Zack McLeod meets Tim Tebow on Saturday at the playoffs!

I wept while reading again the diary, photos and videos about Zack McLeod, whom I’m privileged to know at church.

Three or so years ago Zack suffered a traumatic brain injury on a high-school football field. He’s still recovering but his speech hasn’t returned and he suffered damage to his cognitive and physical abilities; but he still has an unquenchable joy and love of Jesus Christ and other people.

You’ll have to take my word for it that Zack and his mom and dad are the most incredible, courageous, joyful, faith-filled people I’ve ever met. I don’t know the other siblings but I’m guessing they’re made of the same stuff. They’ve suffered in ways I can’t imagine, yet their faith in Christ and their love for others (the two most important markers of Christians: faith expressing itself in love) is humbling and challenging to experience.

Zack has always been a die-hard Denver Broncos fan. He later adopted the Patriots. So I’m guessing tomorrow may be a conflicting day for him! But he’ll be more excited to have been chosen by Tim Tebow’s W15H Foundation to meet Tebow before and after the playoffs on Saturday. We’re praying that it’ll be a great gift for Zack and joy for Zack and his family and friends.

Theological side note:

When Tebow thanks God for his abilities, he’s just doing what all of us – believers or non-believers – should do; be grateful for the gifts, dispositions and opportunities we’ve been given. You don’t believe he’s actually thinking God will intervene in the fourth quarter, or that God will trip the opposition to let him through, do you? I suspect Tebow would find that highly annoying! Going through all that agony and pressure only to have someone else do the final push and get the credit?!

Everyone knows – except 42% of Americans! – that a game outcome a) is not God’s primary concern, and b) is impossible to validate/deny as God’s doing. Thanking God, “giving him the glory” is not saying “it’s not me, God did it”. That’s not the kind of ‘credit’ one gives God. If it is, what’s the point of me? Tebow, or Brady, really are throwing that pass, and throwing it that well! It’s them, praise them! But not as though they’re God. Praise God for being God. He is the ultimate source, giver, lover, of all, and so he rightly receives the thanks and praise.

But God almost exclusively works through people, through his creation. God’s glory is shown, not in the gaps, not in the things-we-can’t-otherwise-explain, but through his creation doing what it does best and rightly; flowers flowering, seas roaring or lapping, creatures emerging, and humans doing what they can with what they have, with love*, faith and gratitude. The God of Jesus Christ also shows his glory, in an asymmetrical way, through suffering and death, and ultimately resurrection. That’s the uniqueness of Christianity, the way life is, and the way life seems to play out for most of us, including Zack McLeod.

If God has any impact on Tebow’s game it’ll be because his trust in God gives him courage. He knows that life is more than a performance or one game. That’s Tebow’s story, so it seems, from what I’ve read about him. And it’s Zack’s story. Let’s enjoy the game and give thanks and praise for what and to whom it is due.

Hmmm, that was a bit long for a side note.

Updates (some videos):
ABC News

CNN Interview

CBS Denver

*Yes, I know, American football doesn’t exactly look like an expression of love, but that’s for another time!

One week with zero inbox. How I did it.

No, srsly! A whole four days of work with the same working people I work with all the time at work working! And my inbox, when I left every night, was at zero! This meant I was not hammered by the worry that comes from not quite knowing which of the 300 emails actually needs an action.

How? A bit of Getting Things Done mindset, “One touch”, and some tools into which to put tasks, information and files.

“One touch”: I read it once, then I do one of the following immediately, then I delete it or file:

• If it’s part of a chain I delete every prior email in that chain immediately (I don’t know why I ever kept them).
• If it looks like it requires a reply that day, or I think I can reply that day, I hit ‘reply’, then delete/file, even if I don’t have the answer or information immediately. The open email is then a visible task and I don’t have to go looking for that email I knew I had to reply to.
• If it requires an action, or can be replied to on a later date, I create a task in Toodledo (giving it a due date, priority, status, project), or I create a calendar entry, then I delete/file.
• If it contains information I copy the information into evernote and/or (if it’s a web link) into diigo, then delete or file.
• If it has attachments, I download to desktop and/or dropbox, then delete or detach then file (because of absurdly low limits on corporate Exchange mailbox size).

I have a Dell laptop, an iPad 2 and a Galaxy Nexus (android) and the tools mentioned above allow me to  take those actions on any device: on my laptop when I’m at my desk, on the iPad when I’m in the office but away from my desk (the laptop isn’t very quick or reliable to make ‘mobile’ when it’s in a docking station),  or on my phone when I’m commuting.

A few other notes/tips:

I use Toodledo over Outlook tasks because of all the mobile accessibility, because it’s more geared towards the Getting Things Done methodology, and because its flexibility is easier to work with than Outlook (creating custom fields was okay if you only needed it on your computer).

I use the same naming conventions for my Evernote notebooks as I do for Toodledo folders, which makes it easier to know where things are, although text search on both Evernote and Tooledo are super fast so i rarely need to go searching via folder names.

The tools all have excellent web-based interfaces or apps on Windows, iPad and Android. Most are their own apps but for Toodledo “DGT GTD” (by @gdtale) looks the best ever since GotToDo went off the market.

I tag and label like crazy in Evernote and Toodledo. Though it takes a few extra clicks and a bit more typing (than simply leaving the  email there!) it’s totally worth it for sake of the confidence of knowing what I need to do or where to find stuff.

I hope this is helpful and I welcome questions or suggestions for improving the system. Here’s hoping I can make it two weeks!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention what I did to reduce the number of emails coming in. In one instance I managed to convince Person A to use Google Docs instead of a round-robin email to gather input they wanted from 5 other people. Excepting the emails I sent & received to make this happen I reckon this saved at least 15 emails, at least two from each plus who knows how any chasers.

More importantly it removed a ton of mental load:

• wondering if or when Persons B-F would respond
• wondering if they were looking at the latest version
• having to mess with ugly fw:fw:re: email formatting
• trying to remember who they were supposed to send it to next
• wondering if the next Person was getting all antsy waiting for you
• where the ‘final’ version with everyone’s input and wondering when or who to ask for it

Person A sent an email to Persons B-F (i.e. total 6 people)

Want to change the world? Start right where you are.

In 1990, at the age of 23, I set out on a trip around the world. I was planning on a leisurely ‘sight-seeing’ journey. But God rudely interrupted my life, and as my heart started to change my hike along the Inca trail in Peru was replaced by an uncomfortable two months in a children’s home in El Salvador. The civil war was still raging. Some time later I found myself working with Burmese students and guerrillas in Bangkok, Thailand and at Manerplaw on the Thai/Burma border.

My cosy upbringing and my rose-tinted view of the world (and of myself) was shattered by that year. For the next two or three years, back in the UK at college (I was what is hilariously known as a ‘mature’ student), I wrestled with what to do about it. I didn’t have the benefit of ignorance, and the reality, extent and complexity of the vast problems in the world were too big for me, emotionally and practically. I’d lived with abandoned, abused children. I’d seen people moments after they’d been shot dead. I’d talked to people who’d witnessed or experienced horrendous injustices.  I’d corrected the English of Burmese students writing stories of how “the villager’s legs was were  blown off”. I’d met the Prime Minister-in-exile of Burma, seeing him try to establish a government  in the malaria-ridden jungle on the Thai/Burma border while most of his NLD party members were in prison near Rangoon, Burma. What was I, this one little person, supposed to do with that knowledge?

By the grace of God (for my sanity, and for doable next steps) I came to the conclusion that the minimum I must do is act justly, and seek justice, where I am, in my immediate sphere of influence. If I’m not treating people around me with justice, then what kind of hypocrisy is it to campaign for justice elsewhere? And by people I mean family, friends, business owners, musicians, artists; everyone.

This is isn’t a matter of order – it’s not to say one must fix ones own back yard first – but a matter of integrity.

The closer we get to people, the harder it is to act unjustly, or the more the injustice is exposed for what it is. But if we want to change the world, we have to start where we are. I hope, I pray, that at the very least that’s what I’m doing.

For a story of how a mega-church did that in a declining neighborhood of Indianapolis, read “Before ‘Transforming’ Your Neighborhood, Talk to your neighbors“.

2012: Make more stuff. Watch less. Read less. Do.

The full text of  Scott Hanselman’s productivity tip is:

Spend 10% of your time consuming and 90% of your time producing. Make more stuff. Watch less. Read less*. Do.

That’s how I want to to live & work in 2012.

This won’t be easy for me. I have ingrained habits of information consumption. And there’s barely a topic in all of reality that doesn’t interest me, so focus is a … oooh! what’s that?!.

But “there’s a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” (Eccl. 3:1-8). And I’m made in the image of my Creator – and so are you. So I believe, for me, now is the time to build, the time to speak, the time to create, the time to do.

My Top Ten Productivity Apps

These are my top ten productivity apps and why I use them.

I’ve hit the groove with all these (except twitter which I’m struggling to use well right now) and the “why” for me is mostly because: they’re easy to use, the data is accessible from multiple devices, they almost all allow sharing, and they’re all free for a substantial range of features and capacity :

1. Google calendar – a) can view personal and work calendars on same page (google calendar can sync with outlook), b) can share with others c) syncs with doodle.com for meeting planning, d) available on all mobile devices

2. Dropbox file manager – a) keeps/syncs copy of file in the cloud and every connected device b) can create public link to share large files with others, c) easy mobile access, d) first 2GB free

3. Toodledo task manager – a) based on Getting Things Done philosophy, b) great user interface, c) great Android app (GotToDo), d) can share tasks with others (Pro account only) & track changes.

4. Evernote note keeper – a) easy to use & organize (with notebooks and tags), b) easy to share a note with others, c) great desktop app (includes screenshot clipper, and outlook plug-in to convert emails to notes to keep). d) available on all mobile devices, e) allows upload of mobile photos – e.g. flipchart, the text of which is scannable!

5. Google docs doc/ppt/spreadsheet- a) live synchronous collaboration, b) live synchronous collaboration! c) can download/upload as Microsoft document, d) no more version issues! e) mobile accessible (limited) f) live synchronous collaboration!!

6. Diigo bookmarking – a) easy bookmarking, caching, tagging of websites, articles etc. b) can highlight & annotate sections of page c) private/public sharing options, d) very handy browser plugin (one click bookmarking), e) syncs with Delicious

7. Jing (by Techsmith) screen still & video capture – a) create and share instant narrated tutorials/powerpoints/presentations, b) capture partial or full screenshots (similar feature to evernote)

8. Skype - a) free computer-to-computer, b) cheap international calls, c) easy conference calling of both landline/mobile phone & computer users, d) screen & file sharing, e) multiple video calling (Premium only)

9. Yammer/Twitter micro-blog – a) informal, serendipitous, non-interruptive (i.e. not email) sharing and connection with others, b) simultaneous yammer and twitter post via #yam hashtag  c) mobile access

10. Hootsuite social media aggregator a) updates twitter/facebook/linkedin simultaneously (if needed), b) available on mobile devices (though I use Tweetdeck in Chrome on my desktop)

Imperatives of Connectivism: Connected Specialization & ‘Bridging’ Social Capital

Connectivism is a new learning theory that supersedes – doesn’t completely replace – traditional theories of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. The claim is that it is more suited to the increasingly fast, complex, informationally explosive and digitally wired world we live in. Seems a good enough reason for a new learning theory!

Keith Hamon, in the second live session of CCK11 last Friday wrote in the chat: “I think the growth of specialized expertise has increased the need for a theory of connectivism if society is to avoid devolving into discrete silos of “blind knowledge,” disconnected from the environment that needs and uses that knowledge.”

I completely agree with him and think it’s an important aspect of Connectivism to keep probing. I sense that Connectivism proposes an imperative that people and groups stay connected with different people and groups. It’s an imperative, not an inevitability. I hear a lot of idealists say that if we’re connected, if physical or technological barriers are broken down, then this wonderful global community will appear. Well of course that ain’t gonna happen while actual human beings are involved. Silos of “blind knowledge”, or groupthink ironically have more potential to arise as access to networks enables people choose their one source of news and information and are fed and led via engines to their own preferences.

So there’s an imperative for deep specialization – that comes tight focus in one field – to apply itself to the wider context of the world in which it exists.

Since we’re still dealing with human beings here (I hope!), it may be instructive to look at the research into social capital, and the distinctives of ‘bonding’ and ‘bridging’ social capital. Those concepts may help us assess the health of those ‘siloed’ groups of connected individuals, and also the health of the wider network of groups. “Health” will have to be defined in some ways, of course, and that may already be a departure from Connectivism which seems happy just with the mere existence of connectedness and says nothing about the quality of that connectedness.

Implications of Connectivism in the Workplace

One of my interests in Connectivism is rooted in my work – researching, creating and supporting the kind of workplace learning that leads to better performance (however defined).

In George Siemens’ authoritative overview of “Connectivism – A Learning Theory for the Digital Age”, while acknowledging that Connectivism has implications for all of life he identifies these implications specifically:

• Management and leadership. The management and marshalling of resources to achieve desired outcomes is a significant challenge. Realizing that complete knowledge cannot exist in the mind of one person requires a different approach to creating an overview of the situation. Diverse teams of varying viewpoints are a critical structure for completely exploring ideas. Innovation is also an additional challenge. Most of the revolutionary ideas of today at one time existed as a fringe element. An organizations ability to foster, nurture, and synthesize the impacts of varying views of information is critical to knowledge economy survival. Speed of “idea to implementation” is also improved in a systems view of learning.
• Media, news, information. This trend is well under way. Mainstream media organizations are being challenged by the open, real-time, two-way information flow of blogging.
• Personal knowledge management in relation to organizational knowledge management
• Design of learning environments

The traditional locus for ‘learning’ in corporations has been the L&D (Learning – or Training – and Development) department within Human Resources. When most people in a corporation think of ‘learning’ or if they have a skill deficit, they think of L&D as the first place to go. Everyone does it; L&D people themselves, line leaders & individual contributors, everyone.

If it is true that “Chaos is a new reality for knowledge workers” and that “Experience has long been considered the best teacher of knowledge. Since we cannot experience everything, other people’s experiences, and hence other people, become the surrogate for knowledge.” (quoting Karen Stephenson) – then it is imperative that corporations change how they think of and enable workplace learning.

I’ll be intensely scrutinizing Connectivism over the next few weeks, and testing the implications for workplace learning. It seems revolutionary, not evolutionary, so it seems to bring chaos. My challenge will to see find ways to help corporations change without the violence of revolution and without the naturally-selected death of evolution!

Connectivism and Connected Knowledge 2011

I’m about to launch into a 12-week MOOC – a Massive Online Open Course – called “Connectivism and Connected Knowledge”, run by Stephen Downes and George Siemens.

I had the privilege of speaking with George Siemens about Connectivism last year while doing some research for at work on “Principles of Workplace Learning”. I also wrote a post on the topic in the broader context of relationships.

The course promises to wonderfully nourish my work (workplace learning, performance improvement), my interest in technology, my personal focus on relational thinking, and my general pondering on questions of epistemology, power and authority. I’m very interested in the process, especially as we consider at work how to enable a way of learning that’s necessary for 21st Century corporations to thrive. I’m also very keen to observe to what degree the course itself is an example of Connectivism and to what degree traditional modes and philosophies of learning are necessary for ‘learning’ to have occurred over the 12 weeks.

I’ll be joining several hundred other people (it really is Massive) from all around the world. I can’t wait! And here’s hoping I can keep up! For more details, check out here, and follow on twitter using #CCK11. And why not join in? Here’s what the course will cover.

Week 1: Connectivism?
Week 2: Patterns
Week 3: Knowledge
Week 4: Unique?
Week 5: Groups, Networks
Week 6: PLENK
Week 7: Adaptive Systems
Week 8: Power & Authority
Week 9: Openness
Week 10: Net Pedagogy
Week 11: Research & Analytics
Week 12: Changing views

Light Green Change. Oh, really?

The last post (September coz I’m a blogging slacker) showed the video we created at work to introduce the “Green Games”, a two-week competition to encourage our company to develop better environment awareness and practice.

After a successful two weeks it seemed appropriate to see how the stars of that video had faired:

Our man in accounting, Bob, won the competition with the most points gained by his environmental actions and ideas and for submitting his annual carbon footprint. His prize was that we paid for carbon offsets for his carbon footprint. To pay for the carbon offsets we used cash we’d earned by selling excess office furniture on Craig’s List. So we found ways to recycle and re-use in lots of ways. All it all it was actually fun and quite effective, with several people telling us what they’re doing and thinking differently now.

Light Green Change

I lead a small global cross-functional team that is tasked with helping our company learn about, and change our behaviors regarding, the environment. Trouble is I have a cynical tendency and talking about “care for the environment” can seem so turgid sometimes it makes me want to leave lights on everywhere, drive the car when I could walk, and basically do everything I’m not supposed to do. That’s what happens, in our distorted humanity, when faced with moralistic rules but no grace and love. And avid Greeners do seem to take themselves a little too seriously, even if the apocalypse IS coming.

Anyway, the team decided to lighten up a bit by creating this movie ahead of a ‘green competition’ we ran in conjunction with a corporation-wide Green Week initiative. We had a laugh making it at least. And it really seems to have had an effect on people’s behavior, amazingly enough.

[Note: Shot on a Canon HD110 and (not very well) edited with Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9.0]