Continuing with my new end of month blog post of what I have been doing, February was all about “Getting Down to Business!”

What Have I Been Working On?

• First and foremost was rolling out Coca Cola Amatil’s Work, Connect and Learn Program (a guided social learning program).  I have been actively ‘working out loud’ through this program from the strategy development, the design and now the implementation.  However, that’s only MY perspective. The value of working out loud is when others who are also involved in the same project can also share their experiences.  I encourage you to check out @MichelleOckers blog post who is working out loud through the same program but giving the business perspective.
• In March, I will be participating in Learning Labs, a mini-digital conference for the Vocational Development Centre as well as running webinars on the use of social media for educators.  I have been planning and preparing these throughout the month.
• Actively researching on the topic of community management especially focussing on impact or effects of senior managers acting as online community managers in a community of practices.  Good or bad idea? There’s a plethora of information, articles, posts and books on facilitating and managing community of practices; types of skills and attributes of community managers but very little on benefit of this skill for managers especially when it’s a new field; it’s not on their KPIs (therefore not expected in their role); seen as an additional and cumbersome activity; and a perception that they may be ‘conversation killers’ online IF they don’t have the trust, credibility and reputation to provide a supportive work environment offline as well as online.
• My Business Plan – I have created my 90 day plan and now slowly progressing tasks on it to ensure that my yearly goals for Activate Learning Solutions are achieved.

Who Have I Met?

Too numerous to mention as I have met many different people from all parts of business – small, medium and large at various business networking events.

• Melbourne Business Awards Breakfast
• Business Networking International
• Third Place Meetup and Dinner with other people in Learning and Development across Australia

I have also had the most interesting conversations with people who have invited me to be part of their LinkedIn network.  (Usually for people whom I don’t recognise, I enquire where we may have met – online or offline – before accepting an invitation and in 99% of the cases, we start a LinkedIn email conversation going back and forth.  This month, from a tweet and into a LinkedIn connection, I’ve been chatting with Patrick O’Keefe, founder of the iFroggy network, author of Managing Online Forums as well  as a couple of other people who are in completely different networks across manufacturing and supply chains).  Just goes to show that despite getting those generic invitations to connect, it is worthwhile to take the time to respond and you never know who you may meet.

What Have I Been Reading?

• Start with the Why by Simon Sinek
• Managing Online Forums by Patrick O’Keefe
• The Art of Community by Jono Bacon
• Groovy Greeks – my husband bought me the entire box set of Horrible Histories (plus many others), so I’m going through them.
• Started The Swan Book by Alexis Wright but it’s really frying my brain. I have to physically read each word aloud to focus on the story.

What Have I Been Watching?

• Australia – The Story of Us – for some reason this show has had a negative public response but I don’t know why this is the case. Personally, I love history and many Australians don’t know their own history which I think is incredibly sad.

What Have I Been Learning?

There’s a really old house opposite our train station that looks like it’s been there since the turn of the century.  As I peered over the fence, I wondered who owned it, lived in it and its history.  I looked up the history of Murrumbeena (my local town) and then thought about the 100 year anniversary of Gallipoli which is on this year.  This thought came about because I was also reading about the 2015 My Brother Jack Awards – a short story award prize run by our local council.

From there, I thought, “I wonder if there were any people in Murrumbeena who served in the Great War?”

From there, my mind went to “I wonder if there were any Greeks (my heritage and background) in Australia at the time who served in the Great War?”

From there, I thought, “I know the part Crete (where my parents are from) played a role in World War 2 – but did it play a part in World War 1 at all?”

From there, I searched on Greece’s participation in the Great War and stumbled upon the stories of Australian nurses who served on the hospital ships ferrying the sick and the wounded from the Gallipoli campaign to the Greek islands of Lemnos and Imbros. 

So I started reading and learning about these wonderful women who worked in extreme and difficult conditions to tend to the soldiers in this horrific war.

Their stories moved me because not only did I have a connection to their country (Australia); their service (in the military – I was in the Navy and Navy Reserve for total of 21 years); being in a foreign country (Greece).

All this from looking at a house in Murrumbeena opposite our train station and thinking whether I can write a short story and submit it for the 2015 My Brother Jack short story award.

(And no, the last time I wrote creatively was in high school. The only reason I’d do something like this is to just give it a go and experiment with a different writing style).

What Made Me Smile?

Thanks to @AndrewJacobsLD who alerted me to a new book by Horrible Histories historian Greg Jenner called “A Million Years in a Day”.  Through the tweets, Greg Jenner directly responded to me and I was so excited to have a historian and an author tweet to me.  I thanked him for making history interesting to not only children but adults too.  Needless to say, this made my day – no, my whole month!