Learn to Adapt

• Time to Reboot America – NYTimes.com – Thomas Friedman hits the nail on the head: “My fellow Americans, we can’t continue in this mode of “Dumb as we wanna be.” We’ve indulged ourselves for too long with tax cuts that we can’t afford, bailouts of auto companies that have become giant wealth-destruction machines, energy prices that do not encourage investment in 21st-century renewable power systems or efficient cars, public schools with no national standards to prevent illiterates from graduating and immigration policies that have our colleges educating the world’s best scientists and engineers and then, when these foreigners graduate, instead of stapling green cards to their diplomas, we order them to go home and start companies to compete against ours.”
• Google, WalMart, and MyBarackObama.com: The Power of the Real Time Enterprise – O’Reilly Radar – A great post from Tim gets back to what “Web 2.0″ is truly about (networked products that explicitly leverage network effects). Lately the “2.0″ sticker is getting attached to many things that aren’t really increasing value of the network.
• Adult Learning Styles – A great summary of the three major theories on different learning styles. Good to keep in mind during learning design. But remember that supporters of the universal design for learning (UDL) believes ideal curriculum design makes learning styles a moot point.
• Content Sites Bracing For 50% Revenue Slowdown – Ouch. Perhaps it is time to revisit the “freemium” model?
• When People Don’t Want to Change – Marshall Goldsmith – The great Marshall Goldsmith with a brief post about not wasting time on people who do not want to change. To help those people who do want to change, check out the Progressing Through Change tool at: http://csolved.com/ptc/
• Innovating in the Great Disruption – Scott Anthony – Scott Anthony provides interesting ideas on keeping your innovative edge in this era of constant change.
• Knewton Takes Adaptive Learning To The Next Level -

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• Set in Our Ways: Why Change Is So Hard: Scientific American – A great article from Scientific American on the biology/psychology of why people are naturally resistant to change. Interestingly, it claims people are more tolerant of change during their 20s and then again after 60.
• Pew Internet: Future of the Internet – Pew Internet research releases the results of its survey on the future of the Internet. Much as expected, with the exception of one finding that surprised me: "The transparency of people and organizations will increase, but that will not necessarily yield more personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness." I think we may see more tolerance overall as everyone moves to "wearing a transparent kimono."

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Anyone out there in organizations that are going through a bit of change these days? Oh – right. Anyone out there not dealing with change?

For those of you managing a team going through change, or just coping with change yourself, I invite you to try out our new, free online Progressing Through Change application. It will be especially interesting for all of you in the organizational development field. It focuses on the human impact of change and provides strategies to help yourself (or your team members) progress successfully through changes at work.

The application has you complete a brief questionnaire and then shows you how you seem to be progressing through the four stages of change (Denial, Opposition, Exploration, Engagement). It provides information on each of the four stages and strategies for progressing through that stage. You are also encouraged to create a personal “elevator speech” about your role in the change and to draft questions to ask your manager about the change.

For the next week or so, the application includes a “feedback” box at the bottom of the page. I would greatly appreciate you taking the time to put it through it paces and tell us what you think.

Thanks!

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• Social Media Marketing – Who, What, When, Where, Why and How? – Mike Fruchter puts together a great list of things you should be asking yourself as you begin your trek into social media marketing.
• Will YourEnterprise 2.0 even make sense in 2009? – Venkatesh Rao has some spot-on predictions of how changing consumer behavior, 2.0 technologies, and the recession will create a "perfect storm" that forces the hand of traditional businesses in 2009.
• The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World – WSJ.com – WSJ article provides a sound basic understanding of social marketing strategies. Business is slowly learning to join the conversation that the Cluetrain Manifesto told them about eight years ago.

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• Ask Nature – the Biomimicry Design Portal: biomimetics, architecture, biology, innovation inspired by nature – As a biologist by training, I constantly see ways in which effective business systems mimic biological systems. This looks like a wonderful site for inspiration. From the site: "That's the idea behind AskNature, the online inspiration source for the biomimicry community. Think of it as your home habitat—whether you're a biologist who wants to share what you know about an amazing organism, or a designer, architect, engineer, or chemist looking for planet-friendly solutions. AskNature is where biology and design cross-pollinate, so bio-inspired breakthroughs can be born."
• learningscience.org – A topic near and dear to my heart. And based on the latest international test results, we need it now more than ever…

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