Ironically, a gift that many ADD learners have is the ability to hyper focus. Da Vinci was perhaps the original ADD poster child, although back then they called it being a Renaissance man. The creator of modern medical illustration and accomplished artist, military engineer, aeronautical theorist, mathematician, writer, scientist and musician was obviously all over the career road map. When he first started painting commissioned art in a Florence workshop he would often come in and dabble for 20 minutes then leave for the day. The cycle would repeat itself until he would suddenly paint for days straight and deliver great work. He lamented sorrowfully on his death bed of all the work he left undone, but I’m not alone in thinking the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper and the rest of the body of work is still pretty highly regarded!
Sometimes I need to haul learning back to my cave and devour it there. That is when I am most likely to get into a zone where I can hyper focus. I don’t do well with lecture. I have had the privilege of seeing PP presentations from many top global improvement leaders spanning my eight year tenure plus in the LSS CPI (Lean Six Sigma and Continuous Process Improvement) market arena. And fortunately much of what they shared stuck. I was interested in it, and it is now unconditional in the way I think and work. Understanding Lean thinking and how it can impact the way I learn has made me substantially more productive. However, my paths to learning remain decidedly non-mainstream.
If we mapped what was really going on in my head during most of these LSS Conference sessions I just referenced, the thought sequence would likely resemble something like this:
1. Nice chart graphic, but too many bullets…where’s the headline?
2. Is that vent blowing her hair? What’s going on with that?
3. Why do they always read the slides? I can read the slides, just show more pictures or graphs and talk about them.
4. Wow, don’t do that. Don’t comb over…embrace you baldness.
5. Did I call the project lead from ABC company back?
6. Is that plant over there real or silk?
7. I would use a different name for the bone on that C&E matrix.
8. Wonder what’s for lunch? I’m thinking poached salmon. Easy to cook 200 servings of poached salmon, plus if it dries out a bit before it’s served that can be good. I don’t really like it when it’s just barely poached. Plus yesterday was chicken day.
9. Oh you’re kidding. You don’t really have 55 slides for a 40 minute presentation do you?
10. I need to put new music on my SD chip.
Get the point? A room with 25 people and a PP driven lecture is not always the best way for everyone to learn. Studying how people learn best can also lead to significant gains. OK, that’s another article too, but we must first ask ourselves a different question:
Is it more effective to force learners to adapt to the delivery method we've put forward, or to give them options that allow them to travel down stretches of the learning path themselves utilizing solutions that work best for them, at times and places that they choose?
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Right Brain Learners - Unique Gifts
ADD researchers and experts often refer to the Edison trait or the Da Vinci gene. They’ve actually named a primary genetic characteristic associated with ADD after the DRD4 gene. About 10% of the population has the genetic trait and half of that population will struggle with learning in some way shape of form. The CDC estimates 2-3% of the population is ADD/ADHD but many experts put that number closer to 5%.
Edison, another ADD all-star was kicked out of school after three months. Imagine the gifted purveyor of education who went home one night and exclaimed to their spouse, “That kid was just a pain in the rear. He’ll never amount to anything. I got rid of him before he could hold the rest of the class back.” Perhaps one of the most prolific inventors in history, that “underachiever” went on to amass a body of work that resulted in over 1,000 patents. The likes of which included the light bulb, the telephone, the telegraph, the phonograph and other obviously significant cultural and technical milestones of modern civilization.
Thomas Edison found a different path to learn, and that changed everything. And a quick sidebar on innovation: Edison often worked odd hours and took multiple cat naps during the day. Many of his breakthrough ideas, solutions to problems and visionary concepts came during the moment of clarity when he was first waking from his naps! There’s even a book title: Snoozing Your Way to Breakthrough Innovation.
All this gives rise to another question: Are analytical workers, learners and personalities always the best problem solvers? There is actually data that says no. Although the results of the project were not shared because of potential HR issues associated with the study subjects, a major defense contractor once ran a data collection process to assess whether classically trained engineers and business analysts, or members of the team who were dyslexic were more effective problem solvers. The results clearly indicated that the dyslexic team members, who often viewed problems and processes visually, were significantly more effective at root cause analysis and identifying system constraints.
We're trying to collect success stories of ADD learners who have leveraged their unique perspective to see problems differently? Please feel free to add yours!
Edison, another ADD all-star was kicked out of school after three months. Imagine the gifted purveyor of education who went home one night and exclaimed to their spouse, “That kid was just a pain in the rear. He’ll never amount to anything. I got rid of him before he could hold the rest of the class back.” Perhaps one of the most prolific inventors in history, that “underachiever” went on to amass a body of work that resulted in over 1,000 patents. The likes of which included the light bulb, the telephone, the telegraph, the phonograph and other obviously significant cultural and technical milestones of modern civilization.
Thomas Edison found a different path to learn, and that changed everything. And a quick sidebar on innovation: Edison often worked odd hours and took multiple cat naps during the day. Many of his breakthrough ideas, solutions to problems and visionary concepts came during the moment of clarity when he was first waking from his naps! There’s even a book title: Snoozing Your Way to Breakthrough Innovation.
All this gives rise to another question: Are analytical workers, learners and personalities always the best problem solvers? There is actually data that says no. Although the results of the project were not shared because of potential HR issues associated with the study subjects, a major defense contractor once ran a data collection process to assess whether classically trained engineers and business analysts, or members of the team who were dyslexic were more effective problem solvers. The results clearly indicated that the dyslexic team members, who often viewed problems and processes visually, were significantly more effective at root cause analysis and identifying system constraints.
We're trying to collect success stories of ADD learners who have leveraged their unique perspective to see problems differently? Please feel free to add yours!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Share the End Game
Just culled this comment from a teacher on a blog: "Teachers have plenty on their plate without the added responsibility of showing kids why math (or any subject) is important."
Which really begs the question: Why do we let ignorant people teach? Help me out here...Am I the only one? To be so pompous as to think you can make most of the 8th grade boys in a public school class of 28 students embrace math for the shear joy of math is exactly the paradigm that must be changed. OK, who agrees - showing kids why they're learning what they are learning is just an important a process step as the steps used to solve a quadratic equation? Do you engage in learning more effectively when you understand why you're learning?
Which really begs the question: Why do we let ignorant people teach? Help me out here...Am I the only one? To be so pompous as to think you can make most of the 8th grade boys in a public school class of 28 students embrace math for the shear joy of math is exactly the paradigm that must be changed. OK, who agrees - showing kids why they're learning what they are learning is just an important a process step as the steps used to solve a quadratic equation? Do you engage in learning more effectively when you understand why you're learning?
Paying it Forward
It's interesting to see the sheer volume of PSAs (Public Service Announcements) spreading the word that your VHF TVs will be going off line in February. As if to suggest the world as you know it is coming to an end if you're uplink or cable connection is not in place. Yet, a seemingly more important problem goes virtually unmetntioned: About 50% of the prison system inmate population in this country has a learning disorder.
Given the cause and effect relationship between ADD, soaring drop out rates and prison system inmate rosters that are swelling: How can we evangalize this issue? The social link between driving improvement across how we teach/train the kids with learning disorders.
Fact: A defense contractor once did an analysis that indicated visual learners (dyslexics - many ADD/ADHD learners) were significantly better problem solvers and process experts. Yet, those whom are often best suited to learn math and solve problems are getting left on the curb becasue they don't learn well from lecture and reading.
Is it worth changing our knowledge transfer processes if we could repatriate more of these kids to our knowledge economy?
Given the cause and effect relationship between ADD, soaring drop out rates and prison system inmate rosters that are swelling: How can we evangalize this issue? The social link between driving improvement across how we teach/train the kids with learning disorders.
Fact: A defense contractor once did an analysis that indicated visual learners (dyslexics - many ADD/ADHD learners) were significantly better problem solvers and process experts. Yet, those whom are often best suited to learn math and solve problems are getting left on the curb becasue they don't learn well from lecture and reading.
Is it worth changing our knowledge transfer processes if we could repatriate more of these kids to our knowledge economy?
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
How do you organize your life?
I was recently described by a Director of Operations at Computer Science Corporation as one of the most wired people he knows. My Palm is synced to my Exchange Server, my conference calls have reminders and e-mails and text messages fly all day. However, I can't cut loose of the 8.5 x 11 sheet of card stock that I list my To Dos on. Are you fully wired or straddling the fence regarding your To Do lists and notes?
IndyCar Learning
Via work work with some close friends at Raytheon we are framing some concepts around accomplishing knowledge transfer without letting kids know it happened. One potential project will teach basic math skills, basic statistics, economics, some physics, work skills and conflict resolution as learners help manage a race team for one season. What other real-life jobs, sports or activities do you see as good fits for this type of content development?
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