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Betha Gutsche
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Posts by Betha Gutsche
Training for Change: a 6-Step Program
May 5th
As I get older, I have come to realize that embracing change is like drinking from a fountain of youth. Change keeps the brain healthy. The brain thrives on learning new things and forging new neuronal pathways. An active brain supports overall health and quality of life.
There are many types of change that we welcome in to our lives—travel, children, new languages, athletic challenges. But even when change is voluntary, there are times when it makes me feel old and tired, like I’ve been asked to adapt too often for too long. That’s because the mental muscles get overworked, according to Switch, the new book from the Heath brothers of Made to Stick fame. The brain muscles for creative thinking, focus, and persistence, which are key ingredients for effecting change, can get exhausted, just as the body’s muscles fatigue from strenuous exercise. Preparation for significant change in a person’s or an organization’s life is critical. It is akin to preparing for an athletic event. If I want to participate in the annual bicycle ride from Seattle to Vancouver (RSVP), I would set myself up for failure if I were to embark on the ride without any prior training. Planning for any major change is no different. Create a training program for change and enhance your probability of success.
Here is a 6-step training program to prepare for change.
(This plan is based on much of the Heath brother’s book. It uses some of their terminology, without going into their elephant/rider metaphor. You’ll have to read the book.)
1. Know where you’re going
For the RSVP, the destination and direction are straightforward. I can look up the route, the distance, even the location and elevation gain of the hills (obstacles). There is little ambiguity about what I’m aiming for and what success entails. This kind of specificity feeds the cognitive part of the brain, the part that grasps logical sequence and strategic analysis.
It is too often the case that organizational changes are vague. “Everyone in our library will be web 2.0 savvy by next year.” “Our library will become a learning organization.” What does that mean to each individual involved? What is desirable about the change and how will we know when we’re there? What is the distance and where are the hills to be climbed, i.e., when can we anticipate the tough spots and potential setbacks? It’s not possible to predetermine all the variables in a big project but the more specific and clear you can be, the more you engage the cognitive processes of each of your team members.
2. Get the feeling
It is crucial to motivate the emotional side of the brain, that ancient lizard brain that can put up amazing resistance to the rational, cognitive side. If it’s not on board, the change is not going to happen. For the RSVP ride, it’s not hard to feel enthusiasm, to be caught up in the excitement of my team members and to imagine the satisfaction of crossing the finish line.
For any organizational change, find a way to appeal to the emotions of your team. Create a vision of the library thriving in its ability to reach new users by telling stories of how social network tools dramatically extend that reach. Frame a learning effort as a fitness program with near-term targets and rewards for small steps toward the goal. Emotion is infectious—both positive and negative. Get ahead of any negative tendancies by identifying early enthusiasts and working with them to infect the rest of the team with their excitement.
3. Cultivate identity
Identity is a powerful aspect of emotional engagement. It promotes a “growth mindset” in which the entire brain is geared toward success. If I start calling myself a power cyclist and start thinking of myself as someone who can go the distance on a bike, I increase the likelihood of actually becoming that person. The Heath brothers cite some convincing examples: a Brazilian tin can manufacturer calling all of its employees “inventors” and thereby inducing thousands of suggestions for improvements to their production; a class of disadvantaged students calling themselves “scholars” and leaping ahead in scholastic achievement. Notice how these identities eliminate hierarchy or elitism. Everybody is an inventor or scholar or power cyclist.
I would love to find a strong identity for people who work in libraries. I would start by ditching that strained differentiation between librarians and library staff. What if we all started calling ourselves “catalyzers”? Everyone who works in a library has the potential to catalyze information access, research, community connections, demonstration of impact, etc. Everyone is invited to envision better ways for the library to thrive.
4. Clear the path
It is a major point in Switch that so often we tend to blame character flaws of individuals and ignore the impact of the situations in which they are involved. The Heath brothers repeat throughout the book that “what looks like a person problem is often a situation problem.” Let’s say that I’ve been on a few practice rides building up to greater distances. While I’m improving my stamina, I’m still frustrated that I seem to always lag behind the rest of my team. I start to think that I’m just too old and out of shape. When three of the other women on the team tell me how much their performance improved by switching to road bikes with high pressure, low friction tires and light frames, I get a clue about how my situation on a heavy, fat-tired bike impedes my progress. Getting a faster bike clears my path for success.
In your large organizational change effort, think about how you can reduce the friction and smooth the way. Avoid the tendency to label individuals as flawed: “that person is a luddite and just won’t adopt new technology.” Take an objective look at the situation surrounding the resisters. Are there structural changes that will make it easier for people to adapt? If team members are resisting the switch to a new technology, look for unnecessary hurdles that can be removed. If staff are not finding time to achieve their learning goals, look for ways to build in time by letting them start an hour before opening or reserving an hour/week in a quiet office. Pair up learning buddies to learn together and coach each other.
5. Chunk the change
You may be clear about the direction and still see the end point as daunting and unattainable. For the RSVP ride, the elevation gain in those hills lights a bit of fear in my gut. It would be ridiculous to try to ride the 183 hilly miles on the first practice runs. It’s just common sense to start out with easier near-term goals, building up from 25-miles to 50- and 100-mile rides. A cycling performance recommendation is to increase your mileage no more than 10-12% per week.
Think about the achievable increments in your organizational change. What are the small wins that will help people feel like they are advancing? Knowing that you are 20% toward the overall goal is a sense of accomplishment that increases motivation to go the rest of the 80%. If your overall goal is to get staff up to speed on 23 web tools, set weekly targets with a way to check off the achievement—it worked like magic for the 23 Things programs. When you construct a learning plan for staff, make sure there are some easy successes early on in the plan to build up that “money in the bank” motivation.
6. Find the bright spots
It may happen that I’m following my training plan but find that I’m struggling and getting discouraged. This is a good time to look around and see what’s working for others, or in Switch terminology, “find the bright spots.” If one of my teammates tells me that she makes sure to ride at least 5 times a week, that may be just the tip I need to improve my path.
Organizational change on a large scale will inevitably hit snags. Some of these will have been identified in step 1 so that the team is mentally prepared to encounter and overcome obstacles. It’s those unanticipated obstacles that can cause a plan to founder. When it does, look for examples of people or teams who seem to have surmounted the difficulty and figure out what they are doing that is enabling them and promote the solution to everyone. If one person is keeping on top of blog and Twitter news while the rest of the team claims to have no time, it may be that the exceptional person has her computer set to logon to those accounts so it’s the first thing she sees in the morning. If something is working for one person, it just might work for the many.
Good luck with your training and may the change be with you!
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Loading ...Project Runway: 5 lessons for training and design
Mar 23rd
I recently got hooked on Project Runway, the reality show in which aspiring fashion designers compete to create new designs within significant restrictions on time, materials, and theme. I’m not a fan of reality shows nor am I a fashionista, but I find it fascinating to watch the participants’ responses to working creatively under intense pressure. I see some application to training and instructional design.
1. Mind the scope
The Project Runway participants perform under grueling time constraints. They hear about the theme of the week, make some quick sketches, go shopping with specified budget and time limits, start fabricating, fit their models, and polish the garments into readiness for the runway—all within a 15-hour day, followed by a 4-hour stint. It is critically important for them to gauge their designs to what can effectively be accomplished in that relentless schedule. Awareness of the realistic scope of a project is essential. In episode 6 of this season, Amy launched into an ambitious effort to create a pair of pants out of multi-layered, overlapping petals of fabric. She miscalculated the scope of the effort needed to pull it off successfully and she ended up being smacked down by the judges. Instructional designers and trainers also need to be mindful of scope. Although they may have more time to create training modules, the time constraint is in the delivery of the learning. It is tempting to cram too much into a lesson, to overload the learner and defeat the learning. Know your parameters and design accordingly.
2. Failure is okay …to a point
On Project Runway, designers are encouraged to take risks. Those who play it safe or stick to reliable formulas are not likely to arouse the judges’ admiration and votes. In many organizations, there is increasing attention to the productive aspects of risk-taking and failure. All this is good. However, there should be self-check points along the path of risk. When Jonathan’s colleagues were referring to one of his dresses as an explosion in a toilet paper factory, it was time for him to stop and seriously appraise his direction instead of plunging blindly ahead (episode 6). When Amy worried about the unruliness of her hair-filled, cowl-necked dress, it would have been a good move to just cut it off and rethink her expression of the concept (episode 8). Risk-taking stretches designers and trainers in new directions, but if those directions are not productive, know when it’s time to pull out and start over.
3. Limitation is liberating
In my favorite episode of this season (#7), the crew headed to the hardware store to buy all of their materials. As usual, they had a limited budget and time in which to make purchases. This combination of constraints produced some of the most impressive fashion creations I’ve seen on the show. Jay fabricated a stunning haute couture outfit out of black plastic garbage bags and blue painters tape. Mila sliced up black and white plastic paint tray liners into an amazing dress that totally belied the humble materials. By contrast, a later design challenge that was conceptually wide open, asking for fashions evoking earth, air, fire, or earth, yielded the least interesting garments. It’s tempting to seek out ever more sophisticated design tools to deliver effective training, but it’s a good exercise to see what you can accomplish with humble materials and simple techniques.
4. No prima donnas
Episode 9 paired the remaining eight designers in teams, forcing these highly individualist design sensibilities to work collaboratively. Jay, who has displayed superstar qualities in design and craftsmanahip, bombed seriously when he had to work with Mila. The animosity between the two of them was right on the surface. Mila was able to keep cool and focused but Jay stumbled badly. He was not able to manage his emotions and concentrate on the outcomes. Not only was his design poorly conceived, it was poorly crafted—a setback for the man who had produced that brilliant garbage bag outfit. There’s more room for prima donna behavior in the fashion world than there is in the training world. In training, collaboration is common. Even for those trainers who work solo, there is always team-building with your learners. Excellent training design and delivery is underwritten by those soft skills that enable good communication and teamwork.
5. Be unruffled
I am always impressed at the calm and confidence of the designers as they watch the models walk the runway in their creations. They speak with assurance about the concept and the technical effort they had put into the fashions, even if they are about to be cast out of the competition. In training, it’s the learners who are the ultimate judges. Go before them with confidence, take critiques in stride, and take your lessons learned back to the drawing board for the next round.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...What would Seinfeld do?
Feb 9th
I love the image of the fantasy eager student in Cathy Moore’s Dump the Drone. This learning nerd looks blissfully at his computer screen and exclaims, “I love to sit at my computer and read read read!”
If only training were that easy. Whether it’s online or on-ground, for most training sessions, the audience is a little lower down on the engagement scale. They may be skeptical that the session will be of any benefit to them; or they may feel obligated but not motivated to be there. I’ve been cogitating on just that kind of situation, fretting about an upcoming presentation. I want to prepare myself and my audience in advance to set the stage for success. I wondered what would Seinfeld do? Or what would any comedian with years of experience in front of tough audiences do? So, I googled for lessons from the world of comedy. Whether or not these comedians are memorable, their advice is:
1. Where’s the passion?
If passion is contagious, the converse—a passionless presentation—is deadly. If you’re not jazzed about delivering your material, how can you expect your audience to be? Simon Dunn says, if you’re dying on stage, “you’ve only got yourself to blame.” Vince Martin tells wannabe comics that you need to bring the energy to the audience yourself, “to give away as much energy as you can.”
How to surface your enthusiasm? Back in December, Peter Bromberg (who’s a bit of a comic himself) blogged about Kevin Eikenberry’s post on Unlocking the Passion Paradox. Read it and then go look for your passion. “Passion is something we want, but we don’t always know how or where to find it.”
2. You talkin’ to me?
When asked by Larry King what makes a comedian really good, Seinfeld replied that it was a comedian who cared about his audience. Comedians will often sit at the back of a club before their act just so they can watch people enter and note their dress, demeanor, and demographic. The more you understand about your audience, the better prepared you are to play to their diversity, arouse their attention and respond to their tough questions. But Seinfeld didn’t say “understand,” he said “care” about the audience.
Trainers often have an advantage over stand-up comics in that they know ahead of time who is registered for the event; you can do your audience analysis before the moment when you’re standing in the spotlights. You can look for their commonalities, their differences, anticipate potential questions and formulate answers. But take it a step further and try to imagine their frame of mind when arriving at the training. What might they be expecting, what might disappoint, how will they have the opportunity to interact and make the material their own?
John Cleese says, “If you get too neurotic about making mistakes, you’re unlikely to make anything.” Anticipating a tough audience or a difficult training can be stifling. The fear of not connecting, not achieving learning objectives, and basically “bombing” makes it hard to prepare for a presentation. You need to let go of some control. Be prepared to be flexible in response to your audience and to change gears when it’s clear that something’s not working. Vinnie Favorito is known for extemporizing with his audiences. He’s also been known, when meeting with tepid response and weak laughs, to stop his routine and ask “Guys, what’s the matter? What’s going on?” It’s more important to admit that there’s a disconnect and enlist the audience to help fix it than it is to stick to a script.
Well, that’s three good pointers to calm my trepidation and help me prepare. There’s a whole other set of lessons on how to pull off the live performance. That will require a lot more study and practice.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...I like sushi and libraries
Jan 11th
Hi, this is getting to know Betha Gutsche through 20 questions. Although I have to follow Peter and Maurice, I’m glad I’m not at the end of the ALAlearning lineup. This is a high-powered crew we have here.
1. Your One Sentence Bio
From my virtual perch at WebJunction, I am immersed in online community and online learning for the library field.
2. Do you blog?
I participate in two group blogs—this ALAlearning blog and WebJunction’s BlogJunction.
3. What is your professional background?
I received my MLIS from the University of Washington iSchool in 2004. I have been with WebJunction since then, moving from Community Associate to Curriculum Developer to Program Manager. I am currently the project coordinator for Project Compass, an IMLS grant-funded effort to build library capacity to support workforce development.
4. What training do you do? staff? patrons? types of classes?
I do very little direct training. I’m more in the position of facilitating learning for the library field through compiling competencies and exploring the value and tools of online learning. I give presentations in webinars and at conferences.
5. What training do you think is most important to libraries right now?
The most crucial competency for people working in libraries today is the ability to adapt, to be flexible, innovative, and ready to learn. The HR department would probably label this change management. That sounds so much like an imposition, the application of an external force. Change is the essential nature of the human organism. Our cells change constantly; new neuron pathways form in our brains all the time. When we all learn to embrace change for the vitality and health it brings, we and the library field will be the richer for it. (Do you detect a hint of evangelism here?)
6. Where do you get your training?
Anywhere. From tutoring reading, teaching basis computer skills to ESL patrons, moving up the learning curve of delivering webinars, to more formal training in instructional design and synchronous facilitation.
7. How do you keep up?
Learning is ubiquitous. I read blogs, Twitter feeds, lists, articles in print and online, and books. I attend webinars, conferences (online and in-person), and T is for Training podcast sessions. I talk to colleagues. I listen.
8. What do you think are the biggest challenges libraries are facing right now?
In these tough economic times, library usage has increased everywhere. The public knows what it values about libraries. Libraries need to articulate that value and convince the funding agencies that they are a necessity for the community, not just an amenity.
9. What exciting things are you doing training wise?
Exploring the potential for social learning.
10. What do you wish were you doing?
More training about visual literacy.
11. What’s your favorite food?
My current food obsession is seaweed salad, particularly from Sam’s Sushi in Ballard.
12. If you were stranded on an island, what one thing would you want to have with you?
A library. (Is that cheating? I don’t care.)
13. Talk about one training moment you’d like to forget?
It was a webinar in which I lost my Internet connection two minutes into the program. Fortunately, I was on phone audio, but I had to fly blind on the visuals, asking my co-presenter to advance the slides and relay the audience responses. It was in a virtual fog.
14. How did you get into this line of work?
A midlife crisis that prompted me to scan the horizon of possibilities. When my attention fell on the library option, something inside said, “that’s it!”
15. What is the best part of your job?
Being in the fellowship of the amazing and energizing people who work in libraries.
16. Why should someone else follow in your shoes?
Because my job is stimulating and full of opportunities to learn and stretch.
17. Sushi or hamburger?
Sushi—without hesitation.
18. Windows or Mac?
Started on Mac. Converted to Windows. Hope to be platform ambidextrous eventually.
19. What one person in the world do you want to have lunch with and why?
John Perkins (author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, among other titles). I would like to explore with him how libraries fit into his visions for global change.
20. What cell phone do you have and why?
I love the form factor of my 5-year-old Motorola A630, but it is a feeble toy for a hyper-connected society. I’m in the market for a smartphone.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Under the Influencer
Nov 20th
I’ve read three books this year that have made me rethink approaches to teaching and presentation: Made to Stick, Brain Rules, and now Influencer: The Power to Change Anything. Influencer is about sources and strategies of influence that effect significant change in people and communities. Teaching is influencing. The application of the ideas in this book to leading and learning is potent.
Influencer is threaded with stories that reinforce the authors’ ideas. The most powerful story is that of the Delancey Street Foundation, a “self-help organization for substance abusers, ex-convicts, homeless and others who have hit bottom.” Their successes are all the more inspiring for the enormity of the challenges and intractable behaviors to be overcome. The challenge of training library staff and guiding them through change seems totally attainable by comparison.
You really need to read the book to get the full development of the processes. I’ll just highlight some key takeaways, with a few Delancey Street examples.
Outcome is good but behavior is vital
This was a light bulb revelation for me—that focusing on outcomes is not the best way to achieve them. Outcomes are certainly desirable but they’re not concrete enough. For someone who is trying to kick a drug habit, the outcome is to become drug-free. That’s a noble goal, but it so often succumbs to failure. A person needs a whole lot more than the target outcome to achieve success; he has to know exactly what to do. The individual must learn the day-to-day, minute-to-minute behaviors that need to change every step of the way between addicted and clean.
Strong influencers take the focus on behavior a step further and identify the vital behaviors that are pivotal to unlocking a flood of change. Changing just a few key behaviors can cause problems to “topple like a house of cards.”
At Delancey Street, “the hardest thing we do here is to get rid of the code of the street. It says: ‘Care only about yourself, and don’t rat on anyone.’ If you reverse those two behaviors, you can change everything else.”
When deviance is desirable
An effective method for identifying those vital behaviors is to look for “positive deviance.” Who is achieving success against the odds and what are they doing that differs from the norm? Once the unique behaviors are filtered out, test them to see if they can be replicated with other communities.
Get personal
“Personal experience is the mother of all cognitive map changers.” Great teachers and presenters can certainly be verbally persuasive, moving an audience to open their minds and think differently about a topic. But real learning involves some actual change in behavior, and that happens most readily from direct experience. At Delancey Street, any attempt at preaching values or making eloquent verbal appeals may be met with a reactive volley of profanity. Residents make progress by doing, by putting into practice new behaviors before they even understand the full intent of what they’re doing and what they’re supposed to be learning from their actions.
Eat the elephant one bite at a time
The phrase is becoming a cliché but I still love the image it conjures. When the challenge to change looks enormous, when the learning curve looks impossibly steep, just get out your fork and dig in one bite at a time. For Delancey Street residents, the bite of the elephant may be as small as learning to set a table—first get the fork in the right place, then the knife ….
You can sign up for a free account with the Influencer website and download the Influencer Worksheet to help plan your next training initiative. However, it probably won’t make enough sense until you’ve read the book. If every library trainer reads and implements Influencer ideas, will we be riding on the top of a tidal wave of positive change?
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