Archive for the ‘Learning’ Category

Lessons From American Idol

Posted: March 6, 2013 in Learning
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American IdolMy wife and I have enjoyed watching American Idol for years.  I missed the first season, but have been a big fan since then.  Now that we’re into the phase where America votes weekly on who remains, I thought it might be nice to reflect on some of the many lessons that can come from watching this show.  Feel free to add your own in the comments.

1. People aren’t always as talented as they think they are.  The early episodes of every season are proof of this.  Some are just painful to hear.  William Hung, anyone?

2. Talent can be found in unexpected places.  I’m not talking geography here since people travel all over the country to these auditions.  I’m referring to the fact that a booming voice might come out of a soft-spoken, unkempt, homeless person nobody would ever suspect as a good singer.  File this one under “can’t judge a book by its cover.”

3. You need social skills in addition to talent.  The contestant who has a great voice but who can’t get along with others, also fails to connect with the voting public, and eventually loses.  It’s not just about you and your talent; it’s about living in the context of a community and relationships, and that’s a whole different ballgame.

4. Only the strong survive.  I feel for the singers who get matched up in group week with people they can’t relate to or with people who don’t want to do their fair share.  That week requires everyone to work hard – all night if needed, and those who slack off tend not to progress to the next round.

5. Never assume you’re safe.  How many singers through the years have been surprisingly eliminated early in the voting, most likely because people didn’t bother to vote for them since they considered them safe?  Assume nothing.

6. Your vote counts.  Or, more accurately this season, your 50 votes count.  If you don’t vote, don’t gripe about the results.  Do your duty and vote if you care about an outcome.

7. Not everyone who judges you is worthy of doing so.  While the four judges this year had sole authority to determine the top twenty, they may or may not have made the right calls.  They may not be representative of what America wants.  They may have hidden agendas and criteria we never hear about that impacts their decisions.  Do I personally really care about anything Nicki Minaj ever thinks or says?  No.  But she’s paid the big bucks to sit there looking dumb and sounding dumber, so whether she is worthy or not isn’t the point now.  Contestants will still be impacted by her comments for good or bad.

8. Give it your all.  When singers play it safe and just blend in with other so-so performances, that doesn’t cut it.  You need to give it your heart and soul and know that you left it all on the stage.  The final results may be in others’ hands, but you can at least know you did your best.  There is great satisfaction in that.

9. Always keep learning and improving.  Whatever your current skill level, there is room for improvement, so do what it takes to learn and grow and reach your goals.

10. Make friends along the way.  Nobody wants to be around others whom they fear would willingly stab them in the back to get ahead.  Don’t be such a person.  Be the one who takes the time to notice and befriend others as you go.  Praise the members of the band.

11. Climbing a ladder isn’t a lifestyle.  There is more to life than just trying to get somewhere else in the future.  It’s about experiencing the present, too.  You climb ladders for a short while so you can do something else at the end of that ladder.  Know when to step off the ladder and do other things.

12. It’s OK not to get the most votes.  If there are 10,000 people trying out and only one can win, does that mean 9,999 are losers?  No!  It just means that the system is set up to give a greater reward to one person.  Many contestants go on to very successful careers without winning the competition.  You get to define success in your life.  Don’t let others do that for you.

13. Fame and fortune comes at a cost.  Some have the personal character, wisdom and right people nearby to handle fame and fortune.  Some give in to its temptations and flame out early.  If you think you’ll be the one making all the calls about what happens with your life at the level of stardom these singers seek, you’re wrong.  There are trade-offs your dreams didn’t envision.

14. Enjoy the ride.  We know that some things can’t last forever.  That’s OK.  Be thankful that it happened as long as it did.

15. Give back.  You didn’t get where you are completely by yourself.  Parents, friends, teachers, even bitter enemies all worked to help shape you into the person you are, as did your own dogged determination.  Others are invested in you with their lives.  Give back to them.

I’m sure I’ve missed some obvious lessons that my fellow American Idol fans can think of.  What are they?  Tell me in a comment.

p.s. – If you haven’t figured it out by now, the lessons above don’t apply just to a singing competition.

Leap Year Lesson #365: You Can Learn If You Try

Posted: December 30, 2012 in Learning
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Willing To LearnOne of the enormous takeaways from writing a daily lesson learned for all of 2012 is the realization that it is possible to learn something every day if you try.  Some days it’s easy because you have been very intentional about learning some subject or pursuing something new.  Other days it’s unintentional and the particular lessons learned may be welcome or somewhat unwelcome because you learn them through mistakes or pain or the negative consequences of actions.

Because I approached each day of 2012 with the framework of my three words – ground, stretch, reflect – I was more intentional about reflecting on each day’s events, drawing some lesson from at least one thing that happened.  Without that final period of reflection, much of what happened would not have resulted in that last step of capturing some truth.  Maybe I would have learned some lessons anyway – maybe not.

As one who spent most of my adult career in a professional learning role, learning is important to me.  It always will be whether I am in such a formal role or not.  Those who spend their days teaching, facilitating, guiding, etc. know, however, that actual learning is up to the learner.  I can’t really teach anyone anything.  I can’t force someone to learn who is not willing to do so.

By the same token, it is not possible to keep people from learning if they are determined to do so.  Individual, self-motivated learners may have more work to do than if others spoon feed them, but if you pursue knowledge, it will come.  That means that nobody has an excuse of blaming others for failure to learn.

Of course, we aren’t all suited to become experts at everything.  Through a combination of natural talents, God-given gifts, environment, opportunity, effort, and the influence of others, we hone in on those things which attract our interest and fulfill our passions.  We are wonderfully and thankfully diverse in how that plays out in each of us, assuring that somehow we all fit and work together as a community in the end.

I hope you don’t think you’re finished with learning.  I know I’m not.

Leap year lesson #365 is You can learn if you try.

Leap Year Lesson #349: Dig Deeper For Understanding

Posted: December 15, 2012 in Learning
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Dig DeeperAs the nation deals with yesterday’s tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, the long process of grieving begins.  I appreciate stories from antiquity that tell of allowing long periods of mourning – a month or so – in recognition that grief isn’t something that we turn on and then turn off like a switch mere days later.  You probably feel a little bit different today than you did yesterday, and different today than you will tomorrow, but you and I will be impacted for a long while to come.

Part of the process that helps me deal with such tragedy is to dig deeper into the subject through the writings of trusted sources.  To that end, I have read a number of articles written on the subject in the past 24 hours by Christian leaders more experienced and wiser than me.  I started accumulating them and posting them as comments to yesterday’s lesson and will continue to add others there as I find them.  For the sake of convenience and to reinforce the point of today’s lesson, I offer them in the list below as well.

1. Billy Graham: “Suffering: Why Does God Allow it?”

2. Russell Moore: “School Shootings and Spiritual Warfare”

3. David Platt: “The Gospel and Newtown”

4. John Piper: “How Does Jesus Comes to Newtown?”

5. John Piper: “A Lesson For All From Newtown”

6. John Piper: “How Shall We Minister to People After the World Trade Tower Terrorism of September 11, 2001?”

7. Al Mohler: “Rachel Weeping for Her Children — The Massacre in Connecticut”

8. Douglas Wilson: “And Slew the Little Childer”

There is much that goes through our thoughts and emotions in times like these.  It helps not to travel that path alone.  Discuss it with others.  Bare your soul to God.  Seek and glean the wisdom of others to help bring clarity of thought and to try to make sense out of the senseless.

Leap year lesson #349 is Dig deeper for understanding.

Leap Year Lesson #342: Sometimes We Need To Learn the Same Lessons Over and Over

Posted: December 8, 2012 in Learning
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Lessons Learned - EmersonWhen I posted my last lesson about saying yes to saying no, I suspected that I had already posted something on the topic earlier.  A search of the blog yielded the lesson from January 5 – Learn to say no.  There is a lot of similarity in the posts, although they aren’t exactly the same.

In fact, I thought at first, “I can’t do this; I already wrote a lesson on that subject.”  Then it occurred to me that even if the main takeaway from January 5 was similar to yesterday’s, it is a cold, hard truth that the lessons we learn don’t always stick with us, and even though our minds know something to be true, we don’t always act accordingly.  Thus we find ourselves re-learning the same lessons over and over again.

It would be good if individuals, organizations and businesses retained lessons learned, but too many do not.  I can think of a few scenarios where retaining what we learn (or the lack thereof) can make a huge difference:

  • In academics, the fact that we pass some test and get a grade at the end of a course is no guarantee that we recall or act in accordance with that knowledge months or years down the road.  How much of my college or graduate degree content do I remember?  Why should that qualify me for any job today?
  • In business, how often do leaders or groups repeat the same mistakes?  What will it take to document lessons learned, to disseminate that knowledge throughout an organization, and grow the corporate knowledge base so such mistakes don’t repeat?
  • In families and other relationships, do we try to learn from the past and improve relationships, or do we bounce along life’s bumpers reacting to present pressures like a pinball?

Science tells us we use a small fraction of our brain.  Maybe it’s time we use a little more of it to retain past lessons learned.

It isn’t just those who don’t know history who are doomed to repeat it.  It is also those who do know it, but fail to remember or apply it.

Leap year lesson #342 is Sometimes we need to learn the same lessons over and over.

Leap Year Lesson #293: Do Things in Order of Their Importance

Posted: October 22, 2012 in Learning, Priorities
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This past weekend was killer.  That’s why I’m now a couple of days behind on these posts.  There was simply more to be done than ought to be planned for a weekend, but not all of it was within my control.

When Sunday rolled around and I had several things still to get done, it was vital to take them in order of importance.  It is easy to get sucked into doing things you enjoy the most and never get around to other tasks that are essential.

That meant I had to first prep for a class I was teaching later Sunday morning.  While some prep had been done prior to Sunday, the rest had to be done from about 2:30 a.m. until 7:00.  It isn’t normal for me to wait until Sunday to do that, but I had few alternatives this week.

Once I was home again after lunch, it was time to tackle priority number two – studying for and completing a final quiz to wrap up a five-week course I recently completed as part of my professional development plan for the year at work.  Fortunately, that didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it might and was complete in about three hours.

Then I needed to attend a quarterly meeting at my church that normally only goes about two hours max.  This one lasted three.  Ouch – wasn’t planning on that.

Finally, I had to do my part in carving/decorating some pumpkins that were due in the office Monday.  That took a few hours as well.  The world would not have ended if I didn’t do that, but I can’t stand not following through on my commitments, and the rest of the team had already done their part.  So my bee-themed pumpkins finally were complete a little after midnight.

There were other things to do along the way, of course, and I took momentary breaks for social media check-ins and other quick diversions.  The only way to get it all done, though, was to approach the list by doing the most important thing first, then moving on to the next until it was all complete.

Leap year lesson #293 is Do things in order of their importance.

Leap Year Lesson #274: Be Careful How You Teach “Winning Isn’t Everything”

Posted: September 30, 2012 in Learning
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While walking at a local park this afternoon with my dog, I enjoyed watching a father have a “race” with his young son.  The son was probably no more than five years old.  When I first saw them, the boy was about 20 yards ahead of his dad, running for all he was worth toward a soccer goal.  The dad closed in little by little, almost catching up with him at the goal line, but – not surprisingly – the boy barely beat his dad to the finish.

Of course, the dad gave the boy a huge head start and could have left the boy in his dust if he wanted, but it was far more enjoyable for both the boy and the dad for the boy to win.  At such a young age, the boy doesn’t yet understand that his dad is letting him win.  Some day, he will.

There are two very different ways to teach your children the lesson that “winning isn’t everything.”  One way is to beat the daylights out of them in every competition you ever have with them, forcing them to get a taste of losing and realizing that they’ll live anyway.  That’s a rather cold, heartless way to do things and I don’t recommend it.  All it probably accomplishes is discouragement in the child, making them feel like they aren’t good at anything.

A more admirable approach to teach the lesson is to set the example that winning isn’t everything by letting the child win.  As the child matures and grows in skills, the parent can turn up the competition level appropriately.  The child may not come away from those early wins with the lesson “winning isn’t everything” front of mind.  There is a good chance, however, that when the child grows up and has his own children, he will pass on the tradition and he will think back to those times when his parents let him win, realizing his parents were good models of the lesson.

It’s best to teach lessons in a positive, encouraging way whenever possible.

Leap year lesson #274 is Be careful how you teach “winning isn’t everything.”

Leap Year Lesson #273: Do. Learn. Repeat.

Posted: September 29, 2012 in Learning
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For most of my adult life, I was in some learning-related role.  From being a minister of education at a church to teaching computer classes to serving as a learning consultant, that world is very familiar to me.  Now that I have been out of a professional learning role for the past three years, my perspective on learning has changed.

I will always be a lifelong learner.  I can’t imagine otherwise.  What I have become increasingly convinced of over the past three years, however, is that how learning happens in real life is very different than how many learning professionals think it happens.

It has been my experience that learning professionals – at least in corporate America – think formal classroom learning is critical for workers.  If you analyze the budgets of learning areas in businesses, I strongly suspect that you will see the majority devoted to salaries of people who are expected to spend their time preparing and delivering formal training, or for those who develop e-learning modules that are rarely more than glorified PowerPoint presentations that most learners dread paging through.

Ask the workers how they best learn and how they actually did learn most of what they needed to know to do their jobs, and I guarantee you the answer won’t be “in formal classroom training and e-learning modules.”  They will answer with things like asking their coworkers, learning on the job, working with a mentor, job shadowing someone, self-study, and Googling questions.  Workers have a need to learn at the point and time of need.  Formal, periodic, out-of-the-way and inconvenient solutions are not viable options.

It’s past time for business leaders to insist that their learning departments shift resources to supporting learning in the workflow of employees’ daily tasks.  Most learning happens informally.  Most learning happens socially.  Learning resources need to shift in favor of what helps workers when and where they need performance support.  Make it easier for workers to connect and learn anytime, anywhere (think social and mobile), and the business will benefit.

Learning efforts need to change to reflect the pattern learning follows, a pattern summarized in leap year lesson #273 – Do. Learn. Repeat.

Leap Year Lesson #238: Help Others Learn From Your Mistakes

Posted: September 1, 2012 in Learning
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I spoke at the VMworld 2012 conference twice this week, once on my own and again as part of a three-person panel discussion.  It was a great opportunity to share experiences regarding management of enterprise social networks with others interested in starting or growing such communities in their businesses.

For me, it was important to share not just those things we have done well at my company in this regard, but to share a couple of tough lessons learned from what we didn’t do well.  After all, if one of the goals of the sessions is to truly help others on their journey of establishing or growing such communities, it is important to be transparent and guide them in ways that help them avoid making the same mistakes we did.

I am always amazed and a bit saddened when such transparency is met with surprise.  I heard comments like “That’s really nice of you to share what you didn’t do well.  Not everyone is willing to do that.”  I guess I’m just honest enough to not think twice about doing so.  I wish more – especially in the corporate world – also felt the same.

How much more helpful would advice from a mentor, colleague or manager be if it included what not to do based on experience as well as what to do?  In matters of personal growth, wouldn’t children benefit from knowing their parents’ mistakes as well as their successes?  Wouldn’t public leadership in government and other organizations seem a little more human and easy to relate to if we knew the struggles and foibles of leaders and not just a filtered, whitewashed persona approved by press secretaries and public affairs professionals?

We can use a little more honesty, transparency and humanness in our communication with others.  Therefore, leap year lesson #238 is Help others learn from your mistakes.

Leap Year Lesson #233: Some Days Don’t Have Learning Moments

Posted: August 23, 2012 in Learning
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When I began this year of blogging about daily lessons learned, I wrote that my daily framework centered around three words – ground, stretch and reflect.  After making sure each day is grounded in strengthening that which is at my core, and after stretching to do more than others expect of me throughout the day, I reflect on the experiences of the day and capture at least one lesson learned.  Through 232 lessons, that worked without fail.

And then there was yesterday.

During that time at the end of the day when I was thinking about the events of the day, I drew nothing but a giant blank as I tried to come up with some lesson learned.  I don’t know if I was just too tired or didn’t try hard enough or if something else was going on, but the fact is that I just didn’t come up with a lesson for the day.  At least I didn’t until I slept on it.

Is is possible that we really can go through a day full of work and repetitive activity and not learn anything worth writing down?  Yes, it is.  But why is that so, and is it a good thing that it can happen?  Those are tougher to answer.

Where I’ve landed after having a day to periodically ponder yesterday is that some days are so filled with routine repetition that there really is nothing new experienced worth capturing.  All the end-of-day reflection in the world draws a blank because we just didn’t see or perceive or do or feel anything out of the ordinary.  If all of my days were like that or even if that happened regularly, it would concern me.  But the fact that this is lesson #233 before it has happened tells me that it’s a rare occurrence, indeed, and I’m OK with that.

Today was different and worthy of another post for tomorrow.

For now, though, leap year lesson #233 resulting from yesterday’s unexceptional routine is that Some days don’t have learning moments.

Leap Year Lesson #216: Read a Book

Posted: August 7, 2012 in Learning
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When was the last time you read a book?  Some people always seem to have one or more in some stage of completion.  Some read hundreds of pages a day like my amazing cousin Debra.  Others go months or years without reading any book cover to cover.

The danger is greater now with the busyness of schedules and the proliferation of short communications – tweets, text messages, status updates, email, etc.  I confess that in my daily world I bounce between emails, social media sites, newsletters, instant messages and text messages, all in a seeming nonstop, random back and forth like a shiny silver ball between pinball bumpers.  Such behavior does not lend itself to the longer, slower, focused practice of taking one’s time through hundreds of pages of a book.

After staring for years at a large book on my “must read sometime” shelf, I finally made the decision Saturday to dive in and bite off a small section a day – only 25 pages.  At that pace, the 1,290 pages of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology will take me 50+ days to complete.  In only my fourth day of reading it, however, I am already regretting that such wealth has been sitting unopened on my shelf within reach for years without me having the good sense and discipline to take advantage of it.  When it is done, Gregg Allison’s 778-page Historical Theology awaits.

I realize that many of us live by our electronic devices, so go ahead and buy that Kindle or Nook or e-reader of your choice if that’s what gets you into reading.  For substantive things of this nature in my reading, I’ll stick with the hard copy.  My current electronic devices won’t be around years from now.  My hard copies will still be here just as the other 100+ year old books that line some of my shelves at home.  They become references and old friends that you know… well… like a book.

As one all too familiar with the temptation to hurry and rarely slow down, I suggest you take time out from that pace to ponder some subject you want to know more about, and then act out leap year lesson #216 – Read a book.

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