Five for Friday

As a way to wrap up this week, I thought I would share five resources that I explored this week that I really liked. They run the gamut of different media and topics, from business-y to fun and food. Hopefully this will introduce you to some cool new stuff. Or maybe you already knew about some of these and want to tell me about your experience with them. And hey, if you like this sort of thing and would like to see me do one of these each week, give me a holler.

1. @matteoc teaches us how to use story structure to wow our audience
2. #headspaceonlearning is a niche I discovered in the larger Headspace ... um, space
3. Tagboard has made its way back into my go to list of apps
4. Alphabear makes me irrationally happy with its little square bears
5. 4-ingredient, tasty and quick dish

#1 The magic play book by @matteoc

I had the pleasure of watching the recording of Matteo Cassese's presentation that is part of this year's Outstanding Presentations Workshop series. I'm really sorry that I couldn't participate in the live session but my day job's network policies blocked the platform that it was being broadcast through. Sad face. I'm sharing out the slide deck below because I want to help share the magic that Matteo is creating. As good as the deck is on its own, if you ever have the chance to hear him present, DO IT!

All eight steps are important, but in the interest of time and space here I am going to just mention a couple of my favorite moments. Like a rock star, Matteo shows you how to end on a high note. Your presentation has to have that climactic peak moment. And although that is the point that marks the beginning of the end of your presentation, it doesn't mean things should go downhill from there. He has a great way of describing the summary that follows the peak as a fly over of the landscape that has been covered. And then, rather than saving the Q&As for the very end, do them before your last step. Too often the Q&As can start out energetic and then kind of end when the questions dry up and everyone is sort of leaving the room (literally or virtually or metaphorically). By saving the last step or giving them an action item to go off with to do on their own, you end on a much higher energy moment.

Playbook for a Successful Presentation: The 8 Basic Components of Every Great Speech from Matteo Cassese

#2 I'm finding some Headspace

Almost two weeks ago I started the free 10 day trial of Headspace, which has the tagline "the gym membership for your mind." I try a lot of apps ... and keep using very few. This is an exception. Not only did I finish the 10 days but I subscribed. I have some specific goals (which I will write about another time) that I am trying to focus on. But I was finding, with a very chaotic schedule these days that focus was hard to come by, which was why I originally thought I'd give Headspace a try.

This week I also discovered some great stuff on their blog. They have been focusing on learning this month which really got my ears perked up. While there are tons of great articles and podcasts, the one I'm highlighting today was from Radio Headspace entitled #36 - Introduction Headspace On Learning. The piece interviews a number of people who are lifelong learners exploring new skills in a way that I truly loved. They are doing skill swaps. So one lady who has a specific goal of wanting "to learn to make chicken juicy" because, she points out, she already knows how to make it dry, can teach someone who cooks well how to start learning how to write a story. Another man takes the group through an exercise to get them to explore drawing. The concept is great. I kept thinking, why aren't more people doing this sort of thing. I think they probably are and I am going to take a look around and report back what I find.

#3 Tag you're it

I mentioned above that I try a lot of apps and that many slip away. But sometimes, one doesn't go too far. That would be the category in which I put Tagboard. While there is a lot more to Tagboard than I will be covering here, I use it in targeted ways, even if not all the time. Actually it is inaccurate to refer to it as an app, as the website says, Tagboard is "The social and search display platform."

So, what does that mean to you? Well, it means that you can take any hashtag and get a quick search across a number of social media platforms. That's what I did after reading the Headspace blog mentioned above, for instance. I suspected, from the content I read on the blog that people would be using various social media sites to post images, comments, and other digital artifacts using the hashtag from the blog #headspaceonlearning. By typing that hashtag into the search box on Tagboard I could easily see Twitter tweets and Instagram pics and Vine videos and Facebook posts on the topic. I also use this frequently when I participate in MOOCs where the participants frequently self-organize into collaborative groups using a platform of their choice. If you want to get an overview of what is going on across different spaces around a single topic, Tagboard can be helpful. Cool, huh?

#4 Love my square bears

Those of you who have been hanging out with me for some time know that one of my areas of focus is gamification. And one of the ways I do research ... yes, it isn't all just fun and games ... is to play games and see what works and doesn't and how that can be applied to other types of experiences, mainly for learning and business communications. Anyway, one of the new games I happened upon lately is Alphabear and it was sort of love at first sight. When game designers Spry Fox tag their brand with "making happiness" they mean it. This little scrabblesque word game with its adorably costumed little bears simply makes me happy to play.

#5 Tomato and pesto chicken

I was busy this week finding all this other cool stuff and boy did I get hungry. Then I spotted this really easy ... I mean, even if you have never cooked before easy ... even if you normally burn water easy ... recipe. The video recipe can be found here. And here's a pic of my work in progress. I used a bit more pesto than in the video and I added more cheese after I snapped this but I wanted you to be able to see the ingredients better before I blanketed them with cheesy goodness. Yum!

Gotta keep my strength up for a fun day this weekend at the Maker Faire. Stay tuned!

Why pretending to be a super hero could lead to super ideas

It's not too late to sign up for this round of the Practice Creativity Challenge. I won't be able to be an active participant this time but, as I have been shouting from my social media rooftops, it's a GREAT EXPERIENCE AND EVERYONE SHOULD GO SIGN UP!" Phew, sorry for the yelling, but there are some wonderful people doing great stuff and building a community of cool and talented people. They were even nice enough to let me share some thoughts in their Creative Leaders Series.

But even if I can't be in the thick of things this time I thought I'd take today, the first day of the new challenge to share a few resources that I was inspired to check out after participating last time. They are listed in no particular order as follows, but you can assume by my including them, that there was stuff in each that I found helpful, or I wouldn't be passing them along.

The Creativity Challenge by Tanner Christensen, 2015

While the title is coincidentally similar to the Practice Creativity Challenge mentioned above, this book is not connected to it, except in concept. The book contains a wealth of challenges for you to undertake centered around five modes of creative thinking.

1. Convergent - combining things
2. Divergent - taking things apart
3. Lateral - logical progression
4. Aesthetic - how something appears
5. Emegent - sudden aha moments

While I read it cover-to-cover, it is best considered a companion that you can consult when you want to get the creative juices flowing. Or you could create a structured challenge for yourself like choosing to do a challenge a day for a week or two or more.

Creativity for everybody by Kathryn P. Haydon and Jane Harvey, 2015

Don't let the small size of the book fool you, big things come in small packages. It is an engaging romp through the science of creativity and makes a compelling argument for why we should all be exercising our creative muscles. The design of the book is whimsical and innovative. I liked the flipbook-style messages along the outer margins of the pages and loved the idea of discovering your own creative constellation. 

Play: How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorates the soul by Stuart Brown, M.D. and Christopher Vaughan, 2009

I've heard a number of people over the years cite this book's quote from Brian Sutton-Smith that "The opposite of play is not work, it is depression" but I only recently read Stuart Brown's book. Brown, backed by thousands of case studies and years of studying the field of play makes a compelling argument for the essential nature of play to all human (and other animals) lives. Of course Brown is not the first to posit that play was an important part of human interactions. Plato said: "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." Speaking of time, if you don't have time to read the book, you may want to check out Stuart Brown's 2008 TED Talk Play is more than just fun.

The Book of Doing and Being: Rediscovering creativity to life, love, and work by Barnet Bain, 2015

As I was reading this book and doing my usual idea scribbling I wrote three words in the corner of the first page of notes: elegant, mindful, and spiritual. They sum up the tone and feeling of this book which is definitely a labor of love. Bain, an award-winning filmmaker provides a collection of rituals and practices that any of us can follow to nurture and develop our creativity and bring about positive change in our lives. Many of the ideas took me back to acting classes I took decades ago that help you get in touch with your feelings but I have always liked exercises that encourage people to look at things from different perspectives and to engage all of the senses. One of my favorite portions of the book dealt with how to work with The Muses which he says are: "Like the forces of nature, they can be called on to grow the garden of our ideas, thought, and feelings."

Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get (and Keep) Your Creativity Flowing at Home, at Work & in Your Studio by Noah Scalin, 2011

Like The Creativity Challenge this book is about giving you springboards to jump off of. In this case, rather than focusing on different creativity modes, the book takes you through options that last less than a minute to ones that last multiple hours. Of course, that is true of any creative projects. We can get caught up in one that we thought would only take a few minutes and then, poof, hours have passed. This book, by the same author as 365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life!, is designed with bright colors and concepts that defy you not to create and includes a host of interviews with creative people doing cool things. I keep this one on my shelf even when I'm not stuck.

And just a few more links because I like you all and want you to have tons of fun exploring your creativity:

Seven Ways To Cultivate a Playful, Child-Like Mindset

Maybe following one of these each day for a week would be one of the best weeks you could spend improving your life. I love each and every one of these suggestions.

1.     Be willing to try and try again and laugh when you “fail.”2.     Believe you can do anything, and speak to yourself accordingly.
3.     Be willing to be seen as silly by others.
4.     Be your unique, amazing self. Don’t edit yourself.
5.     Shake it up. Don’t get caught in routines. Do things differently.
6.     Observe kids playing and join in whenever possible. They’re pros at playing.
7.     Learn a new, playful skill like hula hooping, square dancing or drawing.

How to Be More Productive and Creative at Work? Play More

The Importance of Play for Adults

IDEO: Big Innovation Lives Right on the Edge of Ridiculous Ideas

A Thousand and One Tutors

Like Scheherazade with her thousand and one stories, I have a number of stories to share that were inspired by my watching The Learner with a Thousand Tutors from the Self-Blended Learning Movement course. I added an extra one to my title of this post because I had the wonderful fortune to be born to a teacher. My mom taught me, from an early age, that there was something to be learned from anyone I encountered. And that there was never an excuse for not learning, even if I had a poor teacher. So I lucked out big time in the self-directed learning lottery.

I always carried that notion with me that I could learn from all types of people. I don't know if she had studied the theories of Lev Vygotsky when she was earning her master's in education but I later read about his concept of the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) and I immediately recognized the way I have always learned in it. I have no problem saying I don't know and seeking out ways to find out. For those not familiar with the idea of the MKO, it is anyone who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner, particularly in regards to a specific task, concept or process. Traditionally the MKO is thought of as a teacher or an older adult; however, this it can be a peer, sibling, a younger person, or even a computer. The key to MKO is simply that they have more knowledge about the topic being learned than the learner does. And since no one can be an expert in everything, we all need many MKOs.

One of the very first emails I ever sent, back in the screeching-modem-connected-to-a-phone-line days was to a professor literally half way around the world. I was working on a writing project about trees and had found some vague references about a language that was spoken by aboriginal tribes in Malaysia only when they were out harvesting camphor. Yeah, it was a pretty obscure topic. But I had a specific question about whether the language was still in use or if this was a language that had faded into obscurity, much as I sort of expected my question to do. But I found a professor in Singapore and figured, what's the worst that can happen. He ignores me? So I sent him a message and then headed off to work. At the time I was working evenings as a proofreader, which was early morning for the professor. By the time I got home I had a reply. I was beyond shocked. He not only answered the question but gave me the name of another professor who might have even more knowledge of the subject. 

Of course, I'm not the only one to discover the amazing things that can happen when you click Send. Bernard Bull shares his own email moment. Results may vary but I have recently encountered others who had similar tales. In his book The Art of Self-Directed Learning, Blake Boles tells the story of a 15-year-old middle-school dropout with a love of chemistry. The young man emailed a professor and said: "Hi, my name is Jonah. I'm 15; I'm really interested in chemistry, and I'd like to sit in on your class. Would that be okay?" He not only got the chance to go to the class but got a letter of recommendation from the professor. Another is Leah K Stewart, whose site I learned of through Global Collaboration Day. I am just getting acquainted with her work, but in a video I watched she passionately proclaims the successes she has had by reaching out to others in her field and building mutually respectful mentoring friendships.
Once you have gotten the hang of making these learning connections, maybe it is time to move onto creating, as mentioned in the video, an advisory board. Oooh, that sounds formal, you say. Well, your learning and success is something that you should take seriously and approach with some degree of planning and purposefulness. Again, the video jogged my memory of other sources on the subject that perhaps some of you may find of use as well.

Career coach Joy Chudacoff's book What's Next: The 7 steps to discover your big idea and create a wildly successful business was one of the sources I recalled as I listened to the section on creating your own advisory board. She recommends a Board of Advisors who provide a fuel support system that will help you create your spark. These people will encourage and mentor, provide wisdom both of maturity and youth–in other words they will provide different perspectives. Have people from different areas of expertise and backgrounds, older and younger, those who have been there and done that and those who haven't. These are probably not people from your mutual admiration society like friends and family who may not be best situated to push you out or your (and their) comfort zone. It should be people with positive but honest opinions. It is not about creating an echo chamber. Another source you might want to check out about career enhancing advisory boards is this article by Chris Brogan.

Finally, one of my favorite articles on the topic of personal boards is from almost 2 decades ago. The title, Looking Out for Number One, may not imply the reciprocal relationship that Jim Collins goes on to describe, but it does support the notion of self-directedness, self-awareness, and self-actualization so crucial to anyone's success. Among the nuggets of wisdom in his piece are the following:

"Personal-board members from outside your profession or industry can help you overcome the limitations of conventional wisdom and remain true to your goals.

Look for board members who, while strong in their views, are nonjudgmental and compassionate. The best board members dispense wisdom like Socrates—by asking questions, drawing analogies, and making dispassionate observations.

The best payment is simply to emulate them by giving time and guidance to others, especially younger people who need mentors. Additionally, most personal-board members appreciate being kept informed of your progress. In fact, it's good discipline to write a letter once a year or so to your board. That personal "annual report" not only keeps your board informed but also helps you clarify your own thinking and take stock of how you're doing."

Before I conclude for today I will point you to two other examples of how being connected to others can bring about amazing results. I first wrote about these two people a few years ago when I was first becoming an advocate of self-directed learning as part of a graduate school project I called Learn, Rinse, Repeat: Where the learning never stops. The post was entitled "So does it work? Spoiler: Yes!" 

The first example was Thomas Jerome Baker who wrote Connectivism & Connected Knowledge: Participating in a MOOC. The reason I mention him again was that even when he wasn't actively communicating with others from the MOOC he was writing about he frequently used mock interviews to help himself talk through his learning journey. He also wrote letters that I said "could almost be considered love letters with the subject of admiration being both his correspondents and learning." Sometimes reflecting happens when we bounce ideas off of another person and sometimes when we practice speaking those ideas to ourselves in the mirror.

The other person that the Thousand Tutor video reminded me of was the following video entitled American Polyglot Practicing 20 Languages. Learning languages is a perfect example of a skill that requires other people. Sure you can use recordings and such but ultimately language is meant to be spoken (unless you do what I did in school and stick with taking lots of Latin, lol). The point is that, aside from the video showing a really amazing young man, he explains how he learned the various languages. Some from classes and books, but also movies, and an entire network of friends he amassed locally and globally that he can connect with via Skype.

Limit yourself and find more freedom of expression

The week is ending
What awaits me this weekend?
First one of the Fall

Autumn is coming
Pumpkin reigns supreme for now
Yum! That sure is gourd.

OK, maybe these aren't my best haiku to date but haiku is a constrained form of writing which is a cool way to explore creative options. There are many other forms of constrained writing you could give a go if you like. I was reminded of some of these while watching Vi Hart's Twelve Tones which I learned about from this list of 60 YouTube channels that will make you smarter.

Anyway, back to constraints. We all have them. Time, Resources. Rules. But that just means that sometimes we have to be more creative in how we do things. Life throws real roadblocks and obstacles at us every day, but if we practice dealing with constraints in creative ways, we will be better equipped to handle those bumps in the road.

So why not explore some type of constrained writing and let me know how it goes. Here are some suggested forms to try:

Six-Word Memoirs

Over a million stories have been shared at Six-Word Memoir®. What is the essence of your message. Can you say it in six?

Twiction

Twitter plus fiction = twiction. Need a few more words, or at least characters, maybe twiction is more your speed. Limited to 140 characters, cause Twitter. Can you tell a short, short story?

Haiku

One of my personal go to constraints. Who knows, maybe it will become one of yours too. Try some poetry instead of prose. Just a reminder, haiku is 3 lines containing 5-7-5 syllables, respectively. That's kind of an oversimplification; read more about it here.

Lipogram

Instead of being limited by length or structure, maybe you want to try ditching a particular letter of the alphabet. One of my favorite examples of this is Mark Dunn's book Ella Minnow Pea in which certain letters suddenly get bounced from use. A really good read.

Reverse-lipograms

Yep, it is just what it sounds like. Each word much contain a particular letter you select.

Anagrams

You might have been taught not to play with your food but no one said you shouldn't mix up your letters. Pick a word, phrase, or sentence; dump the letters into a pile and see what you can rearrange them into.

Chaterism (Snowball)

Wow, this is where art and science really play together. Each succeeding word in a poem must increase or decrease in a uniform way, such as one character at a time. It grows like a snowball rolling down a hill. So I might say

I

am
the
only
woman
trying
solving
snowball
chaterism
puzzlement

except I know that is not true. Also, for the techno-geeky among us you may also want to check out what Paul Thompson is doing with his computer code to generate snowballs. 

Don't feel like writing? No problem. Limit yourself to drawing with one color or using your non-dominant hand. Make up a new recipe with only three ingredients or go for a walk and don't step on any cracks. What did that feel like? Or use an app like Android's Creativity Cards Pro which offers up random creative challenges for you to write, design or draw.

Not like the movies but true grit and a new magnificent 7 are worth a look

It is funny how the same topics seem to suddenly show up across different sources I am reading or people I am talking to, but it happened again this week as I watched the GPA and Test Scores video from the Self-Blended Learning Movement course. I have often cited Laszlo Bock's comments about GPAs not being the best determinants of good hires. I use his comments for the same reason others do. People know Google and associate it with bright, talented people. They must be doing something right with their hiring, so people pay attention. Today, I added Work Rules! to my reading list.

Another thing that resonated for me within Bernard Bull's video was the talk about the seven traits for workplace readiness identified by Koru. These are: grit, rigor, polish, curiosity, impact, teamwork, and ownership. Having worked with many recent graduates in the workplace, I can definitely second this list. What caught my eye, in part, was the inclusion of grit. It was the second time recently that I had encountered that word, one which isn't used that often in conversation. My previous experience with it was over at Jay Cross's Aha! Project. There are several great links regarding GRIT, including a video of the Grit Scale inventor, Angela Duckworth, on the Aha! Project site. You can also download the Grit Scale questionnaire here.

Going back to the Koru 7, however, that led me to dig into their website a bit and I came across a blog article about the real questions that interviewers are asking in an interview. One of these is whether you are a cultural fit. I'll admit that this one is not always fully understood by managers. We recently had a situation at my office that shows the difference of managerial styles and awareness. One of our senior managers has always been in the "hire for attitude, train for skill" camp. However, when we tried to hire a consultant recently one of the other departmental managers dug her heals in about the person not being strong enough technically. Other managers tried to remind her that we need balance on the team and while she may not be the fastest or most experienced, she provided emotional balance to the team. Highly skilled people are often high maintenance and having all super stars on the team can actually be counter-productive. This person could bring other important traits to the team. Using the seven trait above, for example, I would rank this new employee (yes, she was eventually hired) very high particularly in rigor, polish, and curiosity.

We all have a lot to learn about what learners need and what employers need and how to mesh the two. One final article I will share for now comes from Forbes, which also looked at What Employers Are Looking For When Hiring Recent College Grads. The bit that really caught my attention was the following disconnect:

"Fifty-eight percent of students said college should adequately prepare them for a career, according to McGraw-Hill Education’s 2015 Student Workforce Readiness Survey. However, only 20% of students at the time of graduation felt very prepared to join the workforce."