What can we learn from a pencil?

I came across the essay 'I, Pencil' written by Leonard Read in 1958 via Maria Popova's blog Brain Pickings. There are many lessons to be drawn from this piece as it follows the production of an ordinary pencil. You are invited to consider what may appear as just a simple pencil, but we are reminded that we take this item for granted and in the main, most of us are probably completely unaware of how a pencil is produced and who is involved. 

Leonard Read writes... 

"But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background. This supercilious attitude relegates me to the level of the commonplace. This is a species of the grievous error in which mankind cannot too long persist without peril. For, the wise G. K. Chesterton observed, 'We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders'.” 

Below is a powerful animation based on this essay. 




Some thoughts that resonated with me as I reflected on this essay were about the value of connectivity and communication and through this opportunities for collaboration and cooperation, and what we can achieve with others. It goes without saying the creativity the written word can produce and of course the images as sketches in a multitude of ways. 

When we work for the mutual benefit of others we can all benefit more. Sharing the outcomes so others can learn can ad further value. Technology allows us to not only 'listen in' but also to interact and communicate with others from across the world, thus opening opportunities to question, to learn, and to help others learn. Those who are open educators and learners are providing new windows for others to look through and in doing so are helping to stimulate curiosity and a wonder for learning. Yes we can Google practically anything we want to but in limiting ourselves to just this, we can often miss out on the chances to question and discuss the detail of the hows and whys. 

My take away? We must remind ourselves to enjoy the wonder of learning in its many shapes and sizes - formal, non formal, and informal. Sharing these experiences can only benefit others. 

You can't eat an elephant whole #wol

A few weeks ago I had a nice surprise when I received a comment on my blog post which was not spam. I choose to monitor comments and whilst they are few and far between, I delete those that have no relevance. Well this comment was relevant. I confess to doing a little happy dance whenever a comment leads to an extended discussion, no matter how brief!

Simon Fogg  took the time leave a comment  on my last post to say:

"... just to encourage you, people are reading :) ... I am up to nearly a million page views on my blog and have never written for an audience (as you will quickly tell from older posts), mainly as a place online to host my content that is accessible wherever I am connected to the internet ..."

I then of course checked out Simon's blog, which was an interesting journey in itself (lots more to learn from Simon, but that's scope for another post). The immediate connection was 'working out loud' and I noted a post he had written which included Michelle Ocker who instigated the #WOL circle I am now involved in. 

Simon also tweeted a post in relation to my blog post

eating "elephants": @suebecks @johnstepper's treadmill reminded me of TMI's Elephant Technique @crumphelen @rjsantamaria75 @HalaMansour #wol

— Simon Fogg (@srjf) August 2, 2016

The elephant technique Simon referred to is useful when you are faced with very large tasks, i.e. elephant sized tasks. In my previous post I had talked about taking small steps and celebrating these as progress. 

So what are elephant tasks? I looked up TMI's Elephant Technique to remind myself. They give examples like:

• Overwhelming tasks demanding prolonged effort
• Tasks in which little progress can be seen after each stage
• Tasks often put off or reduced in priority in the short term.

I could certainly relate to these, the treadmill being a personal one and the juggling of multiple projects in my working life. The advice given is to:

• Divide the elephant into "bite-size" pieces.
• Schedule regular "bites" of the elephant as "task of the day", "task of the week", etc.
• Make sure you "eat" a bite every day in addition to completing your other routine tasks.
• Make sure you finish the elephant.
• Concentrate on no more than 1 or 2 elephant tasks at a time. 

I think I would add try not to be eating too many different elephants at any given time....

Mastering the Elephant Technique enables you to progress from a 'maintenance' person (just getting by to maintain the status quo) to a 'development' person (embrace learning new skills and ensuring goals are translated into actions).

When I met with my #WOL circle we talked about some of the things we could do to make sure we recorded the progress of the tasks we were setting ourselves. The examples we shared included:

• Having a pocket notebook as an ongoing to do list
• Getting a good old fashioned diary that has a week to a page on the left and a notes page on the right.
  Tip: Moleskin do a great 18 month diary July-Dec. 
• Using our smartphone and the Notes app
• Using an app like Todoist via your phone, tablet, or desktop.    

Reference

The Elephant Technique 

Reflecting on #WOL

We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Aristotle

We are now into week 5 of our #WOL circle and weekly blogging for a number of reasons has not become a habitual activity for me... 

Why? Because life things get in the way. Things happen that you don't expect that can impact on your life and work. I ask myself does it really matter that I have not blogged. I'm writing for me with no expectations others will read to be honest. This blog is after all a random collection of my thoughts in relation to activities, course and presentations I have been involved in. For me though this is one of the ways I practice working out loud. It is not always reflective and this is an area I need to focus on. So whilst it doesn't really matter if I blog weekly or every few weeks, developing the habit will I know help me capture my progress.

This week our tetrad of four met via Skype and we discussed the week's topic which was looking at the challenges we were facing relating to the achievement of our chosen goal. As a group we have bonded quite quickly and I think we all felt comfortable admitting that due to various factors our progress was perhaps slower than we might have liked. Indeed we seemed to make a pact that this was actually ok! All progress is good and small steps should be seen as a positive. We agreed that meeting as a circle kept our goals as achievable, but the suggested time span might well be extended. By discussing this together there was a sense of relief that we had not let ourselves down or each other. We teased out the blocks we had experienced and made suggestions to each other where appropriate. 

Unsurprisingly one of our challenges was time. However through talking we recognised that our use of time can be measured in different ways from clear outputs but also thinking and planning time. We had all devoted time to this and as such realised we had achieved more than we thought. 

We talked about the John Stepper's blog post 'Touching the treadmill' which highlights the importance of breaking your goal down into small steps. (Which reminds me I need to start doing this and get back into running to achieve another goal!)

"Can’t go for a run 4 times a week for an hour? Try once a week. Still too much? Go for 5 minutes. Not working for you? Walk to the treadmill and touch it. Every day."

Helen Crump introduced us to BJ Fogg's Tiny Habits method. This advocates:

Only three things will change behaviour in the long term.

• Option A. Have an epiphany
• Option B. Change your environment (what surrounds you)
• Option C. Take baby steps

The first option is less likely to happen, so focusing on small steps and creating an environment that can help you feel comfortable working is something that resonated with me. Secondly allowing for space to think and rest may mean moving and taking breaks. I came across John Fawkes Medium post on 20 little habits that will help you live a better life, which refers to the need of practising good habits. It's worth reading the whole article but one of the habits looks at the value of the pomodoro technique. Essentially this suggests you 

work for 20–30 minutes, then take a break for 5–10 minutes.

Repeat a few times, then take a longer 30+ minute break. 

When we are working it is easy to lose focus. Once we recognise this and plan in breaks, it is likely our productivity will increase. 

So coming back to my goal, I had originally chosen to learn programming. I quickly felt overwhelmed as this was to broad. Where should I start? I began by looking what my personal learning network had to say in a variety of social media spaces - Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. It didn't take long to discover a course on Creative programming (aimed at those with no prior experience) and another on Social Media Analytics. Both are online and free through FutureLearn and each runs for about 3 weeks. The ethos of the courses evidence 'learning out loud' and engagement in open conversations/discussions is asynchronous so I know I can contribute at times that work for me. These course feel doable and time will tell whether this satisfies all I want to achieve. The important thing for me is that I will have made a start. I need to carve out some dedicated time for this study, and I think early mornings will work best for me. 

In preparation for next week's WOL circle we are encouraged to develop our networks. The guide suggests one way to accelerate developing our own network is to leverage networks that already exist. I need to draw upon my connections and develop a list of people I can reach out to. There may be other learning opportunities I can engage in. 

Working out loud guides: http://workingoutloud.com/circle-guides/

Joining my first #WOL Circle and reflections on week one

Working Out Loud helps us to find our voice. #digital #identity #wol @simongterry #digital #literacy pic.twitter.com/pPeylJITdA

— Isabel De Clercq (@IsabelDeClercq) June 9, 2016

Digital Identities 

The use of smart technology (aka mobile phones, tablets and laptops) has gone from being esoteric and newfangled to ubiquitous and everyday. So many of us now use these devices on a daily basis to access, create and interact with information. Social media has enabled users to become the producers, and through these social spaces widen the connections we have, eliminating what may previously have been geographical barriers. Interactions can be real-time or as and when. We each get to choose who we connect with and when we want to interact.

So what does this have to do with 'working out loud'? Well a few weeks ago I gave a guest talk on Shareology and Social Media at the University of Sussex. Essentially the focus of the talk was about the value of sharing and the networks we can develop by doing so. The talk was being live tweeted and live streamed via periscope.

Within this talk I made reference to John Stepper's book Working out Loud 

John describes this concept as follows:

“Working Out Loud starts with making your work visible in such a way that it might help others. When you do that – when you work in a more open, connected way – you can build a purposeful network that makes you more effective and provides access to more opportunities.” 

During the event as participants tweeted aspects of my talk, some of these tweets were picked up by John Stepper (yes the author) and Helen Crump. Having online identities through the use of social media enabled these connections. As Isabel points out in her tweet above "Working Out Loud helps us to find our voice". Clearly both John and Helen as I later discovered had an interest in the conversations relating to 'working out loud' and I later engaged with their comments. 

However what happened next was totally unpredictable. These tweets continued and led to two fascinating conversations about working out loud (WOL). The first with John started with direct messages on Twitter and then a conference call where we talked passionately about networking, digital identity and open learning and reflection for more than an hour. Never in a month of Sundays had I anticipated the generosity of John to organise a call from New York with me in Sheffield. The second conversation with Helen (who I have met once some years ago at a conference in Plymouth) again started with tweets and was followed by a great Skype chat where we shared our common interests in open and social learning, and the concept of working out loud. As luck would have it Helen had just started a WOL circle and invited me to join this. More about this in a moment.


Making a new commitment

For some years now I have benefited from developing online networks. Some of these networks overlap, others don't; some are temporal and others ongoing; some are discipline/topic related, and others have come about through perhaps a little luck and serendipity. Within these networks I have developed a rich set of connections and expanded what is referred to by many as 'personal learning networks'. Some of these blossom into ongoing learning communities. On reading 'Working Out Loud' I could see the connection between these learning networks and the potential of working out loud circles. Becoming part of a circle I discovered was a 12 week commitment. Was I ready to make such a commitment?

Now I will be honest I had a conversation with myself and one voice was asking, can you fit another something into what is already a busy life overflowing with projects? However another voice was saying follow your instinct - this is a commitment that is for me, an opportunity to choose a personal goal and through a WOL circle the potential to be encouraged to fulfill this over 12 weeks and hopefully a chance to help others to do so too. 

I made the decision to commit, although it wasn't initially straight forward. Emails went back and forth and as one person dropped out, another joined our little fledgling group. It took a few weeks before we could get together online but we now have a wonderful circle of four that includes Helen, Robyn, Hala and myself and have successfully held our first meeting via Skype. 


What’s a Working Out Loud circle? 

To explain this a bit further a WOL circle is described as a peer support group of 4-5 people, one that helps you make progress towards a goal by building relationships related to that goal. Groups meet for an hour a week for 12 weeks. By the end, you’ll have developed a larger, more diverse network, as well as habits and a mindset you can apply towards any goal. 

Essentially we each have three questions to personally consider:

1. What am I trying to do?
2. Who is related to my goal?
3. How can I contribute to them to deepen our relationships?

This initially sounds very deep and it took quite a while of soul searching to come up with a meaningful goal.


Week 1: Choose a simple goal and list people related to it   

For our first meeting we spent much of the time introducing ourselves and teasing out our thoughts on a personal goal as well as our motivations for joining the circle.  Our task for the first week following our online meeting was to firm up our goal and then begin a list of about 10 people or organisations that might help with this. One suggestion is to create a relationship list on Twitter. This resonated with me as I have a rich collection of Twitter lists and have found these to be a valuable way to group connections who have specific shared interests. 

The hour online flew by and I enjoyed it immensely. As an avid user of social media, where much of this is text based, it is good to be reminded of how easy and rewarding an online conversation can be when you use tools like Skype or Google Hangouts. For me this is the next best thing to having a face to face conversation. 

So where will this lead me? John Stepper talks about the 5 elements of working out loud in his book and these are: 

• purposeful discovery
• relationships
• generosity
• visible work
• a growth mindset

I can already envisage that having chosen a goal, the sense of belongingness within this group, even at this early stage, will encourage me to seek out information and this will result in purposeful discovery. As we get to know each other better our circle relationships will develop and potentially the connections we seek to make in relation to our personal goals will too. The generosity within the group is already evident and through sharing our experiences as we make sense of this new journey I anticipate we will all grow as individuals. My plan is to blog my experience as I go along, for myself really but in the spirit of working out loud I will share my personal journey and discoveries along the way.    

To add, there are many working out loud circles going on across the globe! To find out more you can search for other conversations on Twitter via the hashtag #WOL or the stories shared on the Working Out Loud website.