Learning is not Knowledge Transfer

Thanks to Sergio Bogazzi (you can follow him on Twitter), I discovered the beautiful video you see below,

It explain how we tag learning experiences (and not only those moments) with an emotional part that the author of the video calls “Affective Context”: this is way we tend to remember from school odd or good teachers / moments or friends more than what we were supposed to learn 🙂 . I love the sentence:

Learning is not Knowledge Transfer

Some of these ideas can be found also in the work of John Medina, and in his books Brain Rules and Brain Rules for Babies.

Effective learning is a matter of communication (that’s why e-learning sucks) and then of  “gut”, but also management is a matter of communication so how could you use this “Affective Context” for being a better manager, coach, leader?

PierG

The definition of DONE … is not DONE

When we talk about the definition of DONE, the agile community almost completely (wow! 🙂 ) agree on the fact that it should be as broad as possible. People are different and what is DONE for you (say having written code and built with no errors) can be different from what is for me (say the code has been shipped and the user is actually using it).
This concept is true for different businesses too.

Rework and delays are killers for delivery and trust. How many time have you found that what you though it was DONE, it was “DONE in the sense that I’ve finished but that and that has to be DONE before the user can have it”?

So the idea is to put everything you can, every step, in the definition of DONE and extend it deeply toward your users.

But sometimes this is not enough: as MktgMeetsIt writes in a comment to my post The Spiral of Distrust:

“there is an emotional component here”

The Dev Team and the Users may have different expectations on that ‘DONE stuff’:

• For the Dev Team it’s surely the result of their work, for the Users it’s the beginning of a new working experience.
• For the Dev Team it might have been very tough from a tech point of view, while for the Users it might be a minor change.
• The Dev Team is willing to get feedback and learn, while the Users might want to be left alone to understand and speed up their processes.

So this last emotional phase probably should be faced in some way and treated as part of the process to gain maximum benefit.

What’s your thought?

PierG

World of Mouth Rule #1

I’ve decided to share this presentation when I read slide number 29:

World of mouth rule #1: HAVE A GREAT PRODUCT

This is a pillar not only for startups (that’s what the presentation is all about) but also for IT Departments in large corporations and it’s an interesting answer to my post Why your IT department sucks: isn’t it?

Think of the IT department product or services: are the extraordinary good? Are they great? … or are they just average (or often below average)?

Yes yes I know the IT ‘corporate story’ (being one of them 🙂 ): they don’t have budget, they are a cost center, they are not seen as ‘the business’, they are the first to be penalized in tough economical periods, no hiring for them, difficult to attract good people but …. that’s the reality: they (we? 🙂 ) sucks because their products suck! Or better, if they would provide great products, they would have treated differently.

By the way, if you want to read the all (interesting) presentation go to: From Zero to a Million Users – Dropbox and Xobni lessons learned.

PierG

Bye Bye 2010

Looking at the number of yellow stickers used we have been very agile this year!!

PierG
p.s. You know that your agility is measured by the number of yellow stickers you use, don’t you? 🙂 🙂

Hi-Tech Tools for Effective Meetings

I’m using this powerful Hi-Tech Tool for Effective Meetings: the cover of a carton box with this sentence

FOR A BETTER (and FASTER) MEETING PLEASE SHUT DOWN YOUR PC AND PUT HERE YOUR SMARTPHONE

And it works so far 🙂

If you want more info on effective meetings choose from the list here. And I would love to know: which are your Hi-Tech 🙂 Tools for Effective Meetings?

PierG

 

Summer

Deiva Marina

Last evening, of last day, of 2010 summer holidays: ciao ciao summer!

PierG

I’ve sold my soul to the devil

Ok it’s official, now not only I want a MacBook Pro but I also want an iPad: I accept donations 🙂

PierG

Corporate stuff

Sometimes I complain with my mother about the bad management habits I see in big companies. Practices related to time management, meeting, people and things like that.

I get involved explaining to her good management practices, talking about Peter Druker, Manager Tools or Lean. I talk about Neuro Linguisting Programming and about how we are different in communicating and learning.

And once she said: ” to me it is just being or not being rude” … but, you know, she doesn’t know about corporate stuff 🙂

PierG

Pomodoro or not?

Should a Pomodoro be a Pomodoro in the Pomodoro Technique? 🙂

PierG

Info on BetterSoftware2010

Here are some interesting links I’d like to share with you about the BetterSoftware2010 conference #bsw2010 (Florence, May, 5th-6th):

• schedule
• location
• Twitter Account
• Join us! The Early Bird will expire on April, 4th

PierG