Anne's Network

Anne's Network

This may seem a bit limited, but much of what I do in terms of interpersonal communications is somewhat limited: I do not participate on social networking sites due to security considerations at work, so most of my online interaction is strictly within the Walden learning community and the associated resources. Within this subset network, there is a large amount of give and take, as the learning environment is very conducive to collaboration and cooperation.

On a personal level, my family communicates with me mostly from them to me (sometimes they listen, but not always). Ed does not listen at all, nor do the cats. Most of my conversations with all of this group are one-sided (although at least the cats are good listeners!).

In the workplace, I give out far more than I receive in terms of information...this is a culture thing and although many of us are working on changing this model, it's a slow go.

The give and take model also applies when dealing with friends: information goes in both/all directions.

Reflection:

My network as it exists now has significantly changed my learning processes, because I am much more "just in time" oriented. I'm not sure what I ever did before I had Internet access, a laptop, and a smartphone, but I most definitely do not want to go back there ever again! Search engines are my tools of choice--the ability to find almost anything online is both a blessing and a curse, but I have used some of my extant skills to apply a certain degree of skepticism to anything I find online. The phrase "Trust but verify" comes to mind here!

When I have a question, I will do an online search--I am likely to do multiple versions, using different search engines and rewording my query to provide some degree of accuracy and focus. Once this is done, I usually have a pretty good idea of what I need to know about this particular topic. To keep it sorted out if it is that kind of information, I use Zotero (a free online research tool worth having!). I am a visual learner, so I learn from reading and viewing. If it is worth knowing, I can integrate it into my memory (or at least know that I can always get back to it should that be necessary).

Not all data is worthy of this after being looked up: over dinner last Saturday night there was a discussion about nuclear materials that turned to Madame Curie, and then my memory was called into doubt because I pointed out that she named the element Polonium after her native country of Poland. I was informed that she was French by my husband. I could not let that go unchallenged, so I pulled out my phone and googled "Madame Curie"--the Wikipedia entry that came up cites her full name, Marie Sklodowska Curie, and states her Polish birth and upbringing. No need to bookmark that or flag it in Zotero--it is SO good to have this kind of resource available.

Collaboration and Sharing

The topic for the module is whether it is part of human nature to share and collaborate. Howard Rheingold, in his video address, points out that collaboration and cooperation were what made survival possible for early humans...the ability to hunt and provide for the family was more than any one ordinary hunter could accomplish on his own. Consequently, humans began not only traveling in packs, but living in close proximity to one another.

As humans evolved to include agriculture and the raising of domestic animals for food, permanent settlements and villages developed (and people began to complain about the neighbors). This collective and social pattern has continued to develop and evolve into today's cities and communities (where there are still many reasons to complain about the neighbors). The workplace has also evolved somewhat--we no longer band together to go and hunt down a mammoth, but in today's knowledge-based workplace, the person with the right set of knowledge and experience leads their band of hunters to their objective.

Having these particular skills and knowledge is a good thing, but sharing knowledge is not always done well in the workplace. My own organization is known for its tradition of "information hoarding"--because the traditional rating system placed a value on an employee based on what they knew, it was simply understood that you did not share your particular knowledge because that diluted and diminished your value in the eyes of the rater.

Unfortunately, this behavior has had a long time to become ingrained, and changing the culture is going to take a while. Our new senior leadership has called for "a culture of collaboration and cooperation"--I will be there to welcome it whenever it finally arrives, and although I will not be alone, let's just say that we are not in the majority at this point in time.

The other encouraging trend that I see is that our new hires are accustomed to group projects and collaborative efforts and teamwork, and do so without being threatened, cajoled, begged, or directed to do so. As long as we can keep the senior management from undoing these good behaviors long enough for that generation of dinosaurs to become extinct, the culture will change under its own weight. The emerging technologies that make it easier and transparent to collaborate and share data and information and ideas, as well as to communicate with one another across organizational boundaries.

If we were industry, there would be economic and monetary incentives to change quickly: Rheingold cited Toyota and Eli Lilly as two examples of corporations that have collaborated and evolved to meet new challenges. I would hope that an update of this presentation would also include GM and Chrysler among the "thought leaders" of the automotive industry.

In short, I see that there is a basic human tendency to work together. That tendency can be overridden by self-preservation instincts and other environmental factors. I believe that human best behaviors will prevail over the long term--I've seen substantial change in my own career so far, and change is happening more quickly as technology drives it forwards. The light at the end of the tunnel may just be daylight.

Resources

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html