In a few minutes, I'll be heading out the door to spend a day with other creative business owners, talking about what we want for our businesses in 2016. Because I'm self-employed, I have to intentionally make the space in my business life to do some reflection and planning even though in the next few weeks, I have several pieces of business I need to complete.  I treasure this time with trusted colleagues because I can freely share my hopes and dreams for the future and participate in helping them achieve their own possibilities. This is powerful work and I know I need to make time for it in my life.  We structure our time together by giving each person 30-45 minutes of our focused attention. Each person chooses how they want to use that time and what they want to ask the rest of us to give them. I'll be sharing a book I'm planning and some marketing materials I want feedback on. Someone else is interested in exploring how she can increase revenue while still holding on to the customers she has who can't afford to pay more. And another member of the group wants to look at how she can combine her full-time job and her side gig into a life that feels cohesive and do-able.  Taking time out from the To Do lists and the pressure of productivity is critical to our personal and professional growth. I'm grateful for the opportunity to work with smart, thoughtful, creative people who value reflection and are willing to take the time out with me.  I also find that this work strengthens our relationships and helps us build the trust and care that sometimes feels like it's missing from our work lives. Yes, I will get great ideas and feedback, but I will also feel the amazing rush of connecting to the dreams and aspirations of people I really care for. I can't think of a better way to spend a Friday.  How do you make space in your life to plan for the future and connect with others to help them achieve their dreams? 

I've been looking for new ways to engage with folks online and decided that it was time to jump in to Blab. Not only can I bring on scheduled guests with this live video-streaming platform, I can also invite YOU in to participate and ask questions, which is extremely cool! I've scheduled 3 upcoming sessions to address questions that have been coming into me via social media.  I've listed them below, along with information on how to join us.  The Career Clinics November 2, 2015--7 p.m. (EST)--My Organization Didn't Promote Me-Now What?! What happens when you do everything right and you don’t even get invited to interview for a promotional opportunity with your organization? That’s what one of our clients asked us and we’re going to break it down in this Blab Career Clinic. We’ll talk about how to deal with the disappointment and anger and what next steps you can take. We’ll also be taking your questions and comments! November 4, 2015--7 p.m. (EST)--Navigating Careers After 50 When I asked for questions on social media, I got a lot of questions about navigating careers after you turn 50. In this Blab Career Clinic we’re here to answer them! We’ll talk about how to make a career change and how to communicate your value to younger bosses and potential employers. We’ll also talk about how you can open up more options. And we’ll be taking your questions LIVE! November 11, 2015--7 p.m. (EST)--Finding Mentors, Sponsors and Other People You Need for Career Success Professional and personal success is all about making connections. In this Blab Career Clinic we’ll explore the different kinds of people you need to have in your network and how to develop the relationships that help you grow in your career. We’ll also be taking your questions and comments! How to Participate You can participate in a Blab session from your laptop/desktop or from your iPhone or iPad. If you plan to use your mobile device, you'll need to visit the App store to download the Blab app.  Now for some specifics.  If you're on Twitter, you can "subscribe" to a specific Blab session by going to my Blab profile page here and then clicking on "subscribe." You'll be prompted to sign in through your Twitter account and then will receive a notification reminder when the Blab goes live.  2. You don't HAVE to subscribe to attend!  You can also just click on the appropriate title link above, which will take you to the Blab session page. Bookmark the page for the session you want to attend and add it to your calendar.  When you're ready to attend, you can just click on that link and it will take you into the live session.  3. I've put together a quick Blab Tip Sheet that you can access here. You may want to keep this handy the first time you join in.    I'm really excited to see how we can use Blab for career conversations and to build community. I hope you'll join us!  

In my work, I meet a lot of ambitious people who feel stuck in their current jobs. As organizations downsize, "rightsize" and flatten out, the opportunities to stretch and grow within an organization have become more limited.  And many organizations are in survival mode, just trying to hold on, which doesn't create a lot of space for the kind of positive, intentional growth that these people are craving. Being stuck in crisis on a regular basis is just not conducive to a positive career trajectory.  Most people, when faced with this situation, begin looking for a new job with a new organization. This can work for some, but when we still have fewer jobs than job seekers, this isn't going to be the answer for everyone. And frankly, many times the work these people want to do isn't going to be found in a "job." What they are craving is an opportunity to use their strengths and develop their skills in some new ways that may just not be contained in a job opening.  Instead of putting energy into a job search--the endless hours of looking for job openings and tailoring your resume to meet someone else's requirements--consider using that same energy to focus on a passion project.  Using a Passion Project to Power Up Your Career When you put your energy into passion projects, you are focusing on your unique talents, gifts and sparks.  One of my favorite stories of how a passion project can turbocharge your career is Rosetta Thurman of Happy Black Woman. When I first met her 8 years ago, Rosetta was a 20-something nonprofit executive. She enjoyed her work, but also knew that she wanted to stretch and grow in some other ways, so she began going after speaking gigs. At the same time, she was blogging, including creating her Happy Black Woman blog where she was sharing her ideas and thoughts on how to create an empowered happy life.  Eight years later she has a highly successful business that allows her to work from anywhere in the world.  If Rosetta had put her energy into finding another job, she might still be working as a nonprofit exec--maybe at a larger nonprofit. But her passion project led to something much bigger--something that was much more uniquely suited to her talents and gifts. It also gave her the freedom and independence that she craved.      Another person who is using passion projects to power her career growth is Monica Montgomery. While working her full-time job as Action Director at the Lewis Latimer Historic House Museum in New York, she is also the co-founder of Museum Hue  and a speaker at museum events all over the country. Although this work is related to her current job, it allows her to stretch and grow in ways that no job could ever do. She is developing entrepreneurial skills, expanding her networks in ways that support her professional growth goals and creating new opportunities for herself that probably wouldn't through a job.        One of the reasons I believe strongly in the power of passion projects as a way to grow your career is because it is in our passions that we find our best selves. The whole point of a passion project is that it comes from what we care about the most deeply and it calls forth from us our unique talents and gifts.  Working with our passions is more energizing and inspiring, too. We draw to us other people who feel that energy and who can contribute to our success in different ways. This can give us a much-needed boost to go on with our daily work  And our passion projects have us focusing not on what we can do to meet the expectations of an employer, but on our own goals and growth. We are setting the agenda and we are determining how we want to make things happen. This is powerful stuff that can have surprising impacts on our lives.    If you begin to feel stuck in your career, although it may make sense to find another job, you should seriously consider how working on a passion project could be the fix that you need. Don't think of your job as a prison from which you must escape. Instead, think of it as the home base from which you can develop yourself in other ways.  Now--what do you need to do to start that passion project?! ______________________________________________________________________________________ What happens if you went for a promotion and didn't get it? Join me for my first Career Clinic on Blab on November 2 at 7 p.m. (EST) when we'll be talking about how to move on when you're passed over. Check out the other upcoming Career Clinics and get info on how to participate through Blab here. 

Short on time but still want to do something that will help you in your career? Here are ideas for you to try that take only two, five or 15 minutes a day. In 2 minutes you can. . .  Do a Power Pose Researcher Amy Cuddy has found that just 2 minutes of power posing per day can improve your performance in a job interview, meeting, etc.    Do a 2-Minute Meditation Meditation breaks can help you re-energize and re-focus. Try this one to get you started.  Keep a One Sentence Journal Do this at the end of your work day as a closing ritual. Write down one thing you learned, one significant experience you had that day or one big question that came up for you.  Declutter your brain Do a 2-minute, stream of consciousness free-write of everything that's on your mind. Then dump it in the trash. It can be a great way to declutter and get back on track.  In 5 minutes you can . . .  Send an "I appreciate you" Email Thriving careers are built on relationships and nothing strengthens a relationship like showing someone you appreciate them. Take 5 minutes to send someone a quick email of thanks or appreciation. It can be for something specific and in the moment ("Wanted to let you know how much I appreciated how you handled that meeting"). Or it can be more general ("I've been thinking about people who have really had an impact on my career and I wanted to thank you for how you've supported me over the years").  The email doesn't have to be long--just sincere and clear about what you appreciate about the person.  Try this at the beginning or end of the day or when you are feeling particularly stressed. Appreciating someone in bad moments can remind you of the good things in your work life.  Expand someone else's network Another great way to build relationships is by connecting two people who don't know each other. Here's a nice article on how to do great email introductions.  Keep track of and celebrate your small wins Teresa Amabile has found that people who keep track of their progress by logging small wins feel more positive and empowered at work. Take 5 minutes to log your wins.  Here's a log that you can use. After you've done this for awhile, take a few minutes more to look back at your entries and see where small progress has become bigger.    In 15 minutes you can . . .  Reflect on these three questions These are a good way to end the week. Try answering them on Friday before you leave or even first thing Saturday morning to think back through your week.  Take an actionable, concrete step on a passion project You know that passion project that's been hanging out in your brain? Do something to make it happen. Make a phone call, send an email, do some research, write something, draw something. People have written books in 15-minute increments. You can take 15 minutes to move your project forward.  If you don't have a passion project, spend 15 minutes planning one.  Help someone else move their passion project forward So you don't have your own passion project going on? That's OK. Build your relationships by helping someone else. How can you take 15 minutes of your day to help someone else be successful in achieving their dream?  Do an accountability call with a partner Schedule 15 minutes a week--7.5 minutes per person--for you and a partner to talk about progress on your personal professional development goals. Say what happened, where you succeeded, where you were challenged and then what you will commit to for the following week. See how you can help each other move forward.    The key to making progress in your career is small steps, taken daily. Try experimenting with some of these and see what happens.  ______________________________________________________________________ What happens when you go for a promotion but don't get it? Join me for my first Career Clinic on Blab on November 2 at 7 p.m. (EST) when we'll be talking about how to move on when you're passed over. Check out the other upcoming Career Clinics and get info on how to participate through Blab here.   

Professional and personal success is all about making connections. In this Blab Career Clinic we’ll explore the different kinds of people you need to have in your network and how to develop the relationships that help you grow in your career. We’ll also be taking your questions and comments! November 11, 2015--7 p.m. EST You can participate in the Blab when we go live from this page! Here's a "Cheat Sheet" of tips you can use if you're new to Blab. If you run into problems viewing here, you can alsocheck it out on the Blab.im site.    

In celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week, which runs from November 16-22, I've scheduled a special Career Clinic on November 16 at 7 p.m.--How to Start a Side Gig. I'll be talking with Melissa A. Rowe, M.Ed. who is the founder of Capture Greatness, a Philadelphia-based scholarship writing and college coaching initiative created to help first-generation college goers and students from under-resourced schools make their dream of college an educational and economic reality. Melissa works full-time and is a perfect example of how you can create a side business from your passion, so I'm really excited to talk with her and have her share some of her tips for how to get started. We'll also be taking your questions on how to create a side business while you're working at a job and we may even get a few other solopreneurs to join us to share their advice and experiences.  Recently Melissa was recognized as an American Graduate Champion, so you can see a little of what she's about from the video below:   If you're on Twitter, you can go here to subscribe to attend this session or any of the other upcoming Career Clinics.  To learn more about how Blab works (I promise that it's REALLY simple), go here for more info and a tip sheet to participate.    I'll be planning some more activities for Global Entrepreneurship Week, so stay tuned! 

In career development, we talk a lot about "transferable skills." These are skills that are not occupation-specific, but that can be used in a variety of jobs--skills like writing, planning, managing your time, etc. The nature and quality of your transferable skills are key to creating a thriving career because they help you bridge occupations and industries, allowing you to move more easily into new opportunities or to create opportunities for yourself. When people decide  that they need to make a career change, we are usually looking at how they can use their transferable skills. And when jobs in a particular industry begins to dry up, strong transferable skills can help people move more easily into a new industry or occupation. In a world where jobs are disappearing faster than we can create them--primarily because of the impact that technology is having on our lives--we need to be re-thinking our skills in many different ways, but definitely in terms of the transferable skills we are building.    The New Transferable Skills The other day I ran across a post from Tanmay Vora on Skills for Success in a Disruptive World of Work. It's great stuff, drawing from this article by  Janna Q. Anderson.  Here's a full look at the skills: I would agree completely with these skill sets and would add a few of my own: Design Thinking--the ability to apply the design thinking process of Empathy-->Defining the problem-->Ideate-->Prototype-->Test to address challenges and create new possibilities.  Deep Listening--this is listening to learn, not listening to document or to judge. This is listening that's based in curiosity.  Questioning--the capacity to formulate game-changing questions, to question assumptions and to use questions that create possibility and energy.  Effectual Thinking--Effectuation is how entrepreneurs think and act. The principles of effectual thinking provide a way for you have better control over a future that is inherently unpredictable. Here's more on the basics of Effectual Thinking.  Convening--Creating group structures and gatherings that draw out a group's "best self." This involves moving from being a hero to being a host--focusing on using group practices that honor differences and engage people in expressing their best ideas and possibilities.  As we move further into a world where the robots have already taken over, we need to think differently about what it means to have transferable skills. This list is a good place to start.  How do you measure up?    ______________________________________________________  What happens when you go for a promotion but don't get it? Join me for my first Career Clinic on Blab on November 2 at 7 p.m. (EST) when we'll be talking about how to move on when you're passed over.Check out the other upcoming Career Clinics and get info on how to participate through Blab here.           

I'm very excited to announce the launch of my new Thrive! e-course on Ruzuku. Its a mini course that will help you re-design your career based on the 4 Practices of Thriving--Clarify, Connect, Create and Cope. These are the practices I use in all my own work and in my work with both my individual and organizational clients.  The mini course will: Give you an introduction to the 4 Practices of Thriving! Provide you with a template for creating and implementing 30-day experiments that will help you utilize the 4 practices to create a thriving career.  I've included specific activities and ideas for implementing each of the practices and you will get links to other resources as well.  Help you monitor progress and evaluate your Thriving! Plan.  This is an ACTION-ORIENTED course--the more you DO the more changes you will see. The Practices will help you achieve any of your individual career goals, whether you are looking for a new job, seeking a promotion, thinking about starting a side gig, considering a career change or just wanting to re-energize a tired work life. To access the course, you can sign up here. You will get free, immediate access to all the modules and can start working on your Thrive! plan today. Take a look and let me know what you think. I'd love your feedback!  

A few years ago I was working with a client who was feeling stuck in her life and career. I had her do some work with visuals to explore where she felt she was currently and where she wanted to be.  This was the first image she created of her current reality.    Then I asked her to create an image of where she wanted to be. This is what she came up with: It wasn't hard to figure out why she felt stuck. She had too much going on! That first image is just an explosion, radiating out from the fireworks in the middle. She was being pulled in 50 different directions and had a hard time putting focus into just a few of the most important places.  Diagnosing Your "Stuck" In my experience, there are two distinct types of "stuck"--the stuckness of the over-thinker and the stuckness of the over-doer.  Are You An Over-Thinker? The first type of stuck is the muddy slog of inertia that is the domain of the over-thinker. Often (but not always) these are the introverts who are naturally drawn to thinking before acting. When these people are stuck, it's because they are so busy worrying about making the "right" move, they make no moves at all. They are the perfectionists and the worriers, the people who need to do just one more piece of research or talk to just one more person before they feel comfortable making their next move. But somehow they never actually move. They are stuck in the reflection part of the Act/Reflect cycle.  Or Are You an Over-Doer?  The other version of "stuck" is where my client was at. It's the obsessive do-er's type of stuck. These are often the more extroverted types who thrive on activity and being in the outer world. They are also the people who feel compelled to PROVE themselves.  In this brand of stuckness, I find people who are constantly moving, taking no time to reflect on what they are doing or why. Action is what counts and they have a hard time creating the space for reflection so that their actions are more intentional and in alignment with what they want. These people are stuck in the action part of Act/Reflect.  When you're stuck, it's helpful to try to figure out which camp you fall into because treating your stuckness will depend on whether you're an over-thinker or  an over-doer. Your stuckness is really an imbalance in the Act/Reflect cycle.  Treating Your "Stuck"  While both over-thinkers and over-doers can benefit from doing some de-cluttering, moving out of stuck is essentially a different process for each type. The over-thinkers need more action and the over-doers need more reflection.  Over-Thinkers If you're an over-thinker, then the way to get out of "stuck" is by bringing more action into your life. Over-thinkers need to make a commitment to just doing things, rather than thinking about doing something. And that action cannot be doing one more bit of research or asking one more person what you should do. It has to be action that is in alignment with your vision of where you want to go and that is designed to actually move you in that direction. You need to experiment with different identities and trust the mess that comes with action. You have to let go of the need to do things perfectly and just embrace doing anything at all.  Over-Doers Over-doers have a different task. You need to create space for yourself for more reflection so you can be more intentional about what you are doing and why you are doing it. You may need to start saying "no" more often and streamlining your life to make room for more thinking. Try incorporating some reflection rituals  to create a reflection habit. Your task is to put some real intention and focus behind your actions, rather than being caught in an endless loop of mindless activity that doesn't really go anywhere. Embrace your power to do, but put some mindfulness behind it.  Being "stuck" is really about imbalance--choosing either reflection or action at the expense of the other part of the cycle. To get unstuck,  you have to restore balance to the cycle of Act/Reflect. Knowing your own tendencies towards one or the other can help you quickly figure out how to get moving when you find yourself stuck in one place.   The next time you feel stuck, consider whether your stuckness is a result of over-thinking or over-doing and then look at what you can do to restore the balance.  ______________________________________________________________________________ Check out my new Thrive! online mini course. It's FREE and will help you create your 30 Day Plan for Thriving by implementing the 4 Practices of Thriving!

Yesterday I completed the second session of a two-day training I did for an organizational client on relationship selling. In the first session, I talked with the staff about different strategies for developing and deepening relationships with potential customers and then I had them come up with personal action plans for experimenting with these strategies over the next few weeks. The idea was that they would try out some new ideas and then we would discuss what had happened as a result.  I knew it was risky to do this, but I was hoping that the risk would pay off. It didn't. Only a couple had tried anything new and most had returned to their jobs where they continued to do what they had always done.  Here's the thing. You can go to all the training and development workshops in the world, read tons of books, participate in online courses. None of this will matter if you don't take the step of actually letting it guide you to do things differently.  Courses, workshops, books, blog posts, articles--all of this is simply information that lives in your head. For it to make a difference, for it to actually help you grow, you must DO something with it.  You have to get out of your comfort zone and the rote way you've always done your work. Figure out how you're going to USE what you're learning to transform how you're living.  Create a 30-day experiment for yourself.  Find a project where you can try out your new skills or knowledge. Bring what you're learning into a meeting or interaction with a colleague or client.  Take on a stretch assignment that lets you use the new skill. Incorporate a new idea into your regular work flow.  Just reading something or sitting through a class isn't real learning. It is through action, experience and practice that you learn. If you aren't willing to take that all-important step, then don't bother with the articles, courses, workshops, etc. You've already decided to stay where you are.  ___________________________________________________________________ Check out my new Thrive! online mini course. It's FREE and will help you create your 30 Day Plan for Thriving by implementing the 4 Practices of Thriving! And join us tomorrow night on Blab for our next Career Clinic, where we'll be discussing mentors, sponsors and others who can help you create a successful career. You can find all of the upcoming Blab Career Clinics here. 

I started this blog in 2007--almost 9 years ago.  When I began, it was a place that I used for reflective practice, for what John Stepper calls Working Out Loud. I LOVED those days. I had to control myself from posting to my blog several times a day because I was overflowing with so many ideas and possibilities and my blog posts practically wrote themselves.  I read books and articles and wrote about how they were impacting my thinking. I shared ideas, responded to other bloggers, allowed myself to be passionate and excited and to follow what I loved and what interested me, even if it it didn't seem to have immediate application to my work or "make sense" to people who might be reading what I wrote.  I did things like the 31 Day Blogging Challenge and the 31 Day Comment Challenge, projects that helped me develop my skills, but more importantly, they helped me to connect to a broader worldwide community of practice. Through these kinds of projects and through my own reflective approach to blogging, I met and worked with people from all over the world--people who challenged my thinking, who brought me new ideas, who shared their experiences and struggles and who helped create a sense of community.  We would read each other's posts, comment on each other's blogs, and engage in deep, thoughtful conversations that helped us grow both personally and professionally.  Then something happened. Part of it was the rise of other platforms like Facebook and Twitter that favor short form, pithy thinking and approaches to problems. Some of the people I engaged with in the early days found ways to incorporate these strategies into their overall process, but for whatever reason, I wasn't able to do that as easily.  At key points I found that I needed to take long breaks from being online and in taking those breaks, I fell out of the communities that I'd been so connected to in the earlier days. It's hard (if not impossible) to come back in when you've been away for awhile, so that definitely has had an impact.  But the other thing I'm realizing is deeper, more insidious--something that I need to address head on.  This morning I was reading Austin Kleon's Show Your Work: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered. Number 7 on the list is "Don't Become Human Spam" and oh, Dear God, did that one hit home.  I have become Human Spam.  I am no longer the host nor the beginner, nor the person who is working out loud. I no longer ask  big questions or engage with the messiness of the work that I do in a public space. I do these things in private--with a select group of people and in my journals--but I don't do them here because I've wanted to be "helpful" and to somehow be more "focused"  and "relevant." I've been afraid of how people might be confused by the many types of things that I do and the many areas of interest that I have. I've been focused on finding and packaging "my brand" to make myself more comprehensible and digestible rather than on just being who and what I am and letting the chips fall where they may.  I've been afraid that posts will be too long--that if I give you the "Why" and the "how" of my thinking, you'll tune out. (Many of you will, but so what? That's life)  I've thought that my "value" comes from giving you 5 ideas for things you can do to help your career in 5 minutes, knowing in my heart that you are NOT going to be able to have a healthy thriving career when you only give it 5 minutes a day. But people want short posts and listicles, so that's what I should give you.  I've been afraid to talk about how worried I am for all of us, of how I think that the structures and spaces we are living in at work and in life are sucking us dry. I do "career development" work, but there's a HUGE part of me that believes that all of our focus on work is in fact the big problem. If we aren't "productive, contributing members of society" then the message we receive from our culture is that we have no value. And I'm afraid that in doing career work, I end up contributing to that.  So all of my fears have turned me into someone I don't recognize. I'm not bringing my "best self" to my work anymore, partly because I'm no longer working out loud.  Screw that.  It's killing me. It's killing the quality of my work.  I have become Human Spam.  And I apologize to you for that.  I need to switch things up around here. I'm not totally sure what that looks like, but I'm sure that it will be revealed to me as I apply the Vampire Test to my posts. If it gives energy and life--if it feels juicy and meaningful, I will write about it. If it feels dead, if it feels like 50 other people could have written it (and that they probably have), I won't write about it.  Expect less "finished product" around here and more "work in progress." Expect me to talk about things other than how you can have a good career plan because honestly, I care about WAY more than what it takes to have a thriving career. You are more than your job. Work can give a sense of purpose, but so can volunteering, art, parenting, and a whole host of other things.  There will be fewer posts that link back into my old stuff and more posts that link out to ideas and people who get me thinking. Some of them will have to do with careers, but others won't. I learn from artists, from writers and poets, from designers and strategists. It's all grist for the mill and I do my best work when I share that.  I want to be less hero and more host. Fewer answers and more questions. Less presentation, more conversation.  If you're looking for my "brand"--it's learning from everything I can about how we can be loving, thriving, vibrant people who create loving, thriving vibrant lives and communities for ourselves. Some of these communities are at work and through work. Some aren't. I plan to be open to that. If that turns you on, I hope you keep reading. If it doesn't, that's cool too.  Either way, I have to follow my heart in this. I have to stop being Human Spam. 

On Friday afternoon, about an hour after I published my post on becoming human spam, my friend Catherine Lombardozzi, author of Learning Environments by Design, called me. She wanted to tell me how much the post resonated with her and in our ensuing discussion, I stumbled into something that's been bothering me for both myself and for all of us. It's the problem of voice--of how we explore and express our authenticity and wholeness.  Here's what I believe.  All of us carry inside of ourselves a symphony. If you listen to a symphony, there are different instruments, each playing a different part, a different role, all of the parts coming together to create a full, glorious piece of music. Some of the instruments and their parts, if you listen to them alone, make no sense--they are supporting players to the melody and there is little that you might recognize in that portion of the music. Some instruments may even disappear for a time, or take a back seat. But they add richness and vibrancy to the overall piece. Their loss means it's no longer a symphony.  Other instruments carry the melody. You might listen to to just that part and be able to tell what the symphony was about. But you wouldn't be able to appreciate it fully--to know it in all of its glory and beauty.  We live in a society that doesn't always appreciate the symphony. It wants you to play one instrument--maybe a couple of them--and it wants you to forget about the other parts and instruments that make your symphony full and glorious. We want you to carry the melody, the part that is most recognizable to us. If you insist on performing a symphony, then we get upset if you need to practice first. Maybe you haven't quite perfected the drums part or the horns, so your symphony seems a little cacophonous to our ears. We are quick to shame you--to tell you to shut up, take that instrument home. But what might have happened if we let you practice a little, so you could bring in that all-important section of yourself? What if you were able to add that to the piece to make it richer?  It's important that we go beyond the melody of our lives--that we bring in all instruments and let them contribute to the power of who we are. What parts of the symphony of your life do you silence and how can you bring them back in?   

Today kicks off Global Entrepreneurship Week and I'm celebrating with a Blab Career Clinic tonight at 7 p.m. (EST) on starting a side gig with Melissa A. Rowe, M.Ed. who is a full-time educator and founder of Capture Greatness. We'll cover how she started and also give people a chance to join us through chat and video to ask their own questions. Melissa is fun and smart and I know it will be a lively conversation!  Having a side gig is one of the best ways to create security for yourself in your career and it's a topic that's near and dear to my heart. I also find that figuring out how to start a side gig is one of the questions I'm asked most frequently, so that's part of why we decided to do a Career Clinic on it.  A few months ago I put out a survey to ask people about their experiences in starting a side gig. Only 5 people answered, but their responses were interesting. The number one response I got for what gets in the way of starting a side business was feeling alone and isolated.  I had thought it would be lack of time, since that seems to be the excuse we all have for why we don't pursue a dream, so this was interesting to me. I have to say it makes total sense, though, and it's one of the reasons that I started doing the Speedy Startup, because I've observed how much people need a community of other entrepreneurs around them, especially in making those first tentative steps into working for yourself. If you're thinking about going this route, finding other people to work with you might be a good first step.  I also asked people what they were looking for in their side business that they weren't finding in their 9-5. Most were looking for a way to supplement their income, of course, but they also wanted more freedom of expression and a way to make a difference in the world.  I find that people start to think about a side gig when they are feeling restricted and don't feel purpose in their work lives, so this makes a lot of sense to me too.   I'd love to hear from you if a side business is part of your career plan--or even if you think it might be. Please join us tonight on Blab to talk more (here are instructions on how to participate) and bring your questions, thoughts, etc.   

I have found something I wish I wrote called Screw Finding Your Passion by Mark Manson (h/t to Lodi Planting for the link) and it is fantastic. It is the advice we need to hear (note there is cursing so if you are offended by that, I apologize. Don't let that get in the way of absorbing the message, though). Here's what I loved: Today I received approximately the 11,504th email this year from a person telling me that they don’t know what to do with their life. And like all of the others, this person asked me if I had any ideas of what they could do, where they could start, where to "find their passion." And of course, I didn’t respond. Why? Because I have no fucking clue. If you don’t have any idea what to do with yourself, what makes you think some jackass with a website would? I’m a writer, not a fortune teller. But more importantly, what I want to say to these people is this: that’s the whole point — "not knowing" is the whole fucking point. Life is all about not knowing, and then doing something anyway. All of life is like this. All of it. And it’s not going to get any easier just because you found out you love your job cleaning septic tanks or you scored a dream gig writing indie movies. Not knowing is the whole point.  That's right. We want guarantees in a life that is filled with absolutely NO guarantees. I don't even know if I will be alive from one second to the next. Yet I persist.  Mark goes on: The problem is not a lack of passion for something. The problem is productivity. The problem is perception. The problem is acceptance. The problem is the, "Oh, well that’s just not a realistic option," or "Mom and Dad would kill me if I tried to do that, they say I should be a doctor" or "That’s crazy, you can’t buy a BMW with the money you make doing that." The problem isn’t passion. It’s never passion. It’s priorities. More truth.  It's not passion. It's priorities.  It's also courage. Are you willing to commit to something that you know in your heart is right, even though other people are telling you that it's "crazy" or "a pipe dream" or whatever else we tell people who want to follow something that's important to them?  If you have to look for what you enjoy in life, then you’re not going to enjoy anything. And the real truth is that you already enjoy something. You already enjoy many things. You’re just choosing to ignore them. That's it. You know your passions. And if you don't--if you really don't have things that you care about in your life--then you have a much bigger problem than finding the job that's right for you because you are living a life that is dead and lifeless and THAT's your problem. A new job is not going to change that.  I'm with Mark. Your passion has already found you. It's the thing (or things) that you do that put you in flow, that make you feel alive and joyful and that you just DO. Your passions are in your sparks. What lights the fire within you? Don't come to me saying you don't know what you love to do. Nine times out of 10 you do. The problem is that you haven't figured out what to do with that--if you can build a career or a business on it. Maybe you can't. But I would also say, "how do you know you can't?" This guy is making a living filming garbage trucks, setting them to heavy metal music and then uploading them to YouTube where millions of weary parents tap can find them to share with their enraptured pre-schoolers. It's safe to say most of us would have told him he was "crazy" for thinking he could have a job doing this. Yet here he is.  I'm going to say this again. It's not "finding your passion" that is the issue. You already know what gives you joy and purpose. The question is, are you going to do something with that? How are you going to make it a priority? What might you have to give up? And how are you going to engage with those passions to discover how they could fuel your life?   

Tonight is our second Blab Career Clinic in honor of Global Entrepreneurship week and our plan is to talk about how to manage your career like an entrepreneur.  One of the things I've noticed as I work with people in my 12-week entrepreneurial coaching/mastermind groups is that one of the biggest shifts we have to work on is moving from thinking like an employee into thinking like an entrepreneur.   I actually find that it's kind of sad that I have to do this because kids are naturally entrepreneurial and then we train it out of them. So much of what we do in school and in our interactions with young people is about teaching them to conform, to follow directions, to be dependent on the grade of a supervisor for their sense of self. This is continually reinforced in our career advice and in our workplaces, so that by the time I'm working with the people in my groups (who are typically in their 30's and up), we are dealing with a lot of baggage and ideas that they've absorbed about what it means to work for someone else, and they have little clue about how to work for themselves.  So tonight's Career Clinic is a forum for us to talk about this--how we can shift from thinking like an employee into thinking like a business owner, even when we have a job? I have some thoughts and ideas about this, but I also want to hear your thoughts. I think this is an area where we need more discussion, especially as we look at the ongoing shift away from "jobs" and into more freelance work. Even if you're working a job, you still need to think like a freelancer to hold onto it.  Our Blab Career Clinics have been fun--every time we get more people tuning in and have had some interesting conversations and insights from our participants. If you have the time, I really encourage you to join us at 7 p.m. (EST) tonight. Here's some info on how to participate if you are new to the Blab format.  Hope to see you there!

  When I wrote last Friday's post on being human spam, I had no idea how it would change me. It was one of those posts that wrote itself (often for me the best measure of it's "rightness") and I just felt this very strong need to put it out into the world.  Once I hit "publish," I felt an instant sense of relief. I literally felt that I could breathe again.  I also felt a huge sense of freedom. Almost immediately, I found myself filled with ideas and re-engaging with my work in some different ways.  I have no doubt that it was the act of acknowledging to myself what has been going on with my work and writing and then allowing myself to write that post that made the difference. It was a much-needed course correction.  One of the things that I talk with people about a lot is how in our lives and work we need to get better at doing these kinds of course-corrections.    I think that we spend a lot of time ignoring or even actively repressing in ourselves those things that feel "off" or "not right." Sometimes this is OK. It may be that we are having an off-day or an off-week.  But when those nagging feelings that something isn't working persist, we need to honor them. We need to let them out and explore them to see what might be going on.  We also need to share them with other people. In writing that post, I told you what was going on with me and how I was perceiving it. I got tons of emails and comments--more than I've received in a long time. People were supportive, letting me know that they valued what I write here. And they also shared their own struggles with these issues. I acknowledged something they were experiencing as well.  My public course correction opened me up to much-needed support from others that further validated to me that this was a good decision. But it also helped other people who have been having their own experiences with this. It was exactly the kind of impact and engagement that I was wanting.  My point here is this. There's value in paying attention to your feelings and to how you are engaging with your work and your life. There's value in acknowledging to yourself that something is off and in sharing that with other people. Even if you don't know where you need to go next, just saying out loud, "This is where I am right now and this is how I'm feeling about it" is critical. It opens up space for something new to emerge. It gives you room to breathe. 

About a month ago, I decided that I wanted to start experimenting with Blab, the latest entry in the video-streaming world. I had loved Google Hangouts, but found that it was pretty unstable, so moved about 6 months ago to using Zoom for the webinars and private video-conferencing that I do. I also experimented with Periscope--that is, I looked at what was happening on Periscope--but it felt very limited in its capacity to actually engage people. It would basically be me talking and then people tapping on the screen to show love and submitting questions/comments through chat. It felt like a lot to manage for not a lot of real return on engagement.  So when Blab popped up, giving me an opportunity to have up to 3 other guests coming in and out of the Blabs, that seemed way more appealing to me. I like to TALK with people if at all possible and with Blab, anyone can join into the conversations. I liked the serendipity of that.  We've been using Blab to run "Career Clinics"--I put out a topic, like "How to find a Mentor" or "Navigating Your Career in your 50's" and then we go into Blab to share ideas, talk about the issues, etc. As part of my commitment to doing more "working out loud," I wanted to share some of what I'm learning from running these sessions. What I'm Learning from (and on) Blab  Blab is less about "presenting" and more about conversation.  One of the reasons I was interested in Blab in the first place was because it seemed to invite more engagement from the audience. Any participant can ask to join the conversation and with a click of a mouse, I can accept them into the video discussion. I knew this, but for the first few Blabs we did, I was still in "presentation" mode, so had prepared extensive notes and outlines. Very quickly, though, I learned that kind of extensive preparation was not only unnecessary, but also tended to kill the energy of the conversations that were happening. Now I've learned to go with the flow and to allow the conversations to emerge. I prepare a few notes and thoughts, but focus much more on how I can try to ask questions and draw in the audience to participate.  Work with a "co-host" or have guests.  Because Blab is about conversations, it's a good idea to work with a co-host or to have scheduled guests join you on Blab. That way if you aren't getting engagement from the participants, you can still keep things active and interesting through your engagement with your co-host and/or your guest. I've seen a few Blabbers that do it alone, but I've found that my own attention tends to stay with Blabs where there are people having a conversation.  A lot (most?) of the "aha's" come from the participants.  I don't know if this is true for other Blabs, but in the Blabs we've been having, our participants have been amazing sources of information, ideas and inspiration. We're in Philadelphia and we've had people join us from Houston, Montreal, Portland, Atlanta, Scotland and even Pakistan! We put out some questions or ideas, but then they come in and take things to another level. It's been incredibly interesting, engaging and rewarding to make these new connections and learn so much from other people's experiences. Again, this is part of what intrigued me about using Blab and it's definitely been living up to what I wanted.  Where you start isn't necessarily where you're going to land--and you learn more when you're OK with that. I know that some Blabbers are using Blab to share specific content. But that wasn't what interested me about the platform. I wanted to share ideas and also to get a feel for how other people are thinking about different career questions.  I set an initial topic, but have found that most of the time, the participants take the discussions in some new and sometimes surprising directions. In one of our first Blabs, we wanted to talk about navigating your career in your 50's, but ended up spending a lot of time talking with one woman about what she was doing in her 40's to set herself up for success in her 50's. We got a lot of great info there and she opened up some good discussion about how we can do a better job of preparing ourselves.    In last night's discussion on creating your career from inspiration and appreciation, we talked about topics ranging from how to inspire pre-schoolers at a museum to how someone is managing a career split between Montreal and Brooklyn and the differences between the two cultures.  For me, all of this is grist for the mill, as well as a way to build relationships and see where other people are coming from.  Where I'm Going From Here on Blab November was a month for experimenting with Blab- seeing how the tech works (well, especially considering that it's in Beta) and getting a better feel for how I might want to use it to engage and learn.  One thing that's emerging for me is that I don't necessarily want to use it as a platform for "how to's" as we've been doing. What I'm observing is that there's a hunger for human connection and conversation about deeper issues. So part of what I want to do is explore how it works to use Blab to talk about some juicy questions--some related to work, maybe, but also questions that are bigger than that, as I'm more than just career stuff.  I also need to experiment with doing some Blabs during the day. We've been doing evening blabs because that's when my business partner/husband is available to be a co-host, but in December, we'll have the chance to do some sessions during the day and I'm curious to see if we'll get more involvement and engagement during working hours.  Right now I'm in the curiosity stage of learning about Blab--still being open to exploration and not quite sure where things might be going or where I want them to go. It's an interesting space to be in. I will say that I think it has a lot of potential, which is part of why I'm sticking with it for another 30-day experiment. 

One of the worst pieces of advice we give to people about pursuing a meaningful career is to "follow your passion."  In my experience, most people have a very narrow sense of what they are passionate about and, in many cases, they've lost touch altogether with any sense of passion in their lives. That is often what brings them to seek career advice in the first place. They essentially feel dead inside. Passion is nowhere to be found.  A better plan is what John Stepper calls "purposeful discovery." This is a form of goal-oriented exploration that opens up possibilities and reconnects you to the juiciness of your life.  The Purposeful Discovery Process You start by defining something you care about.  What questions are keeping you up at night? What do you feel yourself drawn to? What big problems do you want to solve? How do you want to grow your "sparks"? Open yourself to your own curiosity. Follow the energy of what seems interesting or exciting. Pay attention to what you want MORE of in your life.  Recognize that if you are feeling dead inside, you may need to be on the alert for the tiniest seeds of possibility. They will be small sparks, not a raging blaze, and you may have to spend some time intentionally learning about what captures your interest.  Also be aware that what piques your curiosity may have nothing to do with your actual job. Not only is this OK, it's probably preferable. The most fulfilling, profitable work in today's economy is a mash-up of skills and opportunities, bringing together different interests and ideas to form something unique. And frankly, you are less likely to find your calling when you are following a path already well-worn and defined by others. Be willing to go off-road for awhile.  As you identify avenues for exploration, you can begin to set goals for yourself.  At this stage I suggest loose goals--"I want to learn more about X" or "I want to develop my skills in Y." I love this goal that John Stepper suggests: "Explore what's out there." It's the ultimate goal for when you aren't really sure where you're going.  The point of your goal is to give some sense of purpose to your discovery process, the smallest nudge of guidance to your search.  Once you've set your goal(s), it's time for the discovery portion of "purposeful discovery."  Here, John's Working Out Loud Circles can be really helpful. He provides 12-weeks of purposeful activities that will guide you through a process to  achieving the goals you've set, working with others who want to commit to the Working Out Loud process. There's an emphasis on making your work visible, connecting to others with generosity, expanding your circle of connections, and improving your work as you go.  Part of what makes John's Circle process powerful is that you are doing it in community with other seekers. Although this is certainly something you can do on your own, I think you get further faster if you do it with others. There's also a lot to be said for the accountability that a group can provide. Sometimes it can be too easy for other parts of our lives to intrude, making it less likely that we'll persist.  If 12 weeks feels like too much of a commitment, consider an initial 30-day commitment to discovery. What can you do in 30 days to expose yourself to new possibilities and allow yourself to explore? Treat it like an experiment, where you are just trying some things out to see where they lead.  If you're struggling with how to get started on inspiring yourself, try what The Artist's Way author, Julia Cameron calls Artist's Dates. These are regularly scheduled dates you keep with yourself to explore and try out new things. This is about play and inspiration and does NOT have to be directly related to work. Again, you may find that it's better for you to explore realms outside of what you consider to be your normal work activities. You don't know where it might lead. (Here's a list of 101 Artist Date ideas to spark your imagination).  And don't think that the purposeful discovery process is only useful if you're considering a career change or are unhappy with your current job. It's also an incredibly valuable strategy for life-long learning and development, leading you to grow your skills and create new projects and ideas.  Ultimately, purposeful discovery is about expanding your horizons and exploring new possibilities with intention. I think it's far more powerful advice than just "follow your passion" that will get you much better results in the long run.   

I'm currently working with a colleague to create a Professional Learning Community and experience we're calling "Leadership Lab" that we plan to launch in January. As part of the planning, we're thinking very deeply about the skills and attitudes of Leadership that we feel are important.  This work is opening up a lot of questions for me about the nature of leadership, my own beliefs about what it means to lead and the kind of leader that I want to be. As part of my ongoing plan to do more working out loud, I thought it would be helpful to share some of this thought process here.  Leader as Hero, Leader as Host Four years ago I wrote a post about moving from being the hero to being the host, based on the work of Meg Wheatley. Essentially she talks about how America worships heroes--how we are always looking for a hero (i.e. a "leader") who is going to have all the answers and lead us out of our problems. This breeds passivity and dependency, of course--we turn our problems over to the leader and wait for him/her to figure it out. It also sets up a hierarchy of leaders and followers that leaves large numbers of people on the outside when they should be right in the thick of things. My personal belief is that everyone is a leader and that everyone's job is to help that inner leader emerge.  Most of the people I work with in other leadership programs have fully assumed the responsibility to be the hero. Many of them love it. These are the people who have a psychological need to be the rescuers (something I suffer from myself).  Sometimes they resent it. Usually they are exhausted by it. But everything they've been told about being a leader has communicated to them that they are the one who is responsible for finding and executing solutions. They operate under the principle that "the buck stops here" and their entire worth as a person is dependent on their ability to be the hero. This is admirable on some level, but also completely unworkable. We live in a complex, ever-changing world where problems have become so complicated and interwoven that it's impossible for any one person--or even a small group of people--to know the right answers or to be able to "save the day." And frankly, it's too much pressure for most of us.  Wheatley suggests that the solution is in moving from thinking of leaders as heroes into thinking of leadership as hosting the space for people to come together to discover solutions through meaningful conversations and structured exploration and action.  There are many things that appeal to me about this notion of leadership, but probably what I think is most important is that this is a non-hierarchical idea of what it means to lead, one that is far more effective for today's networked ways of living and working. When you are focused on hosting space, you are creating opportunities for new relationships, new ideas and new solutions to emerge. This is fundamental in today's society.  For me, this idea of leader as host has become absolutely CORE to my beliefs about leadership. I start here and build out.  Leadership as "Doing the Right Things" Another idea that has been percolating for some time is from Peter Drucker's quote about management vs. leadership: I have found that many of the conversations I have with people about "leadership" are really questions of management. People are under a lot of organizational pressure to conform to their employer's demands, especially when they are in managerial/supervisory positions. They are obsessed with doing things right--of crossing all the "t's" and dotting all the "i's" and understanding "best practices" in both areas.  But in all of this work to do things right, they spend very little time thinking about whether or not they are doing the right things. This capacity to step back, to ask better questions, to question assumptions and to make sure that you are working with good information--these are the essence of leadership in my mind, but we consistently lose sight of that.  As we are developing the Lab concept, finding ways to have people step back from their lives and work to ask this critical question ("Am I doing the right things?") is also core to how I'm thinking about leadership.  The Skills and Attitudes of 21st Century Leadership Since we're developing a Professional Learning Community, one of the questions we have to ask is "what are the skills and attitudes of Leadership we want people to be developing?"  There are several articles and schools of thought that are influencing my thinking here.  One is Umair Haque's How and Why To Be a Leader (Not a Wannabe).  He makes the case for a new generation of leadership this way: We’re in the midst of a Great Dereliction — a historic failure of leadership, precisely when we need it most. Hence it’s difficult, looking around, to even remember what leadership is. We’re surrounded by people who are expert at winning — elections, deals, titles, bonuses, bailouts, profit. And often, we’re told: they’re the ones we should look up to — because it’s the spoils and loot that really matter. But you know and I know: mere winners are not true leaders — not just because gaming broken systems is nothing but an empty charade of living; but because life is not a game. It isn’t about what you have, and how much — but what you do, and why — if you’re to live a life that matters. His notion that we are venerating the "winners"--people who have figured out how to game broken systems--rings very true to me. If we go back to Drucker's notion of leadership as "doing the right things," then currently we are honoring the managers in our society, not the leaders.  We are not in need of people who know how to win in systems that are broken. We are in need of people who can create systems that work better for more people.  Another major influence on my thinking has been the work and reading I've done over the years with social artistry. In going through my notes and bookmarks, I re-found Etienne Wenger's 2009 article on Social Learning Capability. He devotes one of his essays in the article to the idea of social artists as leaders. Many of the points he makes are feeding my own notion of leadership, including: Social artists are leaders who do not invite followership. Instead, they invite participation, drawing people into a learning space that encourages them to find their own internal sense of "leadership" and their best selves.  Social artists don't seek control. They can tolerate chaos, uncertainty and dissension and they can help channel this necessary part of the creative process to generate the energy for new thinking and problem-solving.  Social artists can create environments of high trust and aspirations. These are essential to engaging with complex problems and issues for the long haul. Social artists help people see their best qualities and to do work they never thought was possible.  Social artists are activists--they don't accept the status quo. They are unimpressed by "We've always done it this way" or "We can't change that." Social artists have visions and aspirations, but they are deeply practical, aware of both internal and external obstacles to change and the need to work with those very real barriers.  Social artists are extremely willful. They want to make things happen, but they do so in collaboration, looking for ways to host the right kinds of space to create change.  All of these skills and qualities seem essential to new notions of leadership, especially in a complex, networked world. As Wenger points out, this is a type of leadership that is more subtle than our typical "hero" ideas, but one that to my mind is much more in tune with how the world is moving.  Also influencing my thinking are Janna Q. Anderson's ideas of skills for success in a disruptive world. (Thanks to Tanmay Vora for this image)    Interwoven in all of this are my own ideas about the 4 Patterns of thriving and resilience--Clarifying, Connecting, Creating, and Coping and also the idea of Sparks and how we help people find and express their inner fire. (Leadership as kindling an inner fire, rather than as filling a vessel).   With all of this as backdrop, these are the skills and attitudes that are beginning to emerge for me as essential to modern leadership:  Hosting space/convening-- "from hero to host"--creating space for  powerful conversations about the things that really matter. This includes using more creative facilitation techniques and the arts as a means of exploration/discussion/expression. It also includes the ability to create space that can tolerate uncertainty and dissension and that will ultimately draw from people their best selves.  Observing and Listening with an open mind and an open heart. Engaging people mind, heart and soul. Asking powerful questions--game-changing questions, questions that challenge our assumptions, questions that create possibility and energy. Constant, self-directed learning Connecting--people, ideas, groups, etc.--ability to get work done through collaborative networks "Future-mindedness"--horizon scanning, strategic foresight, looking for possibilities in the problems. "Kindling and fanning an extravagant hope"-- "acts of radical imagination Co-creating with the people we are trying to help (design thinking-empathy, ideating, prototyping, testing) Transparency and "working out loud"--- purposeful discovery, public sharing/reflection on works in progress Media literacies--telling stories, using images, using social media Working in-person and virtually (we are citizens of both the physical world and the digital world and we need to develop competency in both) These are a work in progress--we are designing the Learning Lab experience in part to test our ideas of these as essential leadership skills. But they are moving me in new directions about my own understanding of what it means to be a leader and how I personally hold space for leadership to emerge in the people around me.  UPDATED: I'm also reminding myself that part of my need to re-define "leadership" comes from the problems I wrote about in this post a few years ago, We Have a Leadership Problem. And this realization in particular: at the heart of any notion of leadership is a fundamental power imbalance where the leader wields power that followers do not.  This is its fundamental flaw. "Leadership" marks some as "special" while others are not.  I'd love to hear your thoughts, comments, ideas, etc. How do these ideas of leadership resonate with you? What am I missing? 

Out of 24 participating posts and nearly 40 comments on those posts, not a single person predicted that they would answer all 12 of The Big Questions in 2007 - how disappointing.Well your first chance to redeem yourself comes in the form of January’s The Big Question:What are the trade offs between quality learning programs and rapid e-learning and how do you decide?Please answer this question by posting to your own blog.(For further help in how to participate via blog posts, see the side bar.)Points to consider:Quality learning experiences involve having fun, better interactivity in e-Learning or interacting with fellow learners, possible use of games or simulations, richer blends, but designing and developing higher quality programs cost more and take longer.Rapid e-Learning often involves paring back training to the minimum amount and minimal treatment, quickly building those training elements, and providing the remainder of content as reference. This reduces time and cost and may improve scalability because the skills required for development can be easily spread.Most every learning project involves deciding what to treat in what way. So, what ends up on the design room floor by the time of implementation? What are the potential risks of these decisions? Has there been fat that could be cut without risking quality?Participating Blogs:Once you’ve posted your answer on your blog, please report your post using the form below. Your post will be automatically added to the list that will appear below the entry form.NOTE: If the forms do not appear below, please hit your browser’s refresh button. If the forms still do not appear, please use the Dear Blogmeister form which can be linked to from the top of the sidebar.The form for submitting posts regarding January's The Big Question has been closed. However, if you have a post in response and would like to have it added to the list below, contact the me using the Dear Blogmeister link at the top of the sidebar.Comments Digest:By clicking on the MySyndicaat button below, you can see a reverse-chronological listing of all of the comments made to all of the participating posts. Ah, the wonders of Web 2.0!Got an idea for a Big Question?Use the form found in the side bar to submit your idea for future conversations.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that because of lack of time during August, I'll not be posting a Big Question for August. See you again in September.As always, if you have thoughts around the big question, feel free to leave a comment here or send me an email (akarrer [at] techempower [dot] com).

This month it's time for a truly BIG question. The inspiration for this question comes from the recent posts discussing the future of workplace learning:Jay Cross and Harold Jarche - Future of the Training DepartmentJay Cross - eLearning is not the AnswerTony Karrer - Corporate TrainingDave Wilkins - The Future of Training Started YesterdayThus, for March 2009 Big Question is:Workplace Learning in10 Years?If you peer inside an organization in 10 years time and you look at how workplace learning is being supported by that organization, what will you see? What will the mix of Push vs. Pull Learning; Formal vs. Informal supported by the organization? Are there training departments? What are they doing? How big are they as compared to today? What new departments will be responsible for parts of workplace learning? What will current members of training departments be doing in 10 years?How to Respond:Option 1 - Simply put your thoughts in a comment below. This may be hard given the complexity of the topic.Option 2 -Step 1 - Post in your blog (please link to this post).Step 2 - Put a comment in this blog with an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste (an HTML anchor tag). I will only copy and past, thus, I would also recommend you include your NAME immediately before your link. So, it should look like:Tony Karrer - e-Learning 2.0or you could also include your blog name with something like:Tony Karrer - e-Learning 2.0 : eLearningTechnologyPosts so far (and read comments as well):The Learning Revolution: 2019: A workplace learning odysseyPiotr Peszko: Will "training" exist in 2019 ?MinuteBio Big Question - In the Year 2019Quinnovator (at Learnlets) - Workplace learning in 10 yearsDavid Wilkins - Social Learning Blog: "Workplace Learning" in 10 Years?Harold, Clark, Jay - YouTube discussion. Jay Cross - my personal thoughts on the matter.Karyn Romeis - March's big question - worplace learning in 10 yearsMohamed Amine Chatti - The future of the training departmentClive Shepherd's predictions - http://tinyurl.com/d7qakmLisa Meece The Big Question: http://www.bottomlineperformance.com/lolblog/?p=689 Here's a vision of technology in 2019 that will stretch your thinking.Adventures in Corporate Education - I answered the big question with a question. :)Jacob McNulty: Learning & Development in the FutureAnthony Montalvo - El aprendizaje en la empresa en 10 añosMatt Moore: Learning + Knowledge = ?Sreya Dutta: Big Question: Workplace Learning in 10 yearsKen Allan's ResponseTony Karrer - eLearning Technology - Workplace Learning Professionals Next Job - Management ConsultantIgnatia/Inge de Waard gives a Belgian/Indian/American two cents of a human/machine interface for the future (that is now)Rodolpho Arruda - Workplace Learning in 10 YearsRyan Tracey - E-Learning in the Corporate SectorWorkplace Learning and Me - 10 years from now...Upside Learning Blog - The Future of Workplace LearningSaul Carliner - Long Live Instructor Led LearningTony Karrer - Long Live

Where do I start? This week I went to Washington DC for a couple days, so have been trying to get through all the updates that weren't otherwise posted on mLearnopedia.com. I haven't read through all of the following, but wanted to share these great resources. Stanford University started an iPhone Application Programming course this week and has made the slides and video available through iTunes U here. You can subscribe to the new lectures which are posted each Wednesday and Friday for this ten week course.A new 320-page book entitled "Mobile Learning: Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training" edited by Mohamed Ally and published by Athabasca University is available for sale or as a free PDF download. (Click on eBook for the PDF download.)The International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM) has released issue Vol. 3, No. 2 (2009) with some very interesting papers. The objective of the journal is to publish and discuss fundamentals, applications and experiences in the field of interactive mobile technologies in learning and teaching as well as in industrial and other applications. There is no fee, but you will need to register. The abstracts from the 3rd WLE Mobile Learning Symposium: Mobile Learning Cultures across Education, Work and Leisure in London, UK, on 27 March 2009 have been posted.Weeding through all the joke posts on April 1st, I am glad that I didn't miss Tom Kuhlmann's blog titled "Here's What You Need to Know About Mobile Learning." It definitely is a lot of fun!For an overview of all the major mobile stats, check out Tomi T Ahonen's post "The Size of the Mobile Industry in 2009," a short overview of major stats. AT&T announced its second annual Big Mobile On Campus Challenge, a national higher education contest for mobile application development with a $10,000 Scholarship award available. "The contest recognizes innovative and creative mobile applications that enhance academic performance, build campus community and help to improve campus operations." There are three categories: mobile learning, mobile identity and student system integration. Lot's of reading for the weekend and beyond...

With mobile learning getting a lot of interest recently (roughly 50% of businesses surveyed say they have plans to implement some form of mobile learning in the foreseeable future), it’s becoming clear that many companies don’t have a plan to successfully create a sustainable, robust mobile learning strategy. This is evidenced by the quick jump from talking about goals and roadmaps to the proverbial "We need an app for that!" conclusion that is being reached in meetings and boardrooms across all industries and company sizes.This rush to deploy without proper planning is a big oversight and will ultimately make it difficult to understand if your mobile efforts are successful. A mobile learning strategy can help give your work grounding and a solid base on which you can build. This approach helps you bring mobile in where it will provide the biggest impact. A metered, reusable framework is far more useful than a scattershot approach. When apps are pumped out and then discarded it’s often because they didn’t perform as expected. These apps likely don’t fix the problems that were considered but not dealt with fully during the design phase. Perhaps the app shouldn’t have been built at all. Maybe its focus should have been narrower, or altogether different than what it turned out to be.A mobile learning strategy's importance is not only limited to savings during the design and development of the applications that may be created. Real, actionable metrics can only be established for individual efforts when the bigger picture is considered. What will you measure? How will you know when you are successful? What sorts of changes are you able to and prepared to make when you start to get data back from your learners?The creation of a strategy will allow outside stakeholders to help weigh in on your anticipated mobile learning efforts to come, giving your work a much needed validation. The strategy’s strengths will help build support throughout your organization, creating trust between your partnering departments and content creators allowing them to create great work. The concerns that could arise about the focus of the efforts or how it fits in with or aligns with other work will already have been addressed. This proactive approach works with other facets of business planning, why would mobile learning be any different? Over the next few weeks, we’ll investigate topics related to this, covering the building blocks for a mobile learning strategy, the effects of creating one, what happens when you neglect to create one, and then finally how to get started on implementing your completed strategy. Come back and check out our next installment.