Moving Higher: From Content to Intent

My team keeps track of emerging Ed-tech companies, organizations involved in training, coaching just to follow impact stories. We follow world class mentors, mostly for our own doze of motivation and also  to broaden our horizon of thinking.

We are part of groups in social media channels for ongoing cerebral stimulation in the learning space. As advocates for alternate learning models that is outcome driven, when we come across claims such as these, we often fail to fathom the audacity behind such a statement.

                           

“I have transformed the lives of 20000 people through my programs. I have been awarded A, B and C”

Remember, that introduction is to make you feel privileged that you can attend a seminar conducted by a person of this caliber - for free

Zero Cost. Zilch.

I am not sure about others in my team, but I definitely cringe with such lofty claims.

My thoughts are, if I had really transformed the lives of even 20 people, they would be on stage sharing their stories, not me. 

Techniques can be self taught, inspiration can be sought from a dozen sources but feeling motivated enough to act, requires a lot.

This just happened to rhyme. I did not intend that. If this rhyming assists you to remember the essence, I am not changing a word here.

As a business model – freemium to premium is very popular today. It works well and is quite successful - You attract the crowd with a free workshop, virtual summit, seminar, e-book, pdf download - briefly show them the personal and business outcomes that  they can achieve and then make them sign up to learn the techniques to achieve those outcomes.

The next thing you see is loads of branding everywhere of that free workshop - Images, reactions and bunch of vanity metrics uploaded in a dozen channels. I personally dislike this predictable flow chart so much that I have written many blogs on this to create some stir and awareness about its futility.

Coaching is a trillion dollar industry - It is time for the coaches to be a little more responsible towards outcomes, than the function. That space is not crowded at all as there are hardly anyone willing to explore this isolated zone - sharing the journey with participants for outcomes. We BECKON Coaches call it nesting.

An auditorium with over 250 participants receive free inputs, and how do you expect them the fill the feedback forms and impression books? Isn’t it human nature to be grateful? How many of them will share their honest opinion about scope for improvement?

"Loved it"

"I feel like a different person"

"X is an amazing coach"

"This session has transformed me completely"

"Would love to attend more of these. This is life changing"

Mere words!!

These workshops are useful and a free seminar is definitely a great strategy – just the claim “Transform” “Impact” is far fetched and misleading.

In 2015 I had a client from Arizona, whose core work was limited to do basic electric wiring etc. I was his content strategist.

After attending a session by Bob Proctor, he was so inspired, motivated and filled with purpose to live better, do something of value that he wanted to open an Ed tech company to assist teen entrepreneurs. He moved to one of the Asian countries to work as teacher for a couple of years while building his startup team. He not only found his co-founder and built the company, he went operational last year.

Now whether he is successful  in his business or not is a different story altogether. The point is, just one session with a world class mentor brought this change in a participant’s mindset to take the right decisions and initiatives to think, act, master his mind, his emotions, his dreams and his finances.

If I can afford to pay and attend his mentor's program, I definitely will. Do I need the mentor to use the microphone or brag? I can see the results in a person I meet online. That speaks volumes about the depth of learning the mentor shares.

(As I have not sought permission from the client, I am masking the company’s name)

In the past two years, my focus has been to build a team of coaches who can replicate what I do - self learn or learn something without bothering about certification and translate the new learning to revenue. 

In the process you create mental impact first that soon translates to physical impact.

With the confluence of AI, Robotics, machine learning, this transition point is very critical for most of us to be relevant for new set of jobs that never existed before and be ready for the future. 

The league of coaches that we need today has to be not only forward thinking but be able to focus beyond content download and be great story tellers with monastic belief and clear intent to assist the participant.

If you have an impact story to share with a profile of your mentor, we will be very glad to publish here because that is what we are looking for, learning that is outcome driven where the intent of the mentor reflects in what you do.

If you attended a great session with an awesome mentor and you go back to your work desk next morning to do the very same things, go back to live the same life, that speaks enough about the session and mentor already, regardless of the glowing online reviews. Spare us from that story!!

Make Your Own Lane: You.. An Individual, An Enterprise

This blog will just capture a few random topics first and then I will attempt to put the key point across.

Skill related - Use it or lose it

I created our website I think almost a year back on WIX. I enjoyed doing that so much that I created two more quickly within weeks.

After a gap of few months, when I tried to upload a Vimeo that I created on Powtoon, I had forgotten the basics. I had to spend some time exploring WIX again before I could complete that task.

Key takeaway of course was, if you do not use your skill enough, you definitely tend to lose it. With that loss there is a gradual drop in confidence and competence.

Continuity in learning is not a matter of choice. It is the only choice to stay relevant.

When you find quite a few from millennial generation struggling to identify their top three skills, their strengths or their goals and long term plans regarding what they want to do in life, their confusion and dilemma is so obvious.

You literally want go back to the education system and re-look at the whole thing and what we, as a society, did to bring them to this state.

Vanity Metrics

There is a serious crisis of self-worth and even self-esteem that makes most of them indulge in consumerism for temporary importance and self-destructive life style choices for momentary high.

Good quality work to create a personal brand in the global market requires approximately 10000 hours of dedicated practice. With attention span concerns due to gadgets and the silent suffering that is obvious in the social media channels, is it a question of confidence or competence?

If you observe how the tags that hangs with their names on professional network changes frequently,

Based on education:           Ravindra C, B.Tech, PMP, MBA

Based on what you do:       Ravindra C, Influencer marketer, XYZ Speaker, Key note Presenter

Based on association:        ABC Fellow

Based on future:                 A Civil Services Aspirant

Can you beat the last one?

Doesn't this hint at their desperate need to be taken seriously for who they are and what they do or is it just their poor decision making abilities? 

I want to suspend my judgment on that at this point.

Financial literacy

I read this on Quora just a few moments back – What would be my salary after 20 years in IT industry, starting at a Cost to Company of 3.5 lakhs per annum

Does this hint at his financial literacy?

Does he have the wisdom to understand

What you do with you earn matters

What you do with what you learn actually makes the difference to your financials

This person hopes to continue in a job even after 20 years, almost blind to the fact that there will not be any in the next 10 years.

This person also believe just being in the IT industry is enough to take him to the riches and therefore wants a tentative number he can accumulate in 20 years that can keep him motivated to continue in this model: 

Work_IT_Increment_Incentive_Work_harder_5_Years_to_20_Years

Coach/ Mentor

Then there is this expectation from Coach/ Mentor to take all the darkness away.

A coach facilitates. They share the alphabets with you - What you will do with those alphabets depends entirely on you

Do you want to play with them and waste your time?

Do you want to practice working with the alphabet so that you can create something meaningful?

Write a Word

Or a Sentence

Or a Paragraph

Or an Essay/ Article

Or a Novel

You are not just an individual. You have the potential to be an enterprise, a corporation based on the skills you have, the team you have, the dream you have and the impact you create.

With the inner voice intact, moral compass in the right direction, all it takes is a purpose, a drive and a dream worth working for to be that one man corporation.

Does Social Learning Really Work?

One of the top challenges for businesses today is learning and development issues. Each industry is preparing for growth and a million training tools, products, courses that have evolved claim to deliver desired results – with no tool to measure learning or results.

People learn from each other in social environment and casual settings from time immemorial, encouraged by a sense of competition, inadequacy or basic survival instincts. The popular belief system that is prevalent and most of us are conditioned to believe that learning happens only in classrooms.

The reality is classroom instructions are mostly just informational and even if it leads to skill acquisition, it does not prepare the learner to try the new skill in the context of real life or business scope. It is only if there is opportunity for experiential learning, individuals can relate to learning; knowledge they receive, its application and think critically about their learning experience.

The term social learning can be applied and effective in any setting or circumstances where there is a group of individuals with a shared learning goal – either consciously or instinctively or both.

Imagine “Decision Making”; “Presentation Skills”; “Team Building” “Strategic Thinking” or any of the popular franchisee models that is generally delivered with a power point and accessories – Unless learner takes critical decisions in real time scenarios or presents to a live audience or builds a team for a purpose evaluating individual strengths and think strategically to lead a project or company, where does the learner stand in the crowd?

Even if these modules are taught in class rooms, it is automatically followed by social learning, where the learner practices and his peers or leads guide him towards mastery.

Benefits of social learning

•  Better engagement and better learning
• Opportunity to engage with an expert even in informal setups.
• If you can check within your team for an expert to address critical business challenges and complex issues
•  Cost effective and can be managed with limited budget leveraging strengths internally

Approach towards social learning

• Assess learning needs not based on level or role, but based on individual learning gap and get the learning road map ready regarding what kind of social environment learning suit his style
• Identify preferred learning methods - If one is more attentive in a small group and feels lost in large learning groups, accommodate that.
• Based on the above two, design learning methods. 

A mentoring program, like-minded meet-ups or an action learning project with members from different departments or background, could be great social learning opportunities.