Month: February 2022

ADL Program, Growth, Innovation Plan, Personal, Professional, Reflecting

Communicating Vision

The Advisor That Cares

I think as a personality trait, I have always had a touch of an innovative spirit. I have often described myself as a bit of an efficiency expert. I always try to tweak systems and processes to be better, clearer, simpler, and more effective in every role I have held. I hope to become an innovative “educator” through my role as an academic advisor. I can confirm that my influence currently does not include meaningful or authentic learning opportunities. Often general information is sent out to students. However, the messaging is the same old, templated messages with very little valuable information.

My innovation proposal seeks to make the information more meaningful for students than generic copy/paste notifications. I also aim to provide a resource that will allow students ownership over locating the information they will need along their academic journey. The programs I advise for have specific paths to program completion, course offerings, and more. However, I believe students often go along with the flow and do not stop to ask essential questions until a substantial investment of time, money, and energy has been spent (or worse, wasted) if they are not on the path they intended. 

Regarding under communication, I agree that because we live in the planning, preparing, researching, meeting, and are party to endless discussions of our innovation/implementation plans, we can make faulty assumptions about how much communication has been shared with our constituents.

The above video makes a good point when it pointed out that we need to remember that sometimes the people we hope to influence are a few steps down the hierarchy. We have to remember that they may not be aware of all the information that has been shared in the prior planning stages. The video made an excellent point that we should all try to keep in mind when communicating about our innovation plan and implementation strategy. We must remember that we are competing with the day-to-day business in their workday. We must constantly send out updates and find other ways to communicate excitement and a sense of urgency about our plan. 

ADL Program, Growth, Reflecting

I am Change

The Advisor That Cares

In the above video, we see a person panhandling with a sign that reads, “I’m blind, please help” Power of Words (2010). We see a few passersby drop some change here and there. Then a woman comes by who creates a shift in perspective by updating the sign to ready “It’s a beautiful day, and I can’t see it,” and suddenly, everyone is dropping change for the gentleman Power of Words (2010). By the end of the video, our level of compassion changes, although nothing about the man’s situation has changed. The fact of a man who is begging on the street stays the same. The fact of a man who is blind remains the same. However, a simple change in presenting the facts resulted in more donations for the gentleman. 

I did find the fact that the video contained minimal dialog impactful. I am not sure about the focus of my video creation as I do not have a clear understanding of the project yet, but I would like my video creation to have a similar impact on the viewer.

I appreciated the point made by this second video when we learned that slamming our viewers/audience with more information is not the way to win them over to our cause. The Behavioral Science Guys propose that instead, we approach our audience with “influential questions” Crucial Learning (2015). They explain that this shift allows the audience to leave a place of defensiveness so that they can approach your topic with more receptivity.

I want to affect the heart of my audience by sharing my heart for people and my desire to make a difference. 

I am currently attempting to wrap my mind around the concept of digital storytelling. However, I hope to incorporate Nancy Duarte’s advice on using rising and falling within the storytelling to draw the audience into my innovation proposal TEDx Talks (2010). I love the way she recommends comparing what is against what could be and the beautiful utopian vision she recommends as the final call to action TEDx Talks (2010). Similarly, I would love to utilize the “angel cocktail” described by David JP Phillips (TEDx Talks, 2017). However, I feel that practice makes perfect, and my first attempt may lack the ability to create a sense of expectation, gain sympathy, and create a sense of amusement TEDx Talks (2017). However, I see the benefit of these disarming and engaging techniques. I especially connected with Tom Asacker’s identity point as this is what has driven me to this program, my innovation proposal, and ultimately my profession TEDx Talks (2014). 

My video will attempt to create a sense of urgency by appealing to my audience’s heart instead of their head. 

References

Crucial Learning. (2015, January 5). How to Change People Who Don’t Want to Change | The Behavioral Science Guys [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ACi-D5DI6A

Power of Words. (2010, February 20). The Power of Words [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzgzim5m7oU

TEDx Talks. (2010, December 10). TEDxEast – Nancy Duarte uncovers common structure of greatest communicators 11/11/2010 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nYFpuc2Umk&t=594s

TEDx Talks. (2014, June 30). Why TED Talks don’t change people’s behaviors: Tom Asacker at TEDxCambridge 2014 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0jTZ-GP0N4&t=1s

TEDx Talks. (2017, March 16). The magical science of storytelling | David JP Phillips | TEDxStockholm [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj-hdQMa3uA&t=862s

ADL Program, Innovation Plan, Professional, Reflecting

Nowist?

The Advisor That Cares

We can learn from these examples of innovation that sometimes, as Plato was paraphrased as saying, “necessity is the mother of all invention” or, in our case, innovation.

I was struck by Joi Lto’s statement that “education is what people do to you and Learning is what you do to yourself” (Perry, 2015, 10:12). That is a way of thinking of learning that never occurred to me. What a great perspective for myself and my student population. I do not think I have been practicing this in my learning or the environments I influence. I need to incorporate this quote into my signature and daily life for a while, inspiring myself and my students. 

I enjoyed Lto’s now-ist call to action. Nevertheless, somewhat ironically, I seem to have a case of analysis paralysis regarding the Literature review. His challenge to stop plotting and planning every move and instead act is quite the timely message for me to stop trying to control everything before picking a direction. The only thing holding me back is myself. I know I must embrace failing forward. 

I am somewhat new to my current role, but during my interview process, I made it very clear that I was looking for a position that would allow me to use my skills, knowledge, and big picture perspective to suggest improvements. I have already implemented some strategies and am constantly looking for more ways to make our processes more effective. Thus far, I have had full support from my supervisor. 

My colleagues have been willing to adopt my suggestions. All seem open to incorporating technology if they feel it is valuable and will make their day-to-day operations more efficient. 

I will strive to provide a resource through my innovation plan to provide students with choice, ownership, and voice through an interactive resource that they can utilize at their own pace, as needed, throughout their program at each step of the educational process. 

References

Perry, Joshua. (2015, May 15). Joi Lto Want to innovate Become a ‘now ist’ [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRAMQJJu7uY&t=222s