More USC Probs

 I was recently talking to Andrew about class and our PhD program. Andrew is my go-to person for all things university or college related (see HERE). He is one of the few students who I actually compete with in my classes . . . lucky him.

Andrew is an adjunct professor or something for a small school in Connecticut but more than that he is a Delta Airlines flight attendant. He was written about in a magazine about his dual jobs last year (see HERE). So he does dual duty for work and for me, which is fairly bad ass.

Because he is my outlet for all things airlines he gets a lot of links from me about people getting ducted tape to airline seats, unruly passengers, etc etc. He also gets a lot of links about if grad school is worth it, or any of the other hoi polloi about academics that I run across. (I feel certain he is always thrilled to receive my missives).

I sent him one the other day, this one was about USC and the cost of its Masters in Social Work program (see HERE). It's a bit of a longish article, but wow is it powerful. On the heels of their college admissions scandal, which I still can't figure out. . . . I mean I get wanting to get your kid into a top notch school, but parents actually facilitating the cheating and the fraud? That's absurd. And for USC? That just shows that these parents weren't very smart about their objectives in my opinion. 

Regardless, I sent this link to Andrew because of the cost of the program compared to the expected return. I've already done this calculation for my own PhD work, and you can imagine that since I'm late in my own life and because my job is helping me some, the return is significant on my end. Not so with the Masters in Social Work. The balance is incredibly lopsided on what it costs to get the degree (about 112K) and the expected salary for graduates (around 52K). Now, of course these numbers are stark, but that's a lot of college debt to pay off for a career field that habitually doesn't pay an awful lot. 

The article discusses how a for profit, private company was used to help attract students. I don't find this to be that out of line. I have no problem with this aspect of the story. If there's a private company that a college wants to pay, great! But you better not hide the costs and you better not inflate the return. 

Additionally, I think it's sad that (and the story doesn't discuss this as much) but I think they were taking advantage of student's and our society's own thoughts on social work. Noble? Maybe. But more noble than doctor or lawyer or any other job? Hardly says I. But I betcha if you ask kiddos going into schools these days they will say that it's more noble, and that's why they're doing it.  

 

First Line Right Now

 The other day I mentioned how I'm trying to get back into writing via reading. Well, to help spur that along I picked up a Travis McGee and a Dick Francis. I'm mid way through the Travis McGee and just started the Dick Francis. 

The Dick Francis (unlike some of his others, see HERE) has a less than inspiring first line, but it's not that bad. Makes me want to find out what happened. But the Trav McGee won out!

Micah!?!? Who Knew!

Remember my study buddy, Micah? (see HERE). Well, turns out she's a novelist as well! I know I'm making that sound like something I just found out, but it's a lie. Micah and I have been writing buddies for more than 6 months. But the surprise is genuine. I just had that surprise like a year ago. 

Regardless, Micah and I, who are both in the College of Education at KSU (me in a PhD program, she is getting her Masters), were recently talking about the difference between writing for school and writing for fun. 

As you all know, I'm in the middle of getting my PhD. Tons of writing,  . . . every bit of it non-fiction, research papers. I wrote three novels over the last ten years or so, several short stories, and many many drafts that have yet to go anywhere. I had to put my fiction writing on hold to focus on all these research papers. 

Well, my classes for this semester are done now (for the most part . . . see HERE) and I'm back into writing for fun, noveling. I had forgotten how fun it is to write novels. I had also forgotten how hard it is! 

When I write a research paper the longest they tend to ever get is 10K words. Most are around 3K. Heck my dissertation when I'm done will probably be only 25K. My novels are all 85K or more! My first drafts of my novels all started at 50K. I've written NaNoWriMo about 7 times and each of those is 50K words. (I've written about this before HERE).

Taking a year or two off to focus on my PhD has shown me that I should have given myself alot more credit for having written and (self) published 3 novels! It's a much bigger achievement than I had given myself credit for.

Trading Up for Winter?

A while back I posted about writing areas and desks (see HERE). This summer I traded my office writing area (see below) for the pergola. Nice big, soft fans, a breeze, surrounded by nature and a bubbling pool fountain, outdoor speakers, bird song and squirrels, the whole bit. 

It wasn't bad. There's actually some nice chairs out there, and all that nature is a nice distraction.

Done? Doesn't Feel Like It

 I have two major papers due in the next few weeks. The end of my semester long class. It's been a long slow haul, this class. It's on qualitative research and it's not my cup of tea. 

But this post isn't about my class. You'll notice I haven't labeled it as adult education. This is about writing. I started writing the best draft yet of Sunset Perfect the other day. I got 7 chapters through and then I had to switch gears to writing my papers. Now that the papers are (almost) done, I can't switch gears back to writing fiction. 

3 or 5 Years?

I'm a part of a group that helps support PhD students both within my university and in other universities. Recently a question popped up about how long it should take to complete the PhD requirements. I've had this discussion before. When I started I buckled in for five years knowing that that is how long it typically takes students in my program to earn their PhD.

If you're goal is to just get the credentials than it shouldn't matter. If your goal is to actually become an expert in your field, than it might be that the longer course of study is better. 

That being said, i don't know if just "years" alone is the best gauge. How many credit hours are involved? How many classes? I'm taking a course of study that generally takes 5 years to complete. I come in with a masters with transferable credits so that helps accelerate some things. 

My boss wants me to finish in 3 years because he wants the credentials for marketing purposes. My major advisor has said, the goal isn't to be done in 3 years . . . the goal is to be a genuine expert in the field of study. That takes reading and time. I'm taking multiple courses per semester and overloading a bit, but I'm not sacrificing knowledge transfer or reading. It's a bit of a balancing act. 

I think the goal is expertise which goes beyond just years of study. Take a look at the program and the credit hours and classes rather than just years to complete.

Social Media as Reinforcement Training

HASC's mission is to train contractors to stay as safe as possible while working in petrochemical and oil refining facilities. Due to the large number of contractors who enter this workforce every year, HASC provides a six-hour introductory class on safety in the industry called Basic Orientation Plus (BOP). 

Although a good model for new field technician training, BOP could be more effective for learners by using more innovative tools, especially those that emphasize spaced practice. In 2020 HASC performed a study on the use of spaced practice opportunities for learners in BOP utilizing a text messaging delivery. This study will focus on a similar study performed in 2021 focused on providing spaced practice using Instagram as the delivery method for BOP learners. 

Rationale for the Study

HASC hosts two BOP classes a day with up to 150 learners in each class. These small communities of learners work to pass the BOP exam, a qualifying exam for working within the petrochemical and oil refining industry. These learners spend between six and eight hours in BOP and are allowed to work together during class, reflect together during breaks, and collaborate with the instructor. In essence, they become an organization of learners within the HASC organization for the duration of the training. HASC is working to create a stronger community of learners and on providing an open system within the organization similar to what Morgan (2006) discusses regarding subsystems that spring up within systems and are a smaller part of the whole. Following some of the precepts of Morgan's (2006) writing on organizations as open systems analogy, HASC is hoping to inspire learner's within these learning group subsystems to provide creative content, work together, understand broader concepts, and "influence the nature of their environment" (p. 63). The expected results from providing spaced practice opportunities, and inspiring greater confidence among the learners through an open system, is that learners will have a better opportunity to pass the BOP final exam. Additionally, Morgan (2006) discusses the organizational ecology and the creation of a shared future. In the short term, BOP learners share a common future of finishing the class and passing the final exam. A tool that allows them a more engaging and effective learning technique like spaced practice could help the learners all realize that shared future. 

Research Questions and Theoretical Perspective

The 2021 HASC study on spaced practice and Instagram will focus on the use of cognitivism and behaviorism (Kauffeld and Lehmann-Willenbrockand, 2010; Arghode et al. 2017) as a bridge application (Ertmer & Newby, 2013) that will allow for a more open organization among the class community.  This will be completed using a mixed qualitative and quantitative research design to answer three primary questions:

1) Do social media interactions for spaced learning provide better opportunities for reflective learning than text-delivered chatbots for BOP learners? 

2) Does using Instagram for reflective spaced practice provide a better understanding of BOP concepts than instruction without Instagram practice sessions? 

3) Do learners create a more open system within the class by engaging with and creating content via Instagram?

 Literature Review

There is ample research on the effectiveness of spaced practice on learning. Dempster and Farris (1990) state that it is "ubiquitous in scope" (p. 97) and note that it is a standard within the learning community as a successful tool to impart learning (Dempster & Farris, 1990, and Dempster 1989). Carpenter et al. (2012) state that "any form of spacing – whether it is fixed or expanding -  appeared to promote learning" (p. 5) and "in order to promote long-term retention of knowledge, students should receive spaced re-exposure to previously-learned information" (p. 5). Space practice encourages engagement among the class and includes active processing of information, a key, according to Arghode et al. (2017) to cognitivism. 

Social media is becoming more universal and natural for workers entering into the petroleum and petrochemical refining industry and more likely to be used for information sharing among this learning cohort (Tran, 2018). According to Hortigüela-Alcalá et al. (2019), these social media platforms allow learners to play an active role in their learning and provides "more collaborative-based methodologies" for learners. Hortigüela-Alcalá et al. (2019) also found that learners who utilized social media as a part of learning not only learned more effectively but were also more motivated to learn. Kunka (2020) found similar greater engagement levels with students who utilized social media as a part of their learning. Al-Bahrani and Patel (2015) reported on many studies that have found positive results for social media in classes but also found evidence that this tool provided opportunities for shy students to interact more. These are all key features of an open and engaging classroom that HASC is trying to promote. According to Arghode et al. (2017) behaviorism's uniqueness lies in "its belief in how learning is achieved based on external stimuli and subsequent response" (p. 595). By applying an external stimuli to our BOP class subsystem HASC hope to change the behavior of the learner, from passive learner to active and engaged.

Many different researchers have studied and analyzed merging social media for engagement and more effective learning with spaced practice. Avila (2021), working with a theoretical design of digital agency, hoped to find evidence that learners would gain confidence working within the class by using a tool they were familiar with. Using a qualitative ethnographic study, Serpagli and Mensah (2021) stated that learners found "Instagram as a classroom tool was "casual" to the students because they were already using it in their daily lives" (p. 295). Swanepoel and Bruwer (2020) found that learners thought Instagram provided greater motivation to accompany lectures, while Nagel et al. (2018) discovered positive results for social media to enhance classroom activities. 

These studies show not just the benefits of spaced practice, but also the benefits of Instagram for delivery of this reinforcement tool. In fact, many of the studies selected as a part of this review focused on how social media use could provide more open forms of communication like wikis, story-telling, feedback texts, images with captions for more explanation and the promotion of a more collaborative learning environment (Nagel et al. 2018; Serpagli & Mensah, 2021; Swanepoel & Bruwer, 2020;). As part of HASC's goal is to promote a more open organization/ subsystem where learners can create content, collaborate in class, and develop a richer understanding of the concepts and learning objectives, having tools that promote this type of interaction would help the BOP learners create that type of dynamic.

Research Design

For this Instagram study, HASC followed the model established in 2020 with the text delivery spaced practice study. HASC used the same questions that were used in 2020 and ran the test with a similar number of classes. HASC also utilized an open question survey to glean reactions from learners who utilized the tool. This design followed many of the best practices found in similar studies such as the Serpagli and Mensah (2021) study which used a qualitative ethnographic methodology and used a similar sampling method that found that Instagram brought "science into the daily lives of digital natives" (p. 288). Making BOP a part of the learners daily lives and actions is a goal of this study. The study on using Instagram to promote blended learning by Swanepoel & Bruwer (2020) was also used as a paradigm for the HASC study as their mixed qualitative and quantitative design found that an "always-on leaner, who thinks about the module outside of the lecture" is a similar goal for promoting the open organization with HASC's BOP classes. 

Results and Analysis

In 2020, when HASC delivered spaced practice through text message, 170 learners started the spaced practice test, and 99 learners completed all four modules.  Over the course of the study, 205 learners took BOP and had the opportunity to use the spaced practice via text capability. In 2020, 83% of the BOP learners started the spaced practice exercise, and 48% completed the exercises completely. 

In 2021, when HASC delivered spaced practice through Instagram, 73 learners started and completed the spaced practice exercises. Over the course of the Instagram test, 534 learners took BOP and had the opportunity to utilize  the tool via Instagram. Only 14% of the total learners who took BOP took advantage of the spaced practice exercises. 

In a departure from the 2020 study, for the Instagram study there was the addition of several survey questions asked to volunteers after the class. Five learners were interviewed as a part of this study. The interview consisted of both open-ended and multiple-choice questions. Based on the results of the multiple-choice questions, all of the learners surveyed were not new to the Instagram platform, and each of them indicated that they enjoyed the opportunity to answer BOP relevant questions via the application. Additionally, in the open-ended questions, one learner wrote, "it made me learn something that I thought was right but helped me understand better." Another learner wrote, "it helped me study and review information, so if I got it wrong, I could look at it again." Both of these answers tend to reinforce the importance of spaced practice to learning.

In terms of Instagram being easier to utilize because it was provided using a platform the learners were already familiar with, one learner wrote that they liked that it was "user friendly," however another learner wrote, "it would be easier to access if it was provided via text." One of the multiple-choice questions addressed this same questions regarding text delivery vs. Instagram delivery, and the responses were mixed in that 60% of the respondents would have taken the quiz had it been sent via text. To the question of whether or not other social media platforms should be employed, 80% of respondents responded with "yes." The fact that a majority of respondents wanted more social media usage implies that there is a desire among BOP learners for this level of engagement and therefore for more collaboration among learners.  

Conclusion

This study found that compared to the text-delivered spaced practice exercises, learners in the BOP course did not utilize the opportunity for spaced practice as much when it was offered on Instagram. Secondly, the overall completion rate, whether via text delivery or Instagram, was lower than might be expected based on the studies used for the literature review. There are several reasons that this might be the case. 

When introducing the Instagram exercises, the instructional designer would ask how many people in the class used Instagram regularly. The number of students who self-identified as Instagram users in class was usually about 10% to 20% of the total class population. Based on these rough estimates from the instructional designer, the use of Instagram among BOP learners is not as high as the use of Instagram among the overall population of the US that uses Instagram (Mediakix, 2016). Although it could be that learners were hesitant to self-report their use of Instagram during class, the reason for this under-reporting could also be that the use of Instagram among the primarily working-class laborer that HASC supports is lower than the US average. Further study will have to be completed to answer this specific question. 

Additionally, Instagram is a free application. There is no sign-up fee nor ongoing usage fee. Any BOP learner who did not use or have Instagram on their smartphone could have downloaded the application for free to take the spaced practice exercises. One failure of this research design was not asking the learners when we introduced the application how many learners did not have smartphones, which would have been worthwhile to use as a gauge of technological adoption among the BOP learning cohort.

Most of the studies selected as a part of the literature review included subjects who were active students, either in high school or in college. The learners in HASC's BOP classes are, in most cases, not college-educated and are no longer in high school. The motivation that BOP students have is extrinsic rather than intrinsic. Contractors do not attend BOP because they enjoy learning; instead, they attend BOP so that they can work in the industry. The learners' usage of the spaced practice exercises; whether via Instagram or text, was not as high as expected based on the expected rates from the studies included in the literature review. This implies that learners were not overwhelmingly concerned or inspired to take the spaced practice exercises. Again, more study will need to be performed to determine if spaced practice alone is seen as a benefit to the BOP learners.

As to the third research question regarding user created content; there were no BOP learners who interacted, created content, nor posted replies as a part of this Instagram study. Finding ways to encourage more open conversation and exchange of information, both from the HASC instructor to the learners and between learners, is a worthwhile endeavor to help improve collaboration and provide greater reinforcement of learning objectives. 

Spaced practice has a deep history of success in assisting learners in retaining learning objectives (Dempster & Farris, 1990; Dempster, 1989; Hintzman, 1974). A platform like Instagram, which has been shown to increase engagement and provide an outlet for collaboration (Prasetyawati & Ardi, 2020; Serpagli & Mensah, 2021; Swanepoel & Bruwer, 2020), combined with spaced practice should lead to both greater engagement and communication between all of the learners and instructors. Using Instagram should have provided a lower barrier to entry and fewer challenges for the learners to use the tool. According to the quantitative data, this did not occur. 

Based on the qualitative interviews, those using the spaced practice Instagram tool found it worthwhile and effective. One feature that might help adoption would be if the spaced practice tool was platform agnostic, to ensure that no matter the social media application the BOP learner could use the application they were most comfortable using. As Deed et al. (2014) state in the conclusion of their study on student agency, the "extent of student agency was dependent on their capacity to take responsibility for their own learning" (p. 74). Providing greater student agency through Instagram or other social media tools would provide for greater ownership by the student and a more open subsystem for the BOP class.

Additionally, more tools that use social media should be utilized within BOP and in other training classes that HASC offers. A significant challenge with this research could have been the limited exposure that HASC learners have with using social media for training at HASC. Finding ways to make innovative training tools more ubiquitous, easy to access, a part of the learners' daily lives, a natural behavior to reinforce learning across all courses, will help strengthen HASC's impact on the contractor learning community, and help foster a stronger, open organizations and subsystems among the learners. 

 

References

Al-Bahrani, A., & Patel, D. (2015). Incorporating twitter, Instagram, and Facebook in economics classrooms. The Journal of Economic Education, 46(1), 56–67.

Arghode, V., Brieger, E. W., & McLean, G. N. (2017). Adult learning theories: implications for online instruction. European Journal of Training and Development, 41(7), 593–609.

Ávila, J. (2021). #MultimediaResponse: Instagram as a reading activity in a university English class. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy: A Journal from the International Reading Association, 64(5), 531–541.

Carpenter, S. K., Cepeda, N. J., Rohrer, D., Kang, S. H. K., & Pashler, H. (2012). Using spacing to enhance diverse forms of learning: Review of recent research and implications for instruction. Educational Psychology Review, 24(3), 369–378.

Deed, C., Cox, P., Dorman, J., Edwards, D., Farrelly, C., Keeffe, M., Lovejoy, V., Mow, L., Sellings, P., Prain, V., Waldrip, B., & Yager, Z. (2014). Personalised learning in the open classroom: The mutuality of teacher and student agency. International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning, 9(1), 66–75.

Dempster, F. N., & Farris, R. (1990). The spacing effect: Research and practice. Journal of Research & Development in Education, 23(2), 97–101.

Dempster, F. N. (1989). Spacing Effects and Their Implications for Theory and Practice. Educational Psychology Review, 1(4), 309–330. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23359223

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(2), 43–71.

Hintzman, D. L. (1974). Theoretical implications of the spacing effect. In R. L. Solso (Ed.), Theories in cognitive psychology: The Loyola Symposium. Lawrence Erlbaum.

Hortigüela-Alcalá, D., Sánchez-Santamaría, J., Pérez-Pueyo, Á., & Abella-García, V. (2019). Social networks to promote motivation and learning in higher education from the students’ perspective. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 56(4), 412–422.

Kauffeld, S., & Lehmann-Willenbrock, N. (2010). Sales training: effects of spaced practice on training transfer. Journal of European Industrial Training, 34(1), 23–37.

Kunka, B. A. (2020). Twitter in higher education: increasing student engagement. Educational Media International, 57(4), 316–331.

Mediakix. (2016). Instagram demographics: 13 impressive statistics about Instagram users. https://mediakix.com/blog/13-impressive-instagram-demographics-user-statistics-to-see/

Nagel, T. W. S., Remillard, C., Aucoin, R., & Takenishi, A. (2018). Findings on student use of social media at the collegiate, undergraduate, and graduate levels: Implications for post-secondary educators. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 15(1). http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1173809.pdf

Prasetyawati, O. A., & Ardi, P. (2020). Integrating Instagram into EFL writing to foster student engagement. Teaching English with Technology, 20(3), 40–62.

Serpagli, L. P., & Mensah, F. M. (2021). Keeping up with the digital natives: Using social media in an all‐girls science classroom. School Science and Mathematics, 121(5), 288–298.

Swanepoel, G. P., & Bruwer, A. (2020). Educating the always-on generation in an instant(gram) #blendedlearning. Perspectives in Education, 38(1), 16–29.

Tran, K. (2018, March 5). Social platforms are most popular among 18- to 29-year-olds. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/social-platforms-are-most-popular-among-18-to-29-year-olds-2018-3

Double Loop Learning and Strategic Planning

My colleague brought up something very interesting about strategic planning that I've been discussing lately. 

I think she brought up a very challenge that I saw with Schmidt and Biniecki (2016) on strategic planning, the lack of evaluation, re-evaluation, and the chance to adapt, adjust and overcome as needed. 

Like Jenna, I think a clear disadvantage is that the market could change immediately after a strategic plan is created and without the opportunity to adjust the organization could go down the wrong path. I think of the last two years. 

Immediately after Covid became a social issue, we were forced to scrap our strategic plan for the year and come up with responses to Covid that were both tactical and strategic, and kept us relevant and leading in the market. We did this not just because of Covid, but because we had a process of almost constant (twice a month) re-evaluation of our projects that supported the strategic plan. I agree with you that there needs to be more focus on this aspect of the strategic planning process. 

Like double loop learning where real-world feedback from the results of an organization’s decisions affects the next decision or forces a readjustment. This needs to be a part of the strategic planning process as well as it contributes so much to the success or failure of the plans that are created. 

References

Schmidt, S. W., and Yelich Biniecki, S. M. (2016). Organization and administration of adult education programs: A guide for practitioners. Information Age Publishing, Inc.

More On Strategic Planning

My colleague, Stephanie was telling me how much she hates strategic planning the other day. I do as well.

I think Stephanie and I are in the same boat. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I despise our strategic planning sessions at our organization. 

Or leadership rents out a floor at a hotel, and a meeting room and for two full days we brainstorm, future cast, and think about the future of the market and how our organization will meet the changes and stay competitive. I’m far more day-to-day oriented, and find myself struggling to find meaning or worth in these meeting as many of the other leaders do. 

That being said, lately, I’ve found that they are a “necessary” evil and compared to not doing them are quite beneficial. I’ve been a part of organizations that do not take strategic planning seriously and instead of reacting to the market demands, they drift along hoping to stay in the current. Having experienced both sides of the coin, I’ll happily force myself to brainstorm and future cast with other leaders if it means remaining relevant in our industry and being a leading organization within the market. 

Right now our organization is the clear leader of the market and the other competitors are struggling to keep up. It’s much nicer to be in the lead than being a slave to the actions that the leader takes. So, although I hear ya in your dislike for strategic planning sessions, as I read this chapter I found myself nodding and saying “yep, we do that,” and “wow! Glad we’re doing that.”

Strategic Planning

This week we focused on strategic planning that organzaitions should do. My colleague Lori brought up a good point about “when to do strategic planning” and the potential for missing and opportunity. 

Reading the chapter in our book, I was comforted in seeing how closely and rigidly my own organization performs and takes our strategic planning. I am not good at these sessions. I see them as “future casting” and think they don’t resonate with me because of their ambiguity. Perhaps I enjoy the more concrete side of our work. 

Regardless as a leader I am inserted into all of our strategic planning sessions and I will myself to get through them each fall. Yep, we have a two-day long retreat each fall that the entire leadership uses to get together and plan for the next year/years. Schmidt and Biniecki (2016) may have a loose standard for “when” to perform strategic planning sessions, but my organization does it each Sept/Oct so we can have a clear plan set out for the coming year and communicate that down to our management teams. 

So far, despite my not enjoying it as much as others, it has led to some wonderful changes and growth or the organization, and instead of feeling like we miss something, we are constantly re-assessing the environment and market. This is also done via weekly leadership meetings where we all give updates on the strategic initiatives we target in the Fall, and adjust as necessary to the coming year. In the end I agree with you, the one disadvantage is their lack of a more rigid time line for planning.  

References

Schmidt, S. W., & M. Yelich Biniecki S. (2016). Organization and administration of adult education programs: A guide for practitioners. IAP, Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Last Bit on Guyana

Final thoughts on Guyana (for now). The other day I discussed how a multinational corporation was coming into the area and demanding certain levels of safety. Jenna from my class thought that this was a very good thing to happen. 

It's interesting she brought this up. It's tough I believe to impose our own moral standards on other groups of people. In the Guyana example I mention above, there may have been an acceptance of taking jobs in a dangerous environment with the understanding that you could be hurt or killed, but for those workers who made it home each day, they were happy to have accepted the risk and gotten the pay check. It's our own moral standard that says those risks shouldn't be acceptable, but when the choices are so stark, maybe our level of acceptance would be different. 

I was reading in another class a passage written by Battacharya (2017) about this that states: "this model of qualitative research has come under attack from various groups such as "Third World" scholars, feminists, scholars of color, et. These scholars question the notion of telling stories about someone else's culture from a Western perspective. They claim that someone who is trained in Western philosophies and science cannot possibly see the world in a ways of people who might not have been exposed or trained in the same philosophies. Margaret Mead was criticized for imposing her progressive upbringing on Samoan women by calling them oppressed. Oppression and liberation look different to Samoan women than they do to Margaret Mead" (p. 8). 

In this case I agree with Jenna, that it would have been more beneficial, particularly to the worker who is injured or killed, and to his family, if there were stricter and more Western oriented safety controls and standards than the ones that were being used, and I was proud to have been a part of the effort and hope it continues. 

References

Bhattacharya, K. (2017). Fundamentals of qualitative research: A practical guide. Left Coast Press.

P-90 Two!

Avid readers will know that I finished phase 1 of a year long rotation for my workouts (see HERE). I have a little group of friends who are supporting each other and going through this journey together (see HERE).

I started P-90X 2 yesterday with a Core workout and it was killer. I'm feeling it today already. I remember I did this once before and wasn't impressed. Regardless, I'm going to finish it this time, no matter if I'm impressed or not.

Already I can see that there are far fewer pullups then in P-90X. Also it's less regimented. And worse, I miss Pam/Blam! She was there to always give the "old guy" option. No old guy option in this one. 

Also we lost one from our group. She had to bail. That's okay, we gained two others. We are a spunky little group and we are determined to finish!

The WSJ is WRONG

One of my favorite things to do on Saturday mornings is to either sit in front of the fire or sit outside on the patio, and read the Review Section of the Saturday WSJ. Just relaxing, enjoyable, and interesting . . . . especially with a cup of coffee and a sweater. 

Today I read an article where I realized that the WSJ couldn't be more wrong. This article (HERE) might require me to cancel my subscription. 

Among the many atrocities of which they write as fact was this:

I know Sadie understands me. They might be right, that it take intonation, inflection, and gestures to get messages across, but isn't that true in all things? 

If I say something on the phone isn't the message and the intent different than a text? If I kiss someone while talking to them, won't the meaning be more substantial than if I say it to them from across the room. If someone is on my lap and I say something while holding their hands, won't my thoughts, feelings, intentions and emotions be better understood if I say it with not inflection at all?

Sadie hears me. I'll give the WSJ another chance, but they better be on their best behavior now. 

The Loss of Pensions

This week my professor asked about what do organizations owe their workers. I found his thoughts about “allegiance” to the worker by the organization to be intriguing. 

When I was working as for a contracting group as a Director of Recruiting, Training and Career Development, we had a tough time keeping our workforce onboard. For our 7000 person company, we had a 50% turn over rate. This meant we lost and had to rehire over 3000 people annually. 

It was a tough job. Our goal was to find ways to retain these workers to make our recruiting jobs easier, and ultimately make a safer work environment for our workers. We were never successful. Most of the time, despite our best efforts, worker would jump ship for even a nickel more an hour for a competitor down the street. They would forego the opportunity, training, and relationships they had built with our organization for a minimum increase in wage with a competitor, no matter how many future incentives we tried to communicate to them. 

I wonder how much “pensions” and other long term employee/organization retirements schemes have affected this. I know at our field worker level there weren’t many opportunities to invest in a retirement plan (nor was there much desire by the worker at that level and in that point of their career) but I believe that the lack of “stickiness” that comes from portable accounts like 401K’s and individual investment accounts like IRA’s have made things less sticky for all workers to remain with their companies. In the past there was investment by the worker in the company for the long term payouts and the stability that came with being a part of the organization, and a counter investment of the organization in the worker for their retirement. Now with less far-sighted mechanisms and investments, the organization is quick to lay off workers when their P&L’s demand it, and the worker is quick to jump ship for a small increase in wage. A dynamic that is healthy for neither group.

Summer Wind in Winter?

Apparently my pseudonym is Molotov Scotch Tale. I mean, she could be my clone. We think the same things. Anyone who follows these posts would know that she has been a big part of these Evershade posts (see HERE). 

This first is from her. 

Exactly my State of Mind

As a part of the ever growing series with the Evershade label (see HERE) are these next few, I have to say these are pretty close to what I'm feeling, eerily close. 

This first is a quickie, from Patti o'Malley, who I have never reposted before. But it's quick, easy, and feels about right. 

More on Guyana

I wrote the other day about my trip to Guyana to support the opening of a safety council there. My professor asked about the trip and specifically asked if corruption and crime were at all involved in the negotiations and work we were doing there. 

His question jogged a memory. When we were on this trip to Guyana, I presented to the Guyana government and representatives on the benefits of a safety council. 

There were also many representatives from Trindad with us who wanted to be vendors for the safety council work Guyana was planning with Exxon. Most of the Guyana representatives were very stand-offish to getting any help from their Trinidadian neighbors and expressly said that they didn't trust the Trinidadian vendors. There was also a belief that was not so expressly discussed by the Trinidadian representatives that most of the challenges to entering the market in Guyana had to do with government and internal corruption. It was interesting as an outsider to see the different under-pinnings and undertones within the discussions. 

Additionally, it was interesting to see that there had been Chinese based multi-nationals organizations that had been in Guyana and investing in Guyana for ages and were also a part of mining operations that were "okay" with the "one death a day is fine" mantra. So there was a lot of prejudice about outside companies in general based on the effects of those outside organization's history within Guyana. It was certainly an uphill climb to establish a safety council there based on all of these challenges. 

First Line of Fearless Fourteen

I’m trying to enjoy some life again so between work and school I’m picking up a favorite author and reading for fun. I did this back this summer (see HERE) when I had a break from school. 

And since I’ve started pecking away again at Sunset Perfect (probably inspired by these reviews! HERE)I thought it would be good to read a bit. It’s also a stress reliever for me. So that’s plenty of reasons for me to read more. 

Series Continues Forward

So, this series continues to grow . . . why? Well, first I love these lines. It's a good thing to find these little gems and appreciate them. Secondly, they help me figure things out in my own life. They resonate with me and linger, sometimes they emanate other light and other understandings. 

Regardless, it used to be that Great White North was my best sourse for these Evershade posts (see HERE), but lately it's been Molotov Scotch Tale. 

Exxon and Guyana

The prompt we had to discuss this week for class was: If we consider that individuals are shaped by institutions and organizations that intersect in their lives—such as family, education, career, workplace, and government—explain how organizations serve as instruments of domination.

Our text book for this class discusses "organizations as domination" and you should see the notes I've written in the margins of this chapter. I'm not a fan of this worldview for large corporations.

 I am particularly eager to answer this question if only because I thought of my industry when I read in Morgan (2006) that "in the view of many analysts, the multinationals virtually rob their host countries of resources and labor power. At the same time, they engage in modes of strategic management that increase the dependence of these countries on their continued presence. Industrial accidents, occupational disease, pollution, and general degradation of the people and the land continues to occur at a level that vividly reproduces the conditions of raw exploitation and human despair" (p. 292).

As I've mentioned before I work for a non-profit safety council that is designed to help train contractors in petrochemical and refinery operations to be safer. Two years ago I had the chance to go to Trinidad and Tobago and to Guyana to discuss their safety council operations. Compared to our 30 year history with safety in this sector Trinidad and Tobago who have a brand new council, were just beginning their journey . . . moving from crawl stage to walk. Guyana was a different story. Exxon had just moved into the country to try and help develop their offshore oil resources. What I found was that Exxon was providing a service to the society and the people of Guyana that was the opposite of what Morgan expresses. Exxon was funding and supporting the installation of a safety council and development of safety standards that far exceeded what they population was used to. They were also making sure that any contractors that they worked with had the same safety culture that the US adopts. In a society where one death per day was acceptable, Exxon was promoting and enforcing standards (and pay wages) that were far more beneficial to the overall community and to the individual worker than they had previously had.

Additionally, Exxon realized that by creating a safety council they were making it easier for competitor organizations to move in and make use of the systems they were setting up. The same was true for the infrastructure they were creating. However, Exxon's behavior based safety system was so strong, and so ingrained in their culture, that they could not move forward without setting up systems to keep the worker safe that were on par or working toward what they commonly had in the states. I was there to help them understand how a safety council can deliver training effectively and enforce standards. It was an eye-opening trip! 

Could this be seen as domination? Perhaps. Exxon was enforcing work and safety rules through their presence and money that would not have been there without them. However, the benefits in safety and health to the contract worker could not have been more starkly positive.

References

Morgan, G. (2006). Images of Organization (Updated Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

The Series Continues

So the series continues (see HERE), the evershade labeled posts keeps moving forward. This time thanks in large part to Top Shelf Bourbon Elf (again). 

First, from MolotovScotchTale (a great profile name), ther is this that is simple. 

Stagnation within Culture

Dr. Z, my professor for Organization and Administration of Adult Education challenged us with a statement about organizational culture and stagnation.  

From my own experience I find that a strong culture can squash innovation. At the non-profit organization where I work, there had been a steady, stable, state of affairs for many many years. 

Our organization got by and succeeded primarily by the fact that the location is across the road from dozens and dozens of refineries. Other non-profit safety councils aren't situated in such a lucky place for refinery safety training. Naturally we were created because of those refineries, but thanks to their growth over the years, our council has ridden a wave of their success. 

Lately however there have been demands that are pushing us as an organization to find new ways to work, and new technologies to keep up with. One or two competitors are pushing us, but also our own learning community is expecting more from us as they see what our society and culture can provide. If you're 18, and you've grown up with an iPhone in your hand, you expect apps, and reinforcement, and social media and more. Stodgy and boring are no longer acceptable and the culture that was created in years past, of excellent service and minimal improvements to the "menu of items" is not cutting it. 

The culture is slowly changing. Innovation is now the watch-word and goal. Managers and supervisors who may have enjoyed a sinecure before, now are being forced to change, adapt, achieve and overcome in ways that they are not used to. I think that the council had a culture that was self-reinforcing, but now forces are making that culture change. Five years ago, the statement Dr. Z makes above about "entrenched culture leading to organizational stagnation" may have been true, but in the last five years market forces have inspired the council to breakthrough the stagnation, and those outside the box opportunities are now being opened up to the team. 

More for the Series

 Here are a few more for my ever growing "Evershade" series (see HERE). 

These came by way of all my friends on the Twitter and on Reddit. Again, I think they're worth capturing. 

Seems a Bit Short (and Spooky)

Something remarkable happened. I got an apology from someone and it was wholly inadequate. Like meteorically unimpressive. I was thinking about it and and wondering what to respond or think about it ultimately, when I ran into a Seinfeld clip that summed it up perfectly.

What's funny is that it wasn't just summed up perfectly about how to think about it . . . it was the EXACT SAME APOLOGY! It was spooky infact.   

This Week's Golden Nugget

As I mentioned in our call this week, I think the golden nugget for me this week was the categorization and identification of the different perspectives we all bring to our work. 

It's one thing to know that we have these, it's another to list them, know the strengths and weaknesses, understand when we are prone to fall victim to using them too often, and understand how they might effect any collection or analysis. 

We all wear many hats and have multiple personas. I think of my children when they watch the movie Inside Out and how the main character is a victim to and controlled by her emotions. In this case instead of emotions who make up our different personas, the readings this week made me think of all the different characters that I play a part of in my life, . . . through my life. But, as I mentioned, the key is to identify, understand, and use them appropriately. 

Another Article - This Time Bic

 Last year I was quoted in an article on VR trainining in the oil refining and petrochemical industry. The quotes came by way of the National Safety Council (NSC) magazine. I posted about it, and the silly story about it, here. 

Another article came out recently (see here) that also dealt with VR and industry and what me and my team are doing. It's a fun article and I wish we had had a link to the white paper I wrote as well, but all told, it's fun to be in another article. 

FINISHED (Phase 1)

A while back I posted about my most recent workout challenge (see HERE). 

The goal was to get through P-90X from start to finish . . . and then some. What's the then some?

First of all, I had a group! Those of you in the group or the invitational can see the blow by blow (HERE). It's been fun helping to motivate others and being inspired by their notes and thoughts that they wrote to me. I wonder how many will stick around for round 2?

Back to the "then some" . . . well . . . it changed a bit throughout the three months. I was tacking on a run most days. But after killing myself on a 9 mile run with with 8 min per mile Kylie a few weeks back, I changed to elliptical workouts and 100 pushups a day for 30 days. Regardless, it was P-90X plus, and today I finished it. 

I rewarded myself by going out to brunch and having a large mocha coffee. Next will be P-90X 2!

Mirror Neurons

We got a chance to watch a video of an interview with Dr. Sally Baily about theater and acting. 

About midway through the interview Dr. Bailey says, "the emotional content is more important because that's what changes people's thinking and that's what gives people a true look into somebody else's life not (just) the facts ma'am." I'm not sure I agree with that. 

Although having an emotional understanding is good, especially for analysis, I think relying too heavily on it for "changing people's minds" could be a very real problem. I believe that it is quite easy to change people's minds using emotion, and in fact I think facts can be shifted and re-arranged to meet the emotional story, using emotion to sway folks is not always the best method to utilize. As in all things I'm an advocate of moderation. There should be a balance between emotion and 'just the facts" because relying on one or the other too much will be doing a disservice to the consumer. 

I have never heard of "mirror neurons" but I predict I will be a huge fan of the term the more I find out. I've always been a huge fan of "walking in another person's shoes" to speak. Going into narrative transportation sounds like walking in another's shoes to a deeper level. This would be a powerful tool in helping other understand the challenges, obstacles, lives, and rewards that subjects have to deal with. 

Taylor's Scientific Management Theory

The prompt this week was: Successful organizations typically have an organizational philosophy. Using Farazmand's overview on theory, what theory or theories do you think would be most relevant or useful in today’s modern organization? This is a great book, by Farazmand, so I went to buy it so I wouldn't have to continue reading photocopied snippets. The cheapest version is over 100 dollars. I was still going to buy it, the problem was that it may never come as they don't have any in stock and there's no guarantee they'll buy more.

Regardless, it's a good book on organizations, and the prompt about successful organizations was intriguing. 

Personally, when I think of the modern organization and the organizations that I have been a part of, the theory that most resonates with me about the leadership of those organizations is what Farazmand (2002) states when he writes that the classical/formal organization theory is grounded "In the process of organizations toward maximizing internal efficiency while maintaining administrative control over organizational members and operations" (p. 24). 

Having been a worker bee or staff member, worked as a contractor, a project manager, and now as a leader of an organization, I see that this definition and the interplay between administrative and organizational control of members and operations is always a part of the organizations, and usually the organization is on the knife's edge of losing control, but somehow always maintaining. Most of that maintaining comes by way of a culture within the organization that is driving toward success by the entire employee population. 

Then as a addendum to this section, Farazmand (2002) writes that Taylor's scientific management theory "focusing on internal efficiency maximization, work standardization, separation of managerial functions from operational functions, and maintenance of effective managerial control" (p. 26) also struck a chord as being a valid aspect of most organizations within which I've worked. Having worked in IT, sales, operations, business development, design, training, recruiting and now operations delivery and development, and leadership positions, I can see how standardization with separation of managerial controls, and just about every other aspect of Taylor's scientific management theory has been a part of my work world.

Our professor's question also asks what do organizations need to be successful. I think that the organizations who followed these models above were successful. There have been others I've worked with over the years with loser ideas about organization and management, more open and less rigid and I found that those did not survive, nor did I continue to work with them (which could show some bias). Then there were two that took these guidelines and organizations boundaries to the extreme, and although they didn't crash as badly as some, they did not grow as quickly. All in all I think the above theories,  Taylor's scientific management theory and the more broad classical/formal organization theory can help organizations achieve, thrive and be successful in today's world. 

References

Farazmand, A. (2002).  Modern organizations:  Theory and practice.  London:  Praeger.

Promoting from Within

Jenna said something in class the other day that made me stop and think. She said: "the first is that, bureaucracy maximizes vocational security in the form of life-long tenure." 

Life long tenure is not a concept that I'm use to. In fact everyday that I go to work I wonder and somewhat expect that it might be my last day. If you go to work expecting to be fired, then it's a good day when you're not, and if you are fired, then you won't be surprised. 

When I thought of that I discussion with Jenna I thought about the departments within my own organization, not a school or university, but a non-profit training community that supports refineries. In our organization we do a very good job of promoting from within the ranks to higher positions and even crossing departments. People will go from one department to another and learn as many trades and skills as they can along the way. Ellie began as a proctor, then worked in our training group, and now runs our premier training area and leads about 20 proctors. Then there is Kayla who also started as proctor and is now developing courses in our training development department. Kimberly is in accounting and gave a presentation to our COO and CEO today, she started as a proctor as well. There are so many instances of this in our organization and I think it makes the organization stronger and healthier. 

I think that this tendency actually reflects the community we service. The contractor and sub-contracting community that we train do the same thing. A field technician can become a recruiter, a supervisor, a salesman or an operations manager within that same company. I think you've identified a real challenge with organizations and departments that don't take on this tendency. 

Secondary vs Primary Roles

My friend Stephanie mentioned how much she is struggling with her career and her leadership style she adopts at her work. 

I've been struggling myself with my leadership traits and considering how it might affect my future and my career. I have always been in training and safety for contracting companies. 

This has meant that I'm not the primary money making department. If our operations team fails to perform a job correctly the organization would lose money, people lose jobs, or worse someone could die on the job site if operations fails to work safely. In that environment if a training program was delayed a few months then it didn't really effect the organization very much. It was just pushed off to another time. 

Take the picture up above. In that picture I would not be the person helping the others, nor would I be the person reaching for help. I might be the guy at the end of the line and I would probably be saying "Why are we waiting for this guy?" I would want to climb without help, and get over the crevasse without a hand. I would not be comfortable asking for help, nor would I trust the others providing the help to do a good job giving it. 

Now, as a leader of a training department for a training organization, if the trainer's I lead don't train, or if the courses I help develop don't get delivered, then the entire company suffers. I've gone from being secondary or tertiary to being a primary department. The difficulty is that I still work and act like a supporting player rather than as a lead man. I've always known that I work best alone. Give me a job, leave me alone, and you can trust it will get done. I may not report on it, I may not even tell you when it's done, but it gets done. Now, I'm expected to have far more updates with my leaders, they expect far more communication, they have difficulties with the "go it alone" style of leadership. It's made for some interesting times and has even made me start to think whether I enjoy being the lead performer, or if being a part of the supporting cast is what I enjoy the most. 

More and More

To continue the Evershade series (see HERE) I now offer these!

First, another simple and quickie, from Purple. Similar to the simple ones from before.

want to hold on . . .

BUT . . 

 . . . will let go

Flexibility While Changing

Every week in this Qualitative Research class we have to write reflective summations about that week's readings. This week, with the Anzaldua reading and the postivism reading, I really thought a lot of what we read about was about flexibility and change. 

What I noticed when reviewing this section and the readings and more specifically my comments in these discussions is that "change" and being "flexible" was very much a touchstone of all my comments.

 Although there were aspects of change in all of our reading, and there were aspects of flexibility, I also wonder to what degree I'm reading those things into the passages, or looking at the readings through the lens of change and flexibility. I wonder if factors in my life are encouraging me to look at the passages from the lenses. 

If this is the case, how do my own perspectives and the things I'm going through in life affect, or how will they affect my reading of any results from my qualitative research studies. If changed and flexibility is foremost in my mind and I read passages with that lens in place, what lens will be in place when I analyze my results? How can I ensure that I'm reading the results without a lens so that the reading is as unbiased as possible? Or should we have a bias and allow them to help us read the data. 

Humor for Supervisors

When I found out my boss's name was "Ellsworth", one of the few that is worse than my middle name, I had to use it in some way for the leadership blog I started at the old company. I ran across the post the other day and man I really enjoyed writing it. 

I don't know why I did it, but i cracked me up. Humor to bond people together, to poke fun, to make light, is not always easy. 

Liz was another VP at the company and Brad's wife. I tried to include as many of the leaders of the company I knew, and there's a lot of inside baseball stuff. Slicker suits, face shields heat exchangers. I think I hit the right tone. I wrote three posts like this. I liked this one the most. Not sure were "kiss the pigs" came from. I'm glad Betsy seemed to like em.

More Reviews

 So, last week I posted about a stellar review (see HERE), this week I decided to catch up on a few more. First, let me say that someone reading your book and saying that it would make a great movie is a huge feeling of accomplishment. Secondly, when someone reads your book and disects it in ways that even the author didn't know he could, it's a great rush!