If the World Was a Village of 100 People

The village would have 60 Asians, 14 Africans, 12 Europeans, 8 Latin Americans, 5 from the USA and Canada, and 1 from the South Pacific

51 would be male, 49 would be female

82 would be non-white; 18 white

67 would be non-Christian; 33 would be Christian

80 would live in substandard housing

67 would be unable to read

50 would be malnourished and 1 dying of starvation

33 would be without access to a safe water supply

39 would lack access to improved sanitation

24 would not have any electricity (and of the 76 that do have electricity, most would only use it for light at night.)

7 people would have access to the Internet1 would have a college education

1 would have HIV

2 would be near birth; 1 near death

5 would control 32% of the entire world’s wealth; all 5 would be US citizens

33 would be receiving --and attempting to live on-- only 3% of the income of “the village”

Motivation, Anchoring and Metaphors

Some more NLP tips:

Ensure Motivation: It is almost impossible to make the subconcious do something it really doesn't want to do. More than 80% of the physical operations you undertake every day are handled by the subconcious. Which is to say that when you decide to get a drink of water, you aren't carefully considering each and every step. Learning requires that the subconsious see some immediate benefit from learning. In some cases you can motivate students with the promise of praise "You'll be so happy when you can do this" and sometimes with a promise of freedom "You'll be glad when this is over". Don't try to work with a student who is not motivated to succeed at the task of learning what you have to teach. You actually do more harm than good. Talk to them until you can find out some immediate benefit they can derive from learning what you have to teach on a given day.

Set an Anchor: In NLP an anchor is a movement, motion, touch or word you use when someone is in a desired emotional state. To set one, you can talk to a student until he is relaxed and attentive, then tap his arm, or pat him on the back, or use a signature phrase. If you repeatedly reinforce this anchor, from session to session, you will find that you can use the anchor to move the student into that state from other states at the beginning of a training session. The student, with subsequent successes, will then be reinforcing that anchor. A pat on the back from the coach, a warm smile from a beloved teacher, a "Great Job" from a demaning parent. We all have anchors we love. It is very possible to anchor an entire class, and in fact many instructors do this when they mandate a protocol for students entering a class. An art teacher who makes everyone sketch for the first ten minutes of class may be setting an anchor, as may be a math teacher who offers a daily quiz.

One word of warning. It is very possible to create an anchor such that students who walk into a given class start out rattled and stay rattled for the entire class. Work hard not to to do that.

Make the Right Kind of Suggestions: Some people are very literal, others are very intuitive. The kinds of hypnotic suggestions they accept well varies dramatically. Figure out what works with each student, then stick with it. If you tell a very indirect, resistant or intuitive student to "Practice that for a while" you may find that is the one thing on earth he won't do. Issuing the same suggestion as "I wonder how you can see if that really works for you" might work much better. A more direct or literal student will just want to hear what he has to do next.
The most difficult aspect of making suggestions is figuring out how what a student benefits most from. The biggest mistake you can make is thinking that every student learns as you learn. Teachers, trainers and instructors are usually good students and so what works for you isn't likely to work with your students.

Try Metaphors: A final technique to use in training is to use auditory, visual and kinetic metaphors to help people step past cognitive roadblocks. That is a technique that most teachers use very frequently, but for someone suffering from a learning block, conciously use one or more metaphors very methodically to get them past it. You may want to draw pictures or build models when the ideas you are trying to communicate are very complex.

The Oral Presentation

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NLP for Teaching

Susan Norman shares some principles of NLP for teaching:

• There is no failure, only feedback.
• The map is not the territory. My mental map of the world is different from yours.
• The map becomes the territory. What you habitually think about becomesyour reality.
• Communication is non-verbal as well as verbal.
• Communication is non-conscious as well as conscious.
• All behaviour has a positive intention.
• Mind and body are interconnected. If you affect one, you affect the other.
• The resources we need are within us.
• The meaning of my communication is the response I get.
  

The map becomes the territory

What you habitually think about becomes your reality. If children watch non-stop violence on TV, they take it for granted. If you think positively, your life becomes more positive.

Have you ever noticed how someone brings something to your attention (e.g. Caribbean cruises) and within two days, you've come across two other references to the same thing? The references would always have been there, but now it's 'in your mind' it comes to your conscious attention. (Just for fun, see whether Caribbean cruises come to your attention in the near future.)

How about telling students about this phenomenon and then setting up class topics two weeks ahead of time by asking students to collect any references at all that they come across. Lots may not be relevant, but their brains will be pro-rammed to be receptive to any information you then provide later on.

Communication is non-verbal and nonconscious as well as verbal and conscious

We pick up much more information from a person's body language and tone of voice than we do from their words. According to the research of Albert Mehrabian, the percentage of information we get in Body language 55% normal face-to-face conversation is 55% from body Voice tonality 38% language, 38% from tone of voice and only 7% from Words 7% the words spoken. Although these percentages obviously change in different situations (giving figures over the phone, for example), it is important for us to realise that we are giving message to our students all the time - about what we think about them, our job, the school, the subject. Are you sure you're giving the messages you want to give? Remember, it is impossible to not communicate.

All behaviour has a positive intention

This positive intention is, of course, for the benefit of the person exhibiting the behaviour, and we're talking about the 'intention' of the person's non-conscious mind to look after its 'host', rather than any conscious intention to 'do good'.

Take the example of the 'naughty' child 'seeking attention'. Since,deep down,everyone craves attention, the child who cannot get attention by being good might find that naughtiness does get attention. It may not be the preferred sort of attention, but it's better than none. So the child learns that a positive benefit of bad behaviour is attention.

If we can look for the positive benefit students are getting from behaviour which we find unhelpful, we may be able to find other ways of giving them what they want (positive attention for things they do which are helpful for their learning, perhaps) which means that (after a time) they no longer need to indulge in the unhelpful behaviour.

Mind and body are interconnected

If you affect one, you affect the other. Most people now accept that mental stress and tension can lead to illness and that, conversely, exercise (see the article on p38) can make you feel more positive. For yourself, it is good to know that you can improve your own state. If we just remember to do something about negative feelings, something as simple as sitting or standing up straight, a brisk walk, or even drinking a glass of water, can all make us feel better.

If we can give our students (and ourselves) simple exercises to relieve physical and mental stress, it will improve relationships in the classroom, get people into a better state for learning (and teach-in) and give them techniques they can use to improve their own state at times of particular stress, such as before an exam. Try the following:

1. Sit well, with a straight back, head balanced on top of your spine with your chin horizontal with the floor.Take a deep breath in, and as you slowly breathe out, relax from the top of your head down to your feet. Do it a second time, this time silently naming the parts of the body as you relax them - head, face, ears, shoulders, arms, hands, back, chest, abdomen, backside, thighs, knees, calves, feet, toes. As you breathe out a third time, just think your way round your body and release any remaining tension.
2. Sit well, and without making any special effort to breathe in any special way, just count in time with your breath. In-breath - one, out-breath - two, in-breath - three, etc.
3. Sitting well, close your eyes and listen. How many different sounds can you hear? The quieter you become, the more sounds you will hear. Distant sounds, sounds within the building, within the room, near you, inside you. If you do this with a class, do it twice. After the first time, share all the different things people have heard. The second time, most people will hear more than they did the first time.

The resources we need are within us

No one is broken. We are all born with the necessary apparatus to grow and learn from the world around us. We may do it in different ways, but we're all doing the best we can. If we approach our students with this in mind, maybe we can be more tolerant of their unique characteristics!

The meaning of my communication is the response I get

Have you ever had times when, no matter how clear you are, other people seem willfully to ms-understand you? Unfortunately the reality of the communicative act is that if you want to get your message across, you need to do it in as many different ways as it takes for everyone to understand what you think you mean. If students don't under-stand, we are the ones with the knowledge, experience and skills to find ways to help them.

So does my understanding students better mean that I can change them for the better? At one level, no. You cannot change other people. But it's interesting that when you change yourself, others around you seem to change too.

10 Ways Leaders can get crucial Feedback

John McKee shares his thoughts, including some from Tom Peters (idea no.10):

1: The anonymous hotline

Nowadays, hotlines can be e-mails, phones, or paper tools. However you do it, put something into place that allows people to provide candid, honest feedback or ask questions without fear of getting busted. I used a mailbox, kind of a “Dear John” thing, where people could ask questions or sound off and I’d reply to them.

2: Public communication tools

If you have a newsletter, use it to keep folks aware of what’s going on and to deal with rumors, which are harmful. Publish Q & A’s, based on questions you’ve heard through other means, such as your anonymous hotline.

3: Ombudsmen

Someone in your organization should be accessible to anyone who wants to make a point, ask a question, or sound off without fear of reprisal. Employees should know that what they say will be relayed to the head honcho. In some organizations, this is the HR person; in others, it may simply be someone who is trusted and respected by all involved. Just identify someone and let that person know that you need him or her to keep you in touch with things.

4: Anonymous surveys

As long as employees have no fear of being “caught,” surveys are great tools for getting your fingers on the pulse of the organization. But don’t over think them. They should be done quickly and fairly frequently. And have the guts to make the results public afterward. That shows the employee base that you’re aware of their concerns. If you can’t provide a fix, at least let them know that you care about the problem and will try to deal with it when you can.

5: Lunch with the leader

Periodically, have a lunch meeting with folks from all levels of the organization. Make it clear that there will be time at the end of it for a question-and-answer session if the group consists of more than 12 individuals. If the group is small, make a point to sit beside any quiet ones and encourage them to open up.

6: Visits to other departments, offices, or locations

The best way to open up communications is to show that you’re accessible and interested. I don’t care how often someone says they care about what’s going on in other locations. If they’re never there, they won’t hear enough.

7: Social events

Many people will tell you that there’s no such thing as a social / work event. They characterize the Holiday Party or the Summer Picnic as political affairs, and they’re probably right in many companies. But such events don’t have to be heartburn-inducing activities. If you use them as “skip-level” affairs, you’ll probably enjoy yourself and learn a ton about what your team members are really feeling. Make it a point to spend time with those at least two levels below you, tell your direct reports to do the same thing, and then compare notes back in the office.

8: Contrarian perspectives

When leaders allow themselves to hear only what they want to hear, people figure it out pretty quickly and clam up. If you show that you appreciate a healthy debate, you’re more likely to get differing ideas thrown about.

9: Playfulness

One of the founding senior execs at DIRECTV was famous for throwing Nerf footballs with anyone still in their cubes after 6pm or on Saturdays. It was a kind of jock thing, but even those less-than-jock types could throw the little soft football around. Sending a few lateral passes allowed time for a bit of bonding conversation and built trust between the leader and the team.

10: MBWA

Tom Peters coined the term MBWA — “management by walking around” — back in the 80s. If you’re serious about wanting to encourage honest feedback and candid comments, read his writings. The premise of MBWA is that if you expose yourself to enough people enough of the time, you’ll hear things you might not otherwise have come across.

Wikipedia City

Tim Manners' post is worth quoting in full (especially in light of the on-going debate):

"Wikipedia may be the closest thing to a metropolis yet seen online," writes Noam Cohen in the New York Times (3/29/09). For one thing, it's forever under construction -- "Wikipedia can no more be completed than can New York City, which O. Henry predicted would be 'a great place if they ever finish it.'" Navigating Wikipedia also "resembles a walk through an overbuilt quarter of an ancient capital. You circle around topics on a path that appears to be shifting. Ultimately the journey ends and you are not sure how you got there."

Wikipedia has its good neighborhoods and its bad ones. And, like a city, "the greater foot traffic, the safer the neighborhood. Thus, oddly enough, the more popular, even controversial, an article is, the more likely it is to be accurate and free of vandalism. It is the obscure articles -- the dead-end streets and industrial districts, if you will -- where more mayhem can be committed." Growth is decentralized, with entries equally welcomed be they by little kids or college professors. Like any great city, Wikipedia is "accepting of strangers -- no judgments -- and residents learn to be subtly accommodating, outward looking."

Wikipedia also stands accused of engaging in "some seriously depraved behavior," such as: "Wikipedia represents a world without experts! A world without commercial news outlets! A world lacking in distinction between the trivial and the profound! A world overrun with facts but lacking in wisdom!" Kind of like: "They don't produce anything! All they do is gossip! They think they are so superior! They wouldn't last a week if we farmers stopped shipping our food! They don't know the meaning of real work!" But like cities, says Noam Cohen, Wikipedia is vindicated "each time some yokel overcomes his fear and decides to make a visit and stay a while." ~ Tim Manners, editor.

7Cs' of Formal Learning

Clark Aldrich reminds us:

• Content: The material supporting any learning objective.
• Curricula: How the content is chosen, validated, organized, and presented.
• Coaching: The individual attention helping each student overcome their individual weaknesses, answer specific questions, and leverage their individual strengths, as well as provide motivation.
• Certification: Proof and documentation that a level of competency has been reached (which also provides motivation).
• Community: A group of peers that both make learning more effective and engaging.
• day Care: The ability to house students for a specific time.
• Cost: The amount of resources, including student time, a program requires.

Redeeming the Feedback Form?

I've attended plenty conferences and in almost every one there's a part, neither hot nor cold, which simply begs for a renovation of some kind: The feedback form.

I don't like filling it up because:

• the chances of anyone getting back to you on your comments and thoughts are as high as that of Tottenham Hotspurs winning the English Premier League
• you never know what everyone else has written (a truly heinous sin in an age of connectivism)
• should you write down your most confidential pieces of financial information, it might not matter because nobody's going to read it anyway
• it smacks of form and formality (the dreaded F-words in the flat cyber-frentic world today)

This is a chance to turn something blasé into something which raises eye-brows and generates positive conversation.

What about a simple contest for the most helpful or creative recommendation on the conference? What about the promise that all ideas will be posted on a post-seminar blog for all to take note and take back? Or how about a digital mind-map which acts as the platform for communal feedback i.e. all participants gets a username and gets to key-in data into the map?

Redemption can begin anywhere.

Greener Electronics

Greenpeace ranks the electronics industry. Look at who's second-last!

Classroom Mgmt

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