October 2013
For those who know me, know I don’t sit still. My mind is always ticking over with something, making plans, organising something or experimenting with some new app or software.
Even quiet times at work you’ll find me reading articles, commenting in blogs, participating in tweet chats, doing MOOCs, listening to TED talks, podcasts or webinars. Anything to keep my mind active.
For me, the uncertain and anxious times in-between organisational restructures are perfect opportunities for professional development. But I’ve been noticing a trend over the recent years. I seem to be having lots of professional development.
Why let all this wasted time make me unproductive? I may as well put it to good use and tackle my to do list of self-education.
We are in week 2 of the Exploring Personal Learning Networks cMOOC and I’m loving it because it’s making me think creatively and giving me the freedom to apply it directly to my work.
It’s my new pet project and already I’m thinking of how I can complete the assignment of coming up with a pitch for a CEO on the value of personal learning networks to an organisation.
I can see that I’ll probably have to use the assignment in ‘real life’ soon when this scenario arises in our organisation. It will happen. It’s only a matter of time.
So I decided to crowd source it. Ask my PLN to solve an organisational issue around on boarding to demonstrate how effective networks are in solving a business issue. [Hence why you may have seen my Tweets and Google + posts asking for any onboarding examples. I’m killing two birds in the one stone here. The responses will form my pitch for the cMOOC but also, I’ve been asked to develop an Induction program at work and I’m using my PLN’s stories, links and references to create a starting point for my plan]. Luckily, with 41 responses in Yammer, it seemed that everyone had an onboarding story they wanted to share about what worked and what didn’t.
But I digress…. let’s go back to talking about productivity.
Believe it or not, I enjoy going into work every morning to follow through my routine of grabbing a coffee, finding a desk, setting up my gear, logging on and then checking into the Google+ community to see what others are up to, what they’re writing about, what they’ve learned, check out their photos and blog posts.
I’ve gotten myself into a morning routine where I revel in the silence of the office…just me alone with all my PLN.
I read somewhere this week that getting feedback on social media equates to getting a dopamine hit – a high – and there’s something addictive to it. I believe that. I’m living proof.
This week I’ve been reading various reports of the high levels of disengaged people at work and frankly, it’s depressing. Despite adding the reports on Yammer hopeful for some replies and robust debate, they may as well have tumbleweeds flowing through them.
No replies.
Nada.
Obviously disengagement in the workplace is not as exciting as onboarding stories.
And I’m left asking the question incredulously, “doesn’t anyone else find this stuff important enough to comment on why they think this or do they just not care?”
Maybe they don’t.
Maybe I shouldn’t take things so seriously?
Maybe I should just lighten up – go with the flow. Whatever.
No I don’t work that way.
I need to be inspired. I need a good news story.
It’s either that, or I’m writing to David Walliams and Matt Lucas to consider creating a comedy show like “Come Fly With Me” but on corporate life because I don’t know whether I need to laugh….or to cry anymore.
But what did I say about not being able to sit still? Patience is not a virtue of mine.
Today, a fellow colleague came up to ask me about something but we got to talking about his passion. It’s opera. He’s a tenor and travels around Australia singing to audiences. He has a manager who co-ordinates his performances and manages his profile. He’s well known in the opera circles.
Do you know it was one of the best conversations I had in the workplace for a while? Why? Because I saw someone fired up for something that he believed in. His passion came out with his words, his actions, his eyes and smile.
He was inspirational, magnetic and alive.
I missed this in our workplace.
After a long time of change and turbulence, I needed to see someone passionate again. I needed to know that there were people who openly expressed their love for their art, their craft, their work, their hobbies and interests.
I needed to be inspired in my workplace.
Even my previous boss who left the organisation today turned to me at her goodbye lunch and said, “I’m going to the Elliot Masie Learning 2013 Conference in the US because I need to be re-inspired for Learning and Development again”.
Even she was looking for it.
Workplaces are missing the passion and inspiration but we’re thirsty for it. We need it.
If organisations could bottle up that passion, they can achieve anything.
[Photo: Fire In Your Eye by J. Durham]
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