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Posted on February 8, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCY-NEED OF THE HOUR
INTRODUCTION:
Everybody and everything around us keep on conveying something. This transmission by X can become a communication only when Y responds to it. This is parallel to the Radio and T.V. Stations joyful programmes and our reception of them only after switching on the Radio or Television in our homes. The sheer functioning-condition of the glowing and getting units single-handedly is not adequate. Communication does not take place even if one of the ends is ‘dead’ or fails to act in response. The units have to be synchronized in the same wave length.
For e.g., In a satellite or cell phone the transmitted messages are not received if they are not oriented in the right direction or if the location of the earth stations or the booster stations are beyond the wave-reaching distance. In the same way, what is conveyed by x to y becomes a message only when one of them reaches down and the other reaches out-like two persons stretching and shaking their hands simultaneously. In other words, Communication is very much like Kumar booking a box from Coimbatore, its transport by a lorry and Gopi receiving it in Chennai. The receipt of the box and its contents in good condition depends upon several factors. They are…
1. The contents should be good.
2. The box should be sturdy enough to bear the stress during loading, transmission and unloading.
3 Kumar should have packed the contents well.
4. The fleet operators should have handled it properly.
5. The box should reach the destination in time.
6. Gopi should wait for its arrival and collect it immediately.
In the same way, communication between individuals is achieved adequately only if most of the factors associated with it are adopted, at least, by the communicator.
Factors Facilitating communication:
•The speaker and the listener being face to face.
•Their being neighbors, acquaintances, friends or relatives.
•Good knowledge of the subject or topic of talk.
•The context, the place, purpose, time etc.
•Men are infinitely more powerful and resourceful than mechanical gadgets.
•Successful communication can take place even if the inviduals at one end are not capable of adapting and updating themselves.
•It is very much like changing the direction of the cell phone or increasing the potency of the booster units.
Communicative Competency – CC:
Communicative competency generally refers to the aptitude to make use of the words, language precisely, properly and athletically. All-time-greats like Shakespeare and Kambar could never have known us. The actors in the cinemas do not know who the viewers are. They cannot meet all those who read or view their productions. The newspaper publishers also address only a faceless audience. The case with most speakers is also the same. A president or a chief minister addressing a large gathering can see only those at vision’s distance. They cannot also know what each one among the audience need and expect.
Yet, some have become the most read authors / best sellers or crowd-pullers because of their communicative competency. Quite a few of then are sought and admired not only by their contemporaries, but also by future generations. They and their works become classics. What differentiates these masters and billions and billions of us who also speak and write is the level of competency in using a medium. The difference, however, is only in degree not in kind. Every one of us can increase the level of CC.
It is often considered fewer than three broad heads;
•Grammatical Competency
•Sociological Competency and
•Strategic Competency
Grammatical Competency (GC)
GC is largely associated with the written form of a language. It is the ability to use the words and the structures of a language accurately.
• Let us consider two sentences in Tamil and English
•(Subject) (Object) (Verb) – SOV
•Arjunan defeated Duriyodhanan
•(Subject) (Verb) (Object) – SVO
•He ran very fast
•(Subject) (Verb) (Adverb) – SVA
•(Subject) (Adverb) (Verb) – SAV
From the above sentences we come to know that
In both Tamil and English the ‘subject’ comes first.
In English the ‘verb’ follows the ‘subject’ immediately, in Tamil it comes only at the end.
Usually, the ‘object’ and ‘adverb’ succeed the verb in English. In Tamil they preced
Sociological Competency (So-C):
So-C is largely associated with the spoken form (our talk) of a language. It is the ability to interpret and produce sentences appropriately. We come to know when to use what type of sentence while interacting with a particular person, at a particular place and at a particular time.
•i) ”Pen” – to a friend.
If he were my chum, I wouldn’t even wait for him to give it. I myself pick it from his pocket.
•ii) “Can I have your pen” – to an acquaintance.
I am sure he would lend his pen. Yet I don’t pick it myself.
I wait for him to give it.
iii) “Would you please lend your pen for a minute” – to a stranger.
I am not sure whether he would offer it. I am prepared for a negative response also.
iv) “Get me the pen” – to an attendant.
I might just want him to bring the pen or express my displeasure that he had not been diligent to check whether my pen is on my working – table.
v) “Where is the pen”? – To my wife / son.
I don’t want to know the place where the pen is. I am perhaps angry that someone had taken it and forgotten to keep it back.
This difference in our use of words is not confined to a few situations, place, time or person.
It is observable in all our communications.
To take one more instance, let us suppose somebody sounds me (enquires) about the eligibility of one Mr. X before deciding to appoint him as one of the directors in a company.
I say “X is good” if I wish to recommend.
If I choose to be non-committal. I say “X is not bad”.
If the very mention of Mr. X reminds me of his extra ordinary
Qualities
I say “What a wonderful person!”.
If I have not at all come across the enquired – about person.
I give expression to my inability to give any opinion by just
asking.
“Mr.?”
Strategic Competency
st.c)•This covers both writing and speaking
•The problems can be at different ends-the medium, the communicator the communicatee , the context, the content etc
•St.c is not just an application skill, as using a theorem to solve a rider. It is an adoption-cum-adaptation skill.
•When a particular word or usage is not recallable we should not fumble or appear idiotic
For Instance, While talking about X, if I am not able to recall the word Astronaut I should be able to say immediately that Mr. X is a pilot who operates a space vehicle .st.c is not just code-switching, like the transliteration of English words in Tamil alphabet (E.g.. Bus- Table – or digital coding of sounds).Knowledge of definitions, Synonyms and one-word substitutes are of great help in such contexts.
The Greater need for CC
As the interacting time between individuals is getting reduced due to the increasing competition in every walk of life, our competency or in competency in communication can push us up or seal our fate.
•Even a minor scantiness or inadequacy in our CC can, at times, result in the waste of several years’ efforts. It is very much like a little snag causing the delay or failure of a space mission; the space-craft may even burn out or the entire scheme may have to be abandoned.
•Life-pattern has, today, changed so much, that even conversation which plays an important role in attaining CC has got reduced and almost stopped-even among the members of the same family.
Competency in Listening
•Orienting our hearing is listening.
•Men are much more than the other creatures in their response to and use of sounds. They are not cats or parrots.
•When a sound gets produced, it is heard by all. But men hear as well as “listen” only if they choose to.
•We are not also cassettes which record something in a sound-proof glass-chamber.
•Nor, do we obey the orders of the operator who copies some song or speech.
•Our hearing – listening – recording patterns are very individualistic and peculiar.
•Hearing is involuntary; listening is a voluntary activity. Listening to more and different persons’ talk is the best foundation for developing the other linguistic skills.
•Competency is listening is very necessary for learners in schools and colleges, reporters, subordinates taking orders from their superiors, especially over phone.
•To some, like lawyers, judges, psychiatrists and consultants “Listening” is the most important of all the language skills.
Situations demanding C in Listening
•Radio-Broadcasts; News; discussions on topical issues; lesson-lectures for correspondence course students; views on important events; short dramas; announcements; messages; live descriptions of festivities; running commentaries of popular games.
•Railway station / Bus stand Announcements.
•Mobile Announcing- govt; police; traders; meet-organizers.
•Speeches in political / religious Rallies.
•Special lectures / addresses – by experts / VIPs.
•Oral transmission of religious scriptures and literature – Vedas, hymns.
•Telephone messages.
•Oral instructions before exams.
•Information offered at Reception counters.
Competency in speaking
Only those speakers who are conscious of the non-speaking listener and attempt to offer the information which the latter may want or appear to want can become competent and popular speakers. A competent speaker makes everyone around feel at home. Even those opposed to him or his views turn to be willing listeners. In addition to the linguistic materials (words) at his command a good speaker makes the optimum use of the nonverbal factors-also-tonal changes, Physical postures and ****** expressions-to achieve what he had attempted to.
Situations Demanding C in Speaking
•Traveling in a Bus, Train, etc.
•Enquiries about seat reservations, market trend etc.
•Conversing with peers.
•Seeking Clarifications from teachers.
•Meeting government officials.
•In-person reporting to the superiors.
•Subject confined paper presentation.
•Addressing a public gathering
•Introducing a Chief – guest.
•Making even the strangers feel at home.
•Creating a market for something new.
•Inviting V.I. Ps in person.
•Stating our physical condition (ailment) to a doctor.
•Briefing our case to a lawyer.
•Presenting our arguments before a judge.
•Describing our findings in a seminar.
•Introducing the elite to the chief – guest.
•Welcome address.
•Propose Thanks.
Competency in Reading
Competency in Reading is the ability to go through a printed/written text mentally or vocally in such a way that the content is understood by the reader he or the others,
For e.g.. “Beware of dogs” can mean several of the following – one or all at the same time.
•It informs the presence of dogs on the other side of the gate.
•It indicates that the dogs within are trained to pounce on strangers.
•It warns the people outside not to enter without calling the people inside.
•It helps us know the mind of the inmates, their desire to protect their property, their doubts about security, their view about the general society etc.
The words in the above notice are only three. But they can have 3, 13, 30 or even
number of significance.
Steps in the ladder of Reading:
From guided reading to independent reading;
•From oral reading to silent reading;
•From slow reading to reading at an increasingly faster pace;
•From reading only descriptive or narrative books to reading information-packed works;
•From reading only the prescribed books to reading other works on the same subject;
•From a narrow reading in only one subject to a wider reading in increasing number of fields;
•From the reading of suggested books to the voluntary reading of many more;
•From fun-reading to functional reading for a purpose.
•From reading the pictorially illustrated books to reading the non-illustrated ones;
•From reading books on identifiable “concretes” to the reading of books on abstract “vague”
•From reading the available to reading the selected books;
•From cover to cover reading to selective reading.
•From reading to know the obvious to get at what is left untold;
•From simple reading to reflective reading;
•From reflective reading to critical reading;
•From critical reading to evaluative reading etc;
The facts below prove that most of us are yet to achieve sufficient proficiency in reading
•Borrowing books from the libraries is almost nil.
•Bookshops store more “guides” than original works.
•Book-buying has almost ceased.
•What little is bought is also mostly of the recreational variety, suitable only for young children who are to be gradually weaned from viewing mere visuals only.
•The number of books prescribed for the language courses have gone down.
•The study of books under the non-detailed section is also being given up.
•Teachers don’t fight shy of taking the “guides” to classrooms or make them the basis for the notes they give.
•Most students in colleges do not buy or read even the prescribed text books.
Situations demanding C in Reading
1. Newspapers
2. Magazines
3. Reference Books
4. Legends in picnic spots; pilgrim centers.
5. Announcements in institution’s notice-boards.
6. Unedited copies of speeches
7. “Literature” about a particular drug.
8. Do’s and don’ts in the use of a gadget-cooker, camera etc.
9. Annual reports of companies / firms.
10. Plus-minus points of shares in deposit seeking forms.
11. Govt orders; court orders; regd. Notices; property documents.
12. Contract agreements.
Competency in Writing
•Competency in writing is the ability to write sentences grammatically, appropriately, differently, effectively etc., It is often believed that the need for writing has decreased with the coming of computers. The truth, however, is the reverse of it; the need to write has only increased.
Writing skills- Step by step
•“Develop the hints”- question guides us to build on a foundation.
•“For or against” –question give us freedom to take any side.
•“Discuss” – question develops our potential to consider the merits/ demerits of something.
•“Substantiate” – question helps to confine ourselves to one side, even if we do not know it.
•“précis- writing”, summarizing-question shows that way to condense and edit.
•In the beginning the skill is gained only with the guidance of a teacher . But our dependence should decrease and stop at the earliest. we should learn to prune our writing by ourselves.
•This is very crucial because more and more are trying to be popular mainly through writing in mass media-papers and journals.
Situations demanding competency in Writing
•Booking ticket in bus, train or plane.
•Application for a course or job.
•Preparing bio-data.
•Request for something / facilities.
•Complaints about difficulties faced.
•Writing to unknown officials, persons ( govt. traders etc).
•Advertisements for a product.
•Reporting for a media.
•Publish to a faceless audience.
Other Skills
•Note-making skill is the ability to comprehend the “listened to” or “the read” consider their relative significance and jot down the important points briefly – all simultaneously.
•Reproducing / reporting/ transmitting skill is the ability to write the noted-down points in sentence- form in an interesting, convincing and comprehensible way.
•Descriptive skill is the ability to state all the features of X to provide as complete a picture of it as possible.
•Narrative skill is the ability to recount generally in a chronological order the events that had occurred over a long period.
•Paraphrasing skill is the ability to reformulate reword or reshape the structure usually of a written work.
•Metaphrasing skill is the ability to rewrite in a different form / genre.
•Formulating skill is the ability to concretize – give a shape to something which is subjective or abstract
•Organizing skill is the ability to bring into one fold the limitless information which has to be cognized the learner.
•Creative skill is the ability to evolve something from one’s own thought, perception or imagination.
•Composition skill is a combination of writing, formulation and creative skills.
•Comprehension skill is the ability to grass something quickly on one’s own.
•Discrimination skill is the ability to distinguish and choose X as the most valuable amongst a lot.
•Interpretation skill is the ability to understand and elucidate what is hidden , obscure or difficult to most.
•Presentation is the skill to introduce something in an easy and comprehensible manner.
•Translation furthers the ability of L1 speaker to converse or correspond with L2 speaker.
Teaching and learning CC
Teaching and Learning communicative competency is a recovery operation and a salvaging exercise. We are not imparting or gaining something new. We only rejuvenate to a dormant potential.
The innate CC of man, particularly of children and the young which appears almost lost due to the interfering conditions at home, schools, colleges and out in the streets has to be given only a new life.
Our CC is not dead. It is only in hibernation. But this hibernation duration has been too long .Yet all is not lost.
The efforts of the teacher and the student will have to be combined and complementary.
Conclusion
A teacher is, in the beginning of his career, only a more-information-stored-disc. His learning gets confirmed only when he starts teaching. The teacher realizes that teaching should ensure that the students grasp what he wants them to know. In other words, teaching is a communication at its best. The difference between a great teacher and a not-so-good teacher is basically a difference in their competency to communicate. The greater the CC of the teacher, the greater is his contribution to the rise of a better and better feature generation. Communicative competency take part as an essential role in underneath civilization and in making us citizens of the world. That alone can make our (humanity’s) dream, of establishing a non-visa-requiring-world, a reality.
Caffeinated Content
Posted on February 6, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
5 “E”s Necessary for E-Learning PowerPoint Presentation
Affordable and accessible, e-Learning is seizing a large portion of learning activities both in schools and in corporations. And the rapid growth of Internet and multimedia technologies including PowerPoint, flash, video and DVD, contributes a great to e-Learning in making it available to a multitude of learners with ease and flexibility. Among the most popular e-Learning technologies, PowerPoint-based tools are taking great popularity in formal academic and industry education. Here we sum up 5 tips (herein as 5 Es as each begins with Letter E) that should be kept in mind when making an e-Learning PowerPoint presentation. The 5 necessaries for an E-Learning presentation are listed below:
1. Engaging
“Engaging” is to the content. Your e-Learning PowerPoint presentation must include engaging content capable of capturing the learners at the very first time. Avoid dulling your presentation by the so-called Death by PowerPoint, i.e. you should organize the whole story in a reasonable way – clear and brief rather than random and tedious. If it is a course presentation on Science, for example, you can use key phrases or words or graphics instead of complete long sentences to describe the topic, limit the number of slides to the most concise extent, put each title on the top of every slide for quick navigation, contrast different texts by a shift of colors, and apply animations and transitions sparingly to title messages (not to the text part) of the presentation.
A presentation with several dynamic effects can catch their eyes better than a plain one consisting only static pictures and texts, but too many effects will degrade it to a distraction. So think carefully before adding in a thrilling sound or movie clip to your e-Learning presentation.
2. Evocative
“Evocative” means that the messages in your e-Learning presentation can evoke a positive response when conveyed to the learners. What you convey is what they are right in need. To make that, you must take a survey to ensure the topic you are going to talk by the presentation makes sense, and must plan how to present it in a way that appeals to the learners.
Suggestions: rehearse the presentation until perfect before you deliver it. You can practice it in a rehearsal room as if the learners were there, or ask someone as audience to give you his/her advice.
3. Efficient
“Efficient” here is to the delivery of your e-Learning presentation. You made a wonderful learning item, but it failed to reach the target learners because they couldn’t open the PowerPoint presentation. That is a lack of efficiency. As we know, files generated by PowerPoint are often too clumsy and fragile to carry via the Internet. To make it an easy access to the learners, you can upload the e-Learning presentation to the Web (an authorized website or your blog) for sharing online, or burn it to DVD as endurable disc handouts using software like Moyea PPT to DVD Burner.
4. Enjoyable
“Enjoyable” indicates the e-Learning experience by your presentation. E-Learning itself is a convenient and flexible learning method, self-paced and available almost 24×7, without boundary of time and space. E-learning stuff on a PowerPoint presentation, however, is not a nice layout for learning community on the Web. If you want an interactive impact of your e-Learning presentation, then why not convert it to one of the most popular media formats throughout the Internet – flash video? That is a good way to show a complete look of your presentation online, since a direct link of PowerPoint to the Web may fail to retain all the dynamic effects like embedded sounds, movie clips as well as animations and transitions. Tools that can help transfer your e-Learning presentation to flash video include Moyea PPT4Web Converter, capable of creating a PowerPoint-based FLV file supportable by Adobe Flash Player and many other flash players.
Then, it becomes a cinch for you to put and share the hitless e-Learning PPT video at a learning community, or your teaching blog. Your students and other target learners can enjoy it more by a free exchange of ideas as comments on the slick PowerPoint video.
5. Easy
“Easy” refers to two: the messages of your e-Learning presentation are easy to understand, while the content is easy to get. To put it straight, you should on the one hand compose the learning stuff, especially those with deep thoughts, in a simple manner that doesn’t confuse a learner. On the other hand, make accessible copies of the presentation, via a CD-ROM, DVD, video or PDF, for later reuse by yourself and for the benefit of those involved who request a review of it. Tool that can help you burn an e-Learning presentation to DVD and video: Moyea PPT to DVD Burner.
E-Learning, the green method of learning, does brings us great convenience and opportunity these years. Bear in your mind the 5 Es – Engaging, Evocative, Efficient, Enjoyable and Easy as mentioned above to make an successful e-Learning course based on presentation.
Create a video blog
Posted on February 1, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
Virtual learning in K-12 Education
According to the Sloan Consortium, which monitors online education in K-12 schools in the United States, online learning is on the rise. According to their report, “the overall number of K-12 students engaged in online courses in 2007-2008, is estimated at 1,030,000. This represents a 47% increase since 2005-2006”.
That’s a big jump, by any standards, but hardly surprising. The internet has become a place to do many things but above all it remains the place where people turn for information. With ever-faster broadband available to more and more people and innovations in web technologies marching on, it’s not longer just about looking up that information, as you would with a book. Static pages are old hat. With the interactive possibilities of Web 2.0 the possibilities for using the internet in innovative ways in education are multiplying exponentially.
That’s great news for students everywhere. It’s also great news for anyone with the knowledge to pass on their skills, by becoming an online tutor. Online tutor jobs are an ideal solution for educators of all kinds to help others and make a living (or supplement their existing income) in financially challenging times. As long as people want and need to learn, jobs for tutors will always be available.
If you’re considering applying for online tutor jobs, the main requirements are excellent knowledge of your subject and the ability to communicate that knowledge effectively. But there’s a bit more to it. Just because there are plenty of tutor jobs available doesn’t mean you can just set up shop. Anyone considering applying for online tutoring jobs needs to get a grip on the medium and its potentials.
Online learning is obviously not quite the same as traditional teaching, even though tutors can interact with students in real time, perhaps using video. The first years of online education were based on replicating traditional, instructor-led teaching practices. Often learning was based on modules or educational packages that learners worked through in their own time, before hooking up with instructors for assessment, feedback and guidance.
With Web 2.0, e-learning is all about making the most of the interactive possibilities available. Its about learners using the possibilities that computers offer for simulating environments that permit practical learning. Online learning communities stimulate learning through participation, through webinars, forums and sharing of experiences. Computers offer ways of making learning engaging and fun. Some educational institutions have even set up virtual classrooms on Second Life!
If you are planning to get yourself online tutoring jobs, it’s worth noting that the best tutors are those who understand how online learning works and how the internet has the capacity to enhance the educational experience. An online tutoring job isn’t only about teaching others. For most online tutors it will be a learning process in itself, as technology changes teaching strategies and we learn more about how online learning can outstrip traditional pedagogical methods. One thing is for certain. Those who master the medium will tell you that online tutoring is a rewarding one.
Create a video blog
Posted on January 30, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
Building an Interactive Community
Community is just as important as content when planning an eCommerce site. If done right, community features on your site will increase the number of page-views per visit, giving you opportunities to offer merchandise to your shoppers.
Community features can be used to encourage customers to return to your site. Establishing a Learning Community can help shoppers develop expertise through the interaction with other shoppers who visit your site. Asking questions, discussing problems, raising issues, and the general camaraderie that develops in an interactive community breeds a kind of loyalty that is beneficial to the success of your Web store. And loyalty breeds repeat visits.
Communities can build your business. Think about it, the more times a shopper visits your site the more familiar they are with it. The more familiar they are the more comfortable they might get making a purchase from you instead of some unknown merchant. Communities are sticky. Visitors tend to spend longer periods of time at your site than before. The stickier they are the more loyal they get. Loyalty builds trust and trust is the currency of business.
By: Douglas Adams
About the Author:
Douglas Adams is the owner of Home Based Business News , a website dedicated to increasing knowledge of home based business issues.
Posted on January 19, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
Not Your Basic Ethics – Values Development Training
STOP !!! ... WRONG THING TO DO!
Ethics? Values? Who cares!? “YOU” better care. Did you know that each person’s underlying values and beliefs systems are what drives their actions? Those actions are how things get done by your team members. By linking individual values with your company’s principles, practices, and policies, your world becomes a happier place, with more sustained commitments from staff to get the work done. So, take a journey with us from personal meaning, to group awareness, and into enterprise value creation.
Call us about Discovery Fuel’s ETHICS WORKSHOPS to see if they are right for organization.
Posted on January 16, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
Who Says It Ain’t Easy Being Green ?! (Sustainable Business Planning Workshop)
How to Create a ‘Sustainable’ Business Plan
AN ONLINE WORKSHOP
.Join Vic Desotelle from DiscoveryFuel.com for an ONLINE collaborative sustainable business planning workshop series.
This session will allow you to preview and inquire about the series, which is for small business social entrepreneurs who have dreamed of owning a sustainable business. Learn how to make a viable business plan that moves your green idea from conception to successful execution. Create a sustainable future for yourself, customers, and community through this sustainable innovation learning series. Click here for more details
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Posted on January 15, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
Our Future and the Mistake We Continue to Make
Our future and the mistake we continue to make
You may be surprised to hear this: Taking action on our future is way less about ‘what‘ content and ‘who‘ is in the room, than it is about ‘how‘ we come together to learn. Geez, we’ve had that all wrong for a long long time.
Look below at the photo and see how this climate action conference is setup. See how one person is actively presenting to a whole ton of folks passively listening? Notice the geometry of how they are all lined in rows, which is how you place people if brain-washing is your goal. My point is this: The process and configuration that we presently use to learn when in groups is the MISTAKE that will continue to drive inappropriate choices and unhealthy decisions about our future.
Investors urge governments to address the risks of climate change.
Instead, conferences, meetings, and gatherings need to be taking advantage of the collective mind that’s in the room (and beyond) by developing a vibrant, dynamic, life-generating, learning-exchange marketplace.
In this learning exchange marketplace, a ‘collaborative design’ process is used to shape an environment from which relationship-building and information-exchange is enhanced to a very high level. In this marketplace, information is traded and moved toward meaning using a parallel collaboration process that allows for better choices to be created and thereby better decisions to be made. I call this process a ‘Co-Lab’.
A Colab taps into both a community’s collective emotional state, as well as its co-intelligent capacity, to bring out a diverse head/heart knowledge from people that rarely gets accessed in traditional group sessions. A Colab moves individual agendas into group-mind learning and reasoning by combining story-telling and metaphor-making as a key part of the collaboration process, thereby allowing for the intuitive brain to incorporate what the rational brain can not.
Furthermore, a Colab will transform a stuffy-room full of authoritative egos into a dance-hall of fun-loving folks who are sharing a diversity of ideas, morphing them into a consensus of choices, and turning them into an intelligent, strategic plan that can be rationally assessed and moved toward solution-based action. All this is done in a fraction of the time of traditional approaches (as seen in the picture), with an increased density of content being shared, received, and absorbed more easily by the majority (rather than the minority) of folks in the room.
And guess what? Rather than frustrated, adversarial, and dreading the work ahead, more people leave a Colab feeling accomplished, friendly, and ready to act! Now THIS is how to move ourselves into a future that works!
Drop the suits guys
Oh; and one more thing. Please, please! Let’s get rid of the suits, for crying out loud. Let’s allow our bodies to move with the energy of change, rather than to be stifled by the status-quo of a normalcy that is time to be changed.
For more on change, join our community at ChangingNormal.com.
For more on Collaborative Design, see how to create your own Colab.
In Spirit,
Vic 
This is the article that triggered me to write …
Begin forwarded message:
Subject: Investors Representing $13 Trillion Call for Climate Action Now
NEW YORK, New York, January 14, 2010 (ENS) – The world’s largest investors today issued a statement calling on the United States and other governments to “act now to catalyze development of a low-carbon economy and to attract the vast amount of private capital necessary for such a transformation.”
The U.S., European and Australian investor groups, who together represent $13 trillion in assets, called for “a price on carbon emissions” and “well-designed carbon markets” to provide “a cost-effective way of achieving emissions reductions.”
Investors urge governments to address the risks of climate change. (Photo courtesy Ceres )
The statement was announced at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk, a meeting of 450 global investors at the United Nations that includes U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern, billionaire investor George Soros and former Vice President Al Gore.
The investors said while some progress towards a global agreement limiting greenhouse gas emissions was made at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December 2009, “we cannot wait for a global treaty.”
“Policymakers made only incremental progress in Copenhagen, leaving a great deal of work to be done to address the risks that climate change presents to the global economy and to investments,” they said.
They said, “we underscore the importance of concluding a legally-binding agreement this year with comprehensive long-term measures for mitigation, forest protection, adaptation, finance, and technology transfer, including a global emission reduction target of 50-85% by 2050, consistent with estimates from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.”
“Though we are sobered by how much still remains to be done after Copenhagen, we nevertheless are encouraged by the incremental progress made,” the investors said.
“Achieving some level of commitment from the United States, China, and India is a crucial and unprecedented step, and we urge nations to submit ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments as part of the Copenhagen Accord before the end of this month.”
The Copenhagen Accord is an agreement drawn up by heads of government from the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa that was recognized by the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change at the Copenhagen summit, but it is not a global climate treaty.
U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern at the Copenhagen summit. (Photo courtesy ENB )
U.S. climate official Stern told the investors meeting today, “The Copenhagen Accord and a global treaty are not at odds, but can work together to get the job done.”
The investors said today that the commitment in Copenhagen by developed countries to provide billions of dollars in financing for developing countries to cope with climate change “represents an important start.”
“Some 85 percent of the financial resources needed to cope with climate challenges must come from private sources. In effect, the battle over climate change will be won – or lost – in the hands of private investors,” said Bjarne Graven Larsen, CIO of ATP, Denmark’s largest institutional investor.
“In order to play this role effectively, strong, stable and credible policy frameworks are crucial,” Larsen said. “We are waiting for policymakers to deliver.”
“Investors are poised and ready to scale up investments in building the low carbon economy, but without policies that create a stable investment environment our hands are tied,” said Anne Stausboll, chief executive officer of the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), America’s largest public pension fund with more than $205 billion in assets.
Anne Stausboll (Photo courtesy CalPERS )
“U.S. leadership is critical in this regard, including U.S. Senate action to limit and put a price on carbon emissions,” Stausboll said.
“What investors need most from national and state legislatures are transparency, longevity and certainty,” said Kevin Parker, global head of Deutsche Asset Management and member of Deutsche Bank’s Group Executive Committee.
“Until the U.S. Congress passes climate regulation, America will be at a competitive disadvantage in the development of renewable energy and other climate change industries,” he said.
The Investor Statement on Catalyzing Investment in a Low-Carbon Economy was endorsed by four groups representing more than 190 investors – the Investor Network on Climate Risk, Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, IIGCC, the Investor Group on Climate Change, and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative.
“Given that Copenhagen was a missed opportunity to create one fully functional international carbon market, it is more important than ever that individual governments implement regional and domestic policy change to stimulate the creation of a low carbon economy,” said Peter Dunsombe, chairman of the IIGCC, a network of European investors.
“Time is of the essence and world leaders from both developed and developing countries need to act now to compensate for the lack of progress at an international level,” he said.
In their statement, the investors observed that the costs of action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are “both affordable and significantly lower than the costs of inaction,” but said developing a global low-carbon economy will require “substantially increased levels of investment from the private sector.”
The UNFCCC Secretariat estimates that more than $200 billion in total additional investment capital for mitigation is required each year by 2030 just to return greenhouse gases to their current levels by then.
The International Energy Agency estimates that additional investment of $10.5 trillion is needed globally in just the energy sector from 2010-2030 to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases at around 450 parts per million, the investors noted.
Mindy Lubber (Photo courtesy Ceres )
“This equates to roughly 0.1% of the total value of world financial assets and approximately 0.23% of the total value of debt and equity securities, so this is certainly an achievable level of investment – and one that would yield returns in terms of energy savings, energy security, reduced capital expenditures for pollution control, and avoided climate damages,” they said. “But it is also well above current investment levels.”
“As powerful as these investors are, they can’t underwrite a clean energy transformation at the critical scale needed without clear rules only government can provide,” said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a U.S. coalition of investors and environmental groups, and director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk.
“Government policy can make clean energy cost-competitive by leveling the playing field with fossil fuels,” Lubber said. “Only government policy provides the long-term certainty that can turbo-charge private investment in clean energy, address the climate change threat and protect our planet.”
Click here to download the Investor Statement on Catalyzing Investment in a Low-Carbon Economy.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2010. All rights reserved.
—— End of Forwarded Message
For more on change, join our community at ChangingNormal.com.
For more on Collaborative Design, see how to create your own Colab.
In Spirit,
Vic
Posted on January 6, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
The Ecology of Leadership: A Twist on the Idea of Professionalism
In our attempt to be ‘professional’, it seems that our society has become afraid of our own human-ness. Have we lost our sense of how to be with each other in the messiness of our humanity?
I was reading my LinkedIn Groups this morning and came across Mike Smith’s ‘Life Back West’ thoughts on people, teams, organizations, effectiveness and success (thanks Mike!). Now, it may seem that I jump around here a bit, so buckle your seat belt and see if you can stay with me on this …
So, after reading his short blurb on leadership that caught my eye, I went to Mike’s blog planning to oppose what I anticipated would be a description of an old belief system that suggests, if we are professional, our feelings are to be suppressed in the workplace.
Instead, Mike described how his young son has inspired his professional nature to include expression, compassion, and emotion. Having a young boy myself, I can totally relate to how he and I allow each other space for emotional expression. But then, why is it that we are not allowed too much expression at work without being sited as a problem?
It seems that our society has become afraid of our own human-ness. Have we lost our sense of how to be with each other in the messiness of our humanity? For me, today’s sorely needed emerging leaders can not be likened anymore to the stoic guy on a horse 
riding off into the sunset after he single-handedly saves the town from Godzilla. Why? Because this guy (usually someone we all aspire to be) rarely shows the kind of emotion that allows for each of us to change ourselves – a collective transformation. Rather, the so-called hero tends to be about eliminating a problem by taking out the people that go with it. This doesn’t work anymore.
What if instead, we began to choose our leaders (at least in part) based on how well they have learned to express their emotions, and how well they exemplify ways to share the messiness of their own humanity, while also being able to hold space for others to do the same?
I propose that we dare ourselves to allow more messiness in the workplace by helping to teach and “lead” groups through spells of negative emotion, rather than try to find ways to avoid or expel it. No more heroes of elimination. The key here is teaching groups or teams to hold space for their peers during their time of need, rather than expect the so-called leader to do it alone. This is known as collective leadership, or an ecology of leadership. And I believe that, using this approach, gold can be found within the mines (minds?) of our organizations, which will generate amazing new forms of innovation. Why? Because the form and function of all innovation is the result of the expression of the group (or company) who created it. Seems we may have forgotten the fact that companies are made of people, from which products and services are an outcome; and not the other way around?
Daniel Goleman’s talk on TED points to this evolved form of leadership that I speak of here.
It starts with what he calls a ‘human moment’, which are the times when we are paying full attention to the person(s) we are with. He suggests that there is zero correlation between intelligence and the awareness of another (this is known as compassion). Yet we hire our leaders and managers almost completely based on their level of intelligence and rarely rate them based on their ability to express themselves, to show compassion, or their ability hold a group through troubling periods. Why is that?
Also interesting is that he correlates the rapid growth of information to compassion, and it makes sense! Creating this new synergy of perspectives begins to define what I like to call an ‘ecology of leadership’ – a new process of thought and relationship-building. It is an evolved form of collaboration where, as we become more present to the relationships in our lives, it actually helps to form a unified ‘whole’ world that works better, while also increasing personal identity and individual value at the same time. How cool is that?!
Now, this is a bit of a paradox because our increasing access to information often pulls us away from being present with each other. But we have to remember that both are happening at the same time. What I am trying to suggest is that an ecology of leadership, along with increased awareness of our relationships, is changing the meaning of ‘professionalism’. It is morphing into something completely different than we know it today. In ecological terms, this means that even the concept of “the leader” has lived out it’s time, and we now need to consider what a collective leadership can look like. This evolutionary process will empower each of us, rather than just a mere few of us, and can then be carried into any group dynamics to help generate a deeper form of authenticity, purpose, and meaning within ourselves and our companies.
If your mind is spinning a bit, it suggests that the well goes deep here. I plan to write more about this in my blogging. But for now, let us all reconsider what it means to be a “professional”, and discuss together what kind of “leadership” we want and need in this new, interconnected world of ours.
Learn more about the author, Vic Desotelle.
Posted on January 5, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
Communication: Differentiating Debate, Discussion, & Dialogue
I have been asked to clarify the difference between ‘debates‘, ‘discussions‘, and ‘dialogues‘ (note wikipedia incorrectly clumps discussion into the same definition as ‘debate’). Below is a first attempt at trying to evolve our understanding of these three primary communication processes. I ask for your feedback, and also for your own insights on this matter.
The intent here is to help organizational change processes be more conscious and more effective by becoming aware that how we communicate with each other strongly effects meeting outcomes, as well as how well thsoe outcomes sustain the desired changes. In short, this is all about how we make conscious decisions that influence positive change.
Our world is in dire need of evolved decision-making techniques that can provide us with a better way for sharing and choosing solutions that are healthier for ourselves and the planet. Effective communication is the glue that allows for real, sustained change to happen. Note that communication colors all levels of organizational development, including its methods of leadership, its ability to learn, team work and collaboration, and the sustainability of innovation itself.
DEBATE = Language is manipulated with the intent to cripple other viewpoints (argumentative). Change is hard to come by with this approach. However, it is useful for keeping an existing systems in place. Energy comes from the lizard mechanisms in the brain, which attempt to protect and defend. The person with the most power over another is seen as the best leader. This process is not good for creating change except at conscious predetermined places in the process where challenge generates a different thought process that can bring clarity and assurance on choices that have been made.
DISCUSSION = Questioning each other comes from a predisposed positioning (having an agenda). Change is possible but usually can not be sustained due to the process being based on a questioning process that makes each feel someone has to win. Others often loose their identity to consensus. It’s based on a sudo-democracy process whereby everyone unconsciously assumes that there is a best answer, thus only one viewpoint is ultimately chosen. Occasionally discussion moves into dialog, but usually it moves into debate.
DIALOG = Collaborative inquiry with an openness to possibilities beyond each others own beliefs and views. Communication about communication happens allowing the creation of a safe environment; a place where the unexpected and insight can happen more freely. Everyone’s viewpoint is allowed whether or not others agree with it. All work to wear the shoes of the one speaking and seek to integrate diversity rather than extract the best answer. It stands for the power of the question is valued more than answers. The challenge for creating change is that too often dialog does not move toward decision-making and action.
TRILOG = Ideally, all three forms of conversation are useful if used in tandem with each other. Dialog is to be used during the early envisioning stages. Discussion during the goals and strategy-making stages, but only at the point when decisions have to be determined. Debate is useful to challenge a new system against an old one. It must be used very consciously however, because otherwise power over can destroy all previous efforts. Dialog should again be used to close a group’s process because it brings us back to our humanity and to what’s most important, which are the relationships. They are as important (or more) than the outcomes generated by the group, for it is what becomes the foundation for sustaining the determined change.
About Room Geometry = One final point to make here is this: Be aware of the geometry of the room in which people gather. If shared views are the choice, be sure to stage the room with multiple small circles in mind. If one person’s opinion is to be impressed upon the group, then line up the chairs in straight lines without breaking up the group. I for one almost always choose to use circular geometries because it seems to appease the need for all to feel like they are participants rather than merely receivers of information. A room’s geometry needs to be considered at all levels of a community’s decision-making hierarchy including company meetings, town hall meetings, city council meetings, board rooms, and living room gatherings.
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To bring in more of a trilog approach (with an emphasis on ‘dialogue), use this collaborative design tool during your next meeting: Create a ‘Learning Exchange Markeplace‘. For more information, contact Vic Desotelle at DiscoveryFuel.com
Posted on January 4, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
Creating a Learning Exchange Marketplace
Learning Exchange Markets uncover hidden innovation which is often at the fringes of an organization. Within a Learning Exchange Market, a shift of emphasis occurs between the participants from debates and discussions to generative dialogue, which must be in place for true forms of sustainable innovation to emerge. During the learning exchange process, multiple conversations – both strategic and envisioning, are allowed to occur at the same time. 
This approach actually accelerates results toward action-oriented activities while also empowering the individuals who will become responsible for the deliverables. It works miracles for companies working on becoming a learning organization. And your idea can’t get bagged or pushed aside!
One of the primary tools applied to Learning Exchange Markets is called ‘Open Space’ …..
The ‘Open Space Technology’ Concept
(as described from Co-Intelligence Inst.)
” In my experience open space is based on the belief that we humans are intelligent, creative, adaptive, meaning- and fun-seeking. It sets the context for such creatures to come together knowing they are going to treat each other well. When this happens there is no limit to what can unfold.” Alan Stewart
Open Space Technology was created in the mid-1980s by organizational consultant Harrison Owen when he discovered that people attending his conferences loved the coffee breaks better than the formal presentations and plenary sessions. Combining that insight with his experience of life in an African village, Owen created a totally new form of conferencing.
Open Space conferences have no keynote speakers, no pre-announced schedules of workshops, no panel discussions, no organizational booths. Instead, sitting in a large circle, participants learn in the first hour how they are going to create their own conference. Almost before they realize it, they become each other’s teachers and leaders.
Anyone who wants to initiate a discussion or activity, writes it down on a large sheet of paper in big letters and then stands up and announces it to the group. After selecting one of the many pre-established times and places, they post their proposed workshop on a wall. When everyone who wants to has announced and posted their initial offerings, it is time for what Owen calls “the village marketplace”: Participants mill around the wall, putting together their personal schedules for the remainder of the conference. The first meetings begin immediately.
Open Space is, as Owen likes to say, more highly organized than the best planning committee could possibly manage. It is also chaotic, productive and fun. No one is in control. A whirlwind of activity is guided from within by a handful of simple principles.
[For managers with concerns for loss of control, the principles below will seem ridiculous, and the Open Space approach may drive you crazy - but only for awhile ... Once you see how much work actually gets done, and how happy everyone is while doing this process, you'll never have a (so-called) normal meeting again!]
The ‘Open Space’ Principles:
1. Passion & Responsibility: The most basic principle is that everyone who comes to an Open Space conference must be passionate about the topic and willing to take some responsibility for creating things out of that passion.
2. Whoever comes are the right people.
3. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.
4. Whenever it starts is the right time.
5. When it is over it is over.
6. The Law of Two Feet (see below):
“If you find yourself in a situation where you aren’t learning or contributing, go somewhere else” (or move to another level of awareness and participation). This law causes some participants to flit from activity to activity. Owen rejoices in such people, calling them bumblebees because they cross-pollinate all the workshops. He also celebrates participants who use The Law of Two Feet to go off and sit by themselves. He dubs them butterflies, because they create quiet centers of non-action for stillness, beauty, novelty or random conversations to be born.
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Open space conferences can be done in one day or less, but the most powerful go on for two or three days, or longer. Participants gather together briefly in the morning and the evening to share experiences and announce any new workshops they have concocted. The rest of the day is spent in intense conversation. Even meals are come-when-you-can affairs that go on for hours, filled with bustling dialogue. After a few days of this, an intense spirit of community usually develops that is all the more remarkable considering that participants are all doing exactly what they want.
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Open Space conferences are particularly effective when a large, complex operation needs to be thoroughly re-conceptualized and reorganized — when the task is just too big and complicated to be sorted out “from the top.” On the assumption that such a system contains within it the seeds of everything that needs to happen with it, Open Space provides it with an opportunity to self-organize into its new configuration. For this to work, however, the system’s leaders must let go of control so that true self-organization can take place.
Open Space Technology is also a delightful, useful tool for any group of people who are really interested in exploring something that they all care deeply about, and is one of the simplest, most brilliant combinations of order and chaos that I have yet found. It has been applied in thousands of meetings around the world with between five and one thousand participants. It can be effectively used by virtually anybody. Owen has provided excellent instructions in his books, below.
- Books: Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide, Expanding Our Now: The Story of Open Space Technology, Harrison Owen, The Millennium Organization
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HOW TO CREATE A LEARNING EXCHANGE MARKETPLACE
(by Discovery Fuel)
Download Discovery Fuel’s Design Packet For Creating Your Own Learning Exchange Marketplace
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Click on image to download Learning Exchange Market planner
Learning Exchange – SCHEDULE
(3 1/2 hour evening sample)
6:15 Check Bulletin Board for Announcements
6:30 Mission Statement
6:40 Brief Introductions
6:50 How It Works
7:00 The Exchange Market
7:30 1st Period Sessions
8:00 2nd Period Sessions
8:30 Share Learning
9:00 End
Learning Exchange – PROCESS
1. Write Down Session Proposals
2. Questions are as Appropriate as Answers
3. Verbally Announce Your Session
4. Post Session on Schedule Wall
5. Combine Proposals, Negotiate Times
6. Period A Sessions Begin, Take Notes
7. Integrate Notes into One Report
8. Period B Sessions Begin, Keep a Log
9. Integrate Notes into One Report
10. Note Sessions A and B may be Merged
11. Group Reporting of Sessions Begins
12. Bulletin Board To Post Ideas, Notices
13. Info Exchange meetings are bi-weekly.
14. Results Incorporated at Bi-weekly Strategy Meetings and Continued at Next Info Exchange Meeting
Learning Exchange – PRINCIPLES
· Whoever comes is right. Whatever happens … happens.
· Leave personal status outside. Bring ideas and knowledge inside.
· Be passionate about the topics. Take responsibility for creating things out of that passion.
· Law of Two Feet: If you aren’t learning or contributing, increase participation, or move to another session.
· Stay focused on topic
· One person talking at a time
· Shift ‘Yeah-But’ responses to ‘YES-AND’
· Listen with empathy, suspend judgment
· Encourage & build on the wild ideas of others.
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Download Discovery Fuel’s Design Packet (pdf file) for creating a Learning Exchange Marketplace. For more information contact us for a chat.
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Workshops & Blog Postings
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Creative Commons License
DiscoveryFuel.com by DiscoveryFuel.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at VicDesotelle.com.
