I would like to consider how incubation is necessary for learning.
It takes a hen about 21 days to incubate her eggs. In a mere three weeks you go from from something you would scramble in a pan to something that will get up and run away.

Incubation is essential to imagine. A profound question may be met by silence because people need time to think. The inexperienced discussion leader will confuse this silence with disinterest and answer their own question.
We need to let ideas percolate and some ideas require the inconvenient gestation of months and years.
I must build in margin to allow for learning to sit even a day or two and come back to it.
The amazing thing about incubation is that it happens by itself. No extreme effort is needed. I do need to be organized enough to have the time to let it happen.

In my thinking, imagination in learning is fed by stimulation, incubation, practice, permisssion and protection. I am sure there are more factors to add. But I would like to look at these one by one.

Stimulation can come from anywhere:
A word, a quote, an image, a need, an idea, even a bad one.
For me stimulation is a social phenomenon where other’s creativity stimulates my imagination. (I am most inspired to draw after I visit an art gallery.)
Sometimes if I can just start something, that is enough stimulation to make imagination flow.
Sometimes changing the order of things stimulates imagination. (Like taking the last sentence I write in a paragraph and putting it first.)

What stimulates your imagination to help you learn?

Thomas Friedman said that “Big breakthroughs happen when what is suddenly possible meets what is desperately necessary“.

Here are 5 reasons why we are living in a timer of big breakthroughs in learning:

• We can now deliver real choices to learners who can manage their own journey. These are not multiple choice options, but complex self-directed possibilities.
• A world-wide seamless collaboration is doable as never before. Geography matters less and less.
• We now have tools to scale-up quicker while still maintaining quality feedback. Especially if we can give control to the learner.
• People have increasing worldwide access to bandwidth and mobile devices. They pay for it, and maintain it so the infrastructure is in place.
• There is a hunger for change in learning. People are craving experiences and not just information. They are tired of being managed and want to take action

How to make the perfect cup of herbal tea. Take these homegrown ingredients: a teaspoon of fennel seeds for flavour, add a hot pepper for zing and some Stevia leaves for sweetness. This tea has intense flavour, gets your attention and leaves a pleasant sweetness in your mouth.

This is the way I like my learning. Not insipid or dull, with enough picante to make me notice and enough sweetness to make me want to repeat the experience.

Stevia leaves by the way are 30 to 45 times sweeter than table sugar and have been used for millennia by the Guaraní in South America with their Maté. I never tried it till this year. It really makes me wonder how many things are out there that if added to my learning, could have revolutionary results, yet simple enough that I could “grow in my own garden”.

How to make the perfect cup of herbal tea. Take these homegrown ingredients: a teaspoon of fennel seeds for flavour, add a hot pepper for zing and some Stevia leaves for sweetness. This tea has intense flavour, gets your attention and leaves a pleasant sweetness in your mouth.

This is the way I like my learning. Not insipid or dull, with enough picante to make me notice and enough sweetness to make me want to repeat the experience.

Stevia leaves by the way are 30 to 45 times sweeter than table sugar and have been used for millennia by the Guaraní in South America with their Maté. I never tried it till this year. It really makes me wonder how many things are out there that if added to my learning, could have revolutionary results, yet simple enough that I could “grow in my own garden”.

I have been thinking about the speed in words per minute of our audio training components for people whose English is not their native tongue. This is an increasing probability in our globalized culture.
 
One ESL website uses this rubric for speed of comprehension:
From very slow to fast is 116 words per minute to 201.
 
I then analyzed four speakers we used in a recent Articulate presentation: (dividing the number of words in the script by the total length of presentation)
 
As you can see we are ranging from very slow to fast! The funny thing is that I didn’t hear the difference in speed until I did the analysis. For me it is a call to action to try to slow down my audio which is a challenge because I want this to fit into 1 minute

Suppose we could pick only 5 verbs that would universally help us learn socially. What would they be? Let me propose some and you then tell me how they can be improved.

• Imagine. Instead of telling students what they should learn, help them imagine what they would want to learn. Help them see the cathedral in the rock pile and then let them loose.
• Connect. What happens if 2 or 3 imaginations really get in sync? People who are really willing to do something about it. Then perhaps we see the truth in Sam Walton’s saying: “Our best ideas come from clerks and stockboys”.
• Risk. Ideas plus connection must lead to risk. We must try stuff. T.S Elliot said ”Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
• Reflect. Then we need to think about what we just experienced. By proactive reflection we can avoid the bitterness of which Confucius spoke: By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
• Celebrate. Celebration makes us like children where we are reminded that our hands are full of games, dreams and fantasies. When we celebrate what was learned it becomes easier to imagine what comes next.

Imagine, Connect, Risk, Reflect, Celebrate. What do you propose if you could pick only 5 universal verbs for learning?

I have been thinking a lot about social learning, what we could call the learning that comes from the use of social media and the impact it has on the job, in our service organizations and our social networks:
 
“Social learning is not just the technology of social media [but it]… connects people in ways that make learning a joy…that interest and energize us…. Social learning thrives in a culture of service and wonder. It is inspired by leaders, enabled by technology and ignited by opportunities that have only recently unfolded.”Marcia Conner
 
 
There are things happening that will release people to learn and connect in new ways which we are only now discovering as we go along. It will be interesting to see how this will affect other forms of learning.
 
So when you use Twitter, LinkedIn ,Facebook or whatever, observe how you are learning, what works, how you are becoming more selective and what release you in learning new things.
 

http://www.fastcompany.com/1546824/where-social-learning-thrives

The other day two squirrels got into our house and started raising havoc. They knocked over plants, ran around, chewed in the walls and all of us were getting desperate to get them outside. At one point the nervous tension was just too much for them and one of them chewed the laces off my shoe.

I was glad it was an old pair and not the leather couch but I marvelled how they just had to do something that really didn’t solve their problem at all.

So here is my point about learning. Sometimes we who construct learning exercises just have to get the participants to do something so we get them to chew the shoes instead of solving the real problem. Busy work. Hoop jumping. Fill-in-the-obvious.

I want learning exercises that help me: try out new ideas and think out-loud; practice the skills I need to learn; connect me to others, reflect on my progress and inspire me to continue the change process.

I did get the squirrels out alive and I hope we both learned our lesson.

There is a tool called “the Rule of the Power of Five” designed to help get one’s Butt into Gear.
It is for all the supervisors who want to get their employees to do something.
It is for all the wives who want to get their husbands going on a project.
It is for those without work who have given up looking for a job.
It is for teenagers to get out of bed on time and to pick up their clothes.
Actually I don’t know if the Rule of the Power of 5 can do any of those things. But it does help me when I feel paralyzed because I do not know what to do next.
The Rule of the Power of 5 is designed according to the following specifications:
It needs to fit on 1 page, it needs to be flexible but not be too painful to use, it needs to be useful even if only some of the questions are answered , and most of all it needs to get a person moving!
Where are you stuck on something and can’t get going on a learning project? Do you know how you will feel if you try the Rule of the Power of 5?