Massimiliano Magrini posted a blog postWi-Fi Delivers a Next-Generation Customer Experience for RetailersMobile phone users were forecasted to total 4.55 billion worldwide last year and an increasing number of users are turning to their mobile devices to access Wi-Fi. It is well understood that consumers are increasingly sophisticated and expect to be able to tap into the web with ease wherever they are-be it in stores, restaurants, cafes, music venues or local shopping centres. Hotspots are growing accordingly as well. By 2018, Maravedis Rethink forecasts growth to around 12 million commercial hotspots worldwide. Herein lies a great opportunity for brands to not only reach consumers seeking free Wi-Fi from their locations but also derive valuable insights on behaviour of customers within specific localities.Retail is an industry that has undergone rapid changes in recent years. Retailers have become leaders in Wi-Fi innovative solutions and technologies to meet the global demand. According to the National Retail Federation, shoppers worldwide will use mobile phones to purchase $120 billion in goods and services in 2015. Guest Wi-Fi access is a powerful toolthat empowers retailers to engage shoppers even more through omni-channel strategies with the proper integration of in-store, online and mobile channels.Customer surveys have highlighted how shoppers are using guest Wi-Fi today:6 in 10 customers use their mobile phones for assistance or guidance in stores61% have a better opinion of brands when they offer a good mobile experienceAlmost 40% of shoppers use in-store Wi-Fi to browse the retailer’s websiteNearly 50% look for deals, coupons and offers online to use in stores46% buy products in-store after using a mobile device to research themProviding Wi-Fi access in stores allows retailers to transform their customers’ digital experience. They can offer promotions such as push coupons and special offers or design customized marketing messages to the in-store shopper. Guest Wi-Fi also gives retailers access to powerful analytics tools to track data about the target audience and gain valuable insights on each shopper’s preferences, behaviours and purchasing patterns. Stores can utilize these insights to personalize customers’ engagement, hence gain differentiation and competitive advantage in the market.Finally, retailers can integrate social media channels with guest Wi-Fi portals to encourage customers to opt for marketing programs. Brands can certainly benefit from shoppers as loyal promoters on social media networks.The retail industry is becoming more and more focused on metrics that influence the customer journey. As a result, brand engagements are more aligned with customer preferences. In store real time communication is the most valuable source of information during the critical phase of decision making process for consumers, getting the right data providing the most valuable service for consumer at the same time can represent a competitive edge for the retailing industry.Massimiliano Magrini is the co-founder and managing partner of United Ventures.See More

Now here’s a scary thought:"The less people know about important complex issues such as the economy, energy consumption and the environment, the more they want to avoid becoming well-informed, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. "So reads a press release about a recently published study that explores the links between awareness of social issues and dependence on and trust in government.   Researchers at the University of Western Ontario and other universities reached these conclusions following a series of studies in the US and Canada.   Researchers presented participants with simple and complex descriptions of the same problem and found that people reading the more complex description felt higher levels of helplessness.  One of the conclusions that co-researcher Aaron C. Kay, reported was that:"people tend to respond by psychologically ‘outsourcing’ the issue to the government"   So what does this mean for educators, especially those who teach complex issues and like to emphasize critical thinking?  The authors suggest:  "Beyond just downplaying the catastrophic, doomsday aspects to their messages, educators may want to consider explaining issues in ways that make them easily digestible and understandable, with a clear emphasis on local, individual-level causes." To learn more, check out Ignorance Is Bliss When it Comes to Challenging Social Issues at  http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2011/11/ignorance.aspx. 

Guest Blog by Jenna Giulioni The following post is an article that my 15-year-old daughter wrote for her high school newspaper.  It strikes me that we adults might benefit from this teenage wisdom on how to reach our goals. As the new school year fast approaches, there are two types of people, those praying for summer not to end and those who are looking forward to a fresh new start.  The beginning of the school year is the kid version of the real New Year.  Resolutions are made, although often not as officially.  ‘I’m gonna get all A’s!’ ‘I will be organized all year.’ ‘I am going to study extra hard for every test!’ As good as the intentions are, usually those big goals get tossed to the side and forgotten after a matter of weeks.  The things that seemed so important suddenly fall second to the newest America’s Next Top Model episode or a simple case of laziness.  Those expectations slip further and further away until the memory of them is gone and the whole process is repeated next year. So, what are some ways for the important goals for this year not to slip away? 1.    "Don’t be afraid." -Isabella, Sophomore At the end of the day, the only thing that can hold a person back is themselves.  Sometimes you are afraid to fail or afraid of what others will think.  But when it all comes down to it, you only have yourself to deal with… it only matters whether or not you tried. 2.    "Push yourself." -Alma, Junior You will never find out what you can achieve without pushing yourself to your limits.  Take the honors or AP class, try out for that sport, talk to those new people.  You will never know what you can do until you try it. 3. "Remind yourself of why you made your goals." -Sarah, Sophomore Sometimes, the biggest problem with moving forward is forgetting why you wanted to do it in the first place.  Try writing down why you want to reach your goals, whether it’s for college, your family, or just for yourself.  Even the most focused person will have their down days and need their memory jogged. 4.    "Don’t psych yourself out." -Dashel, Sophomore Of course your goals are important, but they are not the whole world.  And although it is preferable to stay directly on course and hit your goals right away, that won’t always happen.  Prepare for setbacks, not everything will be perfect, but in the end, you can do it. The post Back to School Inspires Goal Setting appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Eric Openshaw's blog post was featuredCutting Your Way to GrowthWhen Hewlett-Packard announced it was splitting its legacy personal computer and printer business from its enterprise technology infrastructure, software and services business, its stock jumped nearly five percent in a single day. The news came on the heels of a similar declaration from eBay that it was spinning off PayPal, its payments processing business—an announcement that garnered it a seven percent boost in share price. Other tech giants have followed suit, including IBM, which is unloading its chip-making unit, and Symantec, which is separating its data security and data storage groups.This is something of a counterintuitive trend. While megamergers may characterize certain industries, such as pharmaceuticals or airlines, in other industries, including technology, consumer packaged goods, and industrial products, the opposite seems to be true. More and more companies are splitting into separate businesses or selling off pieces that are no longer core to their operations—and Wall Street is applauding their moves.The motivation behind these decisions is sobering, however. Enterprises today are faced with mounting performance pressure. Return on assets for U.S. corporations has been falling steadily since 1965; over the same period, the rate at which individual companies lose their leadership position has increased by 39 percent. Companies have responded in a range of ways in an effort to improve shareholder returns--from adding more debt to their balance sheets to offering more dividends and buying back stock. But they are finding one of the most effective ways to unlock value is through divestitures and business splits.  Focus on FocusNot long ago these companies were fixated on growth, snapping up smaller entities, multiplying their products and services, and moving into adjacent businesses. But that growth had a downside: loss of focus due to numerous competing priorities. What we are seeing now is a form of "reverse diversification" in which enterprises are slimming down in order to concentrate their resources on a narrower customer base or set of products and services.Even within a business that serves a relatively circumscribed customer segment, there are three distinct business types operating in tandem: an infrastructure management business, consisting of high-volume, routine processing activities such as logistics, manufacturing, maintenance, or call center operations; a customer relationship business organized around gaining a deep understanding of specific customers and using that knowledge to help them find the products and services that best meet their individual needs; and a product innovation and commercialization business that involves coming up with ideas for new products and services, developing them, and bringing them to market.Maintaining these three business types under the aegis of a single corporation is a vestige of a vertical integration approach that made sense when huge companies dominated the business landscape and scale trumped just about anything else. But today, juggling the needs of each can place large players at the mercy of more nimble competitors that concentrate on just one and do it extremely well. For this reason there is a growing movement towards "unbundling the corporation"—spinning off one or more of the business types to companies that specialize in them. For example, the trend towards outsourcing over the past several decades largely involves shedding infrastructure management businesses like logistics and manufacturing and moving them to companies that can provide world-class capabilities in those areas.Regardless of which path companies use to slim down, the ultimate objective is the same—focusing on what they do best by removing the distractions and resource drains that create barriers to growth and lead to lower valuations. In getting to this point, business leaders need to take a hard look at their portfolio of businesses, as well as the business types within each, and answer some important questions:What components of your business are potentially undervalued? Are there any that are "dead weight" that may be driving down value?Have you assessed what your company truly does well—infrastructure management, customer relationship management, product innovation--and what others do better? The latter are candidates for unbundling.Are you positioned to execute should an opportunity to divest one of your businesses arise?What imminent threats may arise from competitors who are unbundling their portfolios? Do these transactions present any buying opportunities?What does it take to compete as a more focused, more agile player?These are not one-time questions. Executives need to be continuously evaluating their portfolios and asking not just what they can acquire--but what they can divest that will increase their focus on value-creating businesses and activities.Ready, Cut, GrowCompanies that choose to pursue reverse diversification and pare down into focused businesses will no longer need to juggle the warring demands of a complex portfolio. Those that unbundle further to focus on a specific business type--whether it is infrastructure management, customer relationship management, or product innovation—can become even more nimble, learning faster, adapting more quickly to changes in the environment, and accelerating performance improvement. They can also benefit by collaborating with equally specialized, world-class players in the business types they have shed.But increasing fragmentation does not mean the business ecosystem will be made up of myriad smaller players. On the contrary, those companies that have been able to strip down to their core business will be in the best position to command their chosen markets, grow rapidly both organically and inorganically, and generate the greatest value for all stakeholders, from investors to customers. In particular, both infrastructure management businesses and customer relationship businesses have powerful economies of scale and scope that will lead to increasing concentration and consolidation of specialized players. Ultimately, by cutting their way to focused businesses, companies can once again be poised for growth. Eric Openshaw is a vice chairman and the U.S. Technology, Media & Telecommunications Industry leader for Deloitte LLP. John Hagel is co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge LLP. Paul Sallomi is a vice chairman and the U.S. Technology sector Leader for Deloitte Tax LLP.See More

In a posting on the Economix blog of the New York Times, of 15 majors, education had the lowest unemployment rates: of recently graduated BAs/BEds, of BAs/BEds with work experience, and MAs/MEds. Admittedly, few get rich on an education degree.  But they do stay employed.View the details at:http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/want-a-job-go-to-college-and-dont-major-in-architecture/?ref=business

David Hale's blog post was featuredThe Changing Face of Human ResourcesHR is undergoing a major overhaul. Advances in data mining technology and the emergence of mobile workers are creating a tectonic shift in the way companies manage their workforce in the field and the way employees get work done. Not only that, but it is also having a major impact on the way companies are meeting staffing and hiring needs.Managing a Mobile WorkforceMobile, on-demand workforces are on the rise and while they provide flexibility for both the employer and employee, with them come a new set of challenges, such as managing where your employees are at any give time. Questions HR managers often ask themselves pertain to productivity and whether their employees are completing the task at hand in a timely manner.Today, there are solutions that can help mitigate these concerns. Mobile workforce management solutions that provide real-time visibility into where your workers are and that enable managers to send specific job assignments via their mobile devices. Conversely, employees can keep their managers up to date on the status of their work and can provide updates in real time from any location. For example, if you need to leave early on a Tuesday for your kid’s piano recital, you can block your schedule so no work is assigned that afternoon and have outstanding tasks auto-assigned to another field team member.Another major benefit of using mobile workforce management solutions is the increase in employee engagement and communication across teams. For example, in the retail sector, dispatchers often have to deliver truckloads of products across many stores. By leveraging mobile workforce management solutions, these teams can better coordinate to meet delivery schedules and ensure that products are getting to the right store at the right time.StaffingHR managers are realizing the power of leveraging data to allocate the right person for the right job. Data is also widely used to gain insight into business metrics - for example, companies can determine how many workers are needed at any given time giving the scope and timeline of a particular project. Thanks to the advent of workforce management solutions, HR managers now have a wealth of knowledge they can use to better schedule and manage activity across their organization.HiringThe abundance of data available to HR professionals has also led to the development of labornomics, best described as hiring based primarily on data and statistics. While one can still find value in evaluating traditional cover letters and resumes, the fact is human resources is entering the next phase of its existence, and technology will continue to play an even more integral part in determining who gets the job.Data can be one of the strongest tools for HR managers when it comes to evaluating and engaging with potential recruits. Utilized properly, data can accelerate the entire recruiting process from posting openings to sourcing candidates, reviewing resumes and making offers. According to a survey by Spherion Staffing, 47 percent of millennials have indicated that a prospective employer’s online reputation matters as much as the job it offers. HR pros are coming to the realization that there’s a connection between having a compelling data strategy and finding the top talent for the job.In addition to utilizing data science to hire the right employees, companies are now investing their own internal data analysis to better understand what is and isn’t working when it comes to employee efficiency and success. Traditional performance numbers such as closed leads are being combined with crowdsourced information like social recognition data. This means companies are able to provide employees with real-time feedback rather than just an annual review.One thing is certain, tapping into your company and employee data offers a wealth of opportunities and allows HR departments to hire, staff and manage employees at a much larger scale than ever before. This allows them to take a more strategic approach to meet their HR needs and ultimately work smarter and more efficiently. The next generation of Human Resources is here.David Hale is CEO of Gigwalk.See More

First impressions apply to organizations as well as individuals.  If you’ve ever hired someone, you know that employers have a short window during which to capture the hearts and minds of a new employee. Unfortunately too frequently the window closes… about the same time that a door opens and the disappointed, disillusioned employee walks out! We’ve all had that new employee experience. What drew you in?  What pushed you away?  What did your introduction to the job telegraph to you?  And what long-term effect did these early messages have on how you felt about the work? The job? Yourself? For most of us, those first precious hours and days were dedicated to paperwork, processes, and procedures. Well-meaning leaders concerned themselves with your ‘on-boarding’ and ‘time to productivity.’  Right? But all of this likely did little to bond you to the organization, excite you about the road ahead, or ensure your long-term commitment. Organizations have a great opportunity to help new workers get off to a powerful and lasting start.  But they need to change their approach to welcoming new hires. Best-in-class employers who enjoy high levels of satisfaction, engagement, and retention among new employees do three things differently.  They: Ensure connections: One of the primary psychological needs we bring to the workplace is the need to engage in supportive relationships. Engineer relationships consciously from the start to ensure that new employees have a ready-made network that will help them through the transition. This can be as simple as a lunch rotation and as choreographed as formal mentoring. How it happens is less important than that it happens… early in the transition. Help others contribute quickly: Protracted training programs, extensive shadowing, and elongating time to productivity - this is a recipe for new employee disengagement. Help people quickly find ways to feel competent, effective, and productive. Facilitate the use of their strengths early. Identify small projects and quick wins to establish a sense of momentum. Meaningful contribution builds a sense of commitment. Begin the career development conversation: Invest in employees and they’ll invest in you. Demonstrate your commitment to their futures and it will enhance their commitment to yours. Keep the initial employment interview going by continuing to learn about the new employee’s strengths, interests, passions, and goals. Take steps from the start to clarify how the employee wants to express him/herself and grow… then work together to find ways to make it happen. Onboarding for genuine, long-term results comes down to this: De-emphasize the process and paperwork that is normally the (less-than-warm) welcome to a new job. Focus on connections, contribution, and career development. And watch as your new employees:     Confirm that they made a great choice in accepting your position.     Quickly become powerhouse contributors.     Settle in for a long and productive career with your organization. The post A Word about Welcoming New Workers: Three Secrets to Satisfaction, Engagement, and Retention appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

While we wait for the annual Horizon report of the 6 most significant technologies to affect higher education in the next 5 years, Audrey Watters of Inside Higher Education has shared her predictions One significant difference in approach distinguish Watters'  predictions from most others:  her list includes policies and practices related to technology as well as fallout from tit.  Among her predictions:The impact of accreditation and recognition for participation in open courses.  The impact of machine grading on work opportunities for graders, teaching assistants and even instructors.  The impact of open source materials on publishing--and the openness of faculty to the new economics of publishing.Check out the predictions at http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/5-predictions-higher-ed-technology-2012.

Sramana Mitra posted a blog postWhy Not All Private Unicorns Will Become Public UnicornsWe’re in yet another tech bubble led by Silicon Valley’s marvelous froth machine. However, this time, the bubble is constrained to two parts of the market, and thankfully, both are private.One, late stage, over-valued, over-hyped venture-funded still private startups. The ones among these that are valued at over $1 Billion are anointed Unicorns. This stems from an article by Aileen Lee with Cowboy Ventures, Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning From Billion-Dollar Startups.Two, over investment at the seed stage in private fledgling startups. For more on this, please read: Why 70k+ In Angel Investments Is A Problem.Thankfully, the public market is NOT in a bubble, hence when this one bursts, not much harm will be caused, except a lot of rich people will lose a lot of money.The Economist explains this well in a recent piece aptly titled Forthy.com:Yet judged by the financial yardsticks of the dotcom era there is as yet no bubble. The NASDAQ index of mainly technology stocks is valued at 23 times expected earnings versus over 100 times in 2000. That year Barron’s, an investment magazine, published an analysis showing that 51 listed technology firms would run out of cash within a year. On December 6th Barron’s repeated the exercise and found only five listed tech firms with wobbly finances.On the topic of Unicorns, the article has this to say:The second area of technology froth is in private markets. Their exuberance was demonstrated on December 4th when Uber closed a $1.2 billion private funding round that valued the five-year old firm at $40 billion. Baidu, China’s biggest search engine, is set to buy a stake, too. There are 48 American VC-backed firms worth $1 billion or more, compared with ten at the height of the dotcom bubble, according to VentureSource, a research outfit. In October a software firm called Slack was valued at $1.1 billion, a year after being founded. 2014 looks set to be the biggest year for VC investments since 2000.Well, unless several of these 48 VC-backed firms get acquired by larger companies at valuations greater than a billion, they will not end up with Unicorn level exits.To sustain a billion dollar valuation in the public market, thankfully, isn’t a joke this time around, as it had been during the dotcom era.I see fund managers being thoroughly irresponsible these days by investing at valuations that make no sense whatsoever.Frankly, in 2015, a correction will be more than welcome.More investigation and analysis of Unicorn companies can be found in my latest Entrepreneur Journeys book, Billion Dollar Unicorns. Photo: Rob Boudon/Flickr.Sramana Mitra is the founder of One Million by One Million (1M/1M), a global virtual incubator.See More

As I wrote in an earlier post, perhaps some of the discussions about the differences between Millenials and other generations might be basic generational differences that have existed throughout time, rather than completely unique characteristics of this generation.Here's another piece of evidence to support this alternative view.  In his analysis of three years' of the Allstate/National Journal Heartland poll, Ronald Brownstein found that Millenials, "fabled for preferring variety to stability, also echoed that sentiment" were nearly as likely to seek job stability (that is, a long-term job with a single employer) as those in other age brackets.  Read his analysis at http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/01/what-the-great-recession-wrought-the-state-of-the-us-in-3-years-of-polls/251010/.

Surviving and thriving in today’s dynamic workplace demands one thing above all else: having your head screwed on straight about career development.  The mixed messages and ever-changing expectations have left many employees genuinely befuddled. So, here’s a guide to the mindsets that will make sense out of the complex environment in which most of us work and provide guidelines for enhancing career satisfaction and results. Old mindset #1: For decades we’ve envisioned career success as the predictable progression from one role to another, always upward (and normally on schedule every 18 months) toward that ideal job (and corner office) in the sky. New mindset #1: Lose the ladder! It no longer exists… and it hasn’t for some time. After years of belt-tightening, outsourcing, right-sizing (and all of the other ‘zings!), organizations are leaner, layers have been dramatically slimmed down, and the opportunities to move up are less plentiful. But, that doesn’t mean that career development is dead. In fact, quite the opposite… especially for those who are willing to expand their perspective beyond the traditional vertical focus to include a scan horizontally.  Today’s career development environment looks more like a rock-climbing wall than a ladder, with opportunities up, over, around, and down in countless interesting combinations. This more fluid and lateral approach offers many more opportunities for growth than the ladder ever could. Old mindset #2: In days gone by, the organization, HR, or the boss took the lead around career development, doling out opportunities to the worthy (lucky?) few. New mindset #2: Today, individuals must own their own career development. Employees can no longer be the passive consumers of career development services. Everyone needs to take the lead, set the pace, determine the goals and then actively co-create the career development activities and results they are looking for. Managers can help facilitate the process but no one else is responsible for our professional growth. Period. Old mindset #3: Career development is synonymous with movement. New desk. New department. New business card. Want to grow? Take on a new position. New mindset #3: Defining development as changing roles narrows the playing field unnecessarily for too many people. No move? No growth? No way! Development in place is the most viable way everyone can take responsibility for advancing their capabilities, contributions, value, and growth. And it’s as simple as looking inward to determine what you want to learn, explore, enhance or strengthen… then looking outward for the experiences that enable that. Want to cultivate your ability to teach and coach others? Offer to conduct some departmental training. Interested in sharpening your financial acumen? Volunteer to manage a project budget. Need to improve your writing? Sign up to post a blog on your company’s website… or a client’s. Formal, organizationally-orchestrated and condoned career development programs and paths are simply incapable of accommodating the number of people who want to grow on the job. But that’s no reason to sit idly by and stagnate. Change your mindset. Get your head screwed on straight. And start growing today. Image credit: bradcalkins / 123RF Stock Photo The post Career Development Today: Is Your Head Screwed on Straight? appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Jacob Wright's blog post was featuredLet's Have More Psych-Positive TechnologyMetrics are a powerful way to manage a business, but also a narrow one. Arguably the concerns that are emerging over the impact of technology on our brains are because of the tech industry’s focus on narrow metrics. Hopefully in 2015 we will start to see this change.In one sense slot machines are the archetype of successful design in the tech industry. Computerisation has taken them from a distraction for little old ladies to the source of 85% of the gambling industry’s profits in North America. Technology has enabled these machines to precisely manipulate the odds, to eliminate the need to feed in coins and even to be so ergonomic in their design that people can sit at them for longer.It’s a fascinating example of how much of today’s tech industry is really a psychology industry. Today’s slot machines are designed to optimize the amount of time a person plays. And they do this by allowing the user to bet on thousands of lines at a time, giving a steady (but random) drip feed of rewards - flashing lights, sounds and feedback that are actually more powerful than money at encouraging players to stay for longer.Optimising around key business metrics is what the tech industry does best. Whether its daily users, time with an app, or average revenue per user, all the tech giants have in some sense cracked the psychological code for users in their category. For Amazon it might be product recommendations, for Facebook it’s choosing which posts show up in the feed and for Candy Crush Saga its knowing what to offer for free, and what to charge for.This psych-tech fusion is certainly powerful, certainly lucrative, but is it a good thing?Firstly it’s a fine line between a product being "sticky" and it being addictive. Gambling is certainly addictive - and debate rages fiercely about whether technology can be considered addictive in the same way. Psychologically, the evidence seems to suggest that it can - brains respond equally strongly to in-game rewards as they do to pleasurable ‘real’ stimuli.Secondly there appear to be multiple negative psychological consequences to the use of successful tech products. We’ve seen studies showing reduced attention spans, memory problems, increases in distractibility, feelings of social isolation and mood swings. And while google has certainly succeeded at making the world’s information more accessible, perhaps in so doing it has created a generation who are less curious and less inventive.And this is not just limited to consumer products. There is a rush to automate functions like flying airplanes, driving cars, diagnosing diseases and making business decisions but evidence is beginning to accumulate that doing so makes human errors more catastrophic, and creates as many problems as are solved (as well as eliminating meaningful jobs).Finally there are the physical consequences - repetitive strain injuries, lack of exercise, poor eyesight.Essentially this adds up to the age-old story that what you measure determines what you get. If all we measure is revenue, user numbers, and time spent using the technology, is it any wonder that we end up with something that resembles the virtual equivalent of addictive drugs?Despite the "making the world a better place" rhetoric very few companies are trying to optimize their products for positive physical and psychological outcomes. But there are some signs that such a thing is possible. Headspace have made headlines this year by amassing 500k users for their mobile meditation app. Government bodies like Public Health England are working with Psychologists like Richard Wiseman to try to create technological fixes for lifestyle diseases.Some things that it would be great to see in 2015 are: Facebook optimizing the newsfeed to help its users grow and develop, not just click. Amazon optimizing recommendations for user satisfaction, not just purchase. Brain-training that actually works. Services that allow people to better understand themselves, make better decisions, become happier.Metrics and optimization can work wonders - maybe in the new year businesses can set better targets for their products and ensure that the successes of our era are seen as beneficial not just lucrative.Jacob Wright is Head of Strategy at VisualDNA.See More

If you’ve attended more than a workshop or two in your career, you’ve likely been introduced to the four stages of competence or the four stages of learning any new skill.  Developed in the 1970’s by Noel Burch, this model describes the process by which new skills are acquired: Unconscious incompetence: You’re blissfully ignorant of what you don’t yet know. Conscious incompetence: You recognize the need for a particular skill and may even be aware of some of the steps to get there, but cannot yet perform it. Conscious competence: You know how to perform the skill and can be successful doing so with deliberate attention and concentration. Unconscious competence: You’re on auto-pilot. The skill is second nature to you. You’ve developed the mental or muscle memory that allows you to perform it with ease. When I first learned about this model, unconscious competence was positioned as the ‘nirvana’ of learning… the place to strive for and settle comfortably into. And perhaps that was appropriate at the time. But today’s business environment no longer lends itself to the comforts of ‘settling into’ anything. The ever-increasing rapid pace of change in business requires everyone to be nimble, flexible, and able to turn on a dime. There’s no room for unconsciousness… even around what we know and do well.  In today’s workplace, unconscious competence looks an awful lot like catatonic complacency. So, what can everyone do to honor their competence but continue to challenge their ability to stretch, grow, and improve?  There are two high-value strategies that meld nicely with today’s business challenges. Move your groove. When we become comfortable and get into a groove, we stop stretching. We lose sight of the edge. We don’t push the boundaries… because we aren’t even thinking about them. Yet, it’s precisely when confidence and competence are highest, that we need to get out of our grooves. We need to create some discomfort by mixing it up, trying something new, going beyond what’s known and easy. We need to exit the safety zone and enter boldly into new and untested territory and methods. You may be thinking: But doesn’t that increase the likelihood of mistakes and failure?  YES!  And that’s exactly the opportunity for those who are highly skilled to take their capacity to the next level. Failure is rarely fatal… but it’s always instructive for those who are willing to learn and grow. Testing the boundaries will generally expand them. Pushing the limits - even if they push back - builds greater confidence and awareness of what’s working… and what’s not. Teach to reach.  Providing instruction to someone else is the most powerful way to enhance performance… for the student and the teacher. Slowing down enough to figure out what one is actually doing returns a level of consciousness to the act or skill itself. It’s an opportunity to examine key steps and rationale… and it’s an opportunity to recognize ways to improve. So, as we develop over the course of our careers, it’s important to remember that our best can always get better… especially if we bring greater conscious to our unconscious capacities. The post Unconscious Competence or Catatonic Complacency? appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

A New Year's Day story by American Public Media focuses on the disappearance of the lecture as a teaching tool in physics.  Reporter Emily Hanford specifically quotes physics education innovators Eric Mazur and  Joe Redish (whose wife is one of my mentors).  They talk about the end of the lecture and the rise of the interactive classroom, which promotes discussion, discovery, and clarification as key elements of teaching.  In some cases, they advocate for recorded lectures to clearly and effectively communicate concepts. Some people see this as the death of the lecture.  I'm not sure I'd be so quick to rush to that conclusion.Such classrooms are as driven by instructors as the all-talk classroom.  What differentiates these classrooms, however, is that the instructors share the podium with their students and engage them in conversations and inquiry with one another during the class lesson.More fundamentally, these instructors seem to go to the inconvenience of planning their lessons and investing considerable thought about not only what they want to cover (which seems to be the traditional approach) but how, and seem similarly concerned about which techniques ultimately result in the highest level of retention among their students.  See the article at http://www.npr.org/2012/01/01/144550920/physicists-seek-to-lose-the-lecture-as-teaching-tool

Gita Chandra, Lisa Fairbanks, Fil Greenwich and 15 more joined Innovation Insights

..most books on writing and instructional design emphasize the importance of knowing your learners — not on the use of that knowledge in the choice of sentences and phrases to avoid offending them...Check out my new article on avoiding assumptions in writing in Learning Solutions Magazine at http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/833/avoid-making-assumptions-that-backfire?utm_campaign=lsmag&utm_medium=email&utm_source=lsm-news

Avi Singer posted a blog postNo More Helpouts? Big Mistake, Google.Google recently announced that it was shutting down its Helpouts service.The platform, as Google puts it, is a "home for people to connect with experts on topics they want to learn about or seek advice and solutions to everyday problems.""Unfortunately, it hasn't grown at the pace we had expected," Google said in the post announcing the shutdown.The obvious question is: "What went wrong?"If anything, we are currently seeing growth in the sharing economy at an incredibly rapid pace. There should be a huge market for easily finding experts to teach you something at an affordable cost. I believe Google missed a huge opportunity here to own a service that will eventually be much more commonplace: hiring experts online.Parents hire tutors online and companies use services like Gerson Lehrman Group or AlphaSights to help them find experts on various topics. There is no reason why individuals would not go online to search for someone who could teach them skills like how to make creme brulee or create a website.  We Need A Place To Seek Experts, Google, We Really Do.With trillions of search queries typed in Google last year alone, it’s obvious most individuals go to Google to learn or find something.Typically, if you search for a "How-To" topic you'll get a combination of results. For example, if I search for How to Knit a Scarf, the results will include steps pulled from a page, videos on YouTube and some other sites or documents. The one thing that you'll notice missing is the ability to find someone who can teach you how to knit.While some may prefer to learn through videos or documents, many like to learn directly from a person. This does not necessarily mean they need to be in person, but more and more people are becoming comfortable using Skype, FaceTime or other video calling tools to communicate with one another.Here’s What Went WrongThere is no reason why the Google search results could not have also directed people to Helpouts by Google to find someone to teach them to knit (go ahead, click on it). By offering these results, Google would actually be offering a great service to all learners out there.Looking to build shelves? Right now, you now have options: videos, sites or people on Helpouts willing to teach you for a nominal fee. They are just not all in one spot.Individual learners need options. That's why we’re beginning to see more education experts turn to social learning initiatives.In fact, of the 550 education professionals surveyed in Kaltura’s March 2014 report, 65 percent use video for remote teaching and learning. The use of online tools to connect individuals will only increase as the demand for information’s accessibility increases -- and Google could have capitalized on that demand.Instead, they barely scratched the surface of their service’s potential.I believe the future of learning will be heavily influenced by the sharing economy, an iceberg of which we are now barely seeing the tip. We’ve already seen an influx of peer-to-peer platforms changing the way employees work with one another. We use crowdsourcing to extract ideas through resources we didn’t always have instant access to: other people’s minds.With several Helpouts competitors continuing their climb in the marketplace, eventually someone will figure out how to get the experts on their platform to pop up in search results. It could have been Google -- but instead, maybe we’ll get to see a new name making headlines soon.Avi Singer is the founder of showd.me, a social learning platform that allows employees to easily train and learn from other employees across an organization. Connect with Avi and showd.me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.See More

Guest Post by David M. Dye I’m honored to help my friend, David Dye, celebrate the launch of his book with this guest post.  The Seven Things Your Team Needs to Hear You Say was released earlier this month. I had the pleasure of reviewing a preview copy and was impressed with the clarity with which David outlines today’s leaders’ key priorities. This is a must-read for anyone concerned with team performance… and teams! Clothing Catastrophe? At a state correctional facility, Christine had a problem. With no prior supervisory experience, as one of a small handful of female staff in a mostly male prison, and with a highly diverse and contentious inmate population, she had been placed in charge of creating a clothing factory. One year later, Christine’s factory was out-producing the prototype operation, had an impeccable safety record, and could run itself without supervision. The Difference-Maker When I asked Christine what made such a rapid transition possible, she said, "It began with my belief in the people. When they came to me, they wanted to tell me about what they had done on the outside - why they were in prison. I cut them off, told them I didn’t really care about who they were last year. ‘This is who we are going to be in this factory and this is what we’re going to do.’ Most of them didn’t believe it at first, but pretty quickly they responded to someone believing in them." She described how male inmates would initially object to sewing because they thought it wasn’t something men did. Christine would walk over to one of the industrial sewing machines, quietly operate it, produce a garment, return to the men and say, "You’re telling me women can run this industrial machine better than you men? I don’t believe that." Impossible Impasse? In my early twenties, I had the honor to serve as an elected City Councilman in Glendale, Colorado. The Mayor at the time was a man named Joe Rice. Joe serves in the National Guard and has done several voluntary tours of duty in Iraq to assist with building local governments and civic institutions. After his term as Mayor, he went on to serve a number of terms in the Colorado state legislature and works today in the space exploration industry while continuing to serve in the Guard. Joe’s leadership success comes from a relentless optimism and belief in his team’s ability to solve problems and get things done. When we faced a contentious city government decision, there were often three or four opposing groups involved. The professional city staff with their interests, the elected officials (who rarely shared a unified opinion), service providers, and the public would frequently reach logjams - even when everyone generally agreed that change was needed. These three or four different groups would get stuck. "What are we going to do?" they would ask each other. Somebody would propose a solution, and it would get shot down: "Oh, we can’t do that…" After a few minutes of this, Joe would say, "We can find 1000 reasons why this won’t work. That’s not the question. The question is, ‘How can we get it done?’" Joe’s question presupposed that a solution was possible, and that we could accomplish our goals. Not surprisingly, we did. That one question and the belief it communicated was all we needed to break the impasse. Bring Out the Best Your team may be tough, but they probably aren’t convicted criminals or politicians! (Insert your own joke here…) When Christine and Joe told their teams, "You can!" their belief became their team’s belief. If you want to bring out the very best from every member of your team, then they need to hear you say, "You can!" Your belief in your team will become their confidence. Ultimately, this is the distilled essence of leadership: transferring the belief that together we can have a better tomorrow. What About You? Who are the leaders in your life who believed in you - even when you couldn’t see it for yourself? How did they impact your life?   David M. Dye works with leaders who want to get more done, build teams that care, and meet their goals. David is a former nonprofit executive, elected official, and believes everyone can master the essentials of influence. His new book, The Seven Things Your Team Needs to Hear You Say, provides leaders with practical tools they can use to build engaged, energized, and innovative teams. You can connect with David on Twitter (@davidmdye) and through his blog. The post Bring Out the Best in Your Team appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Check out What does the Transactions Publish? What do Transactions’ Readers Want to Read?,, which I co-wrote with Nancy Coppola, George Hayhoe, and Helen Grady and was recently published in the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication.In the process of exploring what readers want, this article also characterizes the state of the material published in the peer-reviewed literature on technical communication.As the abstract of the article notes:  Research Problem: The change in editorship of the Transactions on Professional Communication provides an opportunity for investigate the match between the content published by the journal and the content sought by its readers and to assess the uniqueness of the niche that it fills among peer-reviewed journals on professional and technical communication. Research Questions: What content does the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication publish? How does that compare to the content published by other journals in the field? And what content do readers of the Transactions want to read?Literature Review: Researchers in most fields occasionally analyze the entire body of literature within their disciplines as a result of a particular request or a research initiative.  The general purpose of these analyses is to assess the current state of the literature, although each analysis usually has a more specific focus that affects the entire field it covers.  Such reviews have had goals like identifying the leading works in a field, assessing the state of the literature of the field, providing a basis for changing the direction of a journal or body of literature, and assessing the alignment among different parts of  a body of literature. This study is rooted in a particular study intended to prepare for a transition among editors of a journal.  Methodology: To identify what the Transactions publishes and its unique niche among peer-reviewed journals in the field, researchers identified all peer-reviewed articles published by four major journals in professional and technical communication between January 2006 and December 2010: the Transactions, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Technical Communication, and Technical Communication Quarterly. Using the STC Body of Knowledge schema, two researchers coded the subjects of articles and adapting a schema by Klein (1999), they categorized the type of research underlying the articles.  To identify reader preferences, the other two researchers surveyed members of the IEEE Professional Communication Society (publisher of the Transactions) about their preferences for content and types of research (using the same schema). Results and Discussion: The studies provide insights into the extent of alignment between  the material published by the Transactions on Professional Communication and the preferences of its readers on the types of topics covered and the methods used to generate them.  To see the complete article, visit http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=47.  (Note: Only free to members of the IEEE Professional Communication Society and to those entering through university libraries with a subscription to IEEExplore.)

Rick Hutley posted a blog postWhy Data Scientists Are Not EnoughBig Data and analytics is all the rage today. Everywhere you turn someone is talking about the importance of tapping into the vast quantities of data at our disposal and using analytics to extract invaluable nuggets of gold. Is it really that simple? Can executives simply build a team of data scientists and set them loose on their mountains of data while they sit back and imagine how they are going to use the promised insights to become the next 800-pound gorilla in their market?Not exactly. It is true that analytics holds enormous potential for almost every company, in every industry but along with this great insightful power comes great executive responsibility. In February’s Forbes BrandVoice, Scott Gnau of Teradata comments, "Data has the power to drive innovation, reinvent your business, and tap into newfound opportunities and revenue streams-but only if you have the analytic tools, strategies and, perhaps more importantly, the corporate mentality to make the most of the information you have now and will gather in the future."Modern analytics enables us to view the world around us in ways we couldn’t even imagine before. We now have the ability to determine with ever increasing accuracy whether customers will be more interested in product A versus product B, or what level of risk a prospective applicant represents. We can almost instantly detect fraudulent activity, sense the emotional reaction of our users, predict when a piece of equipment is likely to fail or even determine which of the available courses of action is projected to have the most beneficial outcome for our companies. Whether we are interested in consumer sentiment, industry trends or corporate performance projections, analytics has a tool that can improve our insights.One of the first, and most critical requirements is of course building a team of experts that understand the arcane language and tools of analytics. This is a new breed of expert typically referred to as a "data scientist"; whose skills extend beyond those of the statistician or data analyst. These are highly skilled individuals who truly understand the fundamental nature of data and are able to develop complex analytic models that can interpret what the data are telling us - to derive the deep insights - and then present those back to their corporate masters in a way that enables business decisions and action. Not only are they able to use analytic tools and applications as statisticians and data analysts do, but these are the Jedi-masters of the data world who can also design and develop the tools that help executives avoid the "data swamp" where information goes to die. They live in a world of Markov Chains, Machine Learning and Neural Networks (to name a few) and the insights they derive are hugely important for today’s companies. But alone, data scientists are not enough.There is more to managing analytic insights than crunching the data. Far more, because the data is only as good as those who can interpret it. Business executives must take the insights derived by the data scientists and interpret them with reference to the company’s vision, goals, and various socioeconomic impact. It would be easy to think that data analytics is the silver bullet to all of a company’s woes but without someone to read the "tea leaves" and make decisions, the impact will be minimal or even counter-productive.Consider for a moment the potential impact on a company who uses their analytic insights to approach their customers in new ways. Possibly using more targeted marketing or predicting product failures and proactively reaching out to customers with remedies before the customer even knows they have a looming problem. Is this a good thing or not? How are customers likely to react? Will they see these moves as helpful or intrusive? Does using the data in this new way infringe consumer privacy rights - or even their perception of their privacy rights. Is it even legal, let alone ethical? Just because Data Scientists can provide the analytic insights does not mean a company should necessarily take action upon them.Business executives must learn the core lingua-franca of analytics. They have to know how to communicate with their Data Science team in a way that enables them to make sense of the analytic insights and from there, sound, well reasoned business decisions. In addition they must understand that they have specific responsibilities that their Data Science team do not own. This includes such issues as:Legal and regulatory complianceInformation securityCustomer and employee privacyEthicsAnalytics in today’s world of Big Data is critical to driving innovation and keeping companies ahead of the game. Failure to innovate will doom companies to quickly falling behind, and analytics provides the essential insights to enable those innovations and rapid business decisions. Analytics is far from hype - it’s very real - but executives must understand they have a crucial role to play in the analytic process. Data scientists alone are not enough - executives too must step to the analytics plate.Rick Hutley is the Director of Analytics at the University of the Pacific, frequent keynote speaker and former Vice President of Innovation at Cisco Systems.See More

I’m always surprised when leaders explain to me why it’s hard to make development a priority. They invariably say that it comes down to time. It’s not uncommon to hear some variation of: "My people are so maxed out, over-burdened, and under-resourced, that they don’t have a spare minute to dedicate to their development." But let’s deconstruct this argument against development.  The first half of the statement is probably the most compelling description imaginable of the business case for development. In our flat and flat-out world, employees are pressed to the limit every day… the limits of their time, skills, and resources. Development is a strategy to push those limits out, increase capacity, and enable expanded impact and results. It’s precisely when people are over-burdened and under-resourced that they need development most. And the second half of the statement… well, it reflects a fundamental misunderstanding about what development is and how it works.  For too long, development has been tucked away in a corner, brought out at annual reviews, and addressed through workshops and classes. But for development to fit the cadence of today’s workplace, it must be brought out of the corner and into the workflow. It must be woven into and around genuine contributions to the business. Real-time. No spare moments required. This demands leaders who are willing to entertain an expanded or updated definition of development… one that includes experiences that build skills and abilities. And, guess what? These experiences can actually focus on real work that needs to get done… creating the ultimate ‘two-fer’ for organizations. Do you have some budgeting, forecasting, or analysis work that must be accomplished?  Find an employee who wants and needs to expand her financial acumen… and turn real work into development. Surely there are projects that you’d like to move forward on. Find an employee who’s expressed an interest in supervision or leadership and assign them to lead a team… and turn real work into development. Are you burdened by too many cross-functional meetings? Find an employee who wants to broaden his exposure to the organization as a whole and invite him to be your designee… and turn real work into development. Powerful and relevant development is like a marriage made (not in heaven, but) in the workplace. A note of caution: This is not about off-loading distasteful tasks to others. This embedded, integrated approach to development demands truly understanding the employee and his/her goals and finding an appropriate match in terms of genuine work that must be accomplished to drive organizational results! The very work that is over-burdening you and your employees is the fodder required for in-role development. Simply looking at these tasks, assignments, and responsibilities in a different light can offer rich opportunities for everyone to transform while they perform. Images: www.dreamstime.net and by Penubag (Own work in Inkscape) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons The post Transforming While Performing appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

The first quarter 2012 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication is now available for reading online.Below are the abstracts of the articles.  Note:  As was mentioned earlier to the membership of the IEEE Professional Communication Society, although we will publish new issues of the Transactions, each quarter as we always have, starting in 2012, we only print those issues semi-annually.   So the March issue will be printed with the June issue.  The shipment in June is a double issue.  Similarly, the September issue will be printed with the December issue and that issue, too, is a double issue.  So the March issue is available online now through the IEEExplore.  The March and June issues will be printed and shipped in June.   To see the complete article, visit http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=47.  (Note: Only free to members of the IEEE Professional Communication Society (get your login from IEEE) and to those entering through university libraries with a subscription to IEEExplore.)Volume 55, Issue 1Research Article:  Exploring Think-Alouds in Usability Testing: An International Surveyby Sharon McDonald, Helen M. Edwards and Zingting Zhao.Research Article: An Examination of Deception in Virtual Teams: Effects of Deception on Task Performance, Mutuality, and Trustby Christie M. Fuller, Kent Marrett and Douglas P. TwitchellResearch Article: A Tale of Four Functions in a Multifunctional Device: Extending Implementation Intention Theoryby Julian Lin, Hock Chuan Chan, Lingling XuResearch Article: Too Early, Too Bad: Uncovering and Understanding the Initial Participation Paradox in Technology-Mediated Learning Teamsby Elizabeth Koh and John LimResearch Article: Assessing the Impact of Student Peer Review in Writing Instruction by Using the Normalized Compression Distanceby Sayuri Yoshizawa, Takao Terano, and Atsushi Yoshikawa Book ReviewsWriting in the Sciences: Exploring Conventions of Scientific Discourse (Part of the Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical Communication), (3rd edition) by Ann M. Penrose and Steven B. Katz. Reviewed by JoLynne Berrett Designing Visual Language: Strategies for Professional Communicators, Second Edition Book Review by Charles Kostelnick and David D. Roberts.  Reviewed by Garth Clayton.User-Centered Design for Personalization by Lex van Velsen.  Reviewed by Charity C. Tran. 

Michael P. Davidson posted a blog postTech Entrepreneurs vs. Terrorists: Could Your Tech Help Fight ISIS Online Recruitment?American entrepreneurs have disrupted entire industries and unleashed a new wave of human expression. Can they also disrupt one of the greatest security threats of our time - thereby securing a right to human expression for millions, if not billions, more? The absolutely can - and should.Recently, young men considering joining ISIS using search terms like "How to Join the Jihad in Syria" found themselves exposed to quality, gaming-feel video messages from former violent extremists called Abdullah-X. A former violent extremist, a credible voice cited by President Obama in the fight against violent extremism, produced the video in partnership with some tech and media savvy entrepreneurs - and it reached its target audience via basic web advertising technology.ISIS was none too happy and issued an urgent public response five pages long. Since then, 100,000 of youth at risk for radicalization have seen the video. This is an example of what can happen when tech and media entrepreneurs take on ISIS. They can win - or at least play in - the online battle of ideas.Such was a topic at last week’s White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, spotlighting the Internet and what is essentially a marketing of ideas war as the growing frontline in terrorist and violent extremist recruitment. An international war being waged today by ISIS and other violent extremist groups online. Their online recruitment and propaganda machines are highly sophisticated, tech-savvy, and focused - and the coordinated efforts to thwart them must be as well.Why does this matter to you? Your technology could be useful in the online fight against ISIS recruitment and propaganda.In 2012, Google Ideas gathered formerly radicalized individuals from different backgrounds to understand the circumstances that led them to extremism - unearthing deep insights into the motivations mindsets of violent extremist recruits.This work launched the Against Violent Extremism (AVE) network. AVE unites former violent extremists (formers) with private sector leaders through a powerful digital network - all with the goal of placing formers in between possible recruits and their violent extremist recruiters online. After all, the best voices to counter violent extremist recruitment messages are those who’ve been there.The Abdullah-X campaign also illustrates a point well seen at this week’s White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism - governments are ill-suited to battle this problem and simply cannot do so alone. Governments lack the credibility and creativity, while credible messengers lack the skills and resources to reach target audiences and scale.As groups like ISIS grow stronger, it is imperative that the U.S. and its allies - both public and private sector - utilize every innovation, talent and technology available. With the right content, technology, marketing, production, and financial support, Abdullah X and campaigns like them can reach at risk youth around the world. Unfortunately our successes do not match ISIS’ current level sophistication in peer-to-peer marking, social media and the use of tailored propaganda, and high-production value videos from the field - let alone the app ISIS created to extend their Twitter reach.While we all love adventures in capitalism, such endeavors would be irrelevant if the world we live in today doesn’t exist for future generations of tech entrepreneurs. Let’s work together to ensure that it does. It may very well be the most important conflict of our tech generation.Michael P. Davidson, CEO of Gen Next, connects innovative and successful leaders to dynamic mission-based ideas and organizations, creating powerful networks that help make the world better. See More

Today, General Hospitalmarks its 49th anniversary on the air.  Since As the World Turns was cancelled two years ago, it has been the longest running American soap opera.  (The U.K.’s Coronation Street has actually been on air longer—over 50 years).  And since the cancellations of fellow ABC soaps, All My Children and One Life to Live within the past year, the only vestige left of "Love in the afternoon" (the tagline for ABC soap opera lineup back in the 80s and 90s).  Although writers and producers approach soap operas as romances (and certainly, romance is central to their plot lines), that they are structured around families, explore relationships among family, friends, and co-workers, and use social issues as plot points suggests that their overall impact goes well beyond the basic romance.  In a recent commentary in the New York Times, author Patrick Healy shares some of the lessons he’s learned from soaps.  I’ve mentioned many of the lessons that I’ve learned through soap operas in the classes I teach. Some focus on behind-the-scenes lessons (even before the advent of the soap opera press, I paid close attention to the writing staffs of soaps), such as the roles of contractual and staffing issues guiding the plotting of Bill and Laura’s star-crossed romance on Days of Our Lives in the 70s, how annoying the authorities ultimately has serious consequences (like headwriter Harding Lemay who, fed up with the ad-libbing of an actress on Another World, killed off Mary Matthews, acknowledging that she died for no other reason than the headwriter wanted her to),  and how sometimes "outlandish" is needed to gain attention, as headwriter James E. Reilly demonstrated when using the demonic possession of Marlena to compete with O.J. Simpson and the rise of reality TV (also on Days of Our Lives)—but it has to be an "in-character" outlandish rather than "out of left field"outlandish, as learned from Guiding Light turning Reva into a clone.  And the powe Others focus on the lessons learned on-screen, such as the cognitive dissonance caused when Dorian’s first on-screen kiss with Mark Toland started in the cliffhanger (closing) scene of one episode, in which Dorian was played by fill-in-actress Dixie Carter, and she completed the kiss the following day, played by regular actress Nancy Pinkerton, who had just returned from a medical leave.  Other lessons learned include that of Jill Abbott on the Young and the Restless, who—after being twice screwed over royally by Mrs. Chancellor—learned how to protect herself by becoming the screwer-overer, while Nina Webster and Bridget Reardon who, also having had been screwed over, ended up discovering and flexing their spines. In their day, soaps launched conversations (nothing could bond Americans trekking through Europe like the latest updates on All My Children) and inspired others to act (I remember reading years ago that one reader followed Mrs. Chancellor’s trips on and off the wagon, matching her drink for drink when Mrs. Chancellor was drinking, then going on the wagon when Mrs. Chancellor did) or the stories of characters who went for cancer screenings when Bert Bauer was diagnosed with cervical cancer.  Although talk and lifestyle shows address similar topics, that they start and end most of these conversations in 15 or 30 minutes usually means they lack the emotional and intellectual impact that comes from unfolding the story in 5 to 15 minute bites over a period of 3 to 18 months.  They pack a whollop when they reach their climax in a way that no talk show interview can.   As fans of General Hospital  celebrate this anniversary, many worry that the show won’t live to see its fiftieth.  ABC loudly signaled its intentions to cancel a year ago when it signed Katie Couric for a talk show, then scheduled it during the time slot for General Hospital—after years of quietly signaling its intentions by letting the show degenerate into a repetitive mob story and destroying its most beloved characters in the process, stories that ostensibly showed the characters as three dimensional but merely made them unmotivated, unlikeable, and most of all, barely watchable.  Circumstances other than story might salvage the show, but its continued longevity is only assured if it returns to the core of what makes soap operas so special: the opportunity to watch, feel, and learn about relationships and life.  For Patrick Healy’s heartfelt ode to the life lessons learned from soap operas, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/arts/television/one-life-to-live-and-lessons-for-real-life.html?_r=2&ref=patrickdhealy&pagewanted=all