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.

Job Hopping

I had a long meeting with Jemalin the other day to discuss career development and self-efficacy. This is such an interesting topic. I’m considered a “hopper.” I’ve bounced around from job to job and from position to position, trying in most cases to move up with each hop, and definitely trying to get 15-20% more with each hop too. When I was in contracting, this was the norm. People jumped constantly. It was almost an expectation. Why do I say that? Because the programs to try and keep people were non-existent. The rationale seemed to be, that if you don’t like it, feel free to leave, rather than promoting health and welfare employee programs to get people to be loyal. It’s not a good or bad thing, it just “was.” And in many cases having all that hopping helped create a sense of community within the industry and kept things fresh at the organization level. 

Within the past 3 or 4 years, I moved to go to work with a non-profit that focuses on training. This is a great “hop” because this helps me fine-tune and specialize my skill as well as support the community. What’s interesting is that this organization has a completely different attitude toward employee loyalty. This is a place with most people down my hallway having easily 10+ years with the company. Many have 15 or 20 years. 

Unlike in the contracting world where you had to petition your boss for a raise and prove why you deserve it, “what more are you doing to justify me paying you more” . . . Raises at the non-profit are annual and automatic. The difference? At the contractor, you would get 10% or 15% raise. At the non-profit . . . 2.5 or 3% max. When my employees come to me for more, I hesitate because I always want to say, the best way to move up fast, . . . “Hop.” So, it’s an interesting dynamic. 

What I find interesting, and to bring it back to your post, is that the social dynamic of a 401K and an IRA have made it easier to hop than to stay. Pensions? Who has those anymore? I wonder though if they may not make a comeback. 

As my final position at the contracting company, I was the Director of Career Development. We had 7000 employees and what I kept seeing is that kiddos who saw their parents suffer through the 2010s etc were more apt to want “solidity” from their jobs rather than fulfillment or high pay. They wanted to know it wasn’t going to be pulled out from under them. I wonder if kids who saw their parent laid off through Covid will want the same thing but more so. Will a retirement savings account that helps them feel more invested in the organization, like a pension, become the norm for these next working generations. Where our generation wanted the freedom to hop, maybe they’ll be looking for an anchor to tie them in place. It will be interesting to see. Nice to know there are fellow “hoppers” out there!

New Workin Man

Well, there's a new working man pic of me out there. My Life does not lead to many opportunities to have pictures Taken of me and for PPE. That being said I probably have a few more opportunities in the average Joe.

Well another one cropped up the other day and it has now supplanted and moved ahead of my previous best of class working man pictures.

Before the best picture was this one that was taken in Chicago (see above). A professional photographer caught me in action during a training event for PSC. We were doing training on a liquid vacuum truck and it was a pretty great time. Very cold. That jacket I have on is huge. It was absolutely freezing that day but I think the photographer got like 30 to 50 pictures of me. I don't think I've ever been so over photographed in one place. I will say that photographer certainly earned his money because I look really good in some of those pictures… If you don't mind me saying. 

This new one was also taken by a pro and you can tell I am not a professional model in it. I don't know if I've ever looked like such a goofball. But now my children have put this picture up on their home screens for their phones. I don't know if I should be upset by that or not. Maybe they need a hero pic to visualize and achieve. 

Ruck-date

Horrible title. I was going for a "ruck update" to harken back to last weeks ruck challenge kick off post.

 First... two of my fans that I know of have followed me in this endeavor. Glad that there's company.

Secondly, it's gotten no easier but I have established a pattern.

I use 45 pounds to 65 pounds if I do 4 miles and I'll interval jog that.  When I get my large ruck I'll probably add more weight. I'd like to get up to 85.

I'm jogging more than walking. Today, since I'm stuck at a basketball tournament in league city I just took my ruck and ran 2 quick miles with 35 lbs.  I'm happy with that.  

So, one week in, 21 miles down and 29 to go!

Kobayshi Maru

Like my college Megan, I was intrigued by the concept of self-efficacy and success - both success in or on the job and success in a career. Anyone who has talked to me for even 5 minutes will know that I can't go even that long without discussing what my organization is trying to do with VR. Well, I think VR provides a great opportunity to increase a learner's self-efficacy and feeling of accomplishment, far more than our typical “power point” style training delivery. 

We have three types of training, CBT (computer-based training), instructor-led or seminar-type training, and hands-on training where the learners get to work with the equipment and on simulators to help them understand their equipment. 

Naturally, everyone believes in and sees the value of hands-on, but there are reasons it’s more useful, classes are generally smaller and have a more beneficial instructor to student ratio for learning, theory can be integrated into the hands-on instruction and reinforced, the learners get to work with their hands and practice procedures. The challenge is that it is more expensive and not as scalable. On the other end of the spectrum is CBT, which is imminently scalable and cheaper, just less effective at promoting sustainable knowledge transfer to the field. 

Our VR classes bridge this gap nicely. They take theory and elements of hands-on and provide it to the learner in a scalable manner that allows them the opportunity to practice safely on simulators that replicate a field environment. In some ways, I think that VR might be more beneficial than traditional hands-on for the reason that we can provide opportunities for the learner to practice emergency-type procedures without endangering themselves or others. Recently we released a VR course that simulates an excavation cave-in and asks the learner to initiate an emergency procedure. A cave-in of a trench is something that a typical, real-work, hands-on excavation training would never be able to simulate. 

What does this have to do with self-efficacy? By giving the learner opportunities to practice these situations in the VR world, our hope is that when or if those situations occur in the field they are better able to handle and react to them. Additionally, if the emergency never occurs in the field, by having practiced for the situation in the VR world, the learner is more apt to feel confident in his abilities. This can have benefits to the learner’s on-the-job performance, confidence in his abilities, and career. There is a myriad of ways I see VR can help with self-efficacy for adult learners. 

To bring this back to Megan's thoughts on choreography, dance, and self-efficacy, she mentions failure. In the cases I list above I see that failure acts not as a demotivational moment but rather as a chance to learn, understand and grow from the failure. We have one course where the learner cannot succeed. Failure is baked in. They must react to the failure. For any Star Trek fans out there it is similar to the Kobayashi Maru training, where no matter what choice you make, the end result is a failure. Sort of like the ill-structured problems we have been working on within self-authorship. There may not be true black and white solutions to grey problems, just the least bad options. But from this, our learners get to learn about the experience, and hopefully grow and understand their capabilities better. 

Crystallized and Fluid

I really liked the differentiation between fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence in our text for Adult Learning and Adult Development. It was in chapter 12. It discusses the differences between crystallized intelligence vs fluid intelligence. 

The text states "crystallized intelligence normally underlies tasks that test knowledge that is accumulated through experience and years of education" (p. 234) then fluid intelligence is defined as "an ability used for spatial and abstract reasoning tasks such as solving numerical or spatial puzzles" (p. 234). 

When I think about these definitions I think about our work with virtual reality where we are trying to challenge our learners to use both their crystallized and fluid intelligence. We ask the learners to use their experience and education on theory as well as their fluid intelligence to work on a problem in a virtual world. 

Then there is this on personal agency and mental time travel. The ability of learners to put themselves into situations using their minds and their perceptions of the world. This too has tie-ins to virtual reality. 

In our VR courses, we are asking our learners to transport themselves into a virtual world where their minds make them feel as if they are in an actual refinery work site. Sure we help them with immersive realism and other facets, but it's the learner's job to believe it. 

The text states that forming a sense of self and social identity "enables individuals to select and shape the environments they encounter, to develop skills to meet future challenges" (p. 217).  The reason we do this for our adult learners is in a sentence in the next column; "knowing what one can and cannot do is vital to one's self-concept because it can influence goal-setting, effort expenditure, and feeling of self-efficacy and self-worth" (p. 217). 

Greater self-efficacy for our learners can have payoffs for our learners, the worksites, and the communities. 

Reference

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

Not So Little

The other day I wrote about a marketing campaign that I was a big part of and was quite proud of (see HERE). Mostly it was about how jealous of our new Marketing Director I was. But I got several questions from folks at work about my little campaign. 

My response . . . in each case was . . . what do you mean little?

I realize now, after just showing a few pics, I wasn't giving it enough credit. Nor was I showing the full scope and breadth of the campaign (see HERE). 

There was quite a bit to it. Like I said, I think I did over 50 of these little slides, and I had them scheduled and delivered through several delivery platforms. 

I also had a commercial with a video and awesome music. I had a newsletter campaign as well that I was trying to turn into a blog so that we could get interaction from the clients. I was genuinely very proud of that little campaign.

 There I go again. . . . not little. Check it out. The only thing left of it is on that link up there and that's not the whole sucker. Sure was fun though. Maybe in my next life.

Passion and Learning Communities

Another of my colleagues wrote a terrific post on self-regulation. Just reading about what she experiences plants a seed in my thoughts, and boom it flowers quickly into something that (I hope) is worthwhile. 

She deals with and teaches adults in theater. I deal with adults in the refining industry. There would seem to be many relevant tie-ins between the two. 

Often I find in our discussions that I tend to think about my organization's leadership training courses. These are field workers who are doing such a great job that their organization decides to invest in them by sending them to our a one or two-day course in leadership fundamentals. 

In our first course, one of the most difficult modules for us to pass on to these leaders is the module on conflict management. So much of conflict management is self-regulation. Being about to be moderate in your passions, to see two sides of the same issue and be empathetic and understand why there is conflict. This is step one that we try to teach. It’s tough because so many of these learners come from backgrounds where this wasn’t taught. Like she wrote about her learning cohort, in the theater, these men and women can be passionate in their views, even more so if they have years and years of field experience as most of these leaders do. 

In most cases, what we find, is that they have never seen or been taught any other way. They grew up as young field techs and their leader was passionate, yelled, and jumped on them with shouting to get the point they were trying to make across. So naturally, when these techs have a chance to lead they model their behavior off of the leaders they’ve seen in the past. I know that when our learners leave our course we haven’t done much to change how they deal with conflict, despite our best efforts. 

Hopefully, though we have started them down a path where they can be open to other ideas and new solutions to deal with problems that they didn’t have before. I’d like to think we allow them to begin the process of realizing self-regulation and moderation of emotions might have a payoff in their lives if they give it a try. 

Empty Nest and ETS

Megan and Audrey both discussed transitions the other day. I wrote about my own difficulties with the transition, Audrey discussed the transition she and her husband are going through, both moving from being a part of the Army and being empty nesters. 

I can certainly empathize and sympathize with your situation. I had my own transition from military to civilian life, was easy, but most of that was due to my only being enlisted for four years. 

I see many of the privates who I trained in my team, who are now sergeants majors, and I see them struggling with the transition the same way you mention. I see many of them moving up to Alaska to live off the grid. I'm actually a bit stunned by how many have chosen this route. 

The transition moment in my life that I think about is the one I referenced when Megan and I spoke. I had to switch from being a contractor, a position I had held for almost 20 years, to working for a non-profit. It's a transition I'm still struggling with. This mid-life career change has been tough, but mostly because I got used to the pace, the style of work, and the tempo of contractor work. 

Non-profit work is different in many ways, but I'm lucky that my boss, our president, and COO comes from the contracting community as well and many of the new programs, changes, and updates he institutes are familiar to me. So instead of jumping directly into the cold, deep, water of the non-profit pool, I get to swim from the shallow end to the deep end and have someone teach me to swim. 

To bring it back to Audrey's discussion, when I look back at transitions in my own life, I see how my transition from contractor to non-profit employee was an identity shift, and still is an identity shift that I am going through. I liked the old identity but now I'm learning to embrace and like this new one. 

How does this play into my research topic? Not as much as I would like. We provide leadership training to many people who are moving from being a part of a team to a leader of that team. We focus on this and how best to make that transition and smooth the waters. Finding ways to bring it back to a shift in identity might be a bit more that we can discuss with them and help them through the change in their roles. 

Now I Remember Why I Hate Ruck Marching

As another update in my workout series (see HERE) . . . Well, it's May 1st, which means I have started the USAA Ruck Marching Challenge to help stop soldier suicide! 

I remember now how much I hated ruck marching. Slow, long boring, . . . ugh! But, it was different and fun to a degree. Wow, does a fella ever have some time to think on a ruck march?