Today's (and Last Year's) Results Are In!

The results are in . . . I'm no faster this year. Sadly. I was expecting a touch more, but nope . . . not to be. What the hell am I talking about? I'm talking about the Houston Running Company. I've done lots of these runs in the past few years (see HERE, HERE and HERE). I used to run them all the time, in fact in college I used to help organize and administer fun runs. All of my novels feature fun runs to some degree (see HERE). 

It's because I've run so many fun runs and because I've organized them that I know when I see a bad one. This one today . . . it was a bad one. 

Parking was atrocious, the pre-event planning and setup were non-existent, there was no thought to the crowds and how they would act and react, people were still parking, and there were a lot of people still waiting to find parking when the race started. Worst of all, to park you had to cross the starting line and the racecourse! Worse yet! They didn't have my shirt size when I got my number and my shirt. 

Even worse than these things, the course took us down and back and they actually made it so we had to go by the finish line then turn around a half-mile on and come back. It's a huge psyche out. Check out that second image and you see how we had to pass the finish line and then loop around for a half-mile or more! This was especially egregious because they miss labeled the course. We passed mile marker 6 then half a mile on we passed mile marker 5! So it was just a mess.

Even worse than all of these things was the fact that I have gotten no faster. I've lost over 25 pounds in the past 6 or so months and it had done nothing for my running speed. I looked it up. I ran a memorial day race with the Houston Running Company last year. A 10K just like today's was. Today I ran a 55:14. Last year . . . I ran a 55:08. 

Respectable times for an almost 50-year-old big guy, but still, one would think I might get a touch faster. Sure I ran the Dome Run at a sub 8-minute-per-mile pace, but 10K vs 10K I've gotten no faster after dropping over 25 pounds of ballast. Crazy old world. 

P.S. I think I'll buy this shirt or the one below it . . . and next year I'll wear it for these memorial day runs. Even though I love that second shirt, and that's a phrase I use often  . . . I think the first is more apropos for memorial day runs!

Learning to Talk to my Best Friend Better

I've fallen in love. Yes, I'm a passionate guy, I may not show it, but I am. Deep down I'm passionate and fall in love often. I was telling my team about my soulmate I met when I was 26 in a pool at the Holiday Inn beachside in Panama City, FL during spring break. I never spoke to her, but she squeezed my arm and I knew we were meant for each other. The police officer clearing the patio and pool of non-guests didn't agree and we never saw one another again. 

But! I've fallen in love again. This time it's with a podcast (see HERE) and with a dog named Tucker. Seriously, go check out how talented Tucker is through this podcast, you'll be stunned by his talent!  

Anyone who is an avid reader of this blog will know I'm a podcast fan. I've been a guest on several (see HERE and HERE . . . for those counting, two links is "both" . . . I said "several" because one is about 3 weeks from being released! . . . so stay tuned!). I'm also a guest host on a podcast and that's always fun as well. 

Additionally, I get to listen to podcasts quite often on my drive to and from work. This one is AWESOME. 

I love dogs (see I told you I'm passionate, I love everything!) and getting to know more about dogs is always fun. I love getting to know more about my best friend (see HERE, HERE and HERE). The better I know her the better life is if you ask me!

One of my other favorite things to do is to watch Cesar Milan videos and shows. I know there are many people who think he is too tough, but when I watch him work with a dog, I can see his love and understanding of the dog. Again, the more you know, the better off the relationship. He seems to talk a ton and his dogs obviously communicate back. The better my ability to talk to Sadie, the better the best-friendship if you ask me!

Virtual Classrooms Past, Present, Future!

In class the other night we were discussing virtual zoom rooms for training. I have some deep background in that, but one that is getting shallower each day. It was intriguing to hear how my classmate, Zach's, organization dealt with the impact of a Covid, and compare it to my organization’s problems and solutions. 

Our organization was quite proud of the fact that we never shut down. As a non-profit that is built around the “health and safety” of the contractor workforce that supports the energy industry we thought it was imperative that we not shut our doors to these essential workers, but also to prescribe to every single abatement measure put out by the CDC. We invested heavily in handwash stations, social distancing communique, KN95 masks for the entire staff, and tons and tons of plexiglass. In the end, we never became a hotspot for Covid exposure, and many other organizations and schools came to our campus to see what worked for us and model themselves off our successes. 

What I found interesting is something you allude to. At the beginning of the response to Covid, we launched a zoom option that our contracting companies could utilize. No one used it. Well, we used it three times in two years, but in each case, it was to provide international classes (1 to Mexico and 2 to UAE). None were regional or local. Instead, we found that the barriers to entry to utilize and create a zoom room classroom were so low our contracting members were doing it themselves and bypassing us. Additionally, when we did offer the ability for contractors to work from home or train remotely, invariably they came in for face-to-face and CBT learning at our brick and mortar campus. This was a complete surprise to us. 

What we are seeing now is that there is a hunger to get back to the in-person meetings and training classes we support. Zoom and remote have been seen as temporary instead of a hard and fast change for the industry we support. 

Army 365

I really enjoyed reading a paper by Scott about Army 365. As anyone knows who reads this blog, I'm a former Army (2/75 RGR) and have a passing familiarity with Fort Benning. I also just got a sample of a Tradoc document on “red teaming,” (see HERE). I was just talking to a colleague about creating a software package that does many of the same things you seem to say A365 does. Obviously reading his paper came at an apropos time. 

The software I was discussing with Mark was more of project management and campaign tracking tool that worked with training and learning as well, . . . And as I come from a smaller training organization, reading about how large organizations like yours are working complex projects and communicating well is intriguing. 

What I really liked though was Scott's final statement on a Deloitte article we read and the difficulty he saw in asking executives to predict and be ready for the future when there are so many unknowns. I felt the same sense from the article that what they were measuring and reporting on was a bit shallow and worthless because of those unknowns. I also wondered how many of these executives might not be as upfront in their responses as they might otherwise be if only because the questions (I’m assuming) seemed pretty ambiguous. 

Finally, I think Scott is right that the future is quite unknown regarding technology and innovation, and worse for these leaders it’s happening so quickly. I think the best thing a leader can do is be as knowledgeable as possible to stay on the cutting edge of any and all of these advancements, and have an organization that is as open to change and quickly adaptable to positive changes as possible. This would allow them to be early adopters of beneficial innovations, unlike organizations that are hard-wired into staid or slow to change processes. 

I hope Scott writes more about Army 365. I wonder if there are tie-ins for what we are doing. 

Marketing in the 4th Industrial Revolution

My classmate, Shannon, and I had a great discussion the other day on advertising and marketing. she has a wonderful and unique perspective. So often we get trapped in our own silos of information it takes a post like yours to help us bust out of our internal lines of thought. 

Before speaking to her, I hadn’t considered how a marketing organization might have had to change in the past two decades. I’ve seen of course how our own marketing department has had to adapt and change, but an entire organization dedicated to marketing would have greater and more specific challenges. 

The way she discusses this, moving from print, television, and billboard, to a more digital world has to be tough. I think of when I was in recruiting and we could do so much with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and chat, for very little investment of money . . . and yet our leadership who grew up in a different era wanted to put up billboards to advertise. The challenge as I see it from your post is that your organization has to not only understand, embrace, and perfect the new innovations as they come online, but also has to keep a toe in the old and be able to work them all together in a healthy, sustainable mix. 

The challenge my organization has in this regard is that our learners utilize chat (heavily) but not many other forms of social media. I see people mixing their work lives and social media presence in other industries far more than in the ones we support (which is typically field contractors in the energy and construction industry). I look forward to hearing more about how she has had to mix technology into your organization's capabilities and deliverables. 

Charisma and Leadership

I wonder if any of you read Judge and Bono's (2000) paper on the Five-Factor Model of Personality and Transformational Leadership. As I read it I naturally thought back to the best leaders I've had throughout my career. I've had quite a few who were extraordinary, a few who lacked a lot of leadership capabilities, and one or two who were mediocre. 

As I read this paper I thought about the best and whether or not I agree with the author's thoughts on transformational vs transactional leaders. To begin with, I thought of the charisma of each of the best leaders I've had. 

Among the best was a former sales VP, Brad, who had an uncanny ability to become anyone's best friend within the first few minutes of talking to them. This charisma carried him throughout the decade or more I worked with him, to higher and higher positions of leadership. His EQ was quite high everyone who worked with him agreed. Judge and Bono rank this aspect of transformational leadership first in their discussion and write "idealized influence can be defined as serving as a charismatic role model to followers. This dimension, often simply referred to as "charisma," is the most prototypic and often the single most important dimension" (Judge and Bono, 2000, p. 751). This seems strongly linked to their first factor, extraversion. "Extraversion represents the tendency to be outgoing, assertive, active, and excitement seeking (Judge and Bono, 2000, p. 752). 

Another leader I think of in these instances is LT Johnson from the Rangers. He went to Panama during the invasion as a part of RRD (Ranger Recon) and was one of the first on the ground guiding the C-130's filled with Rangers in for their jumps onto the airfields. He had been in Africa, on the ground, watching the destruction of the aspirin factory that Clinton destroyed. He was in Delta Force and actually got out to go to OCS to become an officer (no one does this . . . no one leaves Delta). He came to work with us as a 2nd LT who had been in the Rangers, Delta, and more for over ten years. He wanted to go back to Delta as an officer. I'm sure he made it. He was the most amazing leader I ever had. Charisma was a large part of his leadership capabilities.

As above, the best leaders I have experienced all had this ability and desire to be out and about, among the crowd, not settling to be in the shadows . . . and it seems to go along with factor 5 Openness to Experience. Unlike the authors, I was surprised that agreeableness was the strongest predictor of transformational leadership. I see agreeableness as a tangential factor, almost like likability, it is generic and I considered it to be less than a good indicator until I read this sentence from Judge and Bono (2000) "it is worthwhile to note that Agreeableness was the Big Five trait most strongly related to charisma" (p. 760). That charisma aspect of leadership that I found in so many of my best leaders I might not have defined as agreeableness, but I can understand how charisma made it to the top of the list of predictors, even as an aside with agreeableness.

To close out this post, it makes sense to think about the other side of the spectrum. The aspect of transactional leadership that the authors defined as laissez-faire, reminded me of all of my worst leaders. The ones who were there because they were expected to be there, the ones who rode high on past experience but contributed little to the day-to-day success of the company. I've had a few of those. 

References

Judge, T. and Bono, J. (2000). Five-Factor model of personality and transformational leadership. The Journal of applied psychology. 85. 751-65. 10.1037/0021-9010.85.5.751. 

Extraversion and Conscientiousness

Will and I read an article about leadership and women and he and I saw similar things in it. Will works as a leader in a national sorority. I saw the same things in the articles that he did. Like him I found a touchpoint in my own life. 

In his discussion, he talked about the characteristics of extraversion and conscientiousness and the benefits of each to leadership or working in general. 

My wife is a very successful businesswoman. She is the director of application development for Microsoft Teams app. She's been in business, internet boom, software development, project management, and business administration for a software organization. It was this last one, just prior to the application development position, that she found the most challenging. She was asked to perform roles that were closer and closer to the C-level suite . . . working more and more as a COO. 

She despised this aspect of work. The more she provided these higher-profile leadership positions, the more she disliked her work. She's always been incredibly conscientious so when I read your quote about these two types of women, I naturally thought of her as the "conscientious" one. My wife has an MBA, a PMP, has been through career coaching and leadership coaching, and is incredibly successful in her career. 

As good as she might be at leading, as much as many people might ask her to, the more she realizes that she doesn't enjoy it. She and I are of like minds. I was a COO for a small construction company and when I look back on my career, that's the position that I disliked the most. Even now, if someone asked me to lead here at my present organization I would do it out of loyalty, but not because it is something I would like to do. We've come to terms with our being introverts. We eschew the cocktail parties and the dinner parties, but more than that we also fade away from the spotlight instead of seeking it out. 

So, yep I saw these two same things from my own wife's career and enjoyed that article for the same reason. I think to bring this back to your post, I think that there is a balance that can be struck and potential trained for conscientious workers to become more extraverted. However, I also believe that in some cases people, like water, find their level and enjoy the positions that suit their personalities most.  

The Softening of a Hardcore Icon

I finished the rucking challenge this morning (see HERE, HERE and HERE for more).  It was quite fun, but at the same time incredibly humbling. 

The pack weight ranged from a low of 25 to a high of 70. That first day I jogged and walked and I'm not sure how I did it in that pathetic day pack. Having an ALICE pack makes all the difference for those heavy-weight rucks. I enjoyed the running ones, but I got the most out of that one long walk with 65 pounds where I went over seven miles. Lots of soul searching. 

I'll say this, I don't know how I survived the Rangers. We would do a ten-mile ruck every Friday and my pack was 60-pounds, plus we took weapons and our web gear etc. How I did it I don't know. We did a 20 miler every quarter with 45-pounds, and a 30-mile ruck once a year with 30-pounds plus our gear. Again, not sure how I survived.

Then there was Best Ranger. I ran that final marathon (plus) with an 85-pound ruck. Now, that wasn't a success at all. I got leveled after that first night, but I did finish the ruck. The highest weight I got on this challenge was 70-pounds and I only went less than 2 miles. Again, not sure how I did it. 

For the most part, the mission was a success. I thought about soldiers and suicide and my own life and I got some great workouts in. I miss running and jogging without a pack, got to speak to most of my neighbors about what the hell I was doing and why, but for the most part, the entire challenge was a success. 

I was talking about this with my neighbor the Marine. We were talking about how bad ass we once were. He a Marine (every one a bad ass), me a Ranger (just a few of us bad asses) and how we are no longer able to do those things we once did. We got to trade war stories and bond again as we always do with him talking about his son who has just joined the Marines, and my son who is thinking of joining the Army. Crazy ole world. 

The 4th Industrial Revolution at HASC

I work for a non-profit, adult learning organization that focuses on training contractors who work in and support the energy industry. HASC has been providing training of this type, to improve safety and craft skills among the contractor community for over 30 years. Over that time the training standards and the expectations of the learners have become staid, stale, and less effective in terms of stimulating learner engagement and recall. Our goal lately is to find new ways to provide training to the learners in a manner that makes it more engaging, and interesting and will resonate with the learners in such a way that the theories and capabilities that they learn will be used and applied to their worksites and in their fieldwork. 

HASC has been working with many technologies to try and improve learner retention and the learner's opportunity to apply their knowledge outside of the learning site. Among these are: (a) virtual reality (VR) exercises that are appended to the traditional computer-based training (CBT) delivery, (b) microlearning modules and chatbots that are delivered directly to the learner through their smartphones, (c) changes to our typical CBT design capabilities to include more animations, videos, interactive slides, and (d) a live online proctoring system to allow learners to take courses at their own time and allow their organization to have the confidence of the integrity of our ID checking and proctoring system that they have in our training site. 

Many of these technologies are perceived as positive by the companies that are HASC's members. The opportunity to provide the same training to their employees wherever they might be and at any time without sacrificing the peace of mind that they will pay attention and not cheat by being proctored has been in high demand for years. VR technologies are also seen by contracting companies as a potential advantage to the typical CBT training. Several contracting agencies and refinery owners have expressed interest in having HASC develop custom VR experiences for their organizations. Microlearning is seen as an interesting and novel idea but has not been embraced by any contracting companies.

The learners however are not embracing the technology as avidly as their contracting organizations. For the most part, our learners do not embrace technological innovation and even those that are designed to work seamlessly with their work and home life are not utilized to even a minor extent. Typically our learners do not want to utilize their personal smartphones, phone numbers, or email addresses for business needs as there is no compensation for their time or effort or for utilizing their equipment. VR exercises, with the mixture of using audio and VR headsets, are tough for them to manage and the joysticks used in the immersive learning environment, and VR storylines are tough for them to understand and negotiate without help.

Spaced practice and microlearning, although not as avidly anticipated, HASC believes has the best opportunity to transform our learning organization and the application of learning in the field by the learners. Transfer of learning takes place when what is taught is used and applied in the field. So often it seems as though our learners leave what they learned at the exit doors. Training takes place at HASC, work is done on the worksite. We are eager to find ways to keep training continuously. As Deloitte (2018) states; executives are focusing not so much on the transformation of current educational institutions but on disruption in the approach to learning - that is, it is no longer about formal education, but about an ongoing process of continually acquiring new skills and knowledge" (p. 13). Our live online proctoring system which allows learners to take courses outside of our brick and mortar building is a sea-change in not only the way that HASC has historically done business but for the entire safety council industry. As Schwab (2016) states, the fourth industrial revolution is "forcing companies to re-examine the way they do business" (p. 5). The challenge for HASC is that our primary differentiator from other training organizations is the integrity of the process. Our developers pressed the boundaries of our technological capabilities to model the live online proctoring system on the established, accepted, process that we've fostered for so many years.

All this being said, HASC has seen that our learners are coming to expect more opportunities for technology to be used as a natural part of their training environments. Digital natives, those who are more adept at working in digital arenas, come to our council and expect more than the standard CBT offering. They demand a higher standard and quality of their learning design and expect more in terms of using technological innovations. We are early adopters of many of these innovations compared to our competitors and it will be interesting to see if the learner's embracing of this technology catches up with their organization's eagerness to see it adopted. 

References

Deloitte. (2018). The fourth industrial revolution is here; Are you ready?  New York: Deloitte

Schwab, K. (2016). The Fourth Industrial Revolution: What it means and how to respond. World Economic Forum. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/

Transformational Learning Experiences and DiSC

Elle asked us in class if we had any experiences with transformational learning experiences. Anyone who reads this blog will know that that answer is a hard YES.

The most starkly relevant experience I have had that I would classify as a transformational experience came about as a part of a leadership course our entire organization's executive leadership had to be a part of following a very contentious merger. I've written about this before. It was my first experience with DiSC personality profiles. I was blown away not only by my own similarities with other S's, but also how wrong I was about how to talk to D's!

Our organization of 3500 employees suddenly merged with our largest and staunchest competitor. We went from being bitter enemies to have to be friends. It was a tough transition, to say the least. The training course that we worked through explored how best to interact with each other and move the newly merged organization forward. I still remember that course and what we as a group learned. It was very worthwhile and we found that as a group it helped us move forward. 

I know for me it was transformational and I learned a ton about myself, my coworkers, and about leadership through a business combination. I know too from the others in the course that they found it just as insightful. I think it was a perfect opportunity for this type of transformational experience. The disorienting dilemma was everyone going through a similar disruption of their work life and organization. Overall it was extremely beneficial.  

Mindfulness and Acting

My classmate, Megan, had a really interesting post on mindfulness. I'm really digging this module on mindfulness, and Megan has, apparently, a background in some mindfulness exercises.

She mentioned several exercises that she uses to help the actors she coaches in their ability to become and maintain focus and mindfulness in her theater classes. 

There have been a couple of jobs I've been on where before starting work the entire worksite had to get together and take a few moments to stretch, breathe, relax, think about their work, and hear from others. 

We work hard to identify dangers on the worksite and discuss and understand the worst-case scenarios. The idea is that if a worker knows the "worst-case" then they'll inherently and subconsciously stop themselves and others from doing things that will lead to that worst case.  Those jobs where the client enforces a moment of mindfulness and stretching muscles, then it seemed like the work progressed better. I don't have the KPI's on hand, but I would imagine that the metrics prove the feeling. 

So often when we root cause injuries and losses it has to do with rushing. Mindfulness, understanding that safety comes first, living in the moment instead of worrying about this deadline or the next job, would certainly seem to benefit this and I wonder if finding ways to be more "mindful" might influence the behavior even more. 

Chapter 3: Methodology for Proposed VR Study in Experimental Design

The purpose of this study is to examine virtual reality (VR) learning exercises as an addition to a traditional computer-based training (CBT) course in an industrial contractor safety training organization. The Health and Safety Council (HASC) delivers an average of more than 1,500 CBT courses a day to contractors working in the energy industry, primarily focused on safety and skills training. This study is designed to determine if CBT’s could be made more effective in helping learners retain information for longer durations with the addition of VR exercises. 

This study is designed to determine the effectiveness of VR exercises in relation to: (a) the impact on learners' long-term memory development of learning objectives, (b) learner acceptance of VR technology by demographic makeup of the learner and (c) identify effective VR strategies to develop a model of best practices for the learning community that the organization supports. The overarching question that guides this study is how will the use of VR technology influence the long-term memory development and memory resilience among HASC’s learners. 

Research Design and Rationale

This study is designed to follow a quantitative research method using: (a) a CBT course on an aspect of industrial fieldwork, (b) VR exercises, (c) ungraded quizzes to reinforce learning objectives, (d) a survey to capture learner demographic data, and (e) a chatbot style quiz delivered to the learner one week after the completion of the CBT course. 

The data acquired from the student responses to the chatbot-style quiz and survey will be used to gain insight into the impact VR technology has on learner retention of procedures and course information. The research questions that were developed to help guide this study were designed to gain insight into learner retention, learner engagement, and learner motivation. 

Research Questions

Research Question 1: What is the relationship between learner retention of the material in the long term using CBT with VR exercises compared to learners without the opportunity to take VR exercises?

Research Question 2: What is the relationship between learner motivation when using CBT’s with VR exercises?

Research Question 3: What relationships exist among learner retention and motivation in relation to VR exercises?

3a. What relationships exist among learner retention and motivation in relation to learner age?

3b. What relationships exist among learner retention and motivation in relation to learner experience in industry?

3c. What relationships exist among learner retention and motivation in relation to learner gender?

3d. What relationships exist among learner retention and motivation in relation to learner level of education?

3e. What relationships exist among learner retention and motivation in relation to learner race or ethnicity?

Null Hypothesis

The null hypothesis used for this experiment is that learners who take a CBT class with VR exercises will not have higher scores on the chatbot quiz as the learners who take a CBT course without VR exercises. 

Sample Design

The sample population for this study includes contractors from four different industrial service contractors visiting HASC in Pasadena, Texas who are assigned to take either confined space awareness course (19CS) or confined space awareness course with VR exercises (19CSVR) by their contracting organizations. The course codes, 19CS and 19CSVR, are unique to HASC and are used to help identify the courses by the researcher and the contracting organization when learners register for classes. Learners who take 19CS during this time period will be assigned to the control group, while learners who take 19CSVR will be assigned to the experimental group. The courses are the same price and take approximately the same amount of time. Additionally, the courses contain the same material presented in the same manner and style, except for the addition of VR exercises in 19CSVR. 

Because HASC is a contractor training organization, the researchers working on this project had no control over who was assigned to take either course nor in influencing the contracting organization to select or use the two different courses. This registration process helped to influence an experimental design that focused on a random sample from learners who registered for and completed either 19CS or 19CSVR during one month from the selected contractor organizations. 

Usually learners taking either 19CS or 19CSVR come from a variety of different contracting organizations who support a variety of different industrial processes, therefore they could have a variety of different experiences in the procedures trained in 19CS and 19CSVR. Although the learner population for this experiment all will have previous experience with the confined space awareness concepts provided within both 19CS and 19CSVR course, the degree of that experience might differ; from brief conceptual, theoretical understanding, to deep experiential understanding. Some of this variability comes from the type of work the contracting organization focuses on. To limit this possibility, the sample population will consist of learners who take the course in July, 2022 and complete: (a) either 19CS or 19CSVR, (b) the follow up demographic survey, the (c) follow up chatbot exam, and (d) were employed by Evergreen Industrial Services (EIS), CleanHarbors Industrial Service (CleanHarbors), PSC Industrial Cleaning (PSC), or HydroChem Industrial Services, (HydroChem). 

All four of these contracting organization work within the same sector of industrial cleaning. All four contracting organizations work in and around confined spaces, but do not have a sole focus on confined space work as other organizations’ might. Having four contracting organizations as the supply line for learners for the sample will ensure that the sample population isn’t marred by variability of confined space knowledge or expertise that could sway the analysis. All four contracting organizations also subscribe to basic confined space awareness training which will ensure a baseline understanding by the entire sample population. This will ensure at some point in the learners’ past training/work experience, regardless of contracting organization, the learners have taken the exact similar confined space awareness training. 

Experimental Design

In 2020, HASC performed a study that was similar to this one except for two factors (Health and Safety Council, 2020). The first difference between this study and the 2020 study is that HASC did not capture learner demographic information for their 2020 study. Secondly, the learner sample population consisted primarily of self-selected learners. Learners were asked if they wanted to take a VR course or the CBT course. According to Keppel “the assurance that each member of the population has an equally likely chance of being selected for the experiment. If these conditions are met, we will be able to generalize the result of our experiment to the population” (p. 17). This 2022 HASC study is focused on creating a stronger experimental design both by capturing learner’s demographic information and analyzing it, but also by ensuring that the sample population is a true random sample from a group of unique organizations in one sector of the energy industry. 

Both 19CS and 19CSVR courses include industry standard information provided via articulate storyline files with narration, an unscored pre-test to inspire engagement, animations, interactive scenarios, unscored in-course knowledge check quizzes with remediation for incorrect answers, a scored 20 question final exam, and a chatbot style quiz delivered one week after the course completion. All of these assests have been developed by HASC’s eLearning Development team which has over ten years of experience working these subjects and HASC’s learning community. 

The scores in the final exam will not be analyzed as a part of this study. The scores on this chatbot quiz that are delivered seven days after the course completion will be used as a point of quantitative comparison for this study. This will help to focus the analysis on “long-term” memory development in a manner similar to other studies on long-term memory development (Karpicke & Roediger, 2008). The chatbot quiz will be delivered to the learner’s smart phone seven days following the completion of either CBT course. All participants within this study will also provide demographic and contact information via a survey to solicit demographic information. 

As stated previously, both 19CS and 19CSVR include the exact same CBT content delivered the exact same way. However, 19CSVR includes two, 3-5 minutes VR exercises designed to allow the learner the opportunity to practice procedures learned in the CBT course in an immersive virtual world using an HASC VR headset. The VR exercises are developed within the CBT so that they occur near the theoretical information that the exercises support. The learner will not have to leave the testing area or leave the CBT workstation to take the VR exercises. The questions in the demographic survey will consist of the following:

• questions to determine the learner’s motivation, expectations, and satisfaction level with the course

• questions to determine the learner’s age, race, gender, years of experience in the industry, years of experience working with confined spaces, academic achievement level, and technical expertise. 

The 19CS course is approximately 60 minutes in length. The 19CSVR course that includes VR exercises is an additional ten minutes for a total approximate course length of 70 minutes. The chatbot quiz is seven questions and takes less than five minutes to complete. 

Variables

The independent variables for this study are: (a) the confined space awareness CBT course, (b) the VR exercises, and (c) the demographic information of the learners. The dependent variable for this study are the grades from the follow-up chatbot style quiz that the learners took one week following the completion of the course. 

Instrumentation and Procedures

Learners, regardless of condition will use similar computer terminals for delivery of the CBT. HASC has over 800 computer terminals for CBT course delivery. All are similar and proctored by HASC proctors at all times during the delivery of the CBT courses. All subjects regardless of condition will be proctored by HASC’s proctors and will be allowed the opportunity to ask questions regarding delivery of the CBT courses. 

Learners who take 19CSVR will be proctored and assisted in the use of the VR equipment. During the month-long data collection period, proctors will be trained and monitored by the primary researcher to ensure that the information provided to the learner will be the same regardless of which proctor might interact with the learner. HASC proctors are trained to provide oversight, enforce lab rules, and aid learners in the use of the CBT delivery PC and the use of VR equipment, without giving benefit to the learner that could change how they might answer questions within the CBT, within the VR exercise or after the course is complete when the learner completes the chatbot quiz. Proctors also help ensure that learners do not benefit from other learners’ information or courses. 

The HASC CBT lab has individual PC workstations that are isolated from neighboring PC workstations by partitions. Learner integrity is monitored by an established and audited “HASC learner verification process” which verifies learner identification against a picture and other biometric data located in the HASC learning management system (LMS). The HASC LMS was developed by HASC and the HASC researchers will have access to all test and course information through this application. The HASC learner verification process includes three standard identification checks and spot checks throughout the learner’s completion of any CBT. The three times throughout the process of completing the course include: (a) at the registration desk when the learner enters HASC's building, (b) when the learner arrives at the CBT workstation, and (c) when the learner completes the CBT. There are also spot checks by proctors throughout the course delivery process where proctors check that the learner and who checked in and started the course is the same learner who takes the course by comparing the learner at the workstation to the picture of the learner in the stored in the LMS. 

The VR exercises that are a part of the 19CSVR course will be administered at the same workstation that the CBTs are taken. Learners in the VR condition will take the VR exercises through an Oculus Quest VR Headset provided by HASC. Demographic surveys will be provided in Articulate storyline after the CBT course is completed regardless of condition. Follow-up chatbot quizzes will be provided via SMS text directly to the learner’s smart phones using an established chatbot technology HASC has used in previous studies.  The chatbot quiz will consist of seven multiple choice questions that are designed to judge learner’s long-term memory resilience of the learning objectives regardless of which condition the learner participated in. 

Learners will give consent to be a part of this study by accepting a consent form at the beginning of the CBT course delivery regardless of the condition. 

Study Measures and Data Collection

The primary measure used for this study will be the chatbot quiz provided one week following the completion of the CBT. The data HASC collects as a part of this study includes both demographic data by way of a learner completed survey delivered via the HASC LMS, and a chatbot quiz delivered via a third-party vendor, MobileCaoch. Learners will also provide consent to use their smart phones for delivery of the chatbot quiz through the use of that same consent form. Learners telephone numbers will be gathered through the use of the demographic survey form. No fields in the demographic survey will be optional. HASC’s researchers have access to all of the data that learners provide via the MobileCoach chatbot test through a secure MobileCoach table that can be accessed via password. 

Ethical Considerations

Data collection will not begin until the study is approved by the executive leadership team of HASC. No data collected from this study or from any of the surveys will be disclosed to the public nor to the contracting organizations that the participants work for. Learners names will not be used during the collection, only the demographic data, phone numbers, and chatbot quiz scores will be used during data analysis. 

Data Analysis

Upon acquiring data from this study and the study participants, various measures will be used to address the research questions and identify areas that will help provide insight to help answer the research questions. Data from both the survey and the quiz will be imported into SPSS software to analyze and address the research questions. The unique identifier that will be used to analyze the data will be the learner’s phone number. A between subjects factorial design will be employed to help analyze the data. The data will be imported into SPSS and the analysis will include the following:

• descriptive statistics

• Levene’s test of equality of error

• test of between-subjects effects

• estimated marginal means test (without more like video, this may not be necessary)

• Bonferroni comparison (without more like video, this may not be necessary)

The analysis also will also include a summary of demographic and descriptive statistics such as: (a) the mean score on the chatbot quiz, (b) standard deviation, and (c) ranges. To complete this analysis we will use a factorial ANOVA that focuses on comparing the mean score of learners who took 19CS and the mean score of learners who took 19CSVR. Focusing on these two factors will help HASC reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis. Using a factorial ANOVA will allow HASC to determine if demographic characteristics might significantly interact with the learners score on either course.

Limitations of the Research Design

In this study the limitations include the registration process from the contracting organizations. Although HASC has limited the sample providing organizations all work within the industrial services industries, there could be slightly different specialties and different company specific training standards. These different company specific training standards could provide a greater degree of baseline knowledge to the learners in the sample population. Additionally, some of these organizations may have employees who work with and around confined spaces more often than others. 

Expected Findings

HASC expects that this proposed study will yield results similar to the 2020 study that compared results from a fire watch CBT to the results from a fire watch CBT with VR exercises which showed almost 10% better recall by the VR condition (Health and Safety Council, 2020; Krokos, et al., 2019). The studies are modeled in a similar manual. The opportunity that this proposed study provides is to determine if the results found in the 2020 study, which relied on self-selection, are found in a study with a stronger experimental design that enforces a random sample population. Additionally, the opportunity that this study provides is the chance to determine if there are any additional interactions between the main effect of long-term memory development with any demographic information provided by the sample population. HASC expects that there will be a significant interaction between "technical experience" and "years of experience" and long-term memory development shown by the learners' grades on the follow-up, chatbot style quiz. HASC expects this interaction effect due to the ubiquity of the material being covered, and the expertise of those learners with greater technical experience and years of experience in the industry. 

Ethical Issues

There was no possibility for financial gain for either HASC or the contractors who took part in sending their employees to HASC for training. The learners who took 19CSVR are expected to show better results in long-term memory development after taking the follow-up, chatbot style quiz, but whether taking 19CS or 19CSVR the learner will be fulfilling the compliance and regulatory training demands necessary for safework in the field as mandated by their contracting organization, the refinery site, and federal work safety standards.  The researcher and HASC do not have a personal or professional relationship with any potential study participants in the study. The researcher did not have a personal relationship with the authors of the survey instrument used for this study. HASC hopes that the data from this study will reveal practical implications for engaging learners by applying constructivist theory to the instructional design for 3D VR exercises and spaced practice quizzing. 

For validity of research, the adherence to ethical protocols is an important consideration. Prior to the data collection phase for the purpose of this study, Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was obtained from Kansas State University and the research institution. This step will be taken to ensure participant confidentiality and ethical procedures are reviewed for the protection and storage of data collected for use in this study. All participants in this study will receive informed consent forms prior to their survey participation as a part of the course. The informed consent form will state:

1. purpose and description of the study;

2. participant expectations and participation requirements of the study;

3. participant rights, risks, benefits, confidentiality protection; and

4. participant option to leave the study at any time.

Participants were provided details of the precautions implemented to protect their confidentiality during and after the study. Participants were not asked nor provided a means to give information that would identify them except for providing a phone number which will not be linked to their name. Participants electronically signed the consent form prior to participating in the survey collection of data.

Summary

This chapter described the research design and methodology implemented for this proposed HASC VR study. An overview was provided describing an overview of the technology used in this research as well as the setting of the study, participants, data collection tools, data collection process, and data analysis. There was also a section on the limitations of the study as well as information regarding ethical considerations concerning this study and how they were addressed.

References

Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger, H. L., 3rd. (2008). The critical importance of retrieval for learning. Science (New York, N.Y.), 319(5865), 966–968. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1152408

Health and Safety Council. (2020). Gauging effectiveness of 3D VR for memory retrieval. Retrieved October 10, 2021, from https://hasc.com/uploads/digital/VR/HASC-VR-in-Industry-White-Paper.pdf

Keppel, G. (1991). Design and analysis: A researcher’s handbook (3rd ed.). Pearson.

Krokos, E., Plaisant, C., & Varshney, A. (2019). Virtual memory palaces: immersion aids recall. Virtual Reality, 23(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-018-0346-3

Improving Learner Self-Efficacy Through Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) is quickly gaining momentum as a possible tool for safety training and skills training in the energy sector at the Health and Safety Council (HASC). As a non-profit contractor training organization, HASC has been studying ways to integrate VR training into its delivery models in ways that help provide more effective learning outcomes for the learner. 

To determine if VR is effective as a training tool for the contractors and trainees who come to HASC for safety or skills training and whether VR is effective compared to traditional eLearning or Computer Based Training (CBT) tools, HASC has completed several investigations. HASC's studies have shown that VR effectively creates lasting, retrievable memories for HASC's trainees (Health and Safety Council, 2020). In addition, being exposed to theories, learning procedures, and understanding information are aspects that CBT at HASC can benefit their learners. VR offers the opportunity to practice and try the procedures in an immersive, virtual world. However, finding ways to improve worker self-efficacy could have deeper, more meaningful effects on the learner and their teams. 

Stop-Work Authority

The understanding and use of personal stop work authority is ubiquitous and fundamental to safe work activities in the energy sector (Gaddis, 2019; Mlynek, 2021). Providing training that helps learners, particularly newer workers, understand stop-work authority and how to use it effectively and promptly. The proper use of stop-work authority by workers can also create a safer work environment for all workers on the job site. Stop work authority is a safety policy designed to keep workers personally safe and allow them to stop any work they may see that is unsafe. According to Gaddis (2019), "the goal behind such a plan is to encourage workers to speak up without fear of retribution when they see a potential at-risk situation unfolding" (p. 2). When used correctly, stop work authority is a powerful tool for keeping workers safe. When it is not used, it can place employees, worksites, and communities surrounding energy manufacturing facilities at risk of dangerous releases, explosions, or fires. 

In many cases, new workers are hesitant to use their stop-work authority due to factors such as diffusion of responsibility; or a "situation in which a person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction, when other workers are present" (Mlynek, 2021, p. 1). Counting on others rather than being assured of your own knowledge, training, and capabilities could lead to injury or fatality for the field workers and contracting organizations' that HASC supports. 

Another issue with new employees feeling empowered to use their authority to stop work is the bystander effect. According to Furst (2015), the bystander effect "occurs when the presence of others hinders an individual from intervening in a situation that may cause injury to others or the environment" (p. 5). Like the diffusion of responsibility, the bystander effect can affect new employees inserted into work teams with other, more experienced workers. Being the newest employee can influence a greater chance for the bystander effect to occur. Even if they see something dangerous, new employees might be less apt to stop work because they believe another, more experienced member would stop the hazardous act if it were dangerous. Conversely, experienced workers can get complacent and bad habits can cause them to miss procedural steps. When newer employees rely on these experienced workers due to the bystander effect, stop-work authority will not be used effectively. 

Self-Efficacy

For HASC learners, self-efficacy can be described as a learner's belief in the abilities and capabilities for a task or procedure and their perceptions of themselves in society (Bandura, 1977). Having higher regard for their capabilities and understanding can lead to greater self-efficacy and a greater sense of independent agency, the chance to make independent changes. As Lindley (2006) points out, Bandura believes that "self-efficacy is closely linked to individual human agency" (p. 144). These have positive benefits as providing learners with greater self-efficacy and agency will be more confident in their decisions. In terms of stop-work authority, having the confidence to speak up and stop a job, especially as a newer technician, is a hard challenge. Having greater agency, self-efficacy, and confidence can help newer workers potentially overcome those challenges sooner in their career development. 

Citing several sources, Artisco et al. state in Hoare (2011) that self-efficacy and self-worth are linked to one's abilities. Citing Ehrlinger and Dunning, Artistico, Berry, Black, Cervone, Lee and Orom write that "the knowledge that one is succeeding or failing at a task has substantial implication for ongoing and future actions related to task performance and sense of mastery” (Hoare, 2011, p. 217). Developing skills and feeling that they can meet future challenges successfully is the essence of self-efficacy and can impact learners' future success. 

Virtual Reality and Self-Efficacy

Many studies show how VR training can improve worker self-efficacy for industrial workers (Colombo, 2014; Makransky & Klingenberg, 2022). These studies have shown that workers who took VR training were more apt to identify and fix problems they found on the worksite and showed higher levels of motivation and behavioral changes. Bandura (1977) suggests that self-efficacy comes from four primary sources; of those four, two are: (a) personal performance and accomplishments, (b) vicarious experiences. The VR exercises that HASC provides allows learners to perform procedures in a safe and controlled environment. Learners have the opportunity to perform procedures and experience the results of that work in an immersive environment. 

An immersive VR environment also allows learners to practice these procedures in significantly more dangerous situations than what could be provided in live training simulators. Holbrook and Cennamon (2014), citing several studies, write that one beneficial aspect of simulators is that "they provide a safe environment in which to learn and fail" (p. 40). Their study on emotion and self-efficacy in simulators for police officers found that learners in an immersive learning environment were: (a) more emotionally invested, (b) found the training situations realistic, and (c) found the learning memorable and realistic. In a similar study, Nissim and Weissblueth (2017) found that when providing VR simulator training to teachers,  the participants' self-efficacy or belief in their ability improved following the simulator training. Additionally, Shu et al. (2017) found that learner motivation and enjoyment of the training course improved when using high definition immersive VR as the tool for delivery. 

Career Development

A greater sense of self-efficacy can also have positive benefits for the learner's career and the learner's fulfillment from their career. Bandura (1997) writes that the "stronger the sense of self-regulatory efficacy, the greater the improvement in work involvement" (p. 189). This can not only lead to greater worker involvement but can have positive benefits to the worker in the form of being more involved to use stop-work authority more effectively. Additionally, this willingness to "own" their own and others' safety at the job site can lead to quicker career growth and promotion. Holbrook and Cennamo (2014) write about how individuals with "high perceived self-efficacy about a certain task can lead to positive performance outcomes" (p. 38). And Bandura (1997) writes that "individuals who have a resilient sense of self-efficacy perceive greater employment opportunities and are more successful in finding employment" (p. 188). Finally, Bandura (1986) quotes Brown and Inouye that "when people are fully assured of their capabilities, they remain unshaken in their perceived self-efficacy and persevere doggedly, even though they fail repeatedly" (p. 364).

Multiple studies show that self-efficacy can be improved for students through the use of VR exercises (Colombo et al, 2014; Holbrook & Cennamo, 2014; Makransky & Klingenberg, 2022; Nissim & Weissblueth, 2017). Improved self-efficacy, or a greater sense of self-efficacy in a shorter time can help field workers supporting the energy sector perform their work more safely and speak up quicker and use their stop work authority when they see something dangerous (Burke, et al., 2006; Furst, 2015; Gaddis, 2019; Mlynek, 2021). For an organization like HASC that is looking for ways to improve contractor safety in the energy sector, finding training techniques that can help learners quickly gain a sense of self-efficacy, VR could be a worthwhile investment. 

References

Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.84.2.191\

Bandura, A. (1986). The explanatory and predictive scope of self-efficacy theory. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 4(3), 359–373. https://doi-org.er.lib.k-state.edu/10.1521/jscp.1986.4.3.359

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W H Freeman/Times Books/ Henry Holt & Co.

Burke, M. J., Sarpy, S. A., Smith-Crowe, K., Chan-Serafin, S., Salvador, R. O., & Islam, G. (2006). Relative effectiveness of worker safety and health training methods. American Journal of Public Health, 96(2), 315–324. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2004.059840

Colombo, S., Nazir, S., & Manca, D. (2014). Immersive virtual reality for training and decision making: Preliminary results of experiments performed with a plant simulator. SPE Economics & Management, 6(04), 165–172. https://doi.org/10.2118/164993-pa

Furst, P. G. (2015). Stop work authority and the bystander effect. IRMI. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://www.irmi.com/articles/expert-commentary/stop-work-authority-and-the-bystander-effect

Gaddis, S. (2019). Stop work authority: A principled-based approach. Occupational Health & Safety. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://ohsonline.com/Articles/2019/12/02/Stop-Work-Authority-A-Principled-Based-Approach.aspx

Health and Safety Council. (2020). Gauging Effectiveness of 3D VR for Memory Retrieval. Retrieved October 10, 2021, from https://hasc.com/uploads/digital/VR/HASC-VR-in-Industry-White-Paper.pdf

Hoare, C. (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Reciprocal Adult Development and Learning. 2nd Edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0199736300

Holbrook, H. A., & Cennamo, K. S. (2014). Effects of high-fidelity virtual training simulators on learners' self-efficacy. International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations, 6(2), 38–52. https://doi-org.er.lib.k-state.edu/10.4018/ijgcms.2014040104

Lindley, L. D. (2006). The paradox of self-efficacy: Research with diverse populations. Journal of Career Assessment, 14(1), 143–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072705281371

Makransky, G., & Klingenberg, S. (2022). Virtual reality enhances safety training in the maritime industry: An organizational training experiment with a non-WEIRD sample. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 1– 14. https://doi-org.er.lib.k-state.edu/10.1111/jcal.12670

Mlynek, J. (2021). Stop-Work Authority: Empower Employees to Watch For Hazardous Situations, Take Action. Grain Journal. Retrieved April 20, 2022, frhttps://www.grainnetsafety.com/article/243934/joe-mlynek-stop-work-authority-empower-employees-to-watch-for-hazardous-situations-take-action

Nissim, Y., & Weissblueth, E. (2017). Virtual reality (VR) as a source for self-efficacy in teacher training. International Education Studies, 10(8), 52. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v10n8p52

Shu, Y., Huang, YZ., Chang, SH. et al. Do virtual reality head-mounted displays make a difference? A comparison of presence and self-efficacy between head-mounted displays and desktop computer-facilitated virtual environments. Virtual Reality 23, 437–446 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-018-0376-x

Midway Rucking Update

I finally got my old rucksack back! And boy does it make a difference. This is another update in this month’s challenge to Stop Soldier Suicide. 50 miles of rucking in the month of May. I’m doing this with several friends and have already logged about this HERE and HERE. 

See that guy in the front in that pic? That’s me. See that rucksack? The one that is huge and heavy and carrying on it a stretcher with 6 sand bags? Yeah, that’s my rucksack. That pic was taken at Best Ranger 2000. Killer competition. I was leveled. 

Well, the one I have now isn’t that exact one, I had to give mine back to the Army when I left, but when I got out I created the exact same rucksack I had had as a Ranger. For some reason I loaned it to my brother, which is why I had to use that crumby soft pack for so many days (see those pics in the posts linked up there). Regardless, I am SOOOO happy to have my rucksack back. 

Today, which is May 15, I am halfway done with the challenge. Today was grueling. I loaded up the rucksack with 55 pounds and had my official weigher weigh it out for me. 12 year old boys apparently like weighing rucksacks. 55 was confirmed. I took off for 7 miles this morning and it was killer! But It’s done. 

This more than any other ruck yet had me thinking about my life, my career, the choices I’ve made etc. There are some things I like, some I don’t. What can you do about it? Just keep pressing on. So I did. And I do. 

right now, with 15 days down and 15 days more to go . .  35 miles complete. 

Helping Experienced Workers Embrace Generativity

I'm intrigued by the concept of generativity. Mahler, writing in Hoare (2011) defines generativity as a stage of adult development spanning 30 or more years. Mahler goes on to quote Moore et al who define generativity as "the midlife transition point at which individuals become disillusioned with their current reality, involves confronting and reintegrating the polarities that define their lives and represents the most important structure-changing phase of life" (Hoare, 2011, p. 197). Later Mahler quotes Erickson regarding generativity, as "primarily the interest in establishing and guiding the next generation." 

When reading these definitions I immediately classified myself in the category defined by Moore et al. There are definitely some heady, life transitions going on in my life; 1) kiddos growing to a point where they don't need as much supervision, 2) wondering what more can be done with my job and organization, 3) searching for other activities and pursuits that might provide meaning. 

My wife has defined it as my mid-life crisis, and it’s comforting to know that many other men my age have gone through this same search for purpose. Reading Mahler's chapter and Erickson's views, he states that the length of the stage may last 30+ years. I don't look forward to wading through the stage, especially if it doesn't end with a rewarding byproduct. However, the idea of giving back to the next generation is fulfilling in a spiritual way.

What intrigues me about these three passages and definitions is wondering if there are resources in our industry of petrochemical manufacturers or mentors who might help adults transitioning through these times. I have this class and others like it to help guide me through, and understand this stage. What about others? Those without Ph.D. classes?

I think too about how my organization might help workers in this stage of adult development. There are field workers and supervisors, those that I have trained in our leadership courses, who might be experiencing that disillusionment that Moore et al use in their definition. Are there avenues that can help guide them toward giving back to the community and our industry? Are there resources open to them that allow them to train the next generation of field workers who are coming on board to eventually replace them? 

We have courses for new leadership development, we have courses for established leaders, and we have courses to help with skills and safety development. We do not offer courses that give back to the industry and to the workers or help mentor workers through this stage of development. Is there a way to help people get to and accept the idea of generativity more easily? It makes me wonder if our organization that supports contractors, should find a way to create a group that helps guide them through these periods toward a goal of giving back to the industry and helping the next generation of workers. I hesitate to call it a support group, but maybe a guest trainer program? A chance to talk with the experts? Perhaps allowing them to act as speakers at forums so that less experienced audience members can hear from those who have been there before. 

At my previous organization, I was asked to find ways to improve our worker retention. One way we did this was by having workers who had been in the organization for many years and advanced through the ranks come and speak to our new hire training classes. We hoped that by seeing other workers who were successful at staying with the company they might model themselves and their work off of that success. Sadly we had no KPI's or metrics by which to measure the success of that program, but it was always fun, and based on the responses of the students, it was rewarding. 

There is evidence too that by having an opportunity to affect positive change for older, more experienced workers and helping them through this stage of development can have positive benefits for cognitive development in later life as well (Malone et al., 2015). By keeping these more experienced workers actively engaged not just in mentoring newer workers, but also active in the industry and community, there could be longer-term benefits to their health and well-being. 

There might be a possibility to try something similar to this career development program with our contractor safety council. The organization could ask more experienced workers to serve as subject matter experts to review training courses and add experience. The council could give these adults opportunities to speak to our new hire classes about their work and field experiences. The learning development group could offer the chance for these workers to create video testimonials that could be attached to training courses to provide realism and experiences to otherwise shallow training courses. These are things that might help some experienced workers, those who like Moore et al state might be "disillusioned with their current reality". Or are "reintegrating the polarities that define their lives," and help them move a bit more easily through the thirty-year stage toward a destination that can benefit them, the younger worker, and the industry as a whole. 

References

Hoare, Carolyn (Ed.) (2011) The Oxford Handbook of Reciprocal Adult Development and Learning. 2nd Edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0199736300

Malone, J. C., Liu, S. R., Vaillant, G. E., Rentz, D. M., & Waldinger, R. J. (2016). Midlife Eriksonian psychosocial development: Setting the stage for late-life cognitive and emotional health. Developmental psychology, 52(3), 496–508. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039875 

Getting through Swamp Phase

My study buddy Andrew wrote about how hard it is to be "mindful" and in the moment regarding his students in his Master's classes. So often the students get disappointed by the core course work and prerequisites. I can understand that. Still having to get through my own core courses before I can get to the dissertation. 

Again, I can empathize, and I can understand how students might feel this way. I see the same thing with our newly hired workers as Andrew sees with his students. They come into the energy industry,... They are eager to do new and exciting work then they find that so much of it is drudgery. 

Regarding how to help learners be more mindful and live in the moment rather than being disappointed by what they thought, I liked what the chapter had to say about "attentional blink," "they describe attentional blink as an effect whereby two stimuli are presented in close succession and an individual fails to attend the second stimulus due to attentional focus on the first stimulus" (Hoare, 2011, p. 349).

Along those same lines, I liked the idea of "reperceiving" as well; "a process that helps reduce reactivity to situations by adopting a mode of awareness in which one is less identified with one's experience," (Hoare, 2011, p. 350). I like what they state about how people should train their minds to step back from the problem and see it from afar with their mind's eye. There are times when I tell my managers, especially when they are on the verge of being overwhelmed by work or politics, that they need to get "out of the trenches" and see the entire battlefield. So often I remember being in their position and not being able to see the forest for the trees. Heck, there are times now that I have trouble with that. "Repercieving" would definitely help with that. 

Finally, when I think about your specific problem with students, I think about delayed gratification. There needs to be an understanding of being able to wade through the difficult times to get to the finish line. Not to belabor the "army" point, but I remember in Ranger School, a three-month-long slugfest, that there were days and days and nights and nights of walking through swamps, of laboring under a rucksack, of misery and muck. Why? To earn a little tab that we got to put on our shoulders. Whenever I wanted to quit, I just thought of that tab and pressed on. I think this type of goal orientation vision quest is useful for getting through the rough patches and getting to the finish line. 

References:

Hoare, C. (2011). The oxford handbook of reciprocal adult development and learning (C. Hoare, Ed.). Oxford University Press.

Dork Not a Bond

I used to think I wanted to be a Renaissance guy. I've tried hard to work toward that. 

Let's see, . . . (a bit of a humble brag coming) . . . play the piano, . . . write novels, . . . work in technology, . . . I have my MBA, and I'm working toward my PhD, . . . former sergeant in Spec Ops, . . .  I can even cook a mean pork shoulder or bake a smashing scone . . .  my margarita slush (a recipe I stole from a friend) is the talk of the block (if not the hood). But, instead of being Renaissance, I think I've become utilitarian. A jack of all trades, master of none.

What's this have to do with anything? 

Well, I got this pic of me at an awards banquet the other night and I would like to think a renaissance man could pull off wearing a tux without looking so much like a dork. 

With fashion, I am very much a utility knife. The swiss army knife type. I wear trousers not slacks, sweaters instead of jackets, I order my clothes off amazon, or off the rack, getting fitted or tailored clothes never happens. That can be seen easily in the fact that my collar doesn't really fit on my neck. 

Thinking back, I should have worn my sleek, businessy, fashion-forward cool guy glasses, rather than my birth control glasses. I guess because the awards banquet was out of town. Had it been in town, I would have worn my cool glasses. That alone might have sufficed to get me out of utility knife world. Still, fun to have to get dressed up every now and then, even if I can't pull off Bond level cool. 

Not sure who told me to smile like a dork. Wonder what I was thinking? And I wonder how much the babe on my arm distracts from the dork smiling in the tux. I hope a lot!

Wisdom and Reflective Thinking

We are reading a chapter on wisdom and I got to tell ya, I really enjoyed it. Maybe it's because my mind enjoys procedures or definitions, but I liked the way that Bassett laid out the different definitions of wisdom and what makes up wisdom. 

For me, the definition I liked the most was the one he quoted by Ardelt that expressed wisdom as having three dimensions, where Bassett writes, "for her wisdom includes three dimensions; cognitive, affective, and reflective. Of the three according to her the last is the most important because it informs the other two" (Hoare, 2011, p. 303).  

We are doing a lot of work with reflection recently in our work. I'm not so bold as to say we are inspiring our learners to become wiser per se, but I will say that I like Ardelt's definition for that aspect of reflection. We have clients who want training in such and such a manner, and usually want it as quickly as possible. Quick delivery rarely includes reflective moments for the learner. We have a class that takes a full day where we build in those reflective moments. A client asked that we make it 4 hours instead of 8. We argued and lost and were forced to deliver the 4-hour rushed version. They enjoyed the opportunity to learn and I was happy to hear in their feedback that every learner wished that they had had more time to consider and think about the concepts rather than be rushed through. Even the learners know that wisdom and learning come with reflection and can't be rushed. 

I also enjoyed the five principles laid out in the same chapter on wise leadership; "wise leaders must have cognitive complexity; they must be rational and deep thinkers while at the same time being able to draw on the nonrational and subjective as appropriate; they must think creatively; they must display long-term vision and virtue (caring for humanity), and finally they must be articulate" (Hoare, 2011, p. 310). Again, maybe it's that I enjoy lists or that I've got a very black and white mind but having these listed in this way appealed to me and I enjoyed reading about it. 

References:

Hoare, C. (2011). The oxford handbook of reciprocal adult development and learning (C. Hoare, Ed.). Oxford University Press.