There are times in life when I expect something to be perfect. When I open the box of my new Macbook Air, for example. Or when I take money out of the ATM.In most cases though, I expect imperfect. And in organizations, I think that's a good thing -- but not in the if-I-expect-imperfect-I-won't-be-disappointed sense.
But how does the language brain act so fast? Recent findings suggest that, as we read or have a conversation, our brains are continuously trying to predict upcoming information. Van Berkum suggests that this anticipation is a combination of a detailed analysis about what has been said before with taking 'quick-and-dirty' shortcuts to figure out what, most likely, the next bit of information will be.In How We Keep Visual Details In Short-term Memory the author writes:
Another interesting thing was that if subjects were remembering orientation, then that pattern of activity during the delay period had no information about color, even though they were staring at a colored-oriented stimulus," said Edward Awh, a UO professor of psychology. "Likewise, if they chose to remember color we were able to decode which color they remembered, but orientation information was completely missing.This voluntary control in memory selection, Awh said, falls in line with previous research, including that done by Awh and co-author Edward K. Vogel, also of the UO, that there is limited capacity for what can be stored at one time. People choose what is important and relevant to them.
This is a great week for content communities. And there's a very interesting effect and a realization (aha moment) I've had about all of this that I describe near the bottom.A few other communities Tony has helped build:Yesterday, I was able to announce that I've been working with Judy Brown to launch the Mobile Learning Content Community.
Over the years, we have consistently found strong evidence that training expenditures are a predictor of future stock market returns for publicly-traded companies. (See, for example, "How's Your Return on People?", Harvard Business Review, March 2004.)Note that McBassi found in the original study that a series of portfolios of firms that made the largest per capita investments in training subsequently returned 16.3% per year, compared with 10.7% for the S&P 500 index. As to causality, McBassi noted, ""While the performance controls in the regression above should prevent a spurious correlation between training and stock returns, we also show that training expenditures are not driven by past returns. This supports the thesis that training investments help to determine stock price performance, and not the opposite."
Following the financial cataclysm of 2008, we explored how well the relationship between training investments and stock market performance had held up. Did the relationship still exist or had it even vanished entirely, swamped by larger forces at play in the financial world? The Answer? Yes, the relationship still exists.
I've gone off before about slow learning, and I think this is another facet. Not only are we're rushing too much in our performance, our development processes, and the amount of time we devote to learning, we're not properly setting the stage. I've been quick myself, but some of the best speakers seem to take their time getting to the point.For another view on pacing see the first two book reviews on Leaving Microsoft to Change the World and Biography of a Bird Dog.
So what was Odeo's response?
Our board was not feeling optimistic, and we were forced to reinvent ourselves.
Note: "Reinvent ourselves." Not: "Cut back on our staff a bit more every few months and hope the current business model can survive." Not: "Maintain a belief that we had a good product, damn it, a valuable product, and there will always be someone who wants it." "Reinvent ourselves."
Note that I belive anyone can read the messages in that you do not have to be a subscriber. If the site blocks you, please let me know.
What uses could the Will play in some of your learning processes?
Learning is more strongly influenced by individual teachers, for example, than any other factor, including class size and quality of the facilities. In various studies, the truly great teachers do things like giving good, individualized feedback while remaining sensitive and responding to interactions going on around them that might indicate needs of other students.
The trouble is that the doctors each spent (in my estimate) 5-10 hours apiece preparing their slides and narrations.
