Sims Learning Connections

The fourth in my summer vacation reading for books previously started, but never finished. I began reading The Art of Possibility (paperback edition) in January prompted by IBM’s DeveloperWorks December 2006 interview with the authors. Bottom-line up-front: I found the book more in the self-help genre with less line-of-sight business application than I had hoped for after listening to the IBM interview as a podcast. Still, I found some useful concepts and the book is a quick read if you can get past a few of the more tedious application examples.

The book is organized around twelve “practices” for creating possibilities. The book includes a quick-reference “guide to the stories” as an appendix; however, this only points to page numbers within the text without summarizing the actual practice. To assist with my own retention and to make a quicker quick-reference guide, I created this mindmap. Then, since I found the original presentation order feeling disjointed, I went a step further with an organizational attempt by creating a one-page process flow. I’m not fully satisfied with this attempt and, like my earlier process flow for my personal learning environment, I’m not suggesting that application would literally be this linear or sequential.

In addition to the IBM interview, part of my interest in reading the book was to find public domain content that mirrored the “generative coaching” model from a consultant I worked with in my former day-job. I did find a few similarities in Zander’s writing to my earlier training in this area — especially in “the way things are,” “lighting a spark,” “frameworks for possibility” (practices 7, 9, and 11 respectively); however, on balance, the book was more in the same spirit than in the same framework.

Since finishing reading the book last week I’ve been working with “Giving an A” to all I come in contact. This practice, along with the “it is all invented” practice reminded me Chris Argyris’s Ladder of Inference, which (greatly simplified) nets to “we see what we want to see.” Here there is also some connection to earlier Learning blogosphere conversation regarding what assumptions we make about our learners and if we are working in a deficit-based model (alas, at the moment, I’m challenged to find my way back to that thread.)

There are also other similarities and connections to Peter Senge’s writing with Practice 2, “Stepping into a Universe of Possibility,” where the Zanders ask”How are my thoughts and actions, in this moment, reflections of the measurement world?” (p.22) and in Presence:

The problem is not measurement per se. The problem is the loss of balance between valuing what can be measured and what cannot, and becoming so dependent on quantitative measures that they displace judgment and learning. When this happens, you see managers ‘driving’ organizations to meet quantitative goals set at the top, with little serious effort to build new capacities required to achieve sustainable levels of improved performance. (p.198)

Another connection to Presence is Zanders “Giving Way to Passion,” Practice 8, and the Senge et al.’s ‘surrendering control’ where “by letting go, they could allow something truly new to emerge” (p. 97) along with ‘surrendering into commitment’ where “starting up the right-hand side [of the 'U model'] the self turns into a source through which the future begins to emerge.” (p.103)

Closing note: There is just one more rediscovery book still to finish for now (“What Customers Want,” by Anthony Ulwick) — this time at home, having now returned from our nearly three-week road-trip visiting immediate family. After this, I also plan to circle-back and write a top-few most important points (for me) for the first three in response to Tony Karrer’s comment on my previous post.