Entries Tagged 'learning' ↓

In the world envisioned by science author Janine Benyus, a locust’s ability to avoid collision within a roiling cloud of its brethren informs the design of a crash-resistant car; a self-cleaning leaf inspires a new kind of paint, one that dries in a pattern that enables simple rainwater to wash away dirt; and organisms capable of living without water open the way for vaccines that maintain potency even without refrigeration — a hurdle that can prevent life-saving drugs from reaching disease-torn communities. Most important, these cool tools from nature pull off their tricks while still managing to preserve the environment that sustains them, a life-or-death lesson that humankind is in need of learning.

As a champion of biomimicry Benyus has become one of the most important voices in a new wave of designers and engineers inspired by nature. Her most recent project, , explores what happens if we think of nature by function and looks at what organisms can teach us about design.

“The sophisticated, almost pro-growth angle of Benyus shows the great potential profitability of copying some of nature’s time-tested, nonpolluting, room-temperature manufacturing and computing technologies.”

New York Times

Today I learnt of the demise of Les Paul at 94. He has left an extraordinary wealth to the world of Music.

Tinkering with electronics and guitar amplification since his youth, Les Paul began constructing his own electric guitar in the late ’30s. Unhappy with the first generation of commercially available hollowbodies because of their thin tone, lack of sustain, and feedback problems, Paul opted to build an entirely new structure. “I was interested in proving that a vibration-free top was the way to go,” he has said. “I even built a guitar out of a railroad rail to prove it. What I wanted was to amplify pure string vibration, without the resonance of the wood getting involved in the sound.” With the good graces of Epiphone president Epi Stathopoulo, Paul used the Epiphone plant and machinery in 1941 to bring his vision to fruition. He affectionately dubbed the guitar “The Log.”

Les Paul’s tireless experiments sometimes proved to be dangerous, and he nearly electrocuted himself in 1940 during a session in the cellar of his Queens apartment. During the next two years of rehabilitation, Les earned his living producing radio music. Forced to put the Pennsylvanians and the rest of his career on hold, Les Paul moved to Hollywood. During World War II, he was drafted into the Army but permitted to stay in California, where he became a regular player for Armed Forces Radio Service. By 1943 he had assembled a trio that regularly performed live, on the radio, and on V-Discs. In 1944 he entered the jazz spotlight—thanks to his dazzling work filling in for Oscar Moore alongside Nat King Cole, Illinois Jacquet, and other superstars —at the first of the prestigious Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts.

By his mid-thirties, Paul had successfully combined Reinhardt-inspired jazz playing and the western swing and twang of his Rhubarb Red persona into one distinctive, electrifying style. In the Les Paul Trio he translated the dizzying runs and unusual harmonies found on Jazz at the Philharmonic into a slower, subtler, more commercial approach. His novelty instrumentals were tighter, brasher, and punctuated with effects. Overall, the trademark Les Paul sound was razor-sharp, clean-shaven, and divinely smooth.

As small combos eclipsed big bands toward the end of World War II, Les Paul Trio’s popularity grew. They cut records for Decca both alone and behind the likes of Helen Forrest, the Andrews Sisters, the Delta Rhythm Boys, Dick Hayes, and, most notably, Bing Crosby. Since 1945, when the crooner brought them into the studio to back him on a few numbers, the Trio had become regular guests on Crosby’s hit radio show. The highlight of the session was Paul’s first No. 1 hit and million-seller, the gorgeous “It’s Been a Long, Long Time.”

The announcement of his death today made me, relived a fantastic period of my life.

Oh ! my youth, my love of Pop music! My passion for music!

The days with a bunch of friends we got together to play music. The grain of entrepreneurship in me got me to convince my friends, with the help of my father, to start a small band: ‘The Boys’. As the leader of the band it was a learning experience of dealing with a variety of people. Hind sight the germs of leadership skills were  starting  to sprout.

Today I would like to share with you my past passion of the guitar. I was offered a guitar as a birthday present from my parents. It was a black acoustic guitar bought from Venpin store. With my younger brother we took Guitar lessons from Claudio Cassimally who then was a young musician of the Police Band. He was recommended by the Band master Philip Ohsan who was a close friend of my Dad.

Together with another friend who owned a Framus german acoustic Guitar we started practicing together. As our music and dexterity improved, we got more friends with similar interest to join in our jam sessions. The idea of having a band germinated. The days of the all guitar band started to become fashionable with the advent of the ‘SHADOWS’. I convince my Dad to buy us a set of drums and an electric lead Guitar( Egmond) which was driven by an old Radio set to amplify the sound.

Our friend Dasso joined us with his Tesco Japanese ‘Les Paul’ imitation guitar. I went to shop around for a bass guitar, it was far more that we could afford. Lok Wah another friend whose father was a cabinet maker offered to help us to build a bass guitar from kits we could buy from the music stores. A blue formica electric Bass guitar, (Selmer type) after much work was crafted. Thus we completed our sets of three guitars and drums set. My dream was always to own a VOX, Fender or Gibson sets. It remained a dream…

Have you heard of Micheal Pritchard’s water filter?

Why you should listen to him:

During the twin tragedies of the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, Ipswich water-treatment expert Michael Pritchard winced helplessly at televised coverage of throngs of refugees waiting for days for a simple drink of clean water. Stricken by the chronic failure of aid agencies to surmount this basic challenge, Pritchard decided to do something about it.

Using a non-chemical nano-filtration hollow fiber membrane with 15 nanometer pores (it is designed to block viruses), the Lifesaver bottle can make the most revolting swamp water drinkable in seconds. Better still, a single long-lasting filter can clean 6,000 liters of water. Given the astronomical cost of shipping water to disaster areas, Pritchard’s Lifesaver bottle could turn traditional aid models on their heads.

“On the outside, it looks like an ordinary sports bottle. On the inside, there’s a miracle: an extremely advanced filtration system that makes murky water filled with deadly viruses and bacteria completely clean in just seconds.”

Allison Barrie, FoxNews.com

He featured on the TED global 2009and I take great pleasure in spreading the ideas.

During the cyclone season it would be handy to have a water filter bottle in store for use to ward of the germs coming in the water system. We yet have to evaluate the landed price of the filters from life saver system in comparison with bottled water.

I am so pleased that a NLP Practitioner group is now in place and have started its activity. Last Thursday a group of interested  twenty three persons got together to improve their skills to become better.

Is it a breakthrough in Mauritius to have an NLP practitioner group? As far as I know this is a first unless proved contrarily. I gathered that there have been various NLP training given by NLP trainers: <known to me> namely David Molden from the UK , other trainers from Singapore , and a trainer from France who I had commissioned many years ago. On a short training course, usually 2-3 days, awareness of NLP practices and principles may be achieved, knowledge transfer may occur but I believe that not much skills transfer may be achieved.

For my personal experience, I underwent the first time a total 300 hours of contact training in Bath with John Seymour in a total immersion process to build in some skills. It  lasted a whole month. My skills were further honed by the masters of NLP in Colorado with the oldest and most reputed NLP organisation.

As far as NLP knowledge is concerned is concerned, thanks to the generosity of Robert Dilts anybody can read, study and consult for free the NLP encyclopedia.

In my previous blog I stated the possible benefits of NLP skills.

This is a new journey for me and I am confident it will be a fruitful one. It was fantastic to see the collective learning oozing from the practitioner group. It reinforced my belief and conviction in the power of collective power in learning.

I was invited yesterday, as an industry guest speaker to the 8^th Project Leadership Certification seminar held at the newly opened InterContinental Hotel at balaclava. For the whole week, executives were gathered to hone their leadership skills with Tan Chee Peng an experienced trainer and business consultant. The training is runned under the aegis of the University of Technology.

As it was the closing day of the seminar I had the chance of hearing the feedback of the 30 participants giving a short presentation of their transformation. It was very uplifting to witness the spirit of team developed by the group and the learning they benefited during the week.

Who is Tan Chee Peng?

I have known Tan Chee Peng for years. I was first introduced to Tan Chee Peng in the days he used to be stationed in Mauritius working for a consultant firm. Since he now based in Singapore & Malaysia covers an extensive geographic region stretching from Africa, Asia to the South Pacific island.

Mr. Tan is the founder and CEO of Team SYNthesis and Business Technovise International (BTI), a strategic services

firm specializing in Business / IT Strategy, Programme & Project Management (PPM) large systems and business

process integration projects.

Prior to BTI, Mr. Tan was the managing partner, Andersen Worldwide managing the consulting practice in Mauritius,

Madagascar, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. Mr. Tan, an ASEAN scholar and a First Class Degree holder

from Imperial College, UK, has more than 24 years of consulting experience in financial services industry, helping

MNC clients in Business IT Strategy Formulation and Implementation, Business Process Reengineering, Programme

and Change Management, Performance Management and, e-Commerce strategy and Implementation. He was previously the

Vice President, Technology of Citibank N.A, Singapore.

Mr. Tan was conferred the (CITPM, Senior), the Singapore National IT Project Management Certification on 26 November 1998.

Based on his professional work in Singapore, Mauritius and Africa, he was independently nominated and admitted to the

International Who’s Who of Professionals for 1999. Mr. Tan also sits on the Board of Assessor for the Singapore National IT Skills

Certification Programme – IT Project Management since its inception.

He is also a Senior Member of the Singapore Computer Society and has been listed on the “SCS Roll of honour” in recognition and appreciation of his valuable support and contribution to the Society. Mr. Tan has given Project/Programme Management

Conferences, workshops and training sessions to more than 1,800 PMs worldwide and has successfully completed assignments in

more than 30 countries. Mr. Tan is also a Mauritius SAPES recipient.

I understand that a second seminar will be held in November 09.

I took much pleasure in reading the second edition of the Caritas Newsletter August 2009.

What most interested me was to learn of the Caritas partnership with the government with Life Skills management and the Second chance programme.

Jean Claude de l’Estrac who was chairing the National Empowerment program re-oriented the program to start building the self esteem of the needy before training them for a job. He assesed that the original program was not yielding the results planned because of the lack of confidence of the poor of the poorest. The society has ignored them for too long, they have lost the sense of being a worthy human.  Let us hope that Caritas and all those working in this field have now found the good thread!

Ce que vous apporte la PNL

Une formation de Praticien puis de Maître-Praticien PNL permet l’appropriation de modèles de plus en plus performants

et puissants pour communiquer, apprendre et changer, au service de vos objectifs personnels et professionnels.

La communication. Les excellents communicants savent se fixer des objectifs pertinents, établir des relations de confiance,

définir des indicateurs de progression et de réussite, et faire preuve d’une flexibilité mentale, émotionnelle

et comportementale. En développant votre impact sur vous-même, vous développez votre impact sur les autres et

construisez des relations plus riches.

L’apprentissage. Réaliser nos buts dans un environnement instable nécessite un apprentissage permanent. Nous

avons besoin d’apprendre à apprendre. Apprendre en modélisant et en transférant la structure de notre propre excellence

d’une situation à une autre, ou apprendre en modélisant l’excellence des personnes qui nous entourent.

Le changement. Il permet aux individus ou organisations de trouver en permanence un nouvel équilibre entre les

exigences externes (les contraintes de l’environnement) ou internes (les valeurs, mission et vision). Un équilibre plus

aligné, plus stable et confortable, générateur d’une plus grande énergie et d’une plus grande performance.

À qui s’adresse la PNL ?

À tous ceux qui considèrent la communication et les ressources humaines comme des facteurs clé de leur performance

et de leur réussite personnelle et professionnelle, et à titre d’exemple dans les domaines suivants :

• L’entreprise : managers, commerciaux, contrôle qualité, DRH, formation, recruteurs

• Les métiers du conseil et de l’accompagnement : coachs, consultants, orientation et réinsertion professionnelle

• La pédagogie : enseignants, formateurs, éducateurs

• La santé : médecins, dentistes, infirmières et professions paramédicales

• La relation d’aide : psychologues, psychothérapeutes, assistantes sociales

Le contenu des formations PNL est facilement transposable à tous les domaines d’activité.

I am a regular reader of Dick McCann since 2003 through my link with Team Management System . This month he wrote an article on leadership which together with his colleague Charles Margerison, they have developed in the 90’s. I fully subscribe to the idea that a leader is after all a communicator and needs to create links at all levels.

I would like also to highlight the summary of Dick McCann on the 40 years of Popular leadership which is well documented. The references provided are treasures for the keen reader on leadership and provide sources for further studies.

I would encourage you to enrol in one of the Team Management Systems seminar to enhance your leadership skills.

Leadership Through Linking

By Dick McCann

Copyright © Dick McCann. All rights reserved.

Popular leadership theories over the past 40 years or so have been developed based on the identification of two particular phases of development of followers and associates. Blake and Mouton back in 1964 proposed five management styles based on the dimensions of initiating structure relating to the task and initiating consideration toward the individual. Low, medium and high leader behaviors on these two dimensions created the various styles. Although the conceptual clarity of the model was appealing, extensive subsequent research demonstrated that the leadership style which was most effective was not necessarily a high-high on each dimension. It all depended strongly on the situation and the challenge.

Fiedler then proposed that leadership style is a constant characteristic of each person. The challenge was therefore to match the leader and the situation. Subsequently Vroom and Yetton took the idea of a flexible leadership style further and developed a model where the appropriate style depended on the type of problem addressed. Further research by Hooijberg confirmed that were indeed strong associations between a manager’s behavior repertoire and effectiveness – suggesting that a portfolio of behaviors is the most desirable and achievable skill set.

Leadership models such as those developed by Hersey and Blanchard have also been very successful in identifying appropriate leadership styles based upon two phases of development of followers, resulting in the dimensions of Supportive and Directive leadership behavior. The idea is that most people will respond to a leadership style that has various combinations of supportive and directive behavior, depending on the situation they are in.

Supportive behaviors include:

• Listening to problems
• Encouraging and reassuring
• Facilitating followers’ problem-solving and task accomplishment
• Setting work in context
• Praising task accomplishment

Directive behaviors include:

• Setting clear goals and objectives
• Defining priorities and deadlines
• Giving precise instructions on unfamiliar tasks
• Checking and supervising
• Clear role accountability

A similar variant of this situational-developmental approach was proposed by Schein, but with a situational variable of organizational development. Each phase of an organization’s life requires a different set of responses from their leaders, depending on the organizational life cycle – young, midlife, mature, declining or rejuvenating. This focuses attention on the necessity for leaders to adapt their leadership style to the culture of the organization they lead.

However it is not only the life cycle of an organization that influences the ‘situation’. Organizational values are equally important. Some organizations value Compliance where organizational objectives are determined by senior management and rolled throughout the organization without question. Such a culture often discourages risk-taking and even the acceptance of responsibility but such an authoritarian, directive leadership style can well be effective in delivering results. Other organizations will value Empowerment and encourage the appropriate challenging of assumptions about how to do things better, thereby creating openness and confidence and an adaptive approach to leadership.

These various approaches to leadership are all dependent on ‘the situation’ and are often grouped under the heading of ‘contingency theories’. More recently they have also been grouped under the heading of transactional leadership. Such approaches assume effective leadership involves the exchange of reinforcements that are based upon established theories of social exchange, such as that of contingent reward: “If you do this for me/us, I/we will do this for you.”

By contrast, transformational leadership styles result in considerably enhanced effects on followers (Bass and Avolio). They argued that transactional – transformational leadership represents a leadership paradigm which is now supported by evidence gathered from all continents. This paradigm views leadership as either a matter of contingent reinforcement of followers by a transactional leader or the moving of followers beyond their self-interest for the good of the group, organization, or society by a transformational leader.

Transformational leader styles are not an alternative to transactional behaviors but an enhancement designed to produce increased levels of satisfaction, efficiency and extra-effort. Many studies have confirmed the efficacy of transformational leader styles in bringing about superior outcomes using independent indicators (for example, Podsakoff et al). Others have also found that managers who were better managers differed significantly from weaker managers in their use of transformational leader styles.

The Linking Leader

In the 1990s Charles Margerison and I viewed successful leadership as skill set that is primarily about relationships. Excellent leaders monitor and develop relationships among their followers and ensure that this emphasis is rolled down from their direct reports to the bottom-most layers of the organization. For us, leadership is about Linking – a set of behaviors arising out of acquired skills that encourage the coordination and integration of followers, thereby creating a unified team that knows where it is going and how to get there.

Our model is a multi-level leadership model tailored to meet the needs of team leadership. It identifies three levels of Linking that have differential effects on outcomes such as satisfaction, effectiveness, results, and extra effort. The model is cumulative in that the successful implementation of any level depends upon the level below being effectively implemented.

The three levels are shown in the Linking Leader Model below.

The outer six skills – the People Linking Skills – are the level 1 skills of successful team leadership, but they aren’t the sole domain of the team leader. The must be also be implemented by everyone in the team. These People Linking activities relate directly to the initiating consideration for the individual dimension of Blake’s grid or the Supporting dimension of the Hersey and Blanchard models. It is not surprising that the activities identified in our research align with the work of previous leadership researchers.

Level 2 skills are the five Task Linking Skills of Objectives Setting, Quality Standards, Work Allocation, Team Development, and Delegation. These relate directly to the initiating structure relating to the task of Blake’s grid or the Directive dimension of the Hersey and Blanchard models. Task Linking Skills tend to be the responsibility of the more senior members of a team who may supervise more junior team members. Such team members would be expected to successfully implement both People Linking Skills and Task Linking Skills.

Level 3 skills are the two Leadership Linking Skills of Motivation and Strategy. They relate specifically to transformational leadership skills. The team leader must implement all three levels of the Linking Leader Model in order to be fully effective.

Let’s examine briefly what I think is the most important of the Linking Skills and one that is often poorly implemented. It sounds simple but very few people do it well. It is Communication.

Communication as a cybernetic process

When we interact with others, we translate our model of the world into words and use these to attain our outcomes. These words and the supporting communication aids (tone, tempo, and body positions) very much reflect our own views of the world. Therefore when people try to communicate, there is potential for conflict to arise, as different models of the world are interacting. When opposites come together, there is a great potential for things to go wrong and the discussion or conversation may well be doomed before the first word has been uttered.

Communication is a cybernetic process, ever dynamic and constantly changing. When Person A transmits a message it travels in a forward arc to Person B who responds, and a return message is received by Person A. The response arc contains a variety of messages, verbal and nonverbal and should affect what Person A transmits next. The success of communication lies in extracting meaning from the response arc and reformulating a new forward arc that moves the conversation in the right direction. In cybernetic theory this is called ‘adaptive control’. By constantly varying the content and delivery of the transmitted message a rapport loop can be quickly established between conversing parties. This is known as the technique of ‘pacing’.

Communication loop

Cybernetic processes are governed by the Law of Requisite Variety which, stated simply, says that in any process operating systemically, the elements in the system that have the greatest adaptability or variety are those that gain control. In other words, if Person A constantly adapts their forward arc (based on the information from the response arc), they will be able to influence the results of the interaction.

Pacing is a technique for temporarily modifying your model of the world so that it matches the other person’s. This matching shows the other person that you understand ‘where they are coming from’. Unless you take time to establish ‘a pace’ early in the conversation, the chances of a successful interaction occurring are markedly reduced. Equally the person you are communicating with needs to pace you in the same way. When a ‘pacing partnership’ is established communication flows freely and successful outcomes can be generated in a surprisingly short time.

There are two types of Pacing – ‘strategic pacing’ and ‘operational pacing’. Strategic Pacing involves setting a strategy for the way you intend to structure an impending conversation, using all the knowledge you have about the other person’s model of the world. Operational Pacing is the technique to use when the conversation is actually in progress. For further information on these important concepts have a look at To help people understand and implement the concepts of Linking we have written a personal development e-learning module. This module discusses the 13 skills of Linking in much more detail and also enables you to fill in a profile questionnaire relating to another person you would like to influence. The resulting Pacing Skills Profile will give you specific tips to implement when you communicate with this person.

Exclusive offer to Learning Exchange Members

Team Management Systems is offering a free Linking With Others e-learning module (retail USD$50) to all Learning Exchange Members. Simply to receive your module. Please note that you must register before August 28th 2009 and the offer is limited to 1 module per member.

References

• Blake, R.R., and Mouton, J.S., (1964), Houston, Texas: Gulf.
• Fiedler, F.E., (1967), New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Vroom, V.H., and Yetton, P.W., (1976), Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
• Hooijberg, R., (1996), ‘A multidirectional approach toward leadership: An extension of the concept of behavioral complexity, Human-Relations, 49(7), 917-946.
• Schein, E.H., (1992), (2nd ed.), San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
• Hersey, P., Blanchard, K., and Johnson, D.E., (2007), (9th ed.), Prentice Hall.
• Bass, B.M., and Avolio, B.J., (1993a), ‘Transformational leadership and organizational structure, International Journal of Public Administration Quarterly, 17.
• Podsakoff, P.M., MacKenzie, S.B., Moorman, R.H., and Fetter, R., (1990), ‘Transformational leader behaviors and their effects on followers’ trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors’, Leadership Quarterly, 1(2). 107-142.

A leader is not a leader if he does not have followers. Communications is the prime activity of great leaders. He maintains leadership by communicating, nurturing and developing but more importantly move the followers to the common aim.

Since early childhood, I have been encouraged to tell stories and communicate. I am much amused to see my grandchild Jake who is presently with us on holiday telling creative stories. I am encouraging him. Let us hope that he could turn into a great communicator and leader.

Story telling is one of the ways; here are some thoughts by Stephen Denning

Why Story?

The right story can energize, inspire, and connect with people’s personal values and goals.

• When Lou Gerstner, then CEO of IBM, had to persuade skeptics that IBM could become a major player in providing e-business services, he did it in part by telling stories about IBM’s future in web-based services.
• To explain why his firm passes on savings to customers, James Sinegal, CEO of Costco, tells a story about acquiring four million pairs of Calvin Klein jeans and selling them for $22.99 when they had sold fast at $29.99. “It was tempting to make a quick $28 million in profits, but that’s how we keep faith with the customer.”
• When Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, was asked about his best leadership attribute, he said knew how to tell stories.

Telling the right story at the right time is an essential leadership competence to get business results.

Knowing the Right Story

A transformational leader has to know what kind of story to tackle which business challenge. Different business challenges require different narratives.

• To communicate complex ideas and motivate others to action, a leader needs a springboard story—one that can get an audience to launch into action. This story needs to embody the change idea, be true, be told in a minimalist fashion, and be positive in tone.
• Stories that transmit knowledge and understanding tend to be negative in tone. They are about problems. They are told with context, or explanation.
• Communicating who you are and so building trust in you as an authentic leader involves a story that focuses on a turning point in your life. It has a positive tone and is told with context.
• Transmitting values are carried by stories that are like parables, revealing a conflict between two values.
• Generating high-performance teams is suited to narratives that move people to see what they have in common.
• Although conventional management techniques can’t deal with the rumor mill, narrative stories can neutralize rumors by satirizing them.
• Future stories can help organizations to move forward and grasp opportunities in an integrated fashion. Such stories tend to be short and evocative.

Each leadership challenge requires a story with a different narrative pattern. Mastering the relevant narrative pattern for the leadership challenge at hand thus becomes a critical competence for transformational leaders.

Transformational leaders not only tell the story—they embody the story. The power of narrative rests on a foundation of personal integrity and authenticity. Storytelling can reveal who you are and connect you with other people, but its effectiveness depends on whether what you reveal resonates with listeners.

Great leaders engage with followers and create a connection that inspires people to raise their sights and elevates their values and goals, essentially by communicating through narrative.

So, dear blog reader, I do encourage you to join a Toastmasters cub to hone your communications and leadership skills.

You are Precious

P is for your Presence and for your Peaceful Nature, Pure Love and Personality.

R is for your Royal Regard for Self Respect, Respect for All and for the Living Natural World and Mother Earth around us.

E is for your Energy of Giving and Creating a Loving Atmosphere filled with Warmth and Gentleness.

C is for your Child-like Nature of Lightness, Playfulness and Cheerfulness.

I is for your Innocence with your Inner Glow, Inner Diamond and Intuitive Heart.

O is for Being at One with Wonder, Life, Thoughts, Feelings, Living Powers and simply Who you are. U is for You – Just being wonderful you full of an Inner Beauty that shines on the inside and shows itself on the outside,
and

S is for you being so, so, so special – a spirit, a soul – with an inner and outer smile.

Amanda Dentler and Peter Williams who wrote the above text are in Mauritius delivering seminars. May all attendees benefit from their precious teachings of both of them.

Intuitive Hearts offer another way of seeing life.