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Archive for January, 2009

Digital Coaching: Current and Immediate Information

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

By Michael McCauley

The January 2009 issue of Wired Magazine has an interesting article, “How YouTube Changes the Way We Think.” Science and technology writer Clive Thompson (who blogs here) writes that advances in video technology and distribution - think YouTube - have made it possible for people to create short, focused viral videos that appeal to the need for instant information. “How To” books and manuals are often supplanted by up-to-the-minute videos and other instructional technology.

Blogs, online magazines, and wikis provide focused, just-in-time knowledge.

This is real and valuable in the training environment, too. The advent of digital coaching technology (DCT) enables the creation of highly-focused, just-in-time coaching that replaces conventional classroom and e-learning-based training.

The people we coach may no longer have the time or the patience required to sit through a three day (or even three hour!) training session.

Learners want knowlege presented in short bursts that can be immediately applied to their unique environment. By creating a structured coaching environment, DCT enables learners to access, learn, and apply key knowledge with the help of a personal “coach.”

Traditional training is still useful and works well with some learners. There will likely always be a place for it. But the future direction of training seems clear: shorter, more focused “knowledge bursts” in a personalized format. This is what Digital Coaching Technology does best.

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Organizations and Positive Deviance: Change is Essential

Monday, January 26th, 2009

By Michael McCauley

I’m still thinking about futurists Watts Wacker and Ryan Mathews’ notion, explored in their book The Deviant’s Advantage, that so many great new products and services start life as positive deviant ideas which must change in order to become mainstream.

What does this mean for organizations? It means that to grow and thrive, organizations must constantly change in order to address the needs of their maturing markets and products. The new “deviant” idea can become tomorrow’s opportunity, but only if companies recognize and nurture that idea.

At each stage in their progression, positive deviant ideas must be transformed in order to appeal to consumers at the next stage. This means that organizations must change

  • to address the needs of evolving products
  • to address the needs of evolving consumer groups, and
  • to usher in new ideas from the Fringe     

Change is essential to organizational health. The most successful positive deviant ideas changed enormously from their first conception. Wacker mentions some obvious and not-so-obvious ones:

Companies need to embrace ongoing change that reinforces core organizational values. The companies that succeed rely on structured, systematic change. Most importantly, they have also embraced changes that enable them to systematically seek out new ideas (think Toyota and the Prius) and shepherd them toward social convention.

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To Understand the True Nature of Wisdom, Study Positive Deviants

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

By Michael McCauley

The January 19, 2009 issue of Newsweek has an interesting article on wisdom, “Don’t Forget the Owls.” Several researchers in fields ranging from neuroscience to art, music, and law have recently received more that $2.7 million in grants to figure out what wisdom really is.

The 38 approved proposals, conducted under the auspices of the University of Chicago, will focus on finding wisdom in such diverse areas as computer algorithms, classical literature, pheromones, and ant colonies. Why look in such unusual places? The program’s directors, John Cacioppo and Howard Nusbaum say, “We’re trying to think out of the box.”

Surprisingly, this far-reaching study won’t be studying the wisdom of positive deviants, those individuals who perform far above the norm in their areas of expertise. It seems only logical that, if you want to understand what wisdom is, you would study the people who have been most successful at doing whatever it is they do. The very definition of a positive deviant implies that they possess significant wisdom. That’s why, in order for an organization to make any significant changes to its culture, it must work with its positive deviants. Determining what they are doing differently from everyone else - the keys to their success -  is the first step to positive organizational change.

The study of the insect world and the arts may yield new insights as to the nature of wisdom, but academia should also study the positive deviants, a huge source of wisdom in our world.

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The Positive Deviant’s Advantage - From Fringe to Mainstream

Monday, January 19th, 2009

By Michael McCauley

In their book The Deviant’s Advantage: How Fringe Ideas Create Mass Markets, consulting futurists Watts Wacker and Ryan Mathews posit that many new products and services start out as the ideas of positive deviants - ideas that are on the cultural fringe. Often, these ideas grow into mainstream products, but not effortlessly.

The initial idea moves through several stages on its journey toward “Social Conventional.” The stages include the beginning, Fringe, then to Edge, Realm of Cool, Next Big Thing, and, finally, Social Conventional The key is that the initial deviant idea must undergo signiificant change at every stage on its way toward becoming “Conventional Wisdom.”

What does this have to do with Wikipedia? Ward Cunningham started programming an engine he called WikiWikiWeb in 1994.  (Wiki - Hawaiian for “fast.”)  It was the first wiki appication ever written. A wiki is a collection of web pages designed so that anyone - not just computer programmers - can modify content. The markup language is simple. Collaboration and community is enabled and reinforced.

The application has changed enormously since 1994. Today it’s the basis of Wikipedia and so many other collaborative websites. A great idea began on the fringe, underwent changes, and today is the basis of a valuable mainstream asset.

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Getting Change to Stick: Reinforce Training

Friday, January 16th, 2009

By William Seidman

Professor of Management and Labor Dr. Harry J. Martin has a good article, “Lessons Learned,” in the Wall Street Journal/MIT Sloan Review. His message is cogent and important: “The key to effective training isn’t necessarily what happens in the classroom. It’s what you do afterward.”

The benefits of change are clear: increased productivity, higher morale, cost savings, and improved communication. Enhanced problem-solving is an added plus.

Once the training is ended, though, and work resumes, several vitally important aspects of change must be in play in order for things to not backslide. According to Martin it’s essential to:

  • Put It on Paper - write down the action plan, make an outline or a list.
  • Measure Results - the all-important follow-up. Performance assessment is so important.
  • Get Help from Peers - especially important in settings where management support for the training  is deemed to be weak.
  • Have Supportive Superiors - when a boss assumes the role of coach or mentor, employees are much more likely to apply what they learned in training. The leader sets the bar!
  • Gain Access to Experts - trainees might need additional information. Companies can help, and reinforce change, by helping to provide technical support such as reference materials and access to experts. When good information is shared and promoted, organizations’ training programs gain from it.

Organizational change initiatives cost time and money. It’s great that there are measurable and predictable roads to successful change that “sticks.”

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Captology: Organizational Transformation and Persuasive Technology

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

By Michael McCauley

Captology - the discipline of  ”Computers As Persuasive Technology”

Changing an organization can be incredibly difficult. To create lasting transformation, many people must change their beliefs, values, and actions quickly and completely. How hard is that? Very!

But these types of changes are exactly what persuasive technologies are designed to drive, although they have rarely been systematically applied to organizational transformations. Why is that?

We believe that it’s because persuasive technology, which can be great, is not enough by itself. A compehensive change process is required. For 12 years, Cerebyte has worked to develop a proven methodology for organizational transformation that uses persuasive technology to accomplish change faster, more thoroughly, and with more predictability than previously thought possible.

Find out more - read the entire article here, on the Cerebyte website.

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