Thursday, March 31, 2016

GUEST BLOG POST: Get Over Four Fears And Reclaim Your Creative Confidence — Tom Kelley and David Kelley

Image credits: Concordia university (d3center.ca)

By Tom Kelley and David Kelley

Most people are born creative. As children, we revel in imaginary play, ask outlandish questions, draw blobs and call them dinosaurs. But over time, because of socialization and formal education, a lot of us start to stifle those impulses. We learn to be warier of judgment, more cautious, more analytical. The world seems to divide into "creatives" and "noncreatives," and too many people consciously or unconsciously resign themselves to the latter category.

And yet we know that creativity is essential to success in any discipline or industry. According to a recent IBM survey of chief executives around the world, it’s the most sought-after trait in leaders today. No one can deny that creative thinking has enabled the rise and continued success of countless companies, from start-ups like Facebook and Google to stalwarts like Procter & Gamble and General Electric.

Students often come to Stanford University’s "d.school" (which was founded by one of us—David Kelley—and is formally known as the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design) to develop their creativity. Clients work with IDEO, our design and innovation consultancy, for the same reason. But along the way, we’ve learned that our job isn’t to teach them creativity. It’s to help them rediscover their creative confidence—the natural ability to come up with new ideas and the courage to try them out. We do this by giving them strategies to get past four fears that hold most of us back: fear of the messy unknown, fear of being judged, fear of the first step, and fear of losing control.

Easier said than done, you might argue. But we know it’s possible for people to overcome even their most deep-seated fears. Consider the work of Albert Bandura, a world-renowned psychologist and Stanford professor. In one series of early experiments, he helped people conquer lifelong snake phobias by guiding them through a series of increasingly demanding interactions. They would start by watching a snake through a two-way mirror. Once comfortable with that, they’d progress to observing it through an open door, then to watching someone else touch the snake, then to touching it themselves through a heavy leather glove, and, finally, in a few hours, to touching it with their own bare hands. Bandura calls this process of experiencing one small success after another "guided mastery." The people who went through it weren’t just cured of a crippling fear they had assumed was untreatable. They also had less anxiety and more success in other parts of their lives, taking up new and potentially frightening activities like horseback riding and public speaking. They tried harder, persevered longer, and had more resilience in the face of failure. They had gained a new confidence in their ability to attain what they set out to do.

We’ve used much the same approach over the past 30 years to help people transcend the fears that block their creativity. You break challenges down into small steps and then build confidence by succeeding on one after another. Creativity is something you practice, not just a talent you’re born with. The process may feel a little uncomfortable at first, but—as the snake phobics learned—the discomfort quickly fades away and is replaced with new confidence and capabilities.
Fear of the Messy Unknown
Creative thinking in business begins with having empathy for your customers (whether they’re internal or external), and you can’t get that sitting behind a desk. Yes, we know it’s cozy in your office. Everything is reassuringly familiar; information comes from predictable sources; contradictory data are weeded out and ignored. Out in the world, it’s more chaotic. You have to deal with unexpected findings, with uncertainty, and with irrational people who say things you don’t want to hear. But that is where you find insights—and creative breakthroughs. Venturing forth in pursuit of learning, even without a hypothesis, can open you up to new information and help you discover nonobvious needs. Otherwise, you risk simply reconfirming ideas you’ve already had or waiting for others—your customers, your boss, or even your competitors—to tell you what to do.

At the d.school, we routinely assign students to do this sort of anthropological fieldwork—to get out of their comfort zones and into the world—until, suddenly, they start doing it on their own. Consider a computer scientist, two engineers, and an MBA student, all of whom took the Extreme Affordability class taught by Stanford business school professor Jim Patell. They eventually realized that they couldn’t complete their group project—to research and design a low-cost incubator for newborn babies in the developing world—while living in safe, suburban California. So they gathered their courage and visited rural Nepal. Talking with families and doctors firsthand, they learned that the babies in gravest danger were those born prematurely in areas far from hospitals. Nepalese villagers didn’t need a cheaper incubator at the hospital—they needed a fail-safe way to keep babies warm when they were away from doctors who could do so effectively. Those insights led the team to design a miniature “sleeping bag” with a pouch containing a special heat-storing wax. The Embrace Infant Warmer costs 99% less than a traditional incubator and can maintain the right temperature for up to six hours without an external power source. The innovation has the potential to save millions of low-birth-weight and premature babies every year, and it came about only because the team members were willing to throw themselves into unfamiliar territory.
O'Conor and Stein

Another example comes from two students, Akshay Kothari and Ankit Gupta, who took the d.school’s Launchpad course. The class required them to start a company from scratch by the end of the 10-week academic quarter. Both were self-described “geeks”—technically brilliant, deeply analytical, and definitely shy. But they opted to work on their project—an elegant news reader for the then–newly released iPad—off-campus in a Palo Alto café where they’d be surrounded by potential users. Getting over the awkwardness of approaching strangers, Akshay gathered feedback by asking café patrons to experiment with his prototypes. Ankit coded hundreds of small variations to be tested each day—changing everything from interaction patterns to the size of a button. In a matter of weeks they rapidly iterated their way to a successful product. "We went from people saying, ‘This is crap,’" says Akshay, "to ‘Is this app preloaded on every iPad?’" The result—Pulse News—received public praise from Steve Jobs at a worldwide developer’s conference only a few months later, has been downloaded by 15 million people, and is one of the original 50 apps in Apple’s App Store Hall of Fame.
Tom Kelley is the general manager of IDEO and the author of The Ten Faces of Innovation (Currency/Doubleday, 2005). He is an executive fellow at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and at the University of Tokyo. David Kelley is the founder and chairman of IDEO and the founder of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, where he is the Donald W. Whittier Professor in Mechanical Engineering.
A version of this was originally published in Harvard Business Review

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

GUEST BLOG POSTS: Defining Global Skills And How They Translate To The Workplace — Pamela Ruiz & How High-Performing Nations Teach Global Skills — Heather Singmaster

EDITOR’S NOTE: There is a recognition of the impact of globalization on the skills agenda and increasing engagement with areas such as international partnerships and the environment, insufficient priority has been given to equipping learners to develop the skills to make sense of what globalization means to them and how the potentially negative threats of this agenda can be transformed into positive and constructive experiences and engagement. A major topic for further discussion is which areas come within the discourse on ‘global skills.’ To some it could be seen as being about skills around the world or, more specifically, skills within the framework of globalization. Some would see ‘global skills’ as being about promoting and exporting national skills globally. There is also the relationship between global skills and sustainable skills; and between global skills and intercultural skills. For those from a development education background, the term is most likely to be related to skills concerning global issues and processes.
This blog outlines the following as the key elements for global skills:
o  An ability to communicate with people from a range of social and cultural backgrounds
o  An ability to work within teams of people from a range of backgrounds and other countries
o  Openness to a range of voices and perspectives from around the world
o  Willingness to resolve problems and seek solutions
o  Recognition and understanding of the impact of global forces on people’s lives
o   Willingness to play an active role in society at local, natural and international level.

Image credit: Employability Skills White Paper – www.bliip.com
Defining Global Skills And How They Translate To The Workplace — Pamela Ruiz
Why study, work, or volunteer abroad? For a student, the answers to this are many: to learn another language; to confirm one’s identity; to see another part of the world. An ever increasing reason to go abroad is to give the student a leg up over his or her peers upon graduation and into a career. How can the global skills attained while abroad translate into career skills? What are “global skills” anyway?

Some define global skills specifically as having to do with international, cultural or linguistic knowledge. While that may be true, global skills can mean so much more than that. When an individual spends time abroad and immerses his or herself into another culture, that person is not only learning the language and culture, but also about his or herself. One learns to adapt and be flexible in new situations. One learns that the best results come from listening and trying to understand before acting. One learns that communication goes beyond the spoken word. Perhaps the most useful lesson is that the new way to do something may not be better or worse, just different.

“Global skills” are not just for those going into the international/intercultural fields anymore, on the contrary; global skills are a requirement for all job seekers. More often that not, an individual will work with someone with a different background, even if they are both from the same country. No two people are alike, therefore in the workplace those that have confidence, flexibility, adaptation skills and the ability to work with all types of people are the ones who prove to be most successful. All of the above could also be used to describe a leader.

Confidence is gained as a student is continuously put in new and unfamiliar situations. Don’t know the language? “No problem, as long as I give it my best shot. My peers study/work/function differently than I do, and I am learning to study and work with them.” Immersing oneself in a new culture allows a student to study or work with others within a team – others that may have grown up with different socio-economic, religious, familial, or educational values. The problem-solving and adaptation skills required to succeed overseas are just the skills that hiring manager and savvy corporations require of new graduates.

Acquisition of global skills are not limited to those that have the wherewithal to travel abroad. As universities around the globe grasp the importance of campus internationalization, students are given many opportunities to enhance their skills without ever leaving their home country. International exchange students or international interns introduce host students to the world beyond just by their presence in their classrooms, dorms, and study groups, and the different ways of doing things.

There are challenges to the translation of global skills to career skills. First, students must embrace available international and intercultural opportunities, whether abroad or on their own campuses. Next, students, guided by career centers, professors, and parents, must process and understand how they have changed and have the confidence and skills to communicate what they have learned and can accomplish in the future. Finally, more hiring managers must see the value in international experience and how it equals what they are seeking in new hires. Students can ensure that their resumes are on top of the pile not only by stating that they studied or worked abroad, but by giving specific examples in a well-written cover letter of flexibility, leadership and confidence to step outside of their comfort zones.

Creativity School Post Logo – NAIJAGRAPHITTI ImageBank

(RichVintage/istockphoto)
How High-Performing Nations Teach Global Skills — Heather Singmaster
Education specialists have been looking to practices in other countries for quite some time. Many of the questions remain unchanged: What explains the Finland phenomenon? What is it about Singaporean math? And how did Shanghai close the staggering achievement gap?

A far deeper question is starting to emerge: how do high-achieving nations teach global skills? Some of the best education systems in the world have implemented reforms specifically so that their rising generation is ready for the global economy.

Here is a summary of what four nations have done:

China
In China, there was a major overhaul of the education system in the mid-1990s. World history and world geography became a standard part of the curriculum and English became mandatory beginning in elementary school. As Chinese State Councilor Liu Yandong stated, "The Chinese government always encourages the public, especially the youth, to learn foreign languages, and through the learning, they are enlightened on the diversified cultures around the world."

China is currently involved in another round of education reform, the 2020 education reform plan, which will update the curriculum to meet real-world needs. For instance, math will no longer emphasize a student's response time and the need to memorize complex and seldom-used formulas. In science, inauthentic demonstrations, calculations, and drills will be replaced with student experiments in real-world applications, including an emphasis on new energy, health, and conservation.

China also has announced a new plan to send 50,000 principals to study successful schools in other countries in order to gain new perspectives and learn best practices.

Singapore
In 2010, the Singapore Ministry of Education announced a plan to strengthen their curriculum around a framework of 21st century competencies. The framework includes global literacy and cross-cultural skills. There are many similarities to the new definition of global competence recently launched by Asia Society and CCSSO, including effective communication, the ability to ask questions, work in teams, and be informed about one's own country and the world. This is an excerpt:

Competencies for a Changing World:

o   Confident person who has a strong sense of right and wrong, is adaptable and resilient, knows himself, is discerning in judgment, thinks independently and critically, and communicates effectively.
o   Self-directed learner who questions, reflects, perseveres, and takes responsibility for his own learning.
o  Active contributor who is able to work effectively in teams, is innovative, exercises initiative, takes calculated risks, and strives for excellence.
o   Concerned citizen who is rooted to Singapore, has a strong sense of civic responsibility, is informed about Singapore and the world, and takes an active part in bettering the lives of others around him.

A key element of The Ministry of Education's plan to implement these skills includes strengthening the curriculum in classes such as physical education, art, and music. The Ministry believes these courses are integral to a holistic education and enable students to enhance their creative and expressive capacities, and shape their personal, cultural, and social identity. Additionally, there is a greater emphasis on participation in extracurricular activities to help students learn the value of excellence and teamwork.

OECD data shows that parent involvement is critical to a good education. Singapore has taken this advice and ensures that parents play a critical role as partners. Starting in 2012, all parents will be provided with a "Holistic Development Profile," which will keep them updated on their child's progress in developing these 21st century competencies.

Korea
In Korea, in addition to core subjects like math and science, students are required to take world geography, world history, physical education, arts, and music. English has been required since 1945.

The government is working to improve teachers' ability to teach for a global knowledge economy. For instance, the government provides Korean and American teachers opportunities for exchange and training utilizing the differences in Korean (winter break) and U.S. (summer break) school vacation calendars.

The Korean government also provides outstanding graduates from teachers' colleges with field training in overseas schools. They offer financial support for teachers to complete professional education courses and to obtain teaching certification in that country.

One example is an exchange with Bloomfield College in New Jersey. American math and science teachers spend their summers in classrooms in Korea. Meanwhile, Korean elementary school math and science teachers come to the United States and co-teach in American classrooms for six months. Korean teachers also have the option of gaining a teaching license in the United States so they can stay to help to alleviate the shortage of math and science teachers. The Korean teachers also benefit because there are currently too many Korean math and science teachers looking for posts in Korea. It gives U.S. teachers an opportunity to learn about teaching methods of math and science in Korea—a country that consistently performs at the top of the PISA math and science rankings.

India
India is not an OECD high-performing country. There is a vast disparity in quality and access to education, a gap the government is trying to close. Despite this larger challenge, the government has realized that preparing students for the global economy is important and must be a part of their reform efforts. In September, the government announced a new pilot program (that is starting out on a very small scale), which will include less emphasis on memorization and put more on analytic and communications skills, as well as a global focus in the curriculum.

Students will study three languages instead of two (currently they must take English and Hindi or a local language). Literature from around the world and world history will be required. There will be less focus on textbooks, and an increased focus on project-based learning, service learning, discussions, and experiments as well as international business communication and technology skills.

These are all strategies that the Nigerian school system can explore and adapt.

Originally published in Melibee Global and in Asia Society Org