning. They were told to interview at least 200 attendees, to select a group of advisors from them and to develop an APP that can be used for “On Boarding” new employees to any organization (history, policy, organization, how to do just about anything, who’s who, where everything is with maps and GPS). They completed their task by the last day of the meeting and demonstrated it. It was extraordinary and an incredible example of collaboration effectiveness.
I go to many different types of meetings and conferences all over the world. Like you I want to use my time well…to learn, to be inspired, to make good new connections and have great discussions with old connections.
Elliott passed this test with flying colors.”
Filed under Collaboration, Collective Intellegence, Innovation, Leadership, Social Media, Technology · Tagged with audience response, Elliott Maise, emergent media, innovation, leadership, Learning 2009, strategy
Posted by John Abele on November 13, 2009 · 1 Comment
Cultural Intelligence is defined by the individuals ability to adapt cognitively, physically and motivationally to new cultures whether organizational or ethnic. Simply, CQ represents an individuals ability to successfully adapt and flourish in a changing environment.
Last post we took a look at James and established his low CQ. In this example his low CQ resulted in his leaving his job. Although this is one option for dealing with issues of cultural intelligence, lets take a look at some more productive strategies.
As with any other form of personal development the first step is to be aware of your CQ strengths and weaknesses and pay appropriate attention to each. Next, and again not surprising you will have to step outside your comfort zone and practice overcoming your CQ weaknesses. For example, if you have low physical CQ and have issues adjusting physically to new situations then perhaps you should take a stage acting class. If you have low motivational CQ then spend one evening a week somewhere you ordinarily wouldn’t (like a Native American drum circle or a Salsa club – depending on your existing preferences!) and try to make a new friend.
These suggestions may seem simple or perhaps strange but in the case of CQ it isn’t a ‘business’ issue at root, it is a personal issue that needs to be dealt with accordingly. A business school sponsored training program is unlikely to help someone with low motivational CQ experience the benefits of adaptability more effectively than simply trying something they generally wouldn’t. You can find more strategies for enhancing cultural intelligence through The Cultural Intelligence Centre.
However, CQ does become an issue of ‘business’ when you are trying to boost the CQ level of an organization. A topic that Mary Stacey of Context Management Consulting in Toronto will be exploring at her upcoming workshop at MaRS on December 3, 2009. For those of you unable to attend I will share the session content and outcomes here.
