Insight Mapping 101 - Key Milestone Reached on Skillshare

Hurray!  I received my 25 student "pin".  This must be an example of the gamification of teaching.  

Teaching a class on Skillshare is rewarding in many ways, some of which I had not anticipated.  

For example, while I was fully aware of the 25 student milestone, I was determined not to pay too much attention to it because my goal is very long-term and trying to reach 25 students in the first two weeks after launch wasn't going to do much for my long-term strategy.  

Still, there is nothing like a target.  This one is almost an anchor.  Twenty-five students is a key milestone because that's when Skillshare starts giving you some attention, in two ways:  First, you class starts trending in the class catalog; second, you can start getting paid.  Of course, you need hundreds of students to make it an income-generating activity, and you need at least a dozen courses to keep the momentum going.

There is a temptation to stop the marketing when you reach 25 students.  That would be a mistake.  The next big milestones are probably those I need to set for yourself to make sure I both work well with the Skillshare platform, understanding how to make the most of it, AND keep moving towards my long-term objectives.

• 20% enrollment (visits to page/enrollment)
• Five positive written reviews, with specific comments, not just the "yes, I recommend the class" variety.
• Ten projects posted for every 100 students (10% conversion from enrolled to project posted).
• Five comments/questions from students in the discussion area.
• Develop a complete curriculum around insight mapping
• Create and launch one new class every 6 weeks

Insight Mapping 101 is LIVE!

Insight Mapping 101, a free class on Skillshare.

The class is free and by following this link, you also get a month free of premium access to ALL Skillshare classes.  There is a small catch.  You will need to create a free account on Skillshare. 

So, what's the class about you ask?

Insight mapping is a variation of concept mapping that focuses on eliciting and documenting insights from any given event, activity or experience.  It can be used by individuals, in support of team work, or by entire organizations.  This class is a short introduction to insight mapping for individuals.

For additional context, read this post on LinkedIn:  Individual Reflection and Insight Mapping.

Any feedback, questions, comments would be welcome!

Doodling about KM Roles

Here's some doodling about KM roles inspired by a KMA-DC conversation this morning.

I currently play the role of KM specialist/facilitator of KM processes such as lessons learned and knowledge sharing workshops (within the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center).  In the Knowledge Management structure, I'm somewhere between the Chief Knowledge Officer who sets the overall strategy and knowledge management practices, and I support the project teams who actually have the knowledge that needs to be "managed."  

I am NOT a subject matter expert in anything other than KM. We only do a small subset of what KM can do/mean in an organization because that's what makes sense for the organization. 

Creating Learning Materials - As Easy as Possible, But Not Easier

I have been creating a short introduction to Insight Mapping on the Skillshare platform and the creative process has been a source of numerous new insights for me. One of these insights had to do with the level of difficulty or complexity of the materials I was presenting and especially the level of complexity of what I was asking the learners to do as a project for the class.  I recognize my own tendency to make things more complicated than necessary, so I was keeping a close eye on how "brilliant" I thought my ideas were.  The more "brilliant" I think it is, the more unnecessarily complex it typically is.  At that point, I was reminded of Albert Einstein's words:

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." ~ Albert Einstein

Whether Einstein actually said that or not, I wonder if we can extend the idea to learning.  How about "everything should be made as easy to learn as possible, but not easier."  If you make it too easy, you've gone too far and not much learning is happening.  It makes sense, intuitively.  [There is also a trade-off between speed reading and comprehension... no kidding!]

A few weeks back, I enjoyed a Chief Learning Officer (CLO) webinar by Alex Khurgin, Director of Learning at Grovo, about teaching employees to learn.  Part of Khurgin's push was something I've heard over and over again about making it easy for people to learn, essentially by removing all possible barriers.  One example is that to deal with employees' shrinking attention span, we should deliver micro-learning.  While I'm all for eliminating day-long training sessions, there are limits to how much "chunking" makes sense.

Bite-size learning doesn't encourage deep thinking and the level of focused attention that is necessary to start making connections between prior knowledge and new knowledge.  We need focused attention (without distractions) to engage our whole brain, so why purposefully feed ourselves chunks that are so small, they become distractions themselves.

The answer to "I don't have time for 20 minutes of focused attention" shouldn't be, "we'll give it to  you in ten 2-minute chunks".  The answer should be, "make the time for 20 minutes of focused attention."  Connecting the dots and learning takes time. There are no shortcuts.

Dorothy Leonard also recently pointed out in the Harvard Business Review that organizations need to make learning hard, leveraging Robert Bjork's research.  One way to ensure deep learning and long-term retention of learning is to use the case method.

"A well-run case-based discussion constantly challenges students.  As they are asked to diagnose and debate solutions to a given situation, there is rarely an easy or obvious answer." ~ Dorothy Leonard in "Why Organizations Need to Make Learning Hard."

Since I was listening to all this "make-it-easy-to-learn" approach soon after being introduced to Robert Bjork's concept of "desirable difficulty," I thought it would be useful to clarify.

Here's how I mapped out my thoughts (so far):

"Make it as easy as possible, but not easier."