Learning Is Forever: Thoughts on learning and other stuff...

A couple of weeks ago, I was entranced by events of 40 years ago (Moon landing, anyone) as they were replayed on www.wechoosethemoon.org. The people involved with sending a manned mission to the moon chose to reinvent themselves, their beliefs and their capabilities in order to achieve a HUGE goal and become players in the future to which they were directed.

Likewise, we have a choice now. Everywhere you look, you see references to 2.0 – web 2.0, eLearning 2.0, technology 2.0, business strategy 2.0. Yes, it's a 2.0 world with a great, big future in front of us. How many of you, however, have given any thought to You 2.0? That is, what specific things do you need to change to be as successful in the 2.0 world as those previous pioneers were in 1969?

Google only returned 24,600 hits when I queried “You 2.0,” indicating to me that it is a relatively unexplored concept. Most sites talked about reinventing yourself so you can achieve your passions in life. My version of You 2.0 is a bit different – I'm simply talking about the “things” (skills, competencies, vision – pick whatever noun you'd like) you need to be – and remain – relevant in a 2.0 world. So, what are they? Glad you asked. Here's my top ten competencies I think you need to survive:

1. A Personal Brand. (Uniquely You) Anybody remember Davy Crockett? He wasn't just a trapper. He was the “King of the Wild Frontier.” Hell, he was so cool he even had his own theme song. Even today, he gets 969,000 hits on Google. What's your theme song?

2. Core Values. There's a song that says “You've got to believe in something, or you'll fall for anything.” What is it that you believe in? Know what things are wildly important to you, because those are the things that will guide you through anything you face.

3. Be a Systems Thinker. Sure you have decisions to make, but take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Does your decision still make sense? Are you inadvertently impacting something else? The ability to manage details while maintaining a broad perspective will make you invaluable to an organization (and to yourself!).

4. Be Change Able. Shit happens. Sometimes you can control it happening; sometimes you can't. Your mission – should you choose to accept it – is to understand how you and others react to change and know what you can do to make yourself (and others) cope, or even thrive, during those times of change. Things change; those who adapt survive.

5. Develop Learning Agility. Learning agility is the ability to adapt and react to new situations extremely quickly. How do you develop this skill? Become a lifelong learner – continually acquire new competencies, seek new experiences, and solicit feedback in order to integrate knowledge, skills and abilities. Not surprisingly, studies have shown that learning agility is a great predictor of future success.

6. “Employer as Customer” Attitude. A friend of mine once told me to remember that my company is renting me for 40 hours a week – they didn't purchase me lock, stock and barrel. If you view your employer as your customer, and you're focused on customer services, think about the change in attitude and productivity that can inspire. If your company is paying you for your services, what is their return on you?

7. Leadership Skills. I firmly believe that you don't need a manager title to be a leader. Regardless of your title, you're always the manager of you. If you work on cultivating your leadership skills, chances are good that you'll be noticed when it's time to lead a project, team, division or something else. At the very least, you've developed an employee that companies desire.

8. Social Media Savvy. Wikipedia – twitter – youtube – facebook - second life - rss feeds – flickr – digg – technorati – scribd – feedburner – ning – meetup. If you aren't familiar with any of these words, get familiar. Social media will dictate how we communicate in the future. Not only should you be aware of it, you should be engaged in it. If you're completely lost, check out the slideshare presentation “What the F**K is Social Media?” Yea, the title is a bit crass, but it's a really good overview.

9. Critical Thinking Skills. The amount of information we're faced with grows exponentially year after year. The ability to analytically evaluate things observed, expressed, or experienced and determining an appropriate conclusion uses the higher level thinking skills deemed “critical thinking.” Given that IDC predicts within five years a tenfold growth of digital information that is created, captured and replicated world-wide, the ability to quickly and efficiently analyze this information will be indispensable.

10. Collaboration. If you didn't get this from the Social Media section, the world is shrinking. It's very unlikely that people will exist in their cubes and never have to interact with others. The more able you are to interface with other people, regardless of title,country, age, etc., the more likely you'll be able to maneuver the 2.0 world.

So there you have it. These are the ten skills that I think are paramount to creating You 2.0.

I'm hoping to expand on each of these in future posts and maybe provide some ways that you can start to develop, or continue to develop, each skill. Until then, map out where you are in the 2.0 world and determine what skills you need to brush up on. By the way, if there are other skills you think are important, let me know.

My husband has claimed (on more than one occasion) that he married an adolescent. The first time he mentioned that, I was begging him for a dollar so I could buy one of the L-O-N-G Pixie Stix that I hadn't seen since I was about twleve. And then there was the time that I stomped in the rain puddles with our two year old. Let's not forget about making snow angels this past winter. And be honest, Captain Crunch makes a mean cereal! Most recently, I heard the comment when I wanted to get in line at a fair so I could participate in the trampoline jump where you're connected to a safety belt and are tossed about 25 feet in the air (how cool is that!) - the only problem was the huge line of under-12 in which I'd have to wait.

Yes, I am a forty-year-old adolescent. Which, really, isn't a bad thing...

I actually started feeling a bit guilty about my skill at being a kid...until I read "The Escape Adulthood Manifesto" by Jason Kotecki. Jason identified a disease that too many people suffer from - ADULTITIS (it even sounds bad, doesn't it?):

ADULTITIS: A common condition occurring in people between the ages of 21–121,
marked by chronic dullness, mild depression, moderate to extremely
high stress levels, a general fear of change, and, in some extreme
cases, the inability to smile. Patients can appear aimless, discontent,
and anxious about many things. Onset can be accelerated by an excess
burden of bills, overwhelming responsibilities, or a boring work life.
Generally, individuals in this condition are not fun to be around.

Geez, who wants to suffer from that??? Fortunately, Jason outlines 8 little traits you can employ to escape from ADULTITIS. I'll give you a quick run-down here, but you may want to check out the manifesto for yourself.

1. Delight in the Little Things. Most people see a weed; my daughter points out each dandelion that has morphed into a "wishing flower."

2. Dream Big. My daughter told me that she doesn't want to be a mommy; she wants to be an astronaut. I told her maybe she could be an astronaut and then a mommy. She decided that maybe her kids could just ride in the spaceship in their car-seats like she and her brother do now. Who am I to say it isn't possible?

3. Get Curious. I have two kids. The most common questions I get are "Why?" and "What dat?" Give it a try. Ask yourself "Why?" or "Why not?” or "What if?” and see what the possibilities are.

4. Live Passionately. A couple of weeks ago, we were at an outdoor fair and bought cotton candy. My daughter loves cotton candy. She smiled when I handed it to her and then, as she was eating it, she closed her eyes, and I watched her whole face say "mmmmm." When was the last time you experienced that feeling about something you were doing?

5. Play. He was scrunched down very low to the floor, carefully stepping over things that I couldn't see.  “What are you doing?” I asked. I'm pretending I'm in The Matrix."  His look said “what else could I possibly be doing?"  I belly laughed because this was a conversation with my boss!  Okay, playing like you're a kid (or with your kids) relieves a lot of stress.  Having a boss (or co-workers) who can play makes work a lot more enjoyable.

6. Be Honest. We've told our kids (and practice it, too) to tell us if they mess up. They won't get in trouble for messing up; but they'll get in a lot of trouble if they lie about it. As Mark Twain said "Always tell the truth. That way you don't have to remember what you said."

7. Have Faith. The first time my son got an owie, I asked him if he needed a kiss. He nodded his little head and then kissed his hand. (Yes, I was laughing because he kissed his own hand). The next time he whacked his head with a toy, he kissed his hand and put it on his head. Both times, he quit crying. He's not too worried about getting hurt; he has faith that a little kiss can make things better.

8. Maintain Perspective. We have two kids, a mortgage, and my husband and I are both concerned about whether or not we'll have a job when/if the Oracle acquisition goes through. We have friends whose three year old is fighting an invasive form of cancer and is finishing 40 weeks of radiation and chemotherapy. Our kids are healthy; everything else is immaterial. Perspective.

Adultitis. Ugh - what a horrible thing to suffer! Sure, you can be responsible, but try wiping the rust from one or two of these traits and incorporate them into your daily life.

Admittedly, acting like a child may not be a good thing; approaching life with with the "bring it on" attitude that children tend to have, however, can make the difference between having a really crappy day at the office that negatively impacts everyone around you or having the ability to marvel at what a great day you've had the opportunity to experience.

In my job, I manage professional development programs for US employees.  Given current market conditions, I'm frequently asked about career development opportunities, and, as I was responding to the latest request, I decided to share with a wider audience some of my thoughts.

Most of the links in this post will be Sun internal links, so if you're reading this and you're not a Sun employee, I apologize up front for the inaccessibility of the links.  I hope you'll still get something out of the content though.

First thing's first - what do you mean by "career development" or "career resiliency?"  Dawn Mular posted about ITIL and Career Resiliency, and she outlined her strategy around career resiliency.  You need to do the same thing - defining career resiliency will help you decide what endeavors are most appropriate for your situation. 

If you need help doing that, check out the HR Career Services site - although the resource centers are no longer on campus (at least at Broomfield), the web site still has a great deal of information and usable worksheets.  Of particular value are the worksheets under Know Yourself, the PDF files under Know Your Environment, and the section called Create a Career Action Plan.  Know Yourself and Know Your Environment can help you determine your priorities and identify your growth opportunities (some people call these your "weaknesses").

Once you know what career resiliency means, look for opportunities to grow your skills.  You're probably thinking "that's pretty obvious - can you help me out a little more than that?"  Sure!  There's a myriad of free learning opportunities if you look around.  Here are some that I found:

• Women@Sun held a leadership series that covered a variety of topics around changes, career management and professional development.  MP3 and Presentation material are available for each presentation on the Women@Sun collab site:
• Life in Interesting Times - with Karie Willyerd
• Creating Your Personal Brand - with Karen Rohde
• What a Personal Board of Director Can Do For You - with Christine Bucklin
• Presenting Yourself in Various Cultures - with Lin Lee and Cindy Reese
• Sun Learning Services provides free access to web-based courses, all available through Sun's Learning Management System.  Although these classes are not specifically career management topics, they do provide skills that are both necessary for any career and transferable regardless of where someone is working or what he or she is doing:
  
• Thinking Strategically
• Preparing for Change
• Defining Emotional Intelligence
• Emotional Intelligence at Work
  
• The Fundamentals of Effective Thinking
• Views on Organizational Change
• Another resource that I absolutely love (and I don't think enough people know about it) is Books 24x7 - accessible through Sun's Digital Libraries.  If you're okay with saving lots of money by accessing books for free and reading them online, you may find the following books interesting:
  
• Resilience at Work: How to Succeed No Matter What Life Throws at You - by Salvatore R. Maddi and Deborah M. Khoshaba
• Managing Your Career for Dummies - by Max Messmer  (although some people may find the For Dummies series insulting, it provides a no-nonsense approach to career management)
• Career Development - by Tricia Jackson
• Business Book Reviews is also available through Sun's Digital Libraries (free for Sun employees) and contains short (8 pages) reviews of top business books.  Some reviews of interest are:
• The Change Cycle - by Ann Salerno and Lillie Brock
• The Connect Effect: Building Strong Personal, Professional and Virtual Networks - by Michael Dulworth
• How to Sell Yourself: Using Leadership, Likability and Luck to Succeed - by Arch Lustberg
• Outside of Sun, there are a even more opportunities to learn about career resiliency and develop career-long skills.  Googling "career resilience" and "career management" turned up some of the items below.  I also like to check out things like YouTube and other blogs to see what free stuff people are offering to promote their current work - sometimes it pays off!
  
• American Management Association offers free webcasts and records them for later playback.  Some of their webcasts do have a registration cost, so just be sure of which one you're selecting.  Some free ones include: 
  
• Network Your Way to Success: Tips and Techniques
• Emotional Intelligence: A Powerful Tool for Effective Management
• Agility and Resilience in the Face of Continuous Change
• Who's Got Your Back: Building Deep, Trusting Relationships that Create Success

• AMA Edgewise provides podcasts on various topics.  You can view their site for a complete list of podcasts.
• Free Management Library is an awesome resource for just about any job-related topic.  The Career Development section is located at http://www.managementhelp.org/career/career.htm but be sure to check out the home page as well.
• An interesting article turned up on How to Fireproof Your Career: Five Strategies for Worklife Survival
• And YouTube didn't disappoint!  Brian Moffit provides a video on Good Work NOW! #8: Career Resilience - focusing on the concepts of career resilience and providing ten tips for career resilience.

Obviously, if you have some money to work with, there are a ton of workshops, seminars, webinars, etc. that you might attend.  Free is good, though, and there are plenty of free resources out there.  So what other resources are out there?  What are you using to manage your career?  There's a whole list on this page that you can take advantage of, too!

When we talk about learning, a large piece that is sometimes overlooked (or is difficult to achieve) is the concept of performance support - that is, getting the right piece of information to the right person at the right time.  Rather than teach someone all the information he or she needs, it's sometimes better to teach people how to get the information.  Even Einstein is given credit for saying he never remembered anything he could look up in under two minutes.

Enter a web site called ErrorKey.  Basically, you enter an error code or error message, hit the Search button, and you get a detailed description of the error.  As I've said in prior posts I'm not a technical person, but I've got to think this would be a cool tool for those who are. 

What's even more impressive is the list of systems for which error codes are indexed:

Oracle	Sybase	Apple	Cisco 6400	Unix Solaris	Cisco IOS
DB2	MySQL	PostgreSQL	SAP DB	Borland C	PlayStation
SQL Server	SSAS	SSIS	SSRS	Crystal Reports	Nintendo Wii
Python	Visual Studio	Symbian	Mozilla	Windows NT	Outlook
Amazon S3	HTTP	Adobe Flash	ColdFusion	SilverLight	Google Urchin
C# .Net	JScript .Net	Visual Basic .Net	Informix

Give it a try.  You may be impressed enough (or be faced with enough error codes) that ErrorKey makes it to your bookmarks!

I recently finished a class on Crucial Conversations (Sun employees can view the internal class schedule) and was impressed with the content of the class.  It helps you identify conversations that are or will become sticking points in achieving success and lets you practice techniques in turning around the conversation to achieve a meaningful outcome for all people involved.

During the class, one of the concepts that we talked about was labeling people - HR folks, those engineers, bean counters - you get the picture.  In a side conversation, one of the people in class made the comment that they (specifically not specifying "he" or "she") really liked these kinds of classes, but their team was a bunch of technical guys - is that a label I hear?- and wouldn't like this kind of class at all.

What?  Wouldn't like to know how to recognize difficult conversations and walk into those conversations with confidence and a game plan for success? As Vizzini would say - Inconceivable!  Are technical people really so far removed from real life that they never have conversations?  With anyone?  (I'm being a little sarcastic simply because my husband is one of those "technical" people).

If you read my About section, you'll notice that I manage employee learning for the United States.  So, I'm curious - all you "technical people" out there at Sun - are you really interested in only technical courses, or are you interested in other classes that add to your repertoire of business skills?  If you are interested in other business skills, which ones are most important to you?

A colleague of mine asked me about ideas for teaming activities for virtual teams – that is, ways to reproduce the water cooler in a virtual environment. What I thought would be a quick Google search ended up being a bit more frustrating.

I found a lot of information on managing virtual teams. Not what I was looking for, but if you want the short version, it's:

• Make sure your team has a common vision and goals. If possible try to have a kick-off meeting in person to establish vision, goals and group norms.

• Gain commitment from team members. That in-person kick-off helps with that as everybody has a say in establishing the vision, goals and norms.

• Communicate, communicate, communicate. Did I mention communicate?

• Inclusion. A virtual team will likely create diverse viewpoints. Make sure that everyone has an opportunity to voice their opinions and provide input.

• Establish clear roles and responsibilities. This prevents people in four geographic areas from working the same problem, duplicating efforts and wasting resources.

Now that you have the highlights, back to my colleague's question. How do you create that “team environment” virtually? I am in no way pretending to be the expert here, but I did find some interesting ideas around tools and activities.

Productivity Tools

Make sure that you have good productivity tools. This is probably the number one rule for success of virtual teams. Remember that “good” is relative. What may work for one team won't necessarily work for another. Some common references to tools were:

1. Instant Messaging: Most companies will have some form of IM tool in place. These tools allow team members to communicate in real time with one another. Kolabora has a great article called Instant Messaging Tools and Technology: A Mini-Guide that outlines a variety of tools – most of them free – including features and capabilities of each

2. Web Conferencing capabilities: Web Conferencing allows you to have a conference room type of meeting over your computer. Most of these offer chat, whiteboards, application sharing, etc. to make your team feel more involved in the action. The Center for Learning & Performance Technology has a great list of Screen Sharing & Web Conferencing Tools.

3. Skype: If you need to conduct video calls between team members, Skype is the way to go. Not only is it free, but the quality of calls is pretty good as well. Just remember that people on your virtual team need to have a video camera on their computer for this to work!

4. Facebook: Create a group on Facebook for your team. I admit, I'm a new user to Facebook, so I don't have a lot of details on what you can or can't do with Facebook. I did see quite a few references to using Facebook to keep in touch with your team, however.

5. Internal Wiki site or web site: Depending upon your company's internal tools, you may be able to set up a web site or wiki site for your team to share things like a calendar, to-do lists, documents, discussion strings, etc. Based upon some quick browsing on my part, wiki sites tend to be more popular as team members can add and update information without dealing with HTML.

Virtual Team Activities

So you've got some tools in place, but what can you actually do to ensure that your team feels a sense of camaraderie? How about some of these?

1. Video Conference

Try to hold a video conference at least quarterly so people can “see” one another. If you have people based at home, they can use Skype (see Tools section above). People based on a corporate campus can use a video equipped conference room.

2. Online Scavenger Hunt

Come up with a list of 15-20 things that people need to find online (related to the team's goal, a current project, or something else). Divide the team into small groups, making sure office and home based people are mixed. Have prizes for various things: fastest to complete hunt; most interesting presentation found; most interesting video found, etc.

3. Host a Teleconference Lunch

Everyone dials in for a phone call during lunch where no “work” related talk is allowed. People could share one non-work related goal/interest. You do need to make sure that people on the phone have opportunities to talk. It sounds kind of crazy, but a group of my friends had to resort to this one for a baby shower when the mom was on bed rest in another state. It worked!

4. Expertise Arena

On your team collaboration site (facebook, wiki, web page, etc), list each team member and his or her top 3 areas of expertise. Encourage other team members to use their co-workers' expertise when solving problems.

5. Recipe Exchange/Holiday Report

To foster understanding of other team members' cultures, have each team member provide a recipe that their family enjoys at a particular holiday. Team members may also want to share the importance of that holiday.

6. Idea Day

Give each team member a half day where they can explore something of interest. At your weekly team meeting (because you are having a weekly team meeting, right?), pick 2-3 people to share what they learned on their half-day.

7. Getting to Know You

Prior to a team meeting, have everyone provide some piece of information about themselves. At the meeting, have a person read the description and allow team members to match the person to the description. Some ideas include a favorite hobby, a favorite superhero and why it's a favorite, the best book that you've ever read and why; your favorite job and why, etc.

8. E-Cards

Send team members an e-card for reaching team milestones or personal milestones (e.g. projects completed; promotions; publications; patents granted; birthdays; anniversaries; birth of children, etc.)

9. On-Line GeoCaching Game

Instead of using GSP positions, have each team member identify a cache location and provide clues (written or pictures). Other team members need to find the cache. Progress and results can be tracked on the team wiki (or other collaboration site). Check out the Official Geocaching Site or Wikipedia if you've never heard of geocaching.

10. Online Gaming

Get team members together to play an online game – World of Warcraft, Fantasy Football, etc.

I also found a book that I think has potential - More Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers by Brian Cole Miller. The reason I liked this book is because every activity has ideas for adapting the activity for virtual teams. I didn't read the book in its entirety, but, as I said, I think it has potential. By the way, if your company has access to Books24x7, this book may be available through that site.

I know that this is not anywhere close to comprehensive, so tell me – if you work with or manage a virtual team, what do you do to make sure the water cooler exists?

“I don't care if you create the best training in the world.  If it doesn't change behavior, it doesn't do me any good.”

These words were spoken to me by an executive vice president at an undisclosed company.  I wanted to argue that if the training was the “best in the world,” it would actually be designed to change behavior and would undoubtedly cost more to create and evaluate than he was willing to fund (which, by the way, was $0).

The comment got me thinking, though.  How many of us expect to have a learning path handed to us and be told “This is what you need to do and how you need to do it?"  If you check off the boxes, will you be successful?  I doubt it.

On the other hand, how many of us spend time researching topics that interest us, engaging in communities at work or on the web around those topics, and explore options that will allow us to continually expand our knowledge.  What is it that makes this person completely different from the person who wants the checklist?  And, perhaps more importantly, how can we encourage or enable the checklist person to be more of an explorer?  Further, are there characteristics of each that should be emulated?

I am convinced that learning does not have to take place in a classroom.  There are a variety of sources – free seminars (or webinars), social networking sites, interest groups at work, programs through professional organizations, blogs, etc. - that will allow us to learn and develop as individuals, co-workers and general human beings.  We as individuals, though, need to be responsible and accountable for our learning.  Yes, a classroom may be appropriate for some things.  Heck, even a checklist is appropriate at times.

Challenge yourself to be responsible for your learning and accountable to yourself for expanding your knowledge.  My bet is that you'll be more engaged in what you're doing and more valuable to your employer.  Yes, we may be able to create the best training in the world, but it's up to each individual to consume and internalize what's out there.

Yes, it's that time of year.  Again.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it (not that you have a choice) is to create your annual development plan.  Surprisingly (said with a lot of sarcasm), most people create their annual development plan about two or three days before their annual review.  Somehow, that seems a bit wrong!

Unfortunately, I think this happens because most people look at a development plan as just another thing to do and just some more boxes to check off at the end of the year.  How many times have you thought "I don't have a clue what class I want to go to this year.  Heck, I don't even want to go to a class this year.  Who needs a development plan anyway?"  

Here's a thought:  It doesn't have to be this way!!

If you read my previous post, you read about the two questions - what do you want to do with your life, and what can you offer the world that nobody else can?  If you read the manifesto in its entirety, you may have even looked at your 1-year, 5-year and lifetime goals.  If that's the case, use your need to create a development plan to re-evaluate those goals and make sure you're on track with what you want to achieve.

Employee development doesn't have to be just attending a class and checking a box at the end of the year.  Check out this list of 30 ideas for development activities.  You might just find something that is interesting to you!  

1. Attend a local, regional or national conference. Be sure to bring your findings back to your team. MANAGERS: Make sure you provide the opportunity for sharing to occur.
2. Present at a local, regional or national conference.
3. If your company has an internal conference (user groups, engineering conference, etc), apply to present at that.  Actually present if accepted.
4. Complete a course at your local university or at an online university.
5. Finish your undergraduate or masters degree.
6. Write an article for a professional publication or organization.  Be sure to check the submission requirements for the publication!
7. Join a professional organization and attend a local chapter meeting or seminar.
8. Attend a seminar or workshop offered outside of your company.
9. Teach a TOI (transfer of information), Lunch & Learn or something similar for your team or another team in your organization.
10. Create a video on a topic of your expertise and post it to your internal platform (Sun employees can use the Sun Learning Exchange)
11. Review 2-3 journals or magazines every month to monitor industry trends.  You can access many journals through EBSCO Host - commonly available in public libraries with your library card.
12. Read Harvard Business Review or California Management Review to understand business trends.  Both of these can be accessed through EBSCO Host as well.
13. Pick out a top business book - read it and discuss it with your manager.  This would be a great opportunity to take your manager out for a cup of coffee to get his or her undivided attention.
14. Select a technical book to review.  Discuss it with your team, your manager, or your mentor.
15. Mentor another person.
16. Ask someone to be your mentor.
17. Volunteer on the board or a committee of a professional organization
18. Google free webinar <insert topic> and see if there's a free webinar that interests you.  Attend and share what you learned with your team.
19. Start a blog to share your thoughts with others.
20. Participate in an online community - respond to a blog, start a group on LinkedIn or Facebook, etc.
21. Attend an instructor led class offered through your company.
22. Attend a web-based class offered through your company.
23. Engage with local colleges to be a guest speaker or host a workshop on campus.
24. Participate in Sun Technology Fairs at local campuses.  (Okay, this is really targeted toward Sun employees, but, hey, that's what I am!  You could adapt this to "participate in career fairs (or something similar) at your local colleges).
25. Look for volunteer opportunities with state and local government agencies to provide IT help.
26. Plan a technology fair, science fair or something similar for your company.  Recruit people to present and share ideas.
27. Join an open source project and get involved in the product development, forums, or aliases.
28. If you have a Masters degree, check with a local university or college about becoming and adjunct professor (sometimes called a contract or network instructor).
29. Volunteer to teach computer skills (or your area of expertise) at a Senior Citizens Center.
30. Ask your local school districts if they offer any kind of special event around kids and technology.  Volunteer at that event.
31. BONUS 1: Coordinate an internal conference where best practices can be shared for a team within your company - a sales conference for sales people; an IT conference for your technical team, etc.
32. BONUS 2: Volunteer to teach a class at a local Recreation Center or Community Center.
33. BONUS 3: Apply to teach classes for a continuing education program (typically offered through local universities or community colleges).

Okay, so I gave you a list of 33 when the title promised 30.  Sorry about that, but once I go started, I just couldn't stop.  Consider it a gift!  :)

As you can see, there are many more options for "development" than just attending a class.  If you have other ideas that should be added to this list, please leave a comment in order to share with everyone else.  Hey, then you can add #20 to your plan!

Happy planning! 

Apologies to Nike, but they were not the first to use the phrase “Just do it!” It's a phrase I heard often growing up as I had an older brother who wasn't afraid to double and triple-dog dare me.

It's a phrase one of my Russian gymnastics coaches used to get me to do the tumbling pass that scared me. Although, Boris made it sound more like “DOOOOT!”

It's a phrase I heard when I was standing at the end of a diving board after my swimming instructor said the diving board was just like the vault in gymnastics. Just for the record, you run a lot faster and harder for the vault than you need to for the diving board. Yea, you get the picture – the dive was pretty; the ending wasn't!

And it's now a phrase I'm hearing as I contemplate jumping into that bigger pool of blogging. So why bother? I think that I might have something meaningful to contribute to the conversation around the importance of learning to improve yourself, those around around you and your organization or company. The scary part is that you'll be the judge of that – not me. So, let's get started, shall we?

++++++

This time around, I'm hitting the topic of personal improvement.

Last week I found a manifesto with a catchy title: A Brief Guide to World Domination (and other important goals) – How to Live a Remarkable Life in a Conventional World. Who wouldn't want to read that? Chris Guillebeau, the author, believes that you can achieve remarkable personal goals, help others at the same time, and do so in a way that challenges conventional belief that mediocrity is good enough.

In doing so, Chris puts forth two challenging questions:
1) What do you really want to get out of life?
2) What else can you offer the world that no one else can?

I found myself nodding in agreement as Chris talked about setting 1-year, 5-year and lifetime goals and how they can help define the answer to question one. I found myself agreeing as Chris introduced examples of people who were really living a remarkable life and helping others at the same time – Randy Pausch, professor extraordinaire ; Sam Thompson, ultra marathon runner, and Matt and Jessica Flanery, founders of kiva.org.

The overriding message in the manifesto is that you don't have to live your life the way other people expect you to. Other people will tell you that “it” (whatever your “it” is) can't be done, or that you need more experience, or that you need (fill in the blank). These are the gatekeepers – the people who want you to remain conventional and unremarkable. You can listen to these people, or you can listen to yourself.

Chris does provide 11 tips on remaining unremarkably average. Four of my favorites are:

• Accept what people tell you at face value
• Don't question authority
• Don't stand out or draw attention to yourself
• Jump through hoops; Check off boxes 

If you're still with me, you're probably intrigued by this manifesto as well. I guess that means you have an inner desire to be remarkable and a bit unconventional. Read the manifesto, answer the questions, complete the Ideal World exercise. Determine what it is you need to do to live a remarkable life.

What you choose isn't the most important thing – what's important is that you pick something and then just do it.