January kicked off with a return visit to UnCollege, the revolutionary gap year program for self-directed learning founded by Thiel Fellow and education changemaker Dale Stephens. UnCollege offers a mentored environment for Fellows to pursue their own learning goals.  As someone who self-designed a "masters" in leadership, ethics and conflict resolution in the School of Life and who designed my own major in college, I appreciate UnCollege's model to advance and legitimize self-directed learning. 

To align with UnCollege's weekly theme of "Habits," the workshop introduced "7 Habits for Communicating Across Difference."  Facilitating the workshop was a delightful opportunity to learn with UnCollege's engaged, curious and highly motivated Fellows. 

Goal: Meditate in order to develop awareness of your thoughts 

Skills:

• To develop awareness of your thoughts and notice when your mind wanders
  
• To observe the thoughts (reactions, judgements, ideas) in your mind
  
• To concentrate on specific thoughts and to (re)focus your wandering mind
• To grow your ability to "mind the gap" - the moment between a stimulus and your response 
• To generate insight, compassionate responses and wise action in the "gap"
  

When I learned to meditate and began practicing it daily, I began to be able to hear the noise of my mind.  to notice my reactions that interfered with my ability to actually listen effectively.   My first meditation teacher, Ingen Breen, explained, "with meditation one cultivates the ability to "mind the gap" - the moment between a stimulus and our response to it.  As we deepen our practice, we are able to widen the gap and instead of reacting unconsciously, we gain the ability to respond intentionally."  Once I learned to hear my "noise, I was able to concentrate on filtering it out in order to truly listen to another person. 

When I mention meditation, people often say, "Oh, I can't do that.  My mind goes everywhere." Several meditation teachers have offered the insight that there are many types of meditation; one purpose of meditation is to cultivate awareness of one's thoughts, which doesn't mean to have no thoughts, rather it means to be aware of the mind as it "goes everywhere."  Simply watch the thoughts and come back to one's breath. With that in mind, the workshop began with two minutes of silence following a simple prompt: "Breathing in I am aware I am breathing in, breathing out I am aware I am breathing out. In, Out."  

We ended with a quick debrief about the experience.  One fellow reflected, "I had to catch my mind from wandering about 20 times." To which, I replied, "Bravo! Most people don't even notice their mind wandering. You noticed it 20 times- that's advanced!" 

What other practices do you use to quiet your mind? to develop awareness of your thoughts? 

Goal:  Listen to oneself in order to be able to listen deeply to others
 
Skills:

• To develop awareness of your inner dialogue (judgments, feelings, needs, interests)
  
• To recognize your feelings and needs
  
• To acknowledge your feelings and to meet your needs
  
• To be prepared to listen to others without your feelings, needs, thoughts getting in the way
  

The second habit is what to do with the "noise" that begins when you hear your mind.  I have found the application of the Non Violent Communication (NVC) model effective for self-care.  Applied to oneself*, NVC is a powerful tool for cultivating self awareness and emotional reliance.  

The first step is to distinguish between an observation and judgments.  Our ability to interpret is infinite and often embedded.  Slowing our responses down enough to simply address what is observed (seen/heard) unencumbered by the meaning we attribute to it is a skill that takes practice.  Once we identify what triggered a reaction, we can uncode our response.  We have to learn to strip away the judgments and interpretations to only the objective information, when I see "x" or when I hear "y."  

The next two steps require developing the skills to recognize and unpack one's reaction to triggers.  I didn't know that I had a limited feeling vocabulary until I attended an NVC workshop on race, class and gender.  The instructor read "highly charged" statements aloud and we had to go to stand next to "feeling words" that were scattered around the room.  Even with only the basics of mad, glad, sad, bad and scared, it was a challenging exercise.  So began my journey in emotional language literacy; the feelings list included below under "Read More" helped immensely to grow my emotions vocabulary. 
 
My initial reaction to the step of identifying one's needs was "pfff."  In health professions though our work centers around helping/serving others in great need, the clinical culture often supports denial of one's own needs and often a distain/rejection of 'neediness' expressed by others, except one's patients, of course.  What I hadn't realized until I learned to identify my needs and address them myself was how much I relied on and subconsciously imposed on others to meet my needs. [My apologies all!] Learning this step was empowering and liberating. See the needs list included below under "Read More."

The last step is a request.  When this model is applied to oneself*, one asks how can I meet this need for myself.  I share this NVC framework for self-care and as a tool to develop resilience and empowerment with the ability to acknowledge and meet one's own needs.  

*I share the NVC model with the caveat that, there are cultural values embedded within it. Particularly with regard to the emphasis on "I" statements, which may not translate to cultures grounded in more communitarian concepts of self.  As well, when the NVC model is unskillfully applied on others, it can be quite violent.  Thus, I share this as a tool to be applied only with oneself. 

Goal: Listen to understand another

Skills:

• To learn the 4 parts of listening to understand
  
• To know what layers to listen for 
  
• To respond to and acknowledge each layer

Listening seemed easy until I actually started to pay attention to it. Then, I discovered, it's an art.  I have learned different techniques for listening, but it wasn't until I started meditating that I became aware of noise in my head that often gets in the way of listening to others (see Habit 1).  Then I learned to quiet my noise with the NVC model (see Habit 2) and fully show up to listen to another person. 

A common element among different listening techniques (active listening, reflective listening, empathic listening) is emphasis that listening is an active verb.  Listening is bi-directional; it requires engagement by both parties.  Listening necessitates more than passively hearing the other person. It is completed by the listener reflecting back what is understood from what has been said.

I serve as a volunteer mediator for the San Francisco Police Department's Office of Citizen Complaints.  Unlike traditional mediation that results in a contractual agreement, our goal is to foster "understanding", which, at times, can feel unclear as a final outcome.  Understanding does not require agreement on the facts; it means to acknowledge what another person experienced even if your view of the same situation differs. In these mediations sometimes if it hard to know when we've achieved "understanding."  A few years ago, I created this framework: a four part process of Listening to Understand- our goal for that mediation process.  When communication breaks down in any situation, this model may be helpful to check back and acknowledge each of the four steps.  

Now that my mind is quiet, what am I listening for?  

When I listen, I am paying attention to layers.  Just as an iceberg has the visible tip with 80% beneath, so I find it is also with language.  People's stories- narrative, details, facts- reveal only about 20% of what is really going on. To listen effectively, one needs to develop the skills to hear the other 80%.  When you are able to reflect 100% of the "message" back to a person, s/he will feel heard. Interestingly, often, it's less about the 20% that a person says and much more important to reflect the unspoken 80% for a person to feel truly heard.

So, let's give your ears some hooks to grab onto as the stream of words flow at you. 

First, the data layer- that's what's in plain sight; what a person says, the facts, details. Data focuses on the observation- "what happened" removing judgement and interpretive language as much as possible. Repeating data back may be particularly important for some people to know that you listened, but it is rarely where you will find what needs to be reflected for a person to feel "understood."

The feelings layer surfaces emotions, which may be expressed directly by feeling words; beware, people tend to use the expression "I feel" followed by words that are not emotions. (see feelings list below under "read more"). Often, feelings can be "heard" in other ways.  Tone, pitch, pace may offer clues about someone's emotions.  Body language, including if a person leans forward (engaged) or sits back stiffly with arms folded (closed), may reveal a person's feelings.  

The needs/interests layer surfaces what is really going on.  Here, I am listening for core needs/values. (see needs list below under read more) as well as unspoken concerns and underlying interests.  The negotiation classic Getting to Yes introduced the concept to "focus on interests, not positions." People say they want X (position), but it's because they need Y (interest). There may be other ways to achieve Y, but all they may say is "we want X."  

When I listen for interests, I am listening past what is said explicitly to understand what the person's real concerns and needs are. When I am not sure, I'll test my assumptions, ask stupid questions, and probe gently to uncover the person's underlying interests.    

Finally, while it may not always come up, when it does, the identity layer is the deep part of the iceberg that could sink the ship, or conversation, in this case. Our identity is the essence of who we are and how we understand ourselves in the world. Addressing someone's identity that may be threatened in a conversation is critical for people to feel understood and safe.  When a person's identity is threatened, they may respond with very strong emotions. Identity may surface as being a good person, a good friend (family: mother/father, daughter/son, brother/sister), a good worker (coworker, employee, boss), a good ____ (doctor, plumber, designer) ... Tip: Identity issues may be triggered around how people to relate to the topics addressed in Habit 5.

Once you hear layers, you need to reflect back your understanding.  Here are some suggested methods; different techniques that can be applied to each layer.

Tip for reflecting emotions: It can be jarring to have someone "tell" you how you feel, so I find it's better to use a direct quote, e.g. "You said you feel 'quote word'."  Mirroring the exact emotion word often helps a person to feel heard because we often have subtly different connotations with words. Note: Paraphrasing emotions when repeating back may result in a person feeling not heard. Especially if a paraphrase/reframed emotion word is perceived to diminish its intensity. 

Tip for reflecting values/needs/interests: It may be helpful to frame it as a question, e.g. "It sounds like Y is really important to you?"  or "I wonder if you need Y? " This extra space allows the other person to determine whether or not, you've heard what they are saying.  

So, how exactly does this work?   After the workshop, a Fellow came up and said, "I am a developer- really rationale and my mom is really irrational, err, emotional.  I would like to have a better relationship with her but we just aren't able to communicate.  I think that what you presented could really help me- what books should I read to learn more about this?" 

I paused, "That's a great question. But actually, from your participation, I think you have a good handle on the information so I'm skeptical that more knowledge is what you need, I suspect the most important thing you can do is practice. Let's start with an example.  Suppose your mom comes home and finds that no one has emptied the dishwasher and explodes in a highly emotional way.  You can't relate to that intensity of emotion; it's completely irrational and dialogue seems impossible. Is that a fair hypothetical?"  "Sure." 

"OK, so let's start with the tools we discussed when your mom reacts at you in a highly emotional way.  Normally, you would judge it as irrational and dismiss her emotional response.  But now, you've started to meditate and realize that you have a choice in your reaction. [Habit 1]  

You pause your response long enough to listen to what's happening for you. [Habit 2] When you hear your mom speak with extreme emotional intensity and the words: "no one unloaded the dishwasher," how do you feel? ... You can study the feeling list to come up with words.  Let's imagine that you feel scared, because her response seems out of calibration with the situation and your need for congruity and to understand are challenged by the dissonance she's expressed.  Perhaps you feel mad at yourself because you value participating in the household and you want to support your Mom but you didn't notice the dishwasher needed to be emptied... In that moment, you could give yourself support-- as an adult, you know that you are OK even if someone is yelling at you and you know that you are a good son and you do contribute to the household even if you missed this opportunity to pitch in.  Now that you listened to yourself and addressed your needs first, you realize that you are OK, and now you are ready to show up to fully listen to her."

"So, you stop and listen to her by acknowledging what she's saying, 'Mom, no one helped you by putting the dishes away, I can understand that would be really frustrating.' Incidentally, she might look at you in shock if you've never responded this way to her before.  Then you might say, 'How was your day?' or 'How does that make you feel?' 

Remember, you are listening to understand the layers of what is going on for her.  The data that you have is that the dishwasher wasn't emptied, the intense emotional response indicates that this set off something deeper-- is it that she doesn't feel appreciated? Maybe that she doesn't feel supported?  Maybe a stranger was rude to her and she's feeling the compounded effect of disrespect? Look at the needs list (under Read More) and listen to understand what she needs in that moment.  


You want to learn what is the underlying interest behind the dishwasher getting emptied- what does it "signify" to her- chances are it isn't about the dishes. Then you want to acknowledge all the layers so that she feels heard and understood. 'Mom, I understand that you've had a tough day and coming home to find that no one pitched in to help put the dishes away was frustrating.  I guess it might feel like no one supports you around the house, especially that no one noticed or thought to check the dishwasher.'  Then you want to acknowledge whatever the deeper layers are for her that you've uncovered." [Habit 3] 

Most of all, I suggest that you practice this with your colleagues.  Practice the Empathy Poker exercise with people whenever you can.  It's a muscle and you need to build it.  It is best to practice in lower stakes situations so that you are ready in a high stakes encounter, such as family who are the best at triggering us.  These habits are skills and being able to use them artfully is all about practice." 

1. Peace in Every Step, Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh
2. Wherever you go, there you are, Jon Kabat Zinn
3. Non Violent Communication, Marshall Rosenberg
4. Empathic Listening (Introduced at Steve Rosenberg's Mediation Training)
5. Getting to Yes, Robert Fisher and William Ury. 
6. Difficult Conversations, Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen.

This post is one in a series of 5<5 posts that document pilot/prototype projects with the format 5 things that I wish someone had told me before I started in <5% of the time spent on the project.   

Background

Mission-driven and double/triple bottom lines demands accountability to multiple stakeholders.  Even with the best intentions and planning, most situations that one encounters in business cannot be predicted.  Doing "business" at the intersection of money and meaning requires navigating uncertainty and making tough decisions in complex conditions. 

SocEntEthics provides a framework to navigate these kinds of decisions by adopting an analogous approach to clinical medicine.  In medicine, physicians and clinical teams often face difficult decisions that require balancing benefits and harms, reconciling patient preferences and clinical options, and determining how best to proceed amidst uncertain outcomes.  Bioethical frameworks guide clinicians in navigating these difficult situations.  SocEntEthics empowers social entrepreneurs to create values-based frameworks and strategies to navigate uncertainties, to take effective action in complex situations and to negotiate values conflicts. 

Key Learnings

1. Finding leaders who have insight that good intentions may not be sufficient to navigate the uncertainty and value-laden decisions at the nexus of money and meaning is rare.  
2. It is JUICY when you meet someone who has the courage to build a vision of robust principled decision making into the operations of the enterprise/product from the outset! 
3. Selling "certifications" makes it easy for enterprises to justify budget allocation for this kind of capacity building and peer/social pressure may drive adoption that creates a viable market for the "certification" product.  Duly noted that the viable business here may not transform how decisions are made and/or cultivate the capacity to make deliberate decisions-- so buyers and sellers should be aware whether they are opting for an approach that satisfies "compliance" and "checklist" needs or whether they are baking change into the core of their operations.  
4. Waiting until integration of an ethics-driven framework is recognized as "necessary" may be too late.  A social mission enterprise that adopts a principled approach after things go wrong and/or after well into operations will have to fully integrate this approach throughout its operations and will need both bottom up engagement and top down commitment.  The effort and investment to rebuild trust and reformulate culture may be challenging and significant at this stage.
5. Open source methods and strategies provide a template and idea source, but every enterprise is unique with its own culture and benefits from building its own values-driven framework that suits its operations. 
6. At some point, when working through the "values" that underpin a socially-driven enterprise, there is a murky phase in the process.  It feels uncomfortable and nebulous.  People who like to "execute" get antsy.  This is a good time to take a break.  Normalize the inclination for "action" and "outcomes" and underscore the importance for the group to sit in the messiness of this uncertainty.  Go out for dinner, have drinks, take a walk, go on an outing to a museum. Tell people that it's normal to feel unresolved. Actually, it's essential. 

SocEntEthics Applied:

• Operations: Policy Advisory Board

A social enterprise recognized the importance of this issue for its pioneering venture from prior to launch.  A policy advisory board was formed to support the team navigate these "tough" decisions.  The policy advisory board included multi-disciplinary professionals who represented the diverse stakeholders and constituents of the enterprise.  All policy advisory board reports and methods will be shared with open source/cc license. (currently in publication)

• Operations: Conflict Management for Coworking Space

A social enterprise encountered challenging at a growth stage.  The enterprise chose to build a principled approach to conflict management into its operations. The team developed a set of principles to govern community engagement and invested in capacity building for staff and interns.  The methods and training resources will be shared under creative commons license. (currently in publication)


Original posts from Posterous at www.socentethics.com when this idea was initially launched can be found consolidated here. 

This series of posts introduce a 5*5 systematic approach to pilot/prototype projects.  

From Idea to Pilot: A 5x5 Approach

From Pilot to Reflection: A 5=5 Method

From Reflection to Report: A 5<5 Report


 Keep an eye out for the 5*5 icon to find posts on pilot/prototype projects on this blog.

Attribution: this approach reflects a mashup from brilliant mentoring, modeling, discussions with many people... including Bruce Ettinger, Nancy Dubler, E. Nathaniel Gates, David Karshmer, Rachel Remen, Edward Harran, Andrew Lyon, Ian Page, and many more.

Snapshot: Systematic Approach to Pilots
 From Idea to Pilot: A 5x5 Approach [1 of 3]
 From Pilot to Reflection: A 5=5 Method [2 of 3]

I like to "do,"  which generally takes an action learning form described previously, From Idea to Pilot. By the time I learn through a pilot, it grows into something, pivots or gets abandoned under the ethos of fail often, early.  Whichever direction, I stop for reflective learning as described, From Pilot to Reflection, but rarely stop to write up what I learned because a new opportunity for learning already beckons. 

If you have seen previous efforts to document learnings... something akin to tomes turned blah-blah posts, it may be clear why I resist the report stage.  That said, I have experimented with an iterative design in hacking life and on the off chance, that might accelerate someone else's journey, it seems worthwhile.  So this month, I challenge myself to a new report format.  Simple. Short. Sweet. and whenever possible visual.    

The "report" formula will be a 5<5*:  

Keep an eye out for the 5*5 icon to find pilot/prototype posts. 





*Thanks to Ian Page for the idea for the 5<5 report format. 

Snapshot: Systematic Approach to Pilots
From Idea to Pilot: A 5x5 Approach [1 of 3]
From Reflection to Report: A 5<5 Report [3 of 3]

When a pilot reaches a juncture... for recommit, pivot or abandon.  Here is a method that I use for learning and reflection.

1. Brainstorm 

• Brainstorm 5 successes 
• Brainstorm 5 failures
  
• For each, what was one personal ingredient that contributed to that success/failure
  
• For each, what was one external variable that contributed to that success/failure
  
• For each, what is one thing to experiment with differently next time
  

2. What surprised me?
3. What touched me?
4. How is my understanding different?
5. Based on the experience, what question will I ask before I start next time?
 
I find that the list of successes/failures tends to be longer on one side than the other and that difference can help determine whether to recommit, pivot or abandon. 

The = symbol is a reminder that the reflection happens twice.  Once through the 5 questions related to the pilot/prototype project and a second time round for the personal/professional development.


Attribution: this approach reflects a mashup from brilliant mentoring, modeling, discussions with many people... including Bruce Ettinger, Nancy Dubler, E. Nathaniel Gates, David Karshmer, Rachel Remen, Steve Rosenberg, Andrew Lyon, Edward Harran and many more.

What questions do you ask for reflective learning?

Snapshot: Systematic Approach to Pilots
From Pilot to Reflection: A 5=5 Method [2 of 3]
From Reflection to Report: A 5<5 Report [3 of 3] 

A pilot design needs to match the project.  Each project is unique. When prototyping ideas in small projects is that there is no common design structure to report what was tried, whether it worked, learnings from failures, how a next step was tinkered and final learnings.  We do, observe, reflect, iterate, do... and it turns into something concrete or we move on. 

Here is a 5x5 approach to move from idea to pilot/prototype:

Attribution: this approach reflects a mashup from brilliant mentoring, modeling, discussions with many people... including Bruce Ettinger, Nancy Dubler, E. Nathaniel Gates, David Karshmer, Rachel Remen, Edward Harran, Andrew Lyon, Ian Page, and many more.

Over the past few years, I started many blogs.  Each had an unique focus, different purpose and varying communities. 

Key learnings: 

• Blogs are like gardens; they require tending if you want them to flourish.
• Generate short posts.  
• Post at consistent time intervals so that readers/visitors know what to expect.  Here is a rough guide: daily or at least one post every 4-6 days (build following), 2 weeks (create community), once a month (stay connected) or once in awhile (personal). 
• Be on the channel of your desired audience.  Share your blog post on Twitter/FB/G+ with an interest/location hashtags to reach new people. Requiring people to get out of their regular routine to engage decreases likelihood of engagement.  
• Engage others and build a community to coproduce a blog is ideal to keep content fresh, dynamic, diverse, frequent.
• If you want people to see your blog, you need to help them find you.  Include links to others blogs/people on your blog, share your posts on other channels (G+, FB, LinkedIn, etc) and make it easy for other people to share your posts.
• Invite guest bloggers.
• Link a post to G+ for comments can be an effective way  to enable comments on your post while concurrently extending its reach. (HT @ZenMoments)
• Blog writing is different. See post: Rapid Fire for details.
• Keep the interface clean and simple. Turn off the noise, let the reader focus.
• There are color schemes that make reading easier, use them. 
• Don't plan too much up front.  Let it emerge.  See how the traction goes with readers/public.
• Discussion of sensitive topics may be challenging given the text nature of the blogosphere, where nuance can be lost. 

Blog Technical Assessments:

• Blogger was easy when there were no alternatives.
• Squarespace features/tools were fantastic, but it is expensive per site.  Provided sophisticated entry for novice.  Not sure that tools/widgets are keeping up with the times and their customer service/support was dodgy considering how expensive it was/is. 
• Posterous is a simple, clean interface. 
• Tumblr makes blogging/posting fun, though navigating setting up themes/adding comment capability via disqus takes extra time/expertise.
• WordPress, tried three times to use this platform and find it a fail for my own sites.  However, I have participated on multiple projects that use WordPress effectively, and as a writer on those efforts, I have found it easy to use.  Getting over the set up, design/plugin process and maintenance is key barrier to entry.
• Weebly, use it to host both sites and blog and find it useful.  I fear the day that I ever try to leave, since it is all drag/drop widgets, I am not sure how portable it is, but for now, it'll work.
• Ning could have been great, but required people to be on it and if it's not already part of their work flow, it's not likely to gain traction and traffic.
• Google Sites is OK for projects, not flexible for website portal and not 'sticky' for community engagement.

Links Within This Publication:
Gathering '11
Edward Harran 
Breakthrough to Cures 
award for innovative ideas related to collaboration
highlighted the design thinking approach 
inside the game
Arthur Brock  
MetaCurrency Project 
Jerry Michaelski
MetaCurrency Collabathon 
Michel Bauwens 
P2P Foundation
Mark Frazier
Eli Gothill 
#punkmoney
Ecosystem Diplomat post

*Thought Contributors:  
Edward Harran, Jay Standish, Jerry Michaelski, Arthur Brock , Eric Harris Braun, Michel Bauwens, Eli Gothill, Alban Leveau-Vallier, Jay Standish, Jean Russell, Seb Paquet, Simon Huber, Elleke Landeweer, Graham Leicester, Dominik Wind, Sharad Jain, Helene Finidori, Mark Frazier, Mushin Schilling, Daniel Hires, Bobby Fishkin, Lauren Higgins, David Hodgson, Jessica Margolin, Jordan Greenhall, participants of the MetaCurrency Collab session, participants of the Breakthrough to Cures game, participants of the Next Edge (and its various offshoots) and if I am missing you, so pls ping me!  

A government post reads:

 "Upgrade Education To Meet The Needs Of The 21st Century: Harness new technologies to transform the way teachers teach and students learn. Ensure all public school children are equipped with the necessary science, technology, engineering, and math skills to compete and win in the 21st century economy."

GREAT START .... I would build on it this way:

Upgrade Education to Meet the Needs of the 21st Century:
Harness new technologies to transform the way that teachers learn.
Engineer environments that maximize student learning.
Ensure all children are equipped with the necessary critical thinking, creative problem solving, and collaboration intelligence to excel in the 21st century and to ensure a 22nd Century.

#bo3 [Day 2]

As I begin a series of posts that "report" from an 18 month learning journey, I wonder: are there tools for structuring the output from a learning journey?

Each learning journey seems tailored to the participant(s) and designed for specific purposes.  Wouldn't it be awesome if there were a commons toolbox for designing learning journeyers.  With templates of designs previously used for various purposes that could be recycled, reused and repurposed depending upon one's journey objectives.  This template DIY approach enables an emergent curriculum while integrating robust design that would confer credibility on the learning journey. 

As traditional education is challenged to address a rapidly changing landscape of skills and competencies for 21st Century living and as we see an increasing need to learn and hone new skills/abilities at a rapid pace, the learning journey and alternative curricular approaches are increasing.  I have two friends who are currently fundraising for learning journeys.  Weezie Yancey-Siegel of The Eduventurist Project is fundraising on IndiGoGo and knowmad Edward Harran for Please Help Me Get to San Francisco Pretty Please.  They are both inspiring, passionate social entrepreneurs. 

Here are my experiences with alternative learning and some of the approaches that I took to share my learnings.  

In 2005, I also endeavored on an independent study to deepen my foundation in ethics, conflict resolution and sustainable leadership.  The learning was self-defined, and many of the skills learned were life skills for communication, conflict resolution and leadership yet the tools to assess the learning, competence, fluency with these vital skills was absent.  In 2008, I wrote three papers to accompany talks on the findings and ideas that emerged from that inquiry.  The paper have depth but I did not pursue publishing them in any traditional manner. They are available on my blog: Passive Participation in Conflict, Mind the Gaps and Capacity Building for Inclusive Problem Solving: I + U HALT injustice.

For my recent learning journey, I will write blog posts with the hope that smaller digestible concepts will invite more interaction around the insights and ideas. I may eventually merge the posts together into short topic briefing papers. I have seen others approach independent learning by posting their research proposal, promising to share their reflections and experiences as blog posts along the way, and asking their community to serve as the "dissertation" review board of their blog posts. I opted for offering a reflective, synthesized view of the learnings, but in the moment posts might have yielded more of the discussion and refining of ideas that I have sought.  Perhaps, next time, I'll use a hybrid approach. 

{Idea} Designing a basic toolkit for the self-directed learner could be an invaluable resource.  Design it with corporate HR people who approve the product as credible for a new hire and whose companies would use it for existing employees' professional development for a sustainable revenue source to support a commons toolbox of DIY resources.  

The ideal learning journey toolbox would allow for:

• self directed curriculum
• emergent serendipity
• accountability 
• credibility/review  

What else would you want to see in it?  What have you used for your learning journeys?  

If you know about resources, please tell me.  I would very much like to have a more rigorous approach to emergent learning!  I have a hunch that I will be taking a deep dive into new subjects every couple of years as a life learner.

In January 2011, after a journey that included an adventure into New York City after Newark had a power outage and closed all flights amidst a snowstorm, I arrived in Scotland for the first time. I spent two fascinating weeks learning about the various Scotland Projects of the International Futures Forum.  The full report is included here.  A series of posts featuring each individual project precedes this post.  Comments and feedback welcome! 

Our current education system is designed to teach things you need to know, "just in case."  I watch my 13 year old neighbor's eyes dull from studying algebra in summer school just to prepare for the school year.  This is not the spark of enthusiasm or the hunger of curiosity that she exhibits when we talk about ice cream or facebook. Now, one month in with a "tough" teacher, the joy of summer has gone permanently.  The problem sets have no bearing on anything practical. "When will I ever need this?" She asks me pleadingly.  The kids g-chat to complete their assignments (though I introduced them to googleWave and they like that better).  So much missed opportunity, I wonder when will education embrace the future and prepare students with the life skills to manage information just in time?

This paradox reminds me that I took an HTML programming course in Cupertino about 15 years ago.  We sat through a week long course, learning all of the codes to design web pages.  It made one's eyes dull and head hurt, but, I was able to build first generation websites for small businesses- an early web designer.  Fast forward 15 years, the languages have evolved to HTML 5, and what was C has developed onto C++ or CSS, Java has come (and largely gone as I understand it) and Flash, well, it's future is uncertain with portable apple devices unable to read it.  That is to say, a lot has changed. HTML coding is readily accessible on the internet.  So, would I starting now take a class in HTML 1.0 today?  Of course not, that knowledge wouldn't serve me in any practical way.  So, why aren't we upgrading our education system with the same insights to keep up with the times from the bottom up?  

Google is rapidly paving the way to a future in which everyone will have access to the same knowledge and information.  Google is the ultimate leveler of the playing field.  Success and excellence will be redefined.  The meritocracy will be global.  Excellence will be marked by those with the skills to navigate information effectively.   Success will come to those who have the skills to use the information persuasively.  Opportunities will unfold for those with the skills to use information innovatively.  Capacity to communicate and collaborate across geography, language, culture, discipline will be essential.  Social intelligences will exceed knowledge intelligences in value.  The skill of survival will be the ability to access information 'just in time,' manage it effectively, present it persuasively and to work effectively in a collaborative setting.  

How does the current education system prepare our young people for this reality? 

I was thrilled to see a NY Times article on video games in the classroom for middle school children.  Teaching young people skills for the future includes being able to self-assess, set goals, meet goals, adapt...  To thrive in an environment that is not scripted, but rather where you create the opportunities for yourself. 

A few years ago I posted an idea for the UK's first Social Innovation Camp weekend.  The Be Well, Work Well Credentialing Tool was to create a personal development tool using a 360 framework for trainings in soft skills (ethics, communication, negotiation, mediation, leadership).  I added it onto another idea targeted for at-risk young people. We both wanted to build better tools for capturing and improving valuable skills - communication, collaboration, initiative, tenacity- the ones that matter most in life and workplace success.  We wanted to create a system that would allow people to set goals, work at them, evaluate their progress, get feedback, adapt and meet their goals.  (see Health Month a great app that is doing this for healthy living) While performance portfolios are a staple in the work place (Salesforce a dominant player), these tools to support the learning, developing and honing of these vital skills over time have not been adopted into the pipeline.  Imagine a student graduating from college with a portfolio that reflects their soft skills/social intelligence based upon course-work and club activity since high school.  An employer would be able to assess a person's adaptability and capacity to grow. Until tools to meaningfully evaluate soft skills/social intelligences exist, they will be poorly valued.  As access to knowledge gap flattens, these social intelligence skills will rise in value.  Developing better systems to build, hone, and cultivate excellence in them is essential.

How would you design education to allow today's children to thrive tomorrow?