I had a wonderful, powerful get-together the other day with a friend of mine. Like me, he’s a dreamer. It was a chat long overdue. We hadn’t shared a latte for well over twelve months. "Aaron" and I met about six years ago and from that first moment I felt a sense of connected kinship. Our discussions are futuristic, fun and absolutely freeing. For me they are soul food exchanges. When we chat, we seek ways to better our respective organizations and society in general. They often revolve around the use of technology to create experiences that enhance the human spirit. During our time together last week we delved into topics such as ‘drones for good’, robotics, wearable technologies and health bars. Not the kind you eat but the kind that should be found in company buildings as a way to promote openness, collaboration and healthy eating. You get the point. We’re dreamers. Disney calls it ‘Imagineering‘. I asked how things were going in his role. (He works for a rather large organization.) That’s the precise moment his ear-to-ear smile shifted to a glum, forlorn frown. "Dan," my friend questioned me with a palpable display of meekness. "Why is it I get penalized for dreaming on my performance review?" It was at this moment I wished our lattes might have been mistaken for Irish Coffees. "I’ve got ideas and thoughts for the future of this company — and for our customers — and yet my performance review stinks," he explained further. "I’m told to focus on my presentations and my deliverables, but I never get rewarded for my ideas." He then added: "I’m punished for dreaming." My heart sank. Aaron is gifted. He’s a dreamer. He’s an innovator. He’s a thinker. It was clear to me his role if not career growth is being stunted and his ideas are being ignored. I can’t begin to fathom what fantastic and positive contributions he would make to his company if only he were permitted to dream; if only a portion of his performance development plan (ie. his objectives) were re-engineered to dream. Which brings me to my ultimate point if you are a leader of people. Are you penalizing the dreamers in your organization? Or, are you somehow enabling the dreamers such that their ideas and thoughts are — at a minimum — being considered or better yet, being incorporated into future plans? Yes, boundaries and expectations need to be set. But crushing the dreamer is heartless. It might even be gutless. If you can enable the dreamer, you and your organization are bound to benefit. I liken dreaming to doodling, made famous of course by Sunni Brown. By using common sense, experience and neuroscience, Sunni is proving that to doodle is to ignite your whole mind. For me, it’s a form of dreaming. (And you should rush to your favourite bookstore or online site to pick up her book "The Doodle Revolution") Every organization needs builders, doers and practitioners. That goes without saying. But every thriving organization needs the doodlers; it needs the dreamers. Let’s stop penalizing the dreamers. Let’s park the ego. Let’s empower the dreamers to dream the dream. Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. Carl Sagan Dan's Related Posts:trainingwreck is no more … introducing ‘brave new org’My Next Role Is …Q&A on the Future of Social, Mobile and eLearningWho Am I? Who I Am.Rethinking the Work of Leadership

Topic: What’s your choice? 4 Ways to Create Mobile Learning Description: Interested in creating mobile learning content, but not sure of the options available? Join Dr. Pooja Jaisingh as she shows you four different ways for creating and accessing mobile learning. She will help you take the right decision based on your training requirements and resources available […]

How does the current state of leadership affect employee engagement? What is the effect of both good and bad leadership as it pertains to organizational health and engagement? From a leadership perspective, who actually is responsible for employee engagement? Who is responsible for the act of leadership? According to Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, 63 per cent of CEOs and other members of the top team reckon it’s the top leaders in the company who are "chiefly responsible for staff engagement and leadership," but only 38 per cent of those outside the C-Suite agree that the top tier is responsible. Now that is a disturbing leadership and engagement paradox. Is job satisfaction correlated to employee engagement? Or is job satisfaction more correlated to life satisfaction as per the research conducted by Rain, Lane and Steiner? And if it is — if job satisfaction is akin to life satisfaction — are leaders paying enough attention to their employees such that they are in fact caring about their lives, connecting in ways that allow them to enact life-work balance and a sense of community, and a sense of belonging with their colleagues? Do today’s leaders actually care about the person that is doing the work? Do they even know their name let alone what provides them with job satisfaction? Between 1985 and 2005, the number of Americans who stated they felt satisfied with the way life was treating them decreased by roughly 30 per cent. Even more shocking was the number of dissatisfied people; this increased by nearly 50 per cent. The reasons appear to be related to Americans’ declining attachments to friends and family, lower participation in social and civic activities, and diminished trust in political institutions. Rather than life imitating art, is life imitating the organization instead? As levels of employee engagement have dropped and subsequently stagnated over the past thirty years, it’s no wonder the perceived quality of life has decreased as well. This begs the question whether today’s leaders know if members of their direct report teams have children or not? It’s cheeky, I know, but it’s a valid question. Does leadership equate to cardboard cut-out relationships or is it an engaging and personal liaison opportunity? If employees are enthusiastic, committed, passionate, and generally into their work, isn’t it time leaders of any stripe, at any step in the hierarchy chain, acted with more humility and were less parochial? Does the health of an organization and its overall engagement correlate to productivity and in return financial results? Does it correlate to customer loyalty, employee turnover and retention? While the questions may sound rhetorical, why do command-and-control tactics dominate the workspace versus "cultivate and coordinate" as per MIT Sloan School of Management professor Tom Malone’s suggestion from his book The Future of Work? Have we not reached, therefore, a professional paradox in the workplace? Shouldn’t we be advocating for and developing a more engaged leader? Has the organization become so blind that, within the underbelly of the top leadership ranks, a professional mutiny is in the works? Perhaps it’s already in motion. A mutiny that manifests in human capital contradiction where employees are either punching in their time to simply get through the day or they are in eternal job searches hunting for the Holy Grail organization that actually cares about their well-being. And leaders, who sit ignorant to the brewing storm, continue to commit crimes of managerial misdemeanor. The job that people perform is central, or at least a large part of their personal identity. Picture yourself meeting someone for the first time at a cocktail party or a community gathering or your child’s first soccer practice. What do you inevitably ask within the first two minutes of your initial conversation? "So, what do you do? Where do you work? How long have you been there?" When your new acquaintance looks sheepish or worse nosedives into an apoplectic rant about their place of work, you might do one of three things: Wince, smile and nod, and affirm that their place of work is awful; Agree to never buy the company’s product or service due to this diabolical repudiation; and/or Hold your breath, wait for the conversation to end, and find the nearest safe harbor as soon as you can. Employees in today’s organization are expecting more from leaders than what is currently being offered. Sadly and paradoxically, 69 per cent of executives agree they too feel engagement and leadership is a problem in their organization. It is time to connect the dots between leadership, engagement, learning, technology and collaboration. It is time for the act of leadership to be carried out by everyone in the organization. In my opinion, it is time for a Flat Army in our organizations. Dan's Related Posts:WHY I Wrote Flat Army: The Flat Army Golden CircleCan Employee Engagement Improve Customer Satisfaction?Flexible Working Worksthe FLAT ARMY cheat sheetEmployee Engagement is Still Poor but it Does Drive Bottom Line Results

Topic: 7 Reasons to switch to Adobe Captivate 8 Description: Wouldn’t it be great if you could author just once on the desktop, while the content rearranges itself for tablet and mobile screen sizes? With Adobe Captivate 8 it is possible to create responsive eLearning content without programming. Interested to know how? Join Dr. Pooja Jaisingh, Sr. […]

If you weren’t aware, I enjoy reading and writing poetry. On the odd occasion, I’ll post poems I’ve written to this space and share poems by others that shake my bones to the core. As I’ve been reflecting on many things recently — personally and professionally — the following piece written by William Henry Davies is a poem that stops me dead in my tracks each time I read it. "Leisure" What is this life if,  full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. No time to see, in broad daylight, Streams full of stars, like skies at night. No time to turn at Beauty’s glance, And watch her feet, how they can dance. No time to wait till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began. A poor life this if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. William Henry Davies, 1911 Dan's Related Posts:Clowning Around - An Important Leadership AttributeFlat Army on the Back of a (Digital) NapkinInstead of Inbox Zero, How About Outbox ZeroWhen Life Flashes Before Your EyesMy Views on Learnist, the latest ‘social learning’ venture

Topic: How to Choose the best eLearning Authoring Tool Description: In this live webinar join Dr. Pooja Jaisingh, Sr. eLearning evangelist at Adobe as she shares some helpful and time saving insights that will enable you to take a better decision if you are in the process to select an eLearning or mLearning authoring tool for yourself […]

On Monday, April 7, 2014 I start a new adventure at TELUS. For the previous five years I held the position ‘Head of Learning and Collaboration’ and worked with hundreds of team members, partners, media and customers. Perhaps the most important relationship I had was with the direct team I was accountable for. I sent the following note to them as an act of final appreciation. ________ Hey there, As I sit here on a Sunday night, I’m reminded of those times as a child when I’d get nervous on the Monday night of Labour Day because a new school year was starting the next day. I became nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. New teacher. New classroom. New classmates. New lunch kit. New backpack. New shoes. New haircut. (Egads!) There was a lot of newness going through my head in anticipation of the unknown. It was a somewhat torturous black hole of uncertainty. I was nervous for another reason too. For the previous year I knew what I had been doing on a daily basis. I knew how the routine worked, who I was sitting with and how the teacher responded to my lame attempts at humour. I was comfortable. I understood my place. I knew the shortcuts. Everyone in the class was genuinely cool with the way I acted. I was part of the gang. I was at peace with the surroundings, it being similarly mellifluous and calm to those summer nights I spent at the cottage in Sauble Beach. When I started at TELUS in mid-November 2008, I had those same nervous feelings the night before I joined you on the team. Would they like me? Would I like them? Would we be able to improve anything? Over time, and with a few subtractions and additions, a natural smoothness overflowed between us while an unmistakable odour of success billowed from coast to coast. It happened. We happened. The anxiety and nervousness I felt that night was replaced (over time) by a fortress of commonality and breathtaking change. We did it. We became it. But it was you that allowed me into your gang. I’ve got those butterflies again tonight. A new adventure awaits me on Monday and I have to put on a new backpack again. It doesn’t feel right, but in time, I believe it will. I’ve been in your gang for the past five years. I know how it works. It’s comfortable, affectionate and rewarding. I couldn’t ask for anything more. Thank you for allowing me into your working life. Thank you for accepting me and those ‘out there’ ideas of mine. Thank you for your generosity, reciprocity and sensuosity. I leave with fabulous memories, vivid team accomplishments and true interlocutors for the foreseeable future. It’s been quite a team to be a part of. Good luck, stay in touch, I’m not going far … and be kind to one another and to your new leader. She is fabulous. And remember, "We’re not here to see through each other; we’re here to see each other through". Cheers dp Dan's Related Posts:Five Essential Tips to Effectively Work from HomeIn Defense of Alexandra SamuelYa, I Cry at Work. Do You?trainingwreck is no more … introducing ‘brave new org’Redefining the Social Employee

Topic: Just-in-place learning for a Mobile Workforce Description: As an eLearning author, wouldn’t it be great if you could customize learning content based on where your learner is physically present? Learning is better when you can customize the learning experience based on their choices, responses, specialization, and scores achieved in a quiz. It’s even better, if you […]

To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.  Sir Winston Churchill I could read Churchill all day. And Yeats, Frost, Handy, Drucker, and so on … but that’s not why you’re here. Today my career took on a new twist, one that I believe is indeed a special moment and that I’m both prepared and (I think) qualified for. Whether it becomes my finest hour remains to be seen. Today I am proud to announce that TELUS Transformation Office has officially launched and I have become its Chief Envisioner. For the grammar and spelling pundits, I beg your forgiveness. I like to make up words, and yes ‘envisioner’ is not in the Oxford Dictionary. What is TELUS Transformation Office you ask? There is plenty more to share and discover on the TTO official website, or with the press release but the highlights are as follows: An organizational culture change service provider offering assessment, consulting and learning services Specialization in a few key areas: Leadership Digital Readiness Connected Learning Career and Talent Flexible Work Styles Onboarding and Induction Development of strategy, collateral, content and implementation is also an option Why? If you’ve frequented this space, you know I’m a walking Venn Diagram consisting of leadership, collaboration technologies and learning practices. It’s not only my working life purpose, it is the basis of Flat Army and what I’ve been doing for the better part of my entire career. At TELUS — a Canadian based telecommunications company with over $11 billion in revenues — we had the fortune of watching employee engagement shift from 53% to 83% over a period of time that involved an amazing number of changes through an amazing group of people from coast to coast. Now it’s our chance to give back and help other organizations, leaders and employees who may want some assistance to shift their internal, organizational mindset. My Excitement is Oozing I’ve had the great fortune of working with brilliant people over my now twenty year career. (Editors Note: 20 years? Holy smokes.) This next opportunity gives me a chance to work with many more people who seek such change. It’s taking me back to my roots as an educator when I was helping those who sought guidance with their career and knowledge span. This time around — through TELUS Transformation Office — the focus is on culture, employee engagement and a more open and harmonious organizational mindset. I can’t begin to tell you how exciting this is for me. You had me at ‘hello’. I get to continue being me — inventing, philosophizing, developing, leading, writing, speaking and dreaming — while helping others. It doesn’t really get much better than that. Well, I hope the next book sells better, but that’s a whole other matter. Are You Interested? If you, your organization or an organization that you have in mind might be interested in our services … we’re now open for business. Check out the video below for some insight into the TELUS story, and drop me a line if you’d like to chat. Dan's Related Posts:After Five Years In My Role We’re Hiring My Replacement. Are You Interested?Kudos Jacques Godin, an Engaged Air Canada EmployeeFive Essential Tips to Effectively Work from HomeFavourite Posts of 2013 That I Wrote & PublishedRethinking the Work of Leadership

Next year, Denise and I will celebrate twenty years of marriage on July 1. That’s a score … both in terms of it becoming an awesome event (what a score!) as well as it demonstrating a group of twenty years (a more historical definition of score … think Abraham Lincoln). A couple of years into our marriage, Denise turned to me one night — it was peaceful in those days as we were married young, and there were no goats in our lives for another eight years — and she said: "Don’t you do things with boys?" I knew what she meant right away. Denise was asking why I didn’t do what she was used to, what (perhaps) she was expecting and what society deemed as ‘normal’. "You know," she continued, "do you ever go away on trips with boys or play cards or just want to do boy things with the boys?" Now, you might think she was trying to pawn me off. What she was trying to do, however, was to better understand why I wasn’t doing what every other husband or boyfriend or man she knew at the time was doing. I wasn’t fitting into her definition. It wasn’t as though she didn’t love me nor were there any marital issues … but it just wasn’t computing for her. The definition of a man for Denise (at the time) was for men to go off and do ‘man things’. I love men. I love women. I love children. But I am comfortable enough in my own skin to know that I’d rather regenerate, replenish and nourish my soul and mind in the company of both genders (and different ages) than to do so solely with males my own age. I’ve got plenty of male friends — don’t get me wrong — and I enjoy the company of them, but ever since I can remember I knew my likes and dislikes. I loathed ‘stags’ I was invited to and went so far as to ask my Best Man if we could invite our better halves to the one that was organized for me. That didn’t pan out, for the record. I asked myself the following question early on in my life, "Who Am I?" and I answered it by saying, "Who I Am." I don’t do golf. I don’t wear a watch. I don’t like cars. And I am not handy whatsoever. Clearly, I’m not like the thousands of males who do golf, wear a watch, like cars and are handy. I respect those individuals, but I’m not envious or jealous. (OK, sometimes I wish I could build a tree fort) The bottom line is that I do not pretend to be someone else. I’m happy for those that enjoy such endeavors and who excel in them outright. Kudos! But I am secure with what I’m good at and uneasy if I’m not being me. It is a conscious choice. It is my moment of verisimilitude. I’m not simply saying you should ‘Play to Your Strengths‘; I’m suggesting you must ask the question, "Who Am I" and answer it with certitude, "Who I Am". I am not against learning — after all, Ancora Imparo is one of my life mantras — but I will not assimilate because society says I should. This steadfast belief has helped me in my life, my career and with my relationships … including Denise. I share this personal insight with you for two reasons: Careers Can Become Your Purpose By invoking conviction and absolute belief in one’s self, your career can truly become intertwined with your purpose. I witness first-hand, however, far too many people shackled to a job that runs counter to their identity and their personal ethos. I don’t suggest to ‘follow your passion’ — that’s a risky strategy when you need to pay bills and fuel your future — but I would recommend standing up for who you really are, and working towards a career path that belies the current career status quo you may be suffering from. Life is What Happens to You While You’re Busy Making Other Plans John Lennon … no further words necessary. The bonus reason is that I promised "I Will" reveal more of my true personality publicly in 2014. It’s a shame we can’t travel back in time and observe the Greeks. If I could, I’d spend my days walking, listening, learning and even giving speeches in the Agora — the marketplace of commerce and intellectual exchange. Be it Plato, Socrates, Heraclitus or Pythagoras the maxim "Know Thyself" was alleged to be bandied about in the Agora on many an occasion. In Plato’s Phaedrus, for example, Socrates says the following when on the topic of his lack of patience for mythology and other unimportant topics: "But I have no leisure for them at all; and the reason, my friend, is this: I am not yet able, as the Delphic inscription has it, to know myself; so it seems to me ridiculous, when I do not yet know that, to investigate irrelevant things." Define your relevance. More importantly, avoid your every irrelevance. I am a husband. I am a father. I am a son. I am a brother. I am a brother-in-law. I am a son-in-law. I am a friend. I am a dreamer, writer, speaker, lover, artist, athlete, comedian, culture change agent, meat-eater, cyclist, traveler, poet, decorator, fashionista, supporter, thinker, mathematician, drinker, Canadian, driver … human being. I am who I am. Who are you? Dan's Related Posts:In 2014, I Will …Lessons Learned From a First Time AuthorTwo Very Incredible & Courageous WomenInstead of Inbox Zero, How About Outbox ZeroFive Essential Tips to Effectively Work from Home

Topic: Adobe eLearning Basics: Enabling Tracking Description: Ability to track learner performance is utmost important for eLearning courseware developers. Join Dr. Pooja Jaisingh, Sr. Adobe eLearning Evangelist, to learn how to publish and deploy your eLearning and mLearning courses effortlessly to leading xAPI, SCORM, and AICC compliant LMSs. She will take you through the best practices and […]

Laszlo Bock is the Senior Vice-President of People Operations at Google. He rose to such a role at the age of 33 in 2006. My math background puts him at an age that is slightly younger than me, so I’m a wee bit jealous. I’ve never met Laszlo. But I’d like to. And one day, maybe I can even work with him. Here’s why: 1) He’s a long-term thinker Anyone who is worried about the health of his or her organization in terms of life-work balance is a long-term thinker in my books. Laszlo says  "By analyzing behaviors, attitudes, personality traits and perception over time, we aim to identify the biggest influencers of a satisfying and productive work experience." Over a one hundred — yes one hundred — year study, Google and Laszlo aim to curb the imbalance that manifests at their organization between life and work. Inspired by the 65-year (and counting) Framingham Heart Study, Laszlo is intent on not only the long-term survival of the company that employs him, but on the true definition of life-work balance and worker engagement. And he’s doing so through long-term thinking. 2) He knows when change is required and is not afraid to do so It’s Google, so you would expect everything to be peachy and perfect. After all, there was a movie made about work life at Google. But no, Laszlo is happy to change when it’s necessary. For example, on the topic of their hiring practices — famous for mind bender puzzles, SAT scores and high GPA’s — Laszlo says  "Google famously used to ask everyone for a transcript and GPA’s and test scores, but we don’t anymore." He also intimated past practices were somewhat ludicrous by stating, "We found that brainteasers are a complete waste of time. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart." Google switched to behavioural based interviews, for the record. 3) He understands employees are differentiated and diverse Employees are not drones. Organizations are not robotic. Thus, those responsible for hiring — leaders and recruitment — need not look solely for 1’s and 0’s. Laszlo says, "When you look at people who don’t go to school and make their way in the world, those are exceptional human beings. And <Google> should do everything we can to find those people." I believe in both the art and the science. It may not come from one individual on a team, but the combination of such talent can create incredible things. The same occurs when mixing old school, new school and school of hard knocks backgrounds. 4) He ‘gets’ culture In my experience, I’ve met far too many HR leaders and professionals who claim to understand culture, when in fact they are simply transactional order takers. That isn’t culture, that’s a Dairy Queen. Laszlo is one of those HR leaders — I’m sure he’d want me to say people leaders — who believes he doesn’t deserve a ‘seat at the table’; he is the table and that table is setting the tone for openness and collaboration. For example, Laszlo says  "The bulk of what we do to cultivate this creative, passionate workforce costs nothing. Making our mission tangible is a natural outcome of who we are. Defaulting to open and giving Googlers a voice is a natural consequence of acting in accordance with what we believe about people." I’m not looking for a new role. I’m plenty busy right now with the ‘Chief Envisioner’ one recently announced. But if the stars align, I’d at least like to meet up with Laszlo and swap stories. He doesn’t need a copy of Flat Army — he already has demonstrated that in spades — but I would love to give him a signed book nonetheless. Laszlo is definitely one to tip your hat to. Dan's Related Posts:HR Doesn’t Need a Seat at the Table, it is the TableWhose Job Is Leadership, Anyway?Can Leaders Lead From the Side?Coaching Should Be An Expectation Of All Connected LeadersBill Sullivan, CEO of Agilent Technologies is a Chief Engagement Officer

Topic: Adobe eLearning Basics: Publishing to Devices Description: Join Dr. Pooja Jaisingh, Sr. Adobe eLearning Evangelist, to learn about the different publishing options, available in Adobe eLearning tools, to make the content available on tablets and mobile devices. She will take you through a step-by-step procedure to publish MP4 videos, interactive HTML5 courses, responsive eLearning, and eLearning […]

LinkedIn Skills. Useful or useless? First off, what are they? LinkedIn itself states the following: LinkedIn Skills & Endorsements helps you discover the expertise that other professionals have. You can: Add a skill to the Skills & Endorsements section of your profile from the Edit Profile page. Add up to a maximum of 50 skills. Endorse your 1st degree connections’ skills. The cynic in me believes this feature is simply an attempt by those at LinkedIn to accomplish their stated goal of building (and I would suggest selling) the world’s first economic graph. As LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner states: We want to digitally map the global economy, identifying the connections between people, jobs, skills, companies, and professional knowledge — and spot in real-time the trends pointing to economic opportunities. My big data dreamer brain thinks it’s a brilliant idea, but how does it help you and me? It’s definitely cool. The graph would be incredibly revealing. But it’s not going to help you become a better person or professional. Data points like "The 25 Hottest Skills That Got People Hired in 2013″ — also distributed by LinkedIn — can provide some interesting insight, but does it help you personally? Again, it’s interesting … but I doubt the 25 hottest skills list actually helps you personally. There are countless articles and posts by others helping you with the skills itemizing and selection process. The skills you choose can then be showcased on your LinkedIn profile for others in your 1st degree network to subsequently endorse. Mine looks like this: If you’re in recruitment or are hiring someone I can see the benefit. For example, if you’re reviewing someone for a role, the number of endorsements related to their various skills may help you distinguish one candidate over another. You can also click on the number associated with each skill (eg. 99+ for Leadership Development in my case) and those that have endorsed the skill will appear in a new window. If the candidate possesses some influential people who have endorsed the skill, that may also distinguish one candidate from another. Of course you can click on the skill itself and from there you’re taken to another screen that details positions related to the skill, people in your network with the skill, amongst other options. The example below is the result of clicking the skill ‘Strategy’ from my profile: A clear and positive advantage with your LinkedIn skills rests in the fact the endorsements are people driven versus the algorithm driven model found in applications like Klout. (I’m not a Klout fan or user.) The disadvantage, however, is if the LinkedIn connections you accept into your network aren’t really your professional colleagues — you have never worked together and know one another only through LinkedIn itself — and if they endorse your skills, does that make you out to be a liar? On the subject of whom to accept into your LinkedIn network, Alex Samuel writes about the favour test and says, "The favor test is simple: Would you do a favor for this person, or ask a favor of them? If so, make the connection. If not, take a pass." So what to do? I don’t think the skills feature in LinkedIn is critical for success in your career. It provides a great crowd-sourced adjudication of your skills, but it’s not ever going to become the sole reason you get a job or advance your career. The skills feature provides good insight on professional experience — and there are additional features noted above that might help you source new positions or reconnect with old contacts — but be wary of placing too much stock in its bottom line career benefit. A snapshot like this of your skills background is an anecdotal representation of you and your successes. That’s not a bad thing, per se, so you may want to ensure the skills that are being profiled are the ones that you truly want to be known for. Make note of this point and edit your skills now, if you haven’t done so already. In my mind, LinkedIn skills are useful not useless … but the usefulness itself is somewhat limiting. What are your thoughts on the LinkedIn skills opportunity?   Dan's Related Posts:My 1800+ LinkedIn Network Graphically MappedLinkedIn is not Facebook so Please Think Twice About Your UpdatesOur Three Young Children Blog … Here’s WhyThe Anti-Social Social DilemmaFuture of Work: Add Open Leadership, Enterprise 2.0, Connected Learning and Mix

Topic: Choosing the right LMS for Enterprise Learning Description: Choosing an LMS is a time-consuming and expensive affair! Making a wrong choice is not an option here, as it can break your learning infrastructure and restrict you from tracking learning effectively. You need to carefully consider the features and services available with the LMS before you make […]

She’s eleven years old and has been precocious for as long as I can remember. At five, she told us, "It’s time for me to start learning how to play violin." At eight, she said, "Why can’t I have my own blog?" And now, at eleven, Claire — our oldest of three children — has taught us a lesson in perseverance and decision-making. First, the background of this story. At the beginning of 2014, Claire’s grade five cohort began a program to read both fiction and non-fiction books in preparation for participation in the Red Cedar Book Awards Program. The Red Cedar Book Awards Program itself, "encourages students in Grades 4 - 7 in British Columbia to read Canadian fiction and non-fiction titles. Each year, a Red Cedar Award is presented to one fiction and one non-fiction book which receive the most votes from children in the program." Those who want to participate in this voluntary activity must read what seems like a thousand books in order to qualify for the one-day trip to Nanaimo, British Columbia where BookFest occurs. This extravaganza — billed as the "Vancouver Island Children’s Book Festival" — not only is a big deal for those students who qualify by reading the requisite number of books, it’s a chance to meet some of the authors they actually read in person! As an author and a lifelong proponent of reading, this was a remarkable opportunity for Claire. Part two to the story takes us to another remarkable event on Vancouver Island, the 6th Annual Butterfly Ball. The ball is "an enchanting evening for dads and daughters in support of children and youth through Children’s Health Foundation of Vancouver Island." What isn’t there to like? A good cause, a good night, and quality time with the up and coming violinist. Tickets for the Butterfly Ball were purchased in late 2013. Claire and I were stoked for a ‘grown-up’ night out. The story takes a sharp twist because in late January the date for BookFest was announced. May 3, 2014. The Butterfly Ball? Yep. May 3, 2014. Why the issue, you ask? Shouldn’t a ‘ball’ be happening at night, and shouldn’t a ‘bookfest’ happen during the day? You are correct my young mathematician, however, the school bus Claire was taking to Nanaimo for BookFest and returning to Victoria on had her pencilled in to arrive at some point around 8:30pm. Sadly, the Butterfly Ball ended roughly around 9:00pm, so therein lies the dilemma. She could not attend both events. For several weeks, Claire laboured over the decision. I even looked into float planes and airlines to shuttle her from Nanaimo to Victoria in time for the Butterfly Ball. "Do I potentially disappoint Dad and not go to the gala," she must have mentally mused several hundred times. "Do I forgo the chance to meet with authors, and celebrate my accomplishment of reading all those books," she clearly asked herself over and over again. "Do I give up the chance to participate in the hottest ticket in town while giving back to a worthy cause," she might have questioned to herself. One night, while traveling in March, I received a call from Claire on my mobile. "Dad, I don’t know what to do. I want to go to both events, but I can’t," she whimpered, clearly on the verge of tears. I received an email the next day from her as well indicating the difficulty she was facing. It was heartbreaking, but she was figuring it out. By mid-March, after thinking about the pro’s and con’s, Claire made her decision and let us know over dinner. She chose the BookFest, and her rationale was something I’ll never forget. Mom, Dad, I’ve worked really hard reading those books and I want to complete my goal. It’s my only chance to be a part of BookFest in Grade 5. I want to meet the authors too. I don’t want to disappoint you Dad, but can we go to the Butterfly Ball next year? What you don’t know is that some of her very close chums were also going to the Butterfly Ball. As you can imagine, there was probably some pressure in her circles to choose the Butterfly Ball, let alone thinking she might disappoint her Dad. In the end, Claire chose perseverance. She stuck with her goal of reading those books and BookFest was the ultimate reward. Her decision-making was logical. It was pretty decisive for an eleven year-old. She made her decision by weighing all the pro’s and con’s, but stuck to her instinct of what was going to make her feel nourished, and one might argue flourished. She did so knowing it might disappoint her chums and (potentially) her Dad — it didn’t — but she stuck with her core beliefs. Claire left this morning at 7:15am on the school bus to Nanaimo to enjoy BookFest. I know she’s going to have an unbelievable time. I learned a lot from you over this process Claire, and I want to thank you. You taught me that difficult decisions can be pragmatically delineated. You can reach a conclusion with humility and love. You can show compassion and unending concern while labouring over a final verdict. I just want to say how proud I am, and how lucky we are to have you as our daughter. And don’t worry, we will definitely make it to the Butterfly Ball next year. We might even invite your younger sister. Dan's Related Posts:An 8 Year-Old Does Social LearningOur Three Young Children Blog … Here’s WhyTake a Chance on YouWhose Your Brian Reid?Instead of Inbox Zero, How About Outbox Zero

Topic: Badges, Levels, Leaderboards, Accolades! Gamifying the learning experience Description:  Learning can be made fun, and learners can be kept engaged for longer, by applying game-design thinking to non-game applications. These gamification techniques aim to tap into learners’ basic desires such as competition, achievement, rewards and status, which drives deeper engagement, higher completion rates and stronger […]

The early 1980’s saw me suffer through horrors of unimaginable proportions. As an eight through twelve-year old boy, our family car was none other than the Ford Country Squire station wagon. Yes, it was a magic bucket of bolts on four sturdy wheels replete with … wait for it … fake exterior wood paneling. The ignominy didn’t end there. Inside the ‘woodie’ was an 8-track cassette player. I swear my parents only had money for one 8-track and - wouldn’t you know it - that one cassette was the greatest hits of ABBA. As you can imagine, I heard the song "Take a Chance On Me" several million times. Maybe that’s where my gumption comes from. It hurts to admit it, but maybe ABBA helped me become who I am today. Are you afraid to take a chance? Do you have the courage to try new things with your passions, with your career, with your life? Does bravery emit from you as laughter does by children at a playground? Michael Jordan once said: I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. (Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh (1998), by Robert Goldman and Stephen Papson, p. 49) I thoroughly enjoyed watching Jordan play basketball. There was confidence. There was a bit of a swagger. There was leadership. But most of all, there was courage. He was willing to try. He was able to coach and mentor his teammates to try harder, to push for that extra inch of space. He always tried harder. He not only wanted the ball to take that last shot, he was comfortable knowing he might not make it. He even tried baseball with the entire world wondering, "What is he doing?" That’s part of being brave. It’s an integral piece to the gumption puzzle. For the past five years I’ve had the luxury of working with an amazing team - both directly and indirectly across the entirety of the organization I work for - and we all accomplished incredible feats. It’s been an incredible thrill; an honour to be part of something so transformative. I could have begun to mail it in though. I could have rested on the security of a past track record. I could have simply collected the paycheque. I could have resisted the ball - the last shot - and said, "No, let’s keep passing it around to one another." That’s safer. We’ll be ok. I could have resisted shifting from being a basketball player to trying to become a baseball player. But I would have been untrue to myself. I would have felt as though I was cheating. To me, the journey would have ended. I’m not suggesting I’m perfect - by all means, I’m full of foibles - but one thing I learned long ago was that life should be treated as a journey, and that journey needs to be fueled by courage, bravery and gumption. I don’t want to fail, but I’m absolutely comfortable in my own skin knowing that things might not work out. I invested heavily in Blackberry, and … well that’s not going very well. I once bought a condominium that was sold eight months later for less than what was originally paid. I gave a presentation in the late 1990’s unrehearsed, unscripted and without PowerPoint slides to see if I’d be able to pull it off. It was mediocre at best. I toured on bicycle throughout Tuscany in 2012 (with my better half) and didn’t use a map or strategize a touring plan before the trip began. There were innumerable moments where I thought we might divorce. This included the time where a decline of 20% grade on one of the many hills in the region saw a certain someone descending the road not riding her bike, but by walking it … in her socks. She started talking to me again on the flight back to Vancouver a few days later. The examples above are failures. But I learned from those failures. Most importantly, I wasn’t afraid to try. I wasn’t pleased with the end result, but I learned and used it to my advantage in other situations. That job I just left? It was fantastic. It was as cool as the one I left in 2008. It was as cool as the one I left in 2002 and in 1998 too. I have no idea if I’m going to be successful in this next role. But I have confidence in my ability and my prior experience should help me navigate through the forest of the unknown. We might call it needing to have a bit of ‘Forrest Gumption’. (nailed it) I guess you could say I’m always willing to take a chance on me. Thank you ABBA. Thank you overly grotesque station wagon. Which begs the question, do you "Take a Chance on You?" Dan's Related Posts:Friday Fun: Meet Gump ShunLessons Learned From a First Time AuthorWhat I Learned From My Daughter About Decision MakingWe Are All BostonVirtual Worlds in an Organization are not a Time Waster (and other beefs)

In the Dutch Province of Makkinga, motorists drive around uninhibited by signs instructing them to stop, yield, or merge. They don't have any parking meters to feed, red zones to avoid, or yellow lines to follow.

Founded in 1875, Proskauer is a global law firm providing a wide variety of legal services to clients worldwide. You might find it odd for a law firm, but they’re really interested in social media too. What a refreshing change. The firm recently published the third version of its "Social Media in the Workplace Global Study". The first survey and research report was based on results from 2011. When a law firm begins surveying and analyzing social media, you know it’s going to be different. This isn’t your typical data that reports on number of users, number of comments or number of posts on internal collaboration and social platforms. The 2014 version is chock full of very interesting tidbits that you may want to pay attention to, including: 90% of companies now use social media for business purposes Social media policies are now found in 80% of organizations, up from 60% Only 17% of organizations have provisions that protect them against misuse of social media by ex-employees 36% of employers actively block access to such sites, compared to 29% in 2012 43% of businesses permit all of their employees to access social media sites, a fall of 10% More companies are utilizing social media for business opportunities, which is a good thing, but it seems there is much more rigidity than in 2012 when it comes to policies and the blocking of sites. And for whatever reason, in 2012, 53% of employers permitted all their employees access to social media sites yet it’s down 10% in 2013. That’s alarming, if you ask me. Another bombshell from the report came from the following: In nearly all the jurisdictions, an employer is permitted to prohibit the use of social media sites during work, both on equipment provided by the employer and on the employee’s own devices That’s right, apparently in all jurisdictions (other than the US) where Proskauer was conducting the research, country law dictates an employer can actually block social media sites on BYOD — Bring Your Own Device to Work — situations. So if I’m at work in Canada, and I’m using my own iPad on the company wifi, my employer has the right to block me from utilizing LinkedIn if they so chose. It doesn’t give the employer the right to monitor where I go, but they can block access to it. It’s but one study, however, if the trend continues into 2014 — and through other research papers — I’ll become even more alarmed than I am at the present time. I would hate to see any more increases in the percentage of companies blocking access to external social media at work. Has anyone banned the smoke break? Sure, you can’t smoke at your desk anymore (that’s a good thing) but people are still smoking outside or in designated smoking areas. Shouldn’t we be thinking about social media the same way? Shouldn’t we be educating workers on the better social media behaviours as opposed to simply turning it off or blocking access to it? It seems to be a huge step backwards in the quest to create a more harmonious, open and collaborative workplace. Dan's Related Posts:Q&A on the Future of Social, Mobile and eLearningShould Companies Allow Facebook at Work?Social Media is not Social LearningThe Social C-SuiteCan Leaders Lead From the Side?

Wired Science follows up a story on which this blog commented several months ago.

Being a leader is a complex job. One of the subtleties that takes time to master is knowing when to manage someone to ensure they produce an immediate result, and when to coach someone to help them solve a problem on their own.

The family and I were ‘out and about’ on a lovely, sun drenched Mother’s Day this past weekend. Denise was celebrating her 11th Mother’s Day but if you do the math properly, she’s been a mom now to the three goats for a cumulative total of 27 years. You’ll figure it out in a moment. After a lovely morning replete with gifts for mom, flowers, brunch, cards and of course three blog posts from each of the goats paying homage to their mother (Claire’s post, Cole’s post and Cate’s post) we decided to venture out. We fell upon a somewhat makeshift carnival outfitted with rides, games and fatty desserts like donuts, candy floss and snow cones. As we were leaving, the goats went to the loo with mom while I went back to our truck, parked in the Community Center parking lot. In said parking lot, adjacent the ‘Mad Tea Cup’ ride was a perfect example of ‘Hierarchy for the Sake of Hierarchy‘. Witness Exhibit A: Those that work at a Community Center are noble people. The service they provide the community itself is stellar. Community Centers — at least in Canada — have long been a place of togetherness, even collaborative spirit. Does the Executive Director of this particular (but nameless) Community Center need to have such a sign adorn the parking lot? What message does it send to those in the community? What message (and reinforced culture) does it send to the Executive Director’s team? Do you care for irony? The parking lot consists of over one hundred spots. Even if the Executive Director had to park in the one furthest away from the Community Center, he/she would be adding a total of three minutes to his/her daily commute. (That’s in total, back and forth between the building and the parking spot in no-man’s land.) Of all organizations on the planet, the last place I thought I’d see a sign denoting a flaunting and arrogant display of hierarchy (for the sake of hierarchy) would be at a community center. I mean, c’mon … it has the word community in it. It’s supposed to be a center full of community, isn’t it? Throughout my career and life, I’ve witnessed such a sign (and displays of hierarchy) in the usual spots such as the high school parking lot, the industrial park parking lot and the dentist office parking lot. There are plenty more spots out there. I’m certain you’ve seen it in action as well. In this the era of disengaged organizations, must we publicly display ‘hierarchy for the sake of hierarchy‘ or might we remember we’re all human, with legs, and are each capable of walking a few meters to get in the front door of our workplace? Yes, you may be the Executive Director of this particular Community Center … but judging from the fact the sign still exists, the lack of respect you show your team members and the community itself demonstrates something so familiar, it’s rampant in our organizations today: You possess both a lack of self-confidence and a jarring misrepresentation of what it means to be a leader. Start playing for the logo on the front of your jersey with the rest of your teammates and stop looking in the mirror to see if they spelled your name correctly on the back of it. Better yet, rip down the sign. Show some leadership courage. Buy an umbrella while you’re at it.   Dan's Related Posts:You Will Never Be PromotedAn Ode to HierarchyAfter Five Years In My Role We’re Hiring My Replacement. Are You Interested?How B Corps Just Might Eliminate the Foolishness of Maximizing Shareholder ReturnOpen Leaders: My #TChat Experience

As part of a large organizational change effort, a client of mine ("John") was having a lot of trouble working with an external consultant ("Robert") who was hired to assist with some technical aspects of the change initiative*.