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Today I was asked the question about which I thought was more important, what work I do or how I go about it? This made me reflect on some of the challenges that I have been faced with in education. Whether it be teaching music, business studies, organising reports or developing timetables, I am not sure they were all things that if I had my way I would have necessarily chosen. However, I did each of them to the best of my ability. What mattered more to me though was how I went about it. Whether it be creating a environment of inquiry when investigating business or given the autonomy to develop solutions that are inevitable when forming timetables.

Interestingly, Simon Sinek captures this conundrum, suggesting that what matters least in. He instead argues that how we go about what we do is far more important. However, what matters most is why we do what we do. In regards to education, this why is discussed by Gert Biesta in his investigation of a good education.

I will finish with a quote from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, which I have just started reading on the recommendation of a colleague:

“Inside-out” means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self—with your paradigms, your character, and your motives. It says if you want to have a happy marriage, be the kind of person who generates positive energy and sidesteps negative energy rather than empowering it. If you want to have a more pleasant, cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, empathic, consistent, loving parent. If you want to have more freedom, more latitude in your job, be a more responsible, a more helpful, a more contributing employee. If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy. If you want the secondary greatness of recognized talent, focus first on primary greatness of character.

To me what Covey is touching on is that to deal with the what, whether it be marriage, parenting or being an employee, then you need to firstly deal with the how and why.

It is interesting when different people responding to disparate ideas come to the same conclusion.

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I recently presented a session at DigiCon15 about Becoming a More Connected Educator. To provide a voice for those listening, I created a Google Form asking a few questions of those in attendance, such as how they are connected, what are the biggest challenges and any questions they may have. There were a few that I addressed at the end of the session, including moving beyond sound bites and giving back. However, one question that alluded me was a ‘get connected’ for dummies. So here goes, my 10 step process to becoming connected or as requested, a getting connected for dummies:

Work Out Why

Too often people are told, sign up to Twitter and get connected. Not only does being connected not simply equal signing up to a platform, but it misses why we might do it in the first place. In part, my initial reason was wondering what impact sharing and being open might have for learning. Although being open is still at the heart of my reason why, I would argue that now it is less about wonder and more about action, that is, how might we use the possibilities enabled through networked learning to build ‘smart rooms’ that consciously make possible new ideas and beginnings.

Grow a PLN

There are too many posts out there that discuss personalised or professional learning networks as something that can magically be done. Follow these people and hey presto you are connected. As I have discussed before, PLN’s are better thought of organically, a rhizome, with no central root system and no central belief system. Instead, there is one connection leading to another. This being said, the strength of a PLN is often deemed by how we nurture and grow it. Andrew Marcinek and Lyn Hilt reflect upon our role in regards to the health of our PLN and the need to continually reinvent it. One of the challenges is where you choose to spend your time and further your connections. For many it seems to be Twitter, others it is Google+, for some it is in spaces like Edmodo, while there are those whose connections are fostered between blogs. At the end of the day, the choice is yours. Some possible starting points are to participate in a Twitter chat, join a community on Google+, join in a blogging challenge like #youredustory or go to a teachmeet or an edcamp.

Find Your Tribe

One of the keys to connecting online is finding your communit(ies). So many of my early connections were based on a sort of convenient hypocrisy. My room was made up of people I had grown up with, went to school with or worked with. Often such connections become about sharing stories about this or that, but not necessarily common interests and passions. What can be hard is that there is not necessarily a directory of tribes, rather it is something relational and discovered by listening and engaging online. It needs to be noted though, that sometimes finding your tribe might actually mean standing up, leading and connecting people around a cause.

Surround Yourself with People who Scare You

On the TER Podcast, Cameron Paterson spoke about finding someone who scares you to be a mentor. I suggest taking this a step further, I suggest surrounding yourself with people who scare you. Often we start out meeting people at conferences or following people who seem to have similar interests. The next step is actively seeking out new connections. This does not mean that you need to automatically openly engage with these people, but instead tuning in and critically evaluating the various ideas and arguments. David White describes this as elegant lurking, where the purpose is to assess credibility of those involved within the discourse.

Support Others and Give Back to the Community

Although it is fine to observe from a distance, at some point communities thrive on participation. As David Weinberger points out, “Even if the smartest person in the room is the room itself, the room does not magically make all who enter it smarter.” Too often people get caught up in the ‘original’ trap, feeling that they themselves have nothing new to say or add. However, being in the room can mean different things to different people. I think that Steve Brophy puts it best when he made the call to “be the connection that gives others a voice.” To me, giving back is about participating, being someone’s +1, paying it forward, attributing ideas where possible. Putting his spin on this, Seth Godin says in Tribes that the challenge is, “to help your tribe sing, whatever form that song takes.”

Create a Place For People to Find You

Online, it is important to own your identify before someone else does. Anne Mirtschin talks about creating a digital badge, incorporating three key ingredients: a consistent image, clear username and detailed profile. In addition to this, it can be useful to guide people to a splash page, such as About.me, which brings together all our different spaces online. Some alternatives to this include pointing to a personal blog or a Linkedin account. Although trust within online spaces can be a difficult, by at least being open about who we are and what we might stand for at least helps build trust and deeper connections.

Have More Meaningful Conversations

In a recent post, Dean Shareski lamented on the lack of depth to many of the conversations he finds online. He reminisced on the ‘raw and natural tone’ that was prevalent when he was drawn to blogging ten years ago. Although idle chatter may be the glue which unites us, Shareski suggests that our challenge is to use this social capital to ‘provoke deeper, more interesting ideas’. For some this has meant moving conversations to more private mediums as Voxer and Slack. While others have taken to creating podcasts and web shows as a space for deeper conversations. Although Peter Skillen maybe right in saying that no wisdom can come be found in one-line, however it can be the stimulus for further thought.

Curate the Chaos

Heather Bailie suggests that in regards to digital literacies our focus has moved from the traditional idea of read, write and react, to a focus on being able to create, curate and contemplate. For me, creation is the means that we use to collect information. Many find all their resources via various social media platforms, however, there are other means of engaging with ideas, such as Nuzzel, Flipboard, Zite, Paper.Li, Feedly and Tagboard. Such platforms offer their own means of aggregating information. The next step is making sense of it all. In regards to social bookmarking, there are many different possibilities, whether it be Evernote, Delicious, Scoop.it, Pinterest or Diigo. For a more extensive list curation tools, see Christopher Pappas’ post.

Make Stuff Worth Stealing

I think that Doug Belshaw puts it best when he says, “Remixing, re-appropriation and riffing off other people’s work just seems to be part of what we do as human beings.” A step beyond engaging online, whether it be providing your perspective or adding a comment, is making stuff worth stealing. Instead of worrying about how much money could be made or how people might use ideas, Austin Kleon suggests we need to, “do good work and share it with people.” In his book Open, David Price touches on four key values which he sees as being integral to the 21st century: sharing, being open, giving things away for free and trusting others. A great example of such communities of sharing, riffing and giving away are cMOOCs like the CLMOOC, Connected Courses and Rhizomatic Learning.

Be a Lead Learner

How can we really say that students and learning at the heart of the classroom if we ourselves are not learners ourselves? Jackie Gerstein argues that we should not only be leaders when it comes to learning, but actively modelling the process by continually articulating our understandings and experiences. Gerstein provides a model to support this iterative process, focusing on prototyping, testing, failing and tweaking. Blogs or vlogs can be a useful means for not only documenting this process, but also gaining precious feedback and perspectives to support growth and improvement.

I am sure that there is more to it than what I have touched on here and like Tom Whitby, I wonder why we still need to continue to talk about such topics as PLN’s. However, we are all at different points in our learning. So what about you, where are you at? Is there something that you would add to or elaborate? As always, comments are welcome. For it takes a village and that village includes you.

Getting Connected for Dummies (1)
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Simon Sinek believes that the reason many of us do not get very far when we approach a new problem, whether it be going on a diet, starting a new business or introducing technology in the classroom, is because we have got our priorities all wrong. Too often the focus of our attention is on what we need to do. This could be to lose weight, ship a new product or get devices into every classroom. All too often such actions fail to last because although we think we know what we need to do, our reason for doing so is either missing or unclear. As Sinek points out,

You can get someone to buy a gym membership with an aspirational message, but to get them to go three days a week requires a bit of inspiration

Although fear and manipulation may get the job done once or twice, for long lasting change and innovation you need trust, loyalty and inspiration. This is what Sinek means by the title of his book, Start With Why.

At the heart of Sinek’s argument is the concept of the golden circle. Where most people begin with the what, dictating how we do things and hopefully why we do it. The golden circle is about working in reverse, from the inside out. Everything starts with why.


creative commons licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Gavin Llewellyn

The catch is that a why is not something that you simply invent, rather it is something discovered through deep reflection. Our why is the thing that gets us up in the morning, what we actually care about, what cause we are a part of. Once that is worked out, the focus then is to bring all our actions back to this. As Sinek states:

It is not just WHAT or HOW you do things that matters; what matters more is that WHAT and HOW you do things is consistent with your WHY. (Page 186)

Sinek supports his idea about the golden circle with evidence from biology. In the brain are two sections which relate to action and decision making: the neocortex and the limbic brain. The neocortex is analytical and responsible for language, whereas the limbic brain is responsible for feelings, such as trust and loyalty. The catch is the limbic brain has no capacity for language, it communicates instead through the neocortex via gut feelings and intuition. Those decisions which we think are right, but have no rationale way of explaining it. As Sinek explains:

Our limbic brains are smart and often know the right thing to do. It is our inability to verbalize the reasons that may cause us to doubt ourselves or trust the empirical evidence when our gut tells us not to. (Page 63)

Although we may think that with the right evidence all decisions can be rationally decided upon,  at the end of the day, there are some choices which are irrational and made emotionally. It is for this reason that it is important, in any circumstance, to start with why. This not only provides clarity of understanding, but the confidence to move forward without fear and doubt.

The role of the leader then is to create the right environment. One where people are trusted and inspired to drive great ideas. The problem, such things can be difficult without an agreed purpose formed collaboratively. This why, as Sinek points out, is not something that is simply decided in an organisation by those with hierarchical power, instead it is led and supported in an organic manner. As he explains:

Trust comes from being a part of a culture or organization with a common set of values and beliefs. Trust is maintained when the values and beliefs are actively managed. (Page 121)

This comes back to the distinction between those who lead compared to those who manipulate. To lead then is to inspire through charisma and support, not to manipulate through fear and control.

What is weird about Starting With Why is that, like Carol Dweck’s Mindsets, once known it seems so obvious. The challenge with why is to maintain focus, for it is one thing to start with why once, but to maintain the focus day after day, year after year, that is the real challenges.

For a great introduction into Simon Sinek’s ideas, watch his great TED Talk:

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In his book, Start With Why, Simon Sinek makes the statement that, “people don’t buy what you do, people buy why you do it.” The problem is that too often we get the two confused, caught up in what we are doing and forgetting why we are doing it. Sometimes we forget because we never actually give it our attention. So this is my attempt to identify the ‘why’ that I always endeavour to start with.

I see my ‘why’ as a learner with a passion for helping other learners find their spark. Whether it be sharing ideas and perspectives or providing support to take the next step or pushing back in order to go deeper. Each action comes back to a focus on creating a greater community.

Although such activities may be about me, my passion for learning, my desire to grow, they are not actions that can be measured through the number of retweets or hits on my blog. For me it all comes back to the African proverb that ‘it takes a village’. When I say that what I mean is that I never achieve what I do alone. A point Keith Hamon makes in his fantastic post, where he states that no matter how much we try, we can never identify all of the origins to our ideas.

In the end, if, as David Weinberger suggests in his book Too Big To Know, the smartest person in the room is the room. The challenge is to develop smarter rooms. For as Weinberger states:

Our task is to learn how to build smart rooms—that is, how to build networks that make us smarter, especially since, when done badly, networks can make us distressingly stupider.

So what is your why? How are you building networks? Do you think that I have missed something? I would love your thoughts.

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Everyone has those days. For some they last for weeks. Maybe it was just one incident. You lost it. Raised your voice when you shouldn’t have. Or maybe you started an activity poorly and no matter how much you tried to save it, by clarifying something, talking, adding this, changing that, your hole to hide in never felt deep enough. You just felt like a failure. As much as we try and focus on growth and improvement, there is a voice inside that occasionally says, “You’re a charleton and now you have been found out.” Doug Belshaw identifies this as ‘imposter syndrome‘. The inability to internalise various accomplishments. This feeling of being a fraud often builds up, with one day here connecting with another day there. There is many an answer, sometimes it is talking with a colleague or other times you can gain critical feedback from students. However, the solution often lies within and needs to start with us. One remedy to regain balance is through blogging. Reflection allows us to highlight our positives and come back to the big question, why do we do what we do?

I have written a bit about why to blog since I started. Recently I reflected on the uncanny nature of reviewing the past. However, another reason that I have come upon of late is the opportunity to connect back with your ‘why’. Your central reason for everything. Not everything I do is perfect. There are many moments where I lapse back into what John Goh describes as our ‘default’ value, that initial idea of education which we have internalised over time. However, it is important to stop and reflect in order to remind myself why I do what I do, as well as what I have been doing to support this.

In the closing section of his book, Start With Why, Simon Sinek discusses how a few years ago he realised that although he was supposedly using all the right strategies within his business, he had lost sight of his why. He was out of balance. Ever since he has focused all of his actions on his why. As he states:

If it was important to start with WHY, then I would start with WHY in everything I did. There is not a single concept in this book that I don’t practice.

Regularly reflecting on what we do and making our actions visible helps stay focused on why we really do it. For as Sinek states, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

How do you stay centred and maintain your ‘why’ in all that you do? I would love to know. Feel free to comment.

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