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September 3, 2014 Level one assessments are those "smiley" sheets learners fill out after a workshop or class. They ask questions like: Did the instructor provide adequate time for questions? Was the room comfortable? Did you have enough time to complete all the assignments? Those assessments are training waste, pure and simple. Think back to when you learned the most valuable lessons of your career. When I reflect on mine, the most powerful learning experiences were the most unforeseen, uncomfortable, and chaotic. …yield crash, merger mutiny, supplier bankruptcy, losing a key customer… No, the instructor did NOT provide adequate time for questions. (It was a VP yelling at the top of his lungs). The room was NOT comfortable. There wasn’t nearly enough time to do everything required (even though we worked long into the night and all weekend). If someone had done a level one assessment of those learning moments, it would have been a sea of frown faces. Learning and Comfort Have Nothing to Do with Each Other If truly powerful learning happens when things are least comfortable, why obsess over providing pleasant formal learning experiences? Chairs so plush you could fall asleep. Lunches so big you almost fall asleep. And content so boring you want to fall asleep. The data on formal learning retention is abysmal; some studies show it to be as low as 15% after three weeks. Every class, workshop, and elearning course are essentially the same. Completely unmemorable. Blah, blah, blah. And I’ll bet you a cushy chair that those same learning activities received excellent level one assessments. Don’t Strive for Comfort. Strive for Engagement. I recently spoke with one of our Black Belt candidates who attended a three-day mediation and negotiation course where the last day was Saturday! Throughout the three days, attendees (many of them busy doctors) arrived on time; came back from breaks, lunches and the occasional emergency phone call with alacrity; and even stayed late. Why? The days were filled with well-structured, challenging, and sometimes emotionally-wrenching role-playing activities. She told me that, in some cases participants begged the facilitators for more time so they could fully resolve their situation. Now, that’s engagement! If you create learning solutions free of Training Waste and abundant in Lean Learning Values, then a smiley sheet afterwards is an unnecessary extra step. The Lean Learning Bottom Line Stop obsessing over comfortable chairs, good snacks, and pretty handouts! Create challenging, distinctive learning experiences that engage participants and deliver real results. Let’s ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick   The post Stop Worrying About Level One! appeared first on Maverick Institute.

  The recent article, What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team, did not, contrary to the subtitle, reveal "surprising truths." Their findings have been around for more than 60 years and are the basis of Lean. Instead of spending millions of dollars and three years navel gazing, Google should have simply looked across the Bay towards Fremont and the former Toyota-GM joint venture there called NUMMI. ‘Stealing shamelessly’ is an honored Lean practice and is embodied in the Lean Learning Value ‘Inside Out.’ This means not having a bias towards creating content yourself and, therefore, avoiding the expenditure of time and energy. Utilizing existing content avoids the Lean waste ‘Delay’ and accelerates learning and performance improvement. What Was Right Under Google’s Nose? NUMMI (short for New United Motor Manufacturing Inc) opened in 1984 and was Toyota’s first foray into assembling cars in North America. Instead of building their own plant, Toyota decided to use an existing one and their choice caught everybody by surprise. Fremont was one of the worst plants, if not THE worst, in the GM system. It had been shuttered for several years and the UAW contract required that Toyota rehire the laid off workers. GM executives and car industry analysts predicted disaster. However, by 1986 NUMMI was one of the best plants, if not THE best, at GM. At the time, I was a graduate engineering research assistant at the GM assembly plant in Framingham, MA and saw the results play out over two years. Every metric, from safety to quality to cost to union grievances filed, improved dramatically. The poisoned relationship between UAW and management (Toyota management, not GM management) was healed. The Twin Pillars of Lean How could a transformation of this magnitude, one that had eluded GM for decades, happen in a scant 2 years? The answer, quite simply, was the Toyota Production System (TPS aka Lean). Based on the twin pillars of ’Respect for People’ and ‘Continuous Improvement,’ TPS applies to everybody everywhere (from customers to employees to suppliers) and are the touchstone for every tool, method, policy and procedure used in their enterprise. The end result is not just better products and services, but the creation of an employee-centered improvement process that  allows everyone to use their knowledge, talents and experience to make work life better and deliver real customer value quickly. This is was exactly what Google was striving to learn how to do! Google spent three years studying teams and their performance and trying to find correlations. It’s ironic that a company specializing in ‘search’ would miss a solution right under their nose. Be Open to Outside Content How open are you and your organization to learning from others, especially outside your industry? Too often people are blinded by a ‘Not Invented Here’ mentality and reject great ideas out of hand. People say ‘We’re NOT making cars here, you know.’ or ‘That might work in cars, but this is a hospital.’ People spend time, money and resources to reinvent the wheel or, worse, build one that’s not even as good. Great organizations actively look for ideas outside their industries and incorporate them into their products, services and practices. For example, Apple’s wildly successful stores were designed around the hotel concierge. Be a Curator, Not Just a Creator In L&D, embrace ‘Inside Out’ by searching for great content that already exists before you try to (re)create it yourself. It may be sitting in another department or business unit just waiting to be used. Content on the web is just about limitless and sites like YouTube are especially useful because people post learning videos on just about everything. Now, is the quality super high? Probably not, but balance that against the hundreds of hours and effort you’ll save. And, remember, while you’re creating your super high-quality, customized content, people who need to know something are going out and searching for the information; they don’t wait anymore. With all the resources and content available, L&D needs to see themselves as content curators, rather than content creators. Feel free to share your examples of ‘Inside Out’ in our blog comments or give me a call at 303.819.6662 to talk confidentially about your particular situation. Want to learn more about applying Lean to L&D and Training? Check out our Lean Learning Certification Programs here. Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post ‘Steal’ This Lean Idea appeared first on Maverick Institute.

Traveling frequently on airplanes this past year, I started playing mobile games to pass the time or take a break from work in the flying office. I’ve been playing classics like Tetris and new ones like Geometry. I’m not a big gamer; you’ll never see my name on the Leader Board. I quickly get bored or, worse, start feeling like a hamster in a wheel. And the reason, I realized recently, is that most games are anti-Lean, which is opposite my DNA. Lean is Simplicity Lean is all about making processes simple and mistake-free, so that everyone can accomplish the work and deliver customer value successfully every time. Mobile games, on the other hand, are purposefully designed with obstacles and distractions that players must overcome to win. For example, in Tetris when you create a full row of blocks there’s a bright flash of white light when they disappear. Why? Those blocks could just quietly exit and leave you ready for the next shape placement. But, no, that bright white flash distracts you and makes placing the next shape harder. And the faster the pace, the more that flash negatively impacts your performance. Another obstacle is the placement of the buttons on the screen that hold and rotate the shapes. I occasionally hit the wrong one with usually disastrous consequences. Can you relocate the buttons to your liking? Heck no! To succeed, you’ve got to work around the designer’s (imho poor) placement. Leader boards recognize people who overcame ALL these obstacles; they are the successful few. Work Is Full of Distractions and Obstacles Gaming builds and reinforces the mentality that success means overcoming distracting obstacles and, unfortunately, this bleeds into the workplace. Isn’t your work full of obstacles to overcome that are, from the customer’s point of view, completely unnecessary? Poor layout of equipment or personnel. Long, pointless meetings. Arcane approval processes. Outdated tools and policies. Getting a good performance rating is, in essence, getting a high placement on the company leader board. The people at the top overcame the obstacles and distractions thrown their way this past year. Frequently, their individual success is used to rationalize that a business process isn’t broken a la "If Kim can do it, why can’t you?" You don’t want a process that only ONE person can do successfully. Your customers want value every time from everyone and L&D is in a perfect position to help. Use Your Outsider Perspective to Advantage Instead of simply providing training on how to navigate the obstacles, L&D should work to simplify processes and make them mistake-proof by using Lean principles and methods. Now, some of you are thinking ‘Who am I to tell Sales (or Accounting or Manufacturing or Nursing) what to do?’ Your outside perspective is incredibly valuable! You’re not stuck in the weeds of their process and can ask simple, enlightening questions. For example, ‘Does this expense account form really need all 21 fields?’, ‘Wouldn’t swapping these two steps is our patient admitting process make it go faster?’, ‘Why is this data entered three different times?’ Using Lean root cause analysis techniques like the ‘5 Why’s’ you can help people think about their own processes in new ways. As a result, processes will be simpler, therefore easier to teach and easier to do correctly. It’s win-win. Win ‘The Game of Work’ The ‘game of work’ is to eliminate waste; not do wasteful activities as quickly and as many times as possible. Start keeping a list of the unnecessary, distracting obstacles in your company’s work that people ask you to teach others. Discuss them with your colleagues and managers and work together to reduce or, better yet, eliminate them. Want to jump start your efforts? Give me a call at 303.819.6662. And if you want to play a game that won’t quickly bore you or make you feel like a hamster on a wheel, try Neko Atsume, the cat collecting game sweeping the planet. Or how about, to quote a famous movie computer,  "a nice game of chess?" Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post Gaming is Anti-Lean Training appeared first on Maverick Institute.

The Wall Street Journal recently published a cringe-worthy article titled ‘Nice’ Is a Four-Letter Word at Companies Practicing Radical Candor. Here’s a paragraph from the article that captures the spirit of it. "Some companies are pushing workers to drop the polite workplace veneer and speak frankly to each other no matter what. The practice is referred to as ‘radical candor,’ a ‘mokita’ or ‘front-stabbing.’ Not surprisingly, though, some people aren’t as comfortable with brutal candor as others." ‘Front-stabbing’?! THIS is the latest improvement fad? Oy vey. Luckily, labor laws about hostile work environments will likely dissuade most companies from adopting this nonsense. Nothing Could Be Farther From Lean I’ve been practicing Lean since 1987 and improvement requires honesty and, to some degree, confrontation. It’s about openly acknowledging a situation, determining its causes, developing solutions and changing practices. You frequently work with people who are heavily invested in the way things are currently done and resistant to change. To make things more challenging, Lean sets the improvement bar VERY high with concepts like ‘Customer Value’ and ‘Seek Perfection.’ Now, these could be sticks to beat people with, but Lean organizations are the most collaborative and enjoyable ones I’ve ever worked in. There’s a level of camaraderie and respect for people absent from non-Lean organizations. How is this possible? The answer is the synergy between standard work and visual management, two key Lean concepts. Set Clear Standards ‘Standard work’ is the agreed upon way to do things today and is the starting point for all improvement. Standard work isn’t written in stone. The whole point of Lean is continuous improvement, so standard work changes and can change often. But, on any given day, there’s an agreed upon way to get work done that delivers value to the customer. If there’s no standard, how do you know the ‘radical candor’ you’re receiving is worth anything? It’s just one person’s opinion. You could be getting really poor advice. Even worse, suppose you get differing or conflicting advice from co-workers? Which one do you follow? ‘Speaking frankly’ without standards causes confusion and is detrimental to performance and morale. So, the very first step in any improvement process is to agree on the standard work. Let the Standard ‘Speak Frankly’ Once standard work is established, make it visible! Visual management means that what’s expected is clearly visible to everyone and I literally mean visible. You should be able to walk into an area and know if things are going well or not just by looking around for 30 seconds. Depending on your industry, visual management can take different forms, for example kanban squares, shadow boards, kamishibai cards. When the standard is clearly visible, everybody knows what to shoot for. They can compare what they are doing  to what’s expected and correct their approach. And if what they’re doing isn’t generating the needed results, you don’t need to ‘front-stab’ them. It will be crystal clear that things aren’t going well. Let the standard, not the people, speak frankly. Focus on Helping Instead When I worked at Taiwan Semiconductor, up-to-the-minute fab performance metrics were visible to everybody. They were displayed on monitors throughout the facility. We could all see the difference between expected and actual metrics, for example first-pass yields, moves and inventory. When something was going wrong, there was no need to ‘front-stab’ a department manager or an engineer. We focused instead on how we could help get things back on track or prevent a recurrence from happening. A much more productive use of everybody’s time and energy and a great morale builder. Visible standards quickly drive resources to problems. This push for ‘radical candor’ is simply poor leadership. Leaders need to create an environment where teams set clear, visible standards and then work together to maintain and improve them over time. Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post Lean Isn’t ‘Nice’, But It’s NOT ‘Front-stabbing’! appeared first on Maverick Institute.

I spend a lot of time talking with people unfamiliar with Lean and, while I’m absolutely mad about the topic, these sessions can sometimes be very frustrating. Despite my best efforts, some people look just plain confused and others react with strong denial when I describe how Lean works and what it can deliver. The Chinese have a great saying about the difficulty of explaining to someone something that is beyond their experience. It is, "How do you describe the sky to a frog in a well?" Sometimes people’s scope of responsibility and experiences are so limited that seeing beyond them and accepting radically new ways of doing things is very difficult. The Executive Frog When I share examples of Lean results with executives, one common reaction is something along the lines of "Well, THAT organization was really screwed up; it’s no wonder they could improve so much. WE’RE not like that." For most executives, the view from the well is just the company’s financial statements. And if those are looking good, then everything must be running fine. Oh, you wish! When I was a department manager in a silicon wafer fab, we reduced cycle time by 95% using Lean Six Sigma thinking and tools. Now, when I started that job, I knew there was waste and believed that we could easily cut cycle time in half. But, if you told me we could reduce it 95%, even I would’ve rolled my eyes. "Oh, come on. We’re not THAT screwed up," Oh, yes, we were! In this instance, I was a ‘frog in the well.’ I had no idea was was really happening at the Gemba aka the factory floor. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Everyone Underestimates the Sky Before I run a rapid improvement event at a client, we review the current process’ performance and I ask event participants to estimate how much improvement they think is possible. 10%? 20%? 30%? Then, we run the event, improve the process and compare the actual results to their estimates. I’ve been doing this for more than a decade and people grossly underestimate the improvement possibilities every single time, typically by 100%, e.g., they estimate 20% and the actual improvement is 40%. Once people experience this ‘sky’, they see countless improvement possibilities all around them. Experience the ‘Lean’ Sky There’s a popular Lean aphorism: ‘Act your way to new thinking.’  People commonly try to approach change from the other direction. They want to THINK their way to new actions. But, their thoughts are limited by the view from their well. New actions can appear illogical or risky and are to be avoided. That’s why Lean emphasizes activities like Gemba walks. Get out where the work is actually being done. Watch. Listen. Don’t judge. Don’t intellectualize. Understand. Empathize. What will you do today to get outside your well? Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post Are You a ‘Frog in a Well’? appeared first on Maverick Institute.

Every organization is improving; they have to. Consumers and patients want higher quality and better outcomes. Shareholders demand lower costs and higher profits. New laws and regulations require better compliance and performance. And every organization has a current process for meeting these changing demands. Some organizations lead the charge, some are ‘fast followers’, others lag behind and still other wander around in circles. Improving Improvement When people talk about wanting to "do Lean" it means something isn’t right. Their process isn’t meeting the demands of customers, patients, shareholders or regulators. They hear examples of what Lean can deliver, for example 90% reduction in errors, and think "I want that!" or, more specifically, "We need to DO that!" What they’re really saying is they need to improve their improvement process! Now, everybody wants the results that Lean delivers, but are they willing to practice what Lean requires to get them? This is a question worth carefully considering BEFORE launching a huge Lean initiative that quickly falls down and dies. Let me share a simple, effective model that I use for framing this discussion and clarifying what it means to ‘do’ Lean. Three Key Dimensions Improvement processes can be viewed along three key dimensions. They are velocity, engagement and magnitude. Velocity - How fast are improvements occurring in a given area today? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly? Annually? What pace of improvement are you and your organization comfortable with and can sustain? Engagement - What percentage of your workforce regularly works to improve processes and performance? Is everyone involved or just an elite group? Magnitude - How much improvement are projects delivering today? Less than 10%? 10% to 20%? Greater than 20%? Are projects just nibbling around the edges or making radical changes? So, any discussion about improving improvement starts with assessing the current process along these three dimensions. Improvement Quadrants…Where Does Lean Fit In? Let’s focus on velocity and engagement today. A 2×2 matrix quickly clarifies what Lean is all about and helps people navigate the route ahead if they decide to make the trip. Based on their answers above, we find where they are in the matrix. Remember, these dimensions are a continuum so they may straddle quadrants. Low Engagement, Low Velocity - ‘Suggestion Programs’ describes companies that don’t like frequent changes and don’t engage people much. People make suggestions and managers may ask for them, but there’s no guarantee they’ll get implemented. Changes tend to be local, i.e., confined within a department. High Engagement, Low Velocity - ‘Big Initiatives’ describes companies that don’t change frequently, but engage their people extensively when it happens. These changes commonly affect the entire enterprise and are facilitated by outside consultants. Think big software applications like Oracle and SAP. Low Engagement, High Velocity - ‘Tiger Teams’ describe companies that make frequent changes, but don’t involve many people in the process. These companies commonly have dedicated teams whose sole job is process improvement and they move from problem to problem. High Engagement, High Velocity - This is Lean! Change happens frequently (think daily) throughout the enterprise and involves everybody in the value stream. So, ‘doing Lean’ means moving towards the upper right quadrant. Now, these four alternatives do NOT create the same culture; people’s responses to them are quite different. And they do NOT deliver the same results.  Both of which I’ll discuss next week. But, until then, where is your organization on this matrix today? Which dimension would be more difficult to increase in your company, velocity or engagement? Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick   The post The Road to Lean appeared first on Maverick Institute.

Last week in my post The Road to Lean, I wrote about improving improvement and what it means to ‘do Lean.’ Specifically, we looked at improvement processes along three key dimensions, i.e., velocity, engagement and magnitude, and how the first two interacted. This week, let’s continue focusing on velocity and engagement. Different combinations of them create very different cultures and dramatically impact change management efforts. Check out this 2×2 matrix.     Improvement Cultures Low Engagement, Low Velocity - ‘Stagnation’ is the watchword here; another good one might be ‘Whatever.’ After making numerous improvement suggestions that go nowhere, people just live with inefficient processes. They disengage and, perversely, enjoy embarrassing problems and events like big customer returns because they’re an ‘I told you so’ to the powers that be. High Engagement, Low Velocity - ‘Frustration’ is rampant because people only get one bite at the apple every couple of years and if their idea doesn’t get included, well, that’s that. They have to live with the new system and hope for next time. Problems are accepted as limitations of the latest change and improvement ideas go on a list for future big projects. Low Engagement, High Velocity - ‘Tiger Teams’ create anxiety because people’s work gets changed whether they like it or not and they’re not going to have much say in what happens. Improvements are typically determined by ‘process experts’ who’ve never done their job. People worry when problems happen because they increase the chances that it’s going to be their turn next. People hide problems or try to blame others for them. High Engagement, High Velocity - Lean is exciting, engaging and collaborative. People, based on agreed-upon metrics, change the way they do their own work using a standard set of principles and tools.  Problems, which are visually obvious and impossible to hide, are seen as opportunities to increase customer value and eliminate waste. Frequent change also means that while someone’s idea didn’t get implemented today, there’s always a chance to contribute tomorrow. Lean Accelerates Change Management While an idea might be great, it’s worthless if people won’t accept and implement it. The four cultures above accept change (or not) very differently. Low Engagement, Low Velocity - People aren’t accepting of change in a stagnant culture; they’re resistant or cynical. Improvements efforts are disruptive to routine or seen as ‘too little, too late.’ Commitment to change is low. Management spends a lot of time selling change and trying to get people pumped up. High Engagement, Low Velocity - To avoid frustration, people jockey for position whenever an improvement opportunity comes along. They talk up their ideas to decision makers in offices, meetings, break rooms and the cafeteria. They know there’s limited money and time and look for advantage to get their ideas implemented over their coworkers. Stephen Covey would say this environment has a ‘scarcity mentality.’ In the end, the people who got their way are happy and embrace the change. Those that didn’t drag their feet. Low Engagement, High Velocity - While Tiger Teams can come up with great ideas, it can be very hard to get people to accept them. Remember ‘People don’t mind change; they mind BEING changed.’ This approach is only ‘high velocity’ as regards to coming up with solutions. Resistance to implementation and acceptance can be stiff and last a long time. Management spends a lot of time convincing people why they should implement and accept the new way. High Engagement, High Velocity - With Lean, people change their own work and therefore acceptance is built into the improvement process. The focus on increasing customer value and tools like gemba walks and value stream mapping create empathy and accelerate change as well. People (finally!) understand how what they do affects their coworkers and customers. What culture does your organization possess today? What behaviors do people exhibit? What change management challenges do you regularly run into? Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick     The post The Road to Lean, Part 2: Improvement Culture appeared first on Maverick Institute.

  Lean is hope, but not in the sense of ‘I hope things get better.’ That’s hope as powerlessness. Lean is powerful. I got thinking about this after writing last week’s post on improvement cultures. Different improvement approaches create different business cultures and these cultures accept change more or less. Without hope, it’s hard to accept change. Cultures of frustration, stagnation and anxiety are short on hope. They’re actually long on powerlessness to varying degrees. A Step Towards Perfection Every Day Lean creates hope because it’s continuous improvement. It’s a process of working together every day to make things better. It’s energizing to know that although things aren’t perfect today, you took a step towards perfection yesterday and you’re going to take another one (maybe two!) today. Every day is a chance to make things better. Even better, every day is a chance for you, the individual employee actually doing the work, to make things better. Lean engages people in improvement. How many of your employees have just given up; checked out from your organization? They show up physically, maybe mentally, but definitely not emotionally. They do the work and follow your company’s processes (no matter how convoluted and inane). But, they’ve stopped caring because all the times they’ve made suggestions and put themselves out there hasn’t made a difference. In fact, they may have gotten punished for it; been branded ‘not a team player’, ’difficult to work with’ or ‘a complainer.’ Worse, they may have received a poor performance review for their efforts. Dude, We Suck! Once, I complained to a store associate about something and he responded by shaking his head and saying "Dude, we suck." I am NOT making this up. Clearly, he was powerless and without hope. His only response was to commiserate with me, his customer, about the company’s poor performance. If the store manager heard him I imagine he’d have gotten a stern warning if not written up or fired. Lean gives employees like this a way to channel frustration and complaints into something positive. See something wrong? Fix it! Lean is Structured, Logical and Reliable Lean creates hope because the improvement process is structured, logical and reliable. It routinely delivers results; in some cases, amazing results. When a problem crops up, people don’t gnash their teeth and wail "What should we do now?" There are steps to follow, namely the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle. Write a good problem statement. Walk the gemba. Get to the root cause by asking ‘Why?’ 5 times. Mistake-proof the process so it can’t happen again. Follow up and make sure the solution is effective. Where is your organization on the ‘Hope’ meter? Do people feel powerless or powerful? What behaviors do people exhibit and what do they say that let you know? If ‘low hope’ is a chronic symptom in your organization, Lean could be an answer. Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post Lean is Hope (But Not Like This) appeared first on Maverick Institute.

Buying a house in Portland, Oregon, is a nightmare. Whatever crazy, outrageous stories you’ve heard, they’re true. Whatever unbelievable statistics you’ve read, they’re also true. Get ready to hear mine. There’s less than four weeks of inventory on the market; there’s normally six MONTHS available. Sellers are greedy and inflexible. Buyers (myself included) are desperate and foolish. But, it’s the inefficiency of service providers that makes the situation truly maddening. Lean has never been needed more than now. "Look, I’ve got hoops to jump through here." This was the actual response from the office manager at a remediation company when I complained about not receiving a promised, and desperately-needed, estimate to remediate mold we’d discovered in a house. Our inspection deadline was imminent and we needed time to revise our offer and negotiate with the seller. This response was MUCH worse than the "Dude, we suck." comment in my last post; at least that employee empathized with my situation. This one seemed to think she was the one suffering from the company’s wasteful practices. And, in truth, she was also suffering. She had to deal with people like me breathing down her neck and complaining to get what they needed. As you can tell, it’s been a real challenge demonstrating the Lean value ‘Respect for People’ these days. What hoops does your company make customers and employees jump through? How much empathy do you have for them? "We pride ourselves on providing accurate estimates." This was the reason she gave for the all the hoops they were jumping through. She seemed to think knowing this would make me feel better. But, I didn’t need an accurate estimate. I needed a conservative ballpark figure to bring to the negotiating table. Remember, the only value that matters is one that the customer will pay for. Are you creating value that your customers couldn’t care less about and driving them mad in the process? The Lean Waste ‘Delay’ is a Deal Killer How fast is the Portland market moving? Hours count. We had an offer accepted (5% above asking price), but in the three hours between the seller and us electronically signing all the sales agreement paperwork, they received and accepted an ALL CASH OFFER 13% above asking price. Those hours cost us a great house; it still stings to bring it up. And just this week, we lost another one. We were under contract and at the very end of the 10-day inspection period (it takes that long to get them all scheduled and done), another buyer came in with a better offer, so the seller wouldn’t grant any concessions to remediate the mold. If we had gotten those inspections and estimates earlier, we’d likely have come to an agreement and be packing right now. Hey, you entrepreneurs out there, there’s a market for a Lean-oriented, all-inclusive, super-fast buyer home services company in Portland. A team should descend on a house 24 hours after a sales agreement is signed and do a complete physical and financial workup on the house in one day. I’ll be your first customer. Thanks for listening; I feel much better. Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post Portland House Hunting Horrors appeared first on Maverick Institute.

I’m spending a lot of time lately thinking and writing about servant leadership. Although much has been said and written about the topic, I still run into people who don’t quite understand the concept. They tend to think it is about the inmates running the prison, or a leader who tries to please everyone, or some religious movement. But I’ve found servant leadership to be the most effective way to inspire great performance and to create great human satisfaction. If you take a look at the companies that embrace servant leadership, you’ll notice one thing they have in common—they are all leaders in their field. I’m talking about companies like Southwest Airlines, Chick-fil-A, Disney, Nordstrom, Wegmans, and Synovus, to name a few.  Leaders in these companies understand the two parts of servant leadership: The visionary/direction, or strategic, role—the leadership aspect of servant leadership; and The implementation, or operational, role—the servant aspect of servant leadership. All good leadership starts with a visionary role that establishes a compelling vision that tells you who you are (your purpose), where you’re going (your picture of the future), and what will guide your journey (your values). In other words, leadership starts with a sense of direction. Once leaders have shared the vision and people are clear on where they are going, their role shifts to a service mindset for the task of implementation—the second aspect of servant leadership. In this role, the leader does all they can to help their team members accomplish goals, solve problems, and live according to the vision. I have a great example of this.  My daughter, Debbie, who is now our company’s VP of Marketing, worked at Nordstrom when she was in college. After she was there a week or so, she came to me and said, "Dad, I have a strange boss."  When I asked what was strange about him, she said, "At least two or three times a day he comes to me and asks if there is anything he can do to help me.  He acts like he works for me."  And I said, "That’s exactly what he does. He sounds like a servant leader." Nordstrom understands that their number one customer is their people—that’s why Debbie’s boss was acting as if he worked for Debbie. He was giving her the responsibility to serve their number two customer—people who shop in the store. Servant leaders know if they take care of their people and empower them, their people will go out of their way to take care of the customers. At Nordstrom, the vision is clear—they want to create a memorable experience for their customers so they will keep coming back. Leaders and employees alike understand their role in implementing this vision. That is why they are comfortable with going to great lengths to keep customers happy. One of my favorite stories about Nordstrom came from a friend of mine who wanted to buy some perfume for his wife. He approached the counter and asked for the perfume.  The woman behind the counter said, "I’m sorry, we don’t sell that particular brand—but I know another store here in the mall that does. How long will you be in the store?"  My friend said he would be there about 45 minutes, so she told him she would take care of it and to come back. She left the store, purchased the product, gift-wrapped it, and had it ready for him when he returned. She charged the same amount of money she spent at the other store. So even though Nordstrom didn’t make any money on that sale, they created a loyal customer who—along with his friends—would tell that story for years. And how do you think the salesperson felt about herself that day?  I’ll bet she was proud to be able to serve her customer so well. I hope these stories help you understand how servant leaders create an environment that gives their companies a competitive edge. Remember, the key to being a servant leader is to start with a clear vision, then shift into the service mindset with your team to help them perform at their highest levels. You’ll improve engagement and morale, build a loyal customer base, and create a secure future for your company.

I love the saying "A river without banks is a large puddle." The banks permit the river to flow and give it direction. In my last post I explained that the visionary part of servant leadership is about providing clear direction. If people don’t have a compelling vision to serve, they can’t work toward a common goal. They can’t keep organizational energy flowing in a consistent direction. Walt Disney provided a great example of this when he started his theme parks with a significant purpose. He said "We’re in the happiness business." That is very different from being in the theme park business. Being in the happiness business helps cast members (employees) understand their primary role in the company. Walt Disney’s picture of the future was expressed in the charge he gave every cast member: "Keep the same smile on people’s faces when they leave the park as when they entered." Disney didn’t care whether a guest was in the park two hours or ten hours. He just wanted to keep them smiling. After all, they were in the happiness business. A picture of the future should focus on the end result, not the process of getting there. The Disney theme parks have four clear, rank ordered values: safety, courtesy, the show, and efficiency. Why is safety the highest ranked value? Walt Disney knew that if a guest was carried out of one of his parks on a stretcher, they would not have the same smile on their face leaving the park as they had when they entered. The second ranked value, courtesy, is all about the friendly attitude you expect at a Disney park. Why is it important to know that it’s the number two value? Suppose one of the Disney cast members is answering a guest question in a friendly, courteous manner, and he hears a scream that’s not coming from a roller coaster. If that cast member wants to act according to the park’s rank ordered values, he will excuse himself as quickly and politely as possible and race toward the scream. Why? Because the number one value just called. If the values were not rank ordered and the cast member was enjoying his interaction with the guest, he might say, "They’re always yelling at the park," and not move in the direction of the scream. Later, somebody could come to that cast member and say, "You were the closest to the scream. Why didn’t you move?" The response could be, "I was dealing with our courtesy value." Life is a series of value conflicts. There will be times when you can’t act on two values at the same time. Every organization should have a compelling vision that includes a significant purpose, a picture of the future, and clear values. These three elements will provide the strategic direction people need on a daily basis to perform at the highest level and secure organizational success.

Continuing with the servant leader theme, I want to share a real-life example that I experienced. To help you realize that servant leadership can occur in any organization, consider what happened when I visited the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). When you mention the DMV, most people would say it’s a government bureaucracy that often treats them as a number instead of a human being. I felt the same way at the time—but like we all do every few years; I had to go there in person to renew my driver’s license.  I hadn’t been to the DMV in years and headed to the office with low expectations. In fact, I asked my assistant to schedule three hours for my visit. That’s how long it normally takes them to beat you up. I knew immediately something had changed when I walked in the front door and was greeted by a smiling woman. "Welcome to the Department of Motor Vehicles! Do you speak English or Spanish?" "English," I replied. She pointed to a nearby counter and said, "Right over there." The guy behind the counter cheerfully said, "Welcome to the Department of Motor Vehicles! How may I help you today?" It took me only nine minutes to get my replacement license, including having my picture taken. I asked the woman who took my picture, "What are you all smoking here? This isn’t the same old DMV I used to know and love." She asked, "Haven’t you met our new director?" and pointed to a man sitting at a desk right in the middle of everything—no private office for him. I walked over to him, introduced myself, and asked, "What’s your job as the director of this branch of the DMV?" The man gave me the best definition of management I had ever heard: "My job is to reorganize the department on a moment-to-moment basis, depending on citizen (customer) need." The director obviously had a compelling vision for his department. The point of their business was to serve the needs of the citizens (their customers), and to serve them well. What did this director do? Since he had philosophically turned the traditional hierarchical pyramid upside down, his main role was being responsive to his people and cheering them on—that’s why he was out in the middle of the action. He also cross-trained everyone in every job—even those who normally weren’t out front, like bookkeepers and secretaries. Why? Because if a flood of citizens came in suddenly, they would be able to respond. And no one went to lunch between 11:30 and 2:00, because that was the busiest time of day for customers to come in. Everyone’s energy was focused on the citizens and their needs. This director created a motivating environment for his people. His team members were really committed. Even employees I recognized from past visits—who at the time had seemed stiff and jaded—were now excited about serving. When leaders are servants first and leaders second, they make a positive difference in everyone around them. Would you like to work for this kind of leader? You’d better believe it. Why? Because he’s a servant leader who treats his people as his business partners in implementing the service vision and solving problems. Think about what you can do to bring servant leadership alive in your organization.

My wish is that someday, every leader will be a servant leader. Unfortunately, the human ego can make it difficult. There are two ways we let our ego get in the way of leading with a serving heart and mindset. One is false pride—thinking more of yourself than you should. You push and shove for credit and think leadership is about you rather than those you lead. Leaders who operate with false pride spend time doing a lot of self promotion. Another way the ego gets in the way is through self doubt or fear—thinking less of yourself than you should. You become consumed with your own shortcomings and are hard on yourself. Leaders who operate with fear spend time protecting themselves because they don’t really believe in their own talents. Managers with either of these ego afflictions are not effective leaders. Let me explain what false pride and self doubt look like in action. Managers dominated by false pride are often seen as controlling. Even when they don’t know what they are doing, they have a high need for power and control. When it’s clear to everyone they are wrong, they keep insisting they are right. In addition, they don’t support their staff members very well. When things are going well and people are feeling upbeat and confident, controllers tend to throw a wet blanket over everything. They support their bosses over their people because they want to climb the hierarchy and gain more control and power. On the other side of the spectrum, fear-driven managers are often characterized as do-nothing bosses. They are described as never being around, always avoiding conflict, and not very helpful. They tend to undermanage even when people are insecure and need support and direction from a leader. This is because do-nothing bosses don’t believe in themselves or trust their own judgment. They value the opinions of others more than their own—especially the opinions of people they report to. As a result, they rarely speak up to support their own people. Under pressure, they tend to defer to whoever has the most power. If any of this sounds a bit too close for comfort, don’t be alarmed. Most people have traces of both false pride and self doubt. The good news is that there is an antidote for both. The antidote for false pride is humility. According to Jim Collins in his book Good to Great, there are two main characteristics that describe great leaders: will and humility. Will is the determination to follow through on a vision, mission, or goal. Humility is the capacity to realize that leadership is not about the leader—it’s about the people and what they need to be successful. The antidote for self doubt is unconditional love. If you have kids or are very close with other family members or friends, you know that your love for them doesn’t depend on their success. You love them unconditionally whether they are successful or not. Loving yourself as a leader will help you operate with confidence and put self doubt to rest. The best way to start serving others is to be open to the concepts of humility and unconditional love and practice them until they become habit. When that happens, you are well on your way to becoming a servant leader.

I've been often asked in my workshops:See more on must-learn and learn-on-need.Read more about references.Two Types of References: Must-Learn Support and DetailsThere are two types of references: (a) must-learn support and (b) detailed references. Must-learn support contains information that enhances the learning of the must-learn content. Since the goal of the must-learn lesson is to make it short, succinct and focused, inserting the must-learn support references may interrupt the succinctness of the must-learn lesson. So, we move it on top as an optional link.  An illustrationTopic - Toxic Waste Drum LabelingMust-Learn Lesson:John says:"I'm confused. This drum is intended for XXX waste. But I was told by Darren, that the content of the drum just came from YYY plant. Shouldn't we use the YYY label and not this drum for XXX waste? Mary responds:"You have done this before. You can figure it out."  Question to participant: "How should John proceed? How can he really be sure which label and drum to use? Should he find the exact label code to ensure that XXX waste matches the YYY drum.Must-Learn Support References:If you position a list of "Guide to Drum Labels" on top of the screen, what is the likelihood of the participant clicking this link to learn more about drum labels? The probability is definitely high. Why? Because we added a Story Question in the must-learn, that prompts the learner to go and seek the answers. Detailed References: The detailed references is more of an over-all type of reference that may contain a long list of labels, resources for labels, how to procure and find them, etc. The must-learn references may also be part of this detailed reference.Build Curiosity and Continuation of the Story Lesson In the Story-Based eLearning Design, we use stories to deliver the must-learn content. To make it natural and engaging for learners, the must-learn lesson and the must-learn support references should continue the flow of the story. What prompts the learner to open the references is the conflict and challenge to answer the questions posed in the story.Learners do not think of the references as readings. They look at the references as a continuation of the story.ReferencesCase Study- Reducing eLearning Cost to 50% by Using Must-Learn Lessons and Micro-Learning.Why Simple Rules Produce Instant Learning and Application.Provoking Learners with Story Questions. Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Do you find it arduous and very challenging to identify stories that produce engaging content?  Have you heard the saying, "the answer is just under your nose?" Believe me, stories abound.  Abundance of Facts, Scarcity of StoriesFactual and data content are easy to find. They are abundantly spoonfed to us by SMEs (subject matter experts) or expert technical teams.  We are never short of data. There is an abundance of these. Remember the slide decks that our SMEs provided us? (Phew!). Unfortunately, many designers and writers find it gruelling to pinpoint thought-provoking stories to accompany the data or factual content. They say "they are scarce." Not at all! The answer is really right under our noses.  Where do data and fact originate?Data does not come from thin air. It does not come from computers churning them out into great infographics. I once saw this placard from a science lab: Most content, if not all, come from events in our lives - nature, laboratories, situations - in or from living things. So any form of data, information or statistics reflect what is happening or what we observed in our environments.  I also call these organic items. One might also argue that content is the form while stories are their substance. Taking a closer look at your factual or data content, you’d be pleasantly surprised to find stories which are built-in or inseparable elements of said content. Stories are native and innate in the content. How to Extract the StoriesTo extricate the stories, we need to use "extraction tools" or "refining tools." The tools are called Story Questions.From the data on hand, you may derive real-life events, situations, narratives, stories, characters, emotions, conflicts, resolutions, anecdotes - the elements of the story. Statistical anomalies: "What’s the cause of the anomalies? What brought about the incidents? What is the impact, negatively or positively? How is the anomaly easily described? Deviations from targets: "What drove the deviations? Who and how was this received? How are people adjusting the strategies or actions to address deviations?  Disconnect in assumptions: "What are the differences in assumptions and their origins? What are the sentiments and feelings about the differences? How are these likely resolved and what happens if they are unresolved?Fatal flaws: "What is the accident or error? What are the consequences? What was missed or omitted? What costs or benefits were derived? Exemplar results: "Why was this unexpected? How was this inspiring others? What was the contrasting, below-par results and what was the value realized? Who benefited?  Go Beyond the Numbers I learned this thought from a Harvard professor:  ReferencesRemove the Sting of Compliance Courses: Make Them Short, Succinct, Easy to LearnProvoking Learners with Story QuestionsEmploying Story Structure and Dynamics to Engage Different LearnersRay Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Learners learn by trial and error.Which is better - trial and error or scientific learning? Why?Have you experienced learning quickly by committing an error or mistake? View the recording session to shed more insights on learning through trial and error.Click here to download the PDF handout.Tips:Start objectives by asking them what they hope to learn within the confines of the topics.Ask what errors they experienced and discovered, and what have they learned from them.Encourage them to share how they would handle a difficult situation.Request them to search in company records the cases and incidents that taught people the lessons.Cite current practices that were introduced because of a complaint or incident.An example : In one company, all meetings now start with a few minutes on safety policies and procedures in case of fire or related accident.Focus on highest value, errors, workarounds and solution.Use workarounds as a learning approach. Translated positively this means problem solving, troubleshooting, tricks, maneuvers, shortcuts, best solutions, etc.Identify high impact work and business performance areas.Simplify content: deliberate reduction.Discover immediately useful content to solve problems. Teach learners to ask 5 questions. Select a topic then ask:     a. What/why do I want?  - Objectives     b. What do I know now? - Draw out experience and knowledge     c. What is fun to discover? -  Find the fun part     d. What do I want to try? - Encourage exploration/adventure     e. How do I feel? - Appeal to emotionsFacilitate learning by introducing hints.People learn best by trial error and not following organized content. They are more inclined to explore and discover. They get excited as they learn from their own insights.So... always leave room for trial and error, even if you have pretty good-looking  lessons created as your labor of love.  Don't clip your learners' wings, cut off their imagination or frustrate their need to play.  Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

   In the workshops that I conducted on Story-based eLearning Design, participants constantly ask: How do we implement Story-Based Learning in our entire company or in various forms of our learning?  There is no one sure-fire answer to accomplish this. However, there are concerted strategies that help your organization apply the Story-Based Learning Design. Reputation of Stories and StorytellingAn advantage is that most employees and leaders are very familiar with the concept of stories and storytelling. The use of stories is fun, engaging and entertaining -- not boring. The downside is that there is an inertia in most organizations to push "telling" and "data dump" as a method of learning. This is linear design which is a huge hurdle. Fighting the Momentum of Linear Design The power and thrust of linear design is so strong, that sometimes, it seems so difficult to make a change.Over the past few years I have been meeting clients, both large and small-size companies, wanting to inject, energize or revitalize their learning and training programs using principles from the Story-Based Design. Some of these companies want all their designers to embrace and always include some form of story and story-design and context design into their programs.This is well and good, but how do we implement the ideas? Always follow up by asking the participants certain questions.What is Story-Based Learning? The focus of the Story-Based Learning is getting learners involved with the stories and experiences related with the content. The immediate thrust is adding context, helping learners find meaning and applications of the content. Story-Based Learning is not a specific method and technique. Many methods we use today are Story-Based  though we use different labels. Examples are: discovery, troubleshooting, problem solving, critical incidents, case studies, scenarios, branching, social conversations and sharing, diagnostics, and many others. The Starting Point is Content DeliveryMost of the opportunities when making a change in Learning Design is through delivery of content. Hence, this is where we focus our strategies. Other types of learning thrusts may need other strategies.Implementation Tips Small Lesson Changes - Easier to ImplementUsing a small or micro Story-Based Lesson  like the "My Declined Credit Card", provide opportunities to change small sections of your content. There is a temptation amongst learning specialists and leaders to be carried away by their enthusiasm. When they find a new model, like Story-based Learning, they want to immediately make a total change to the courses and projects. Resist this temptation. Be conservative. Focus on small nuggets and snippets that you can redesign to use the Story-Based lesson.  Showcase Your New Lessons to Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)Seeing is believing and buying a concept by seeing a product is more compelling than telling about the product.Help your SMEs to understand the new design by seeing and feeling and having an experience. The theory becomes useful when seen in action.Over time, develop your own library of models, like these models I created. Show Proof that Stories Impact LearningTo prove that stories and real-life events impact learning positively, do a simple exercise and show it: Select and compare two small lessons.One with purely static and factual data and the other one with some stories to relate the value of the data. Conduct a small test and obtain the results.More Inexpensive ApproachesIn constructing lessons, you may borrow (adhere to Creative Commons policy- link to http://creativecommons.org/policies) some stories from the web sources like YouTube stories. The goal is to find a story and use this as the heart of your Story-Based lesson.Use videos for your Story-Based lessons. But don't just show the videos. Have an "experience-sharing" discussion about the ideas from the videos. See how we borrowed the Values.com video on "First Date" and add interaction to the video.Even Easier to Implement - Story ConversationsAn Interactive story is unlike storytelling. Interactive stories may be applied in all types of learning. It can be applied in social learning, presentations like Chalk Talk, face to face classes, and even in webinars.It's About the Learners' StoriesThe thing to remember is that Story-Based Learning is not a tool, a technology, or a process. It is a belief system and value system that's says: ConclusionFighting the momentum of linear design can be difficult. You will certainly meet all kinds of resistance. But if you implement the tips presented here and slowly but surely embed Story-Based learning in your content design, you will eventually see gradual acceptance. If you believe that learners should take center stage rather than the trainer, then  Story-Based learning is the best way to move forward. Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

  More often than not, compliance courses have received a bad rap and reputation. The main complaint is that compliance courses are just "clicking boxes to meet lawyers' needs." As the perception persists, part of the blame is caused by designers, trainers and leaders abandoning the "learning side" of compliance. Consequently, these courses have been relegated to the category of being necessary evils. I am not giving up on compliance courses. From what I know of compliance courses, the intent is to protect peoples' lives, reduce costs, avoid fraudulence, keep our environments safe and many others. Without good compliance courses, we are all at risk.  Recently, I spoke at the  ATD (Association of Talent Development) Conference in Las Vegas on the topic Micro-Compliance Learning. My goal was to share how to remove the sting of compliance courses by making them short and easier to learn.  Live Demos of Micro-Compliance Lessons Please play a couple of examples of a micro-lesson. These demos are prototypes only. They address a small but significant section of a large compliance course.  Code Pink - Hospital ComplianceStash the Cash - Banking on Money LaunderingWhy and How Micro-Compliance WorksThe key principles are:Shorten compliance courses by focusing on the most important lesson.The average time of a lesson is 2-3 minutes.Relegate readings of policies and procedures as reference links. You can still track these readings by using a tracking device when learners scroll the page.Invest in the lesson story and not in a series of long slideshows about the policies with just text.Deliver the micro-lessons in smaller bits and pieces, weekly, daily or spaced over time.Insights Invaluable to Successful Implementation of Micro-Lessons"What if it is required that learners must read pages?"The cheaper way is not to put lengthy policies and government rules in long, narrated slideshows. Keep them in PDFs or text that learners could scroll through and still track if learners have done so. "Is it enough to focus on the story and some important parts of the lessons?" Overloading learners will likely bring results, although, records show they simply clicked through all pages in typically long, very long lessons. "But our lessons must be learned in 2 hours. Lawyers require this."Let learners focus on key ideas, like the examples, then let them do additional activity and readings to consume the hours. By doing this, you are not boring the learners."We are required to test for knowledge retention and compliance."In most cases this works. However, oftentimes, this encourages the learners "to game" or "cheat" the system. True or false and multiple choice types of tests are clicked repeatedly for a trial and error approach just to complete the test. Asking learners to write something may also help them to reflect their understanding of the lesson. There are authoring ways to provide feedback to learners without having someone track all the answers. How can you deliver by spacing out lessons?Learners are busy and would welcome receiving maybe once a day or once a week, a 2-3-minute micro-compliance lesson. Most compliance courses are repeated once a year and to avoid the yearly end rush, advance spaced out lessons are usually convenient.Conclusion Compliance courses are often the first line of defense to keep companies compliant. It does not mean, however, we relegate these courses to data dumps and verification of scanning pages. They can be made engaging, short and help learners learn important contributions of compliance courses. Related LinksCreating Big Lessons By Using Small DataKill Boring eLearning with Story-Based Lessons Anti-Bullying - How to combine story with a compliance lesson?Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

  The focus of most curation methods when applied to learning is in organizing, filtering, distilling, adding value, etc. to content. This is like serving food (content) in an improved way. There may be a risk in this trend. As trainers, designers and learning specialists, we continue to look at our role in curation as content servers, not learning facilitators. I propose, we focus on content co-creation as a process. I am not giving up on compliance courses. From what I know of compliance courses, the intent is to protect peoples' lives, reduce costs, avoid fraudulence, keep our environments safe and many others. Without good compliance courses, we are all at risk.Simple Experiment In the illustrations below, the first (Illustration 1) is a content from a webinar speaker and the second one (Illustration 2) shows added insights from participants. We asked participants to add their insights to the presentation. I ran a survey  with twenty participants and asked them to review both sides and gauge their reactions. Please review the illustrations below. Presentation - Illustration 1Adding Insights - Illustration 2 Respondent's ResponsesThese are samplings of responses.On the Presentation:  "Ideas provoked in me a thought.""But I was passive to it.""It was well organized and clearly stated, however, I wondered how this mattered to me.""The presentation at times was a hit and miss - relevant and irrelevant." On the Insights:"The insights made me smile about how others responded to the presentation.""I saw how others interpreted the content and prompted me to respond to one of the ideas.""I was inclined to respond and comment on the insights because it was personl.""Adding insights allowed me to create my own content, my own understanding of the presentation. "  Adding Insights is Co-Creating ContentAlthough it seemed obvious that adding one's insight is a better learning process since it is recursive where learners interpret the presentation, adding their own meaning - it occurred to me that it is far more important that learners or our audiences add insights as a way to create their own content. Such content  embodies their own understanding of the presentation. It bridges the presentation with that which is relevant to them. Therefore, this increases the value and contribution of the presentation in the real life of the learner. I discovered that a simple insight - small, tiny, spur of the moment - is content from learners which becomes an even more important part of the presentation. Practical Implications - Focus Our Eyes on Learners' Co-Created ContentAgain, this seems commonsensical, but I missed it and now realize that this is the essence of curation - to  draw out the small insights from the learners; not to serve better content. In our rush to learn and implement curation methods in our learning environments, we overlook that our efforts ought to focus in as many ways as is possible, on getting the learners to co-create the content. This does not mean long, tedious demands for writing blogs or articles or journals. It simply means that every chance we have, we try to get learners to add an insight and allow others the facility to add more insights. Related LinksCreative MusingInsight Sharing - How They "Meet and Mate"Reflections Impact PerformanceRay Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning