[Subject line changed by your host. Barry had proposed "Lurking with Lures,
promoting ideas" ...Rick]
Well, but for one flurry of postings about lurkers, I don't see much
anywhere on this list which is purposely exclusionary. Most readers are
just that: readers. May I suggest that we drop the negative angle
(lurking as wrong) and pick up the positive side (many readers, excellent
sources, everybody welcome, etc.). Our host, Rick, has repeated this
anthem over and over.
Kathy Healy tells us that she's interested in what is taught in schools
and what is relevant in the workplace. I'd like to offer Kathy another
model upon which to build her own thoughts.
>From "A New American TQM: Four Practical Revolutions in Management" by
Shiba et alia, the setting for learning is presented this way:
1. Information + commentary <--- knowledge
When people talk about something they have read, the words they use tend
to come right out of the information source; this is knowledge. If the
subject contains pure facts, his way of learning can be quite useful.
2. Knowledge + feedback <--- understanding
You deepen knowledge into understanding by speaking about the subject with
someone who already understands it, attempting to use the knowledge in
different ways. In turn, the person who already knows the subject can
correct any misunderstandings the learners ,might have and thereby enable
them to deepen their mastery of the subject.
3. Understanding + drive to use and schedule <--- skill
Ideas have to be used and practiced before they become skills. It is a
rare discipline in which a person can jump immediately from talking about
something to doing it at a fully professional skill level, in a real
setting for real stakes. In practice, developing a skill useful in actual
situations takes both motivation--a powerful reason to use new skills
instead of playing it safe--and a commitment to use the skills, which
often takes the form of a schedule. Once a skill is developed, benefit
can be given to the customer and money can be made.
Corporate users...have a straightforward charter: Get the information,
work to understand it in the training context, and then use it on the job
for real problems, following actual schedules, and with actual management
oversight.
I hope this is a valuable view from the manufacturing workplace, Kathy.
Best regards,
-- Barry Mallis bmallis@markem.com Total Quality Resource Manager MARKEM Corporation Keene, NHLearning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>