James Beard Awards 2013 Winners The Perennial Plate

The winners of the 2013 James Beard Foundation book, broadcast and journalism awards announced Friday and along with all the major news services Educated Change is proud to be a fan and supporter of Mirra Fine and Daniel Klein Perennial Plate @perennnialplate for winning the 2013 award.  Announced Live by Eater Live blog and Associated Press

8:23 WINNER Video Webcast On Location: The Perennial Plate, Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine.

This is one of their recent videos about the Tsunami in 2004 that hit Sri Lanka killed 8 members of this small fishing family. And yet today, they still fish (either on stilts or in a boat) because they have to do it to survive. The family lives in a small hut with a back \"window\" that opens onto the ocean -- the same sea that gives life also takes it away.

Well done Fine-Klein and to Intrepid Travel that supports your work and world tour 

Jazz and Collaborative Education

The jazz group finishes, instruments are down and they offer each other a form of “well done, the sax player says “they were in the pocket” – a tiny phrase that conveys so much accomplishment. That set, that jazz combo created an astonishing amount of spontaneous creativity and utilizes a level of collaboration that would be the envy of any business structure.

How can we learn the Five Principles of Creative Collaboration by having an “in the pocket experience”: Understanding Theme and Variation, Creative Risk Taking, Make A Mistake And Play It Twice, Come Prepared To Play and Play The Other Guy's Instrument – or as its known as in corporate speak “cross boundary collaboration”.

In the jazz world you shake off the routine and try something different. The sax player realizes he is playing the same solo piece every time. But tonight he decides to interpret the solo as if he were a drummer! He chooses limited pitches and begins to attack it with every rhythmic pattern he can imagine. At first his band mates wonder what he’s doing but soon they catch on in their individual ways, supporting and reinforcing the idea – the song takes on a new life! By the end his “solo” the entire ensemble has experienced a moment of innovation & collaboration, all by taking the notion of playing the other guy’s instrument.

Now shift to the business context? Normal day, I was stumped and could not solve the problem. I wandered down the hallway to a different department to explore. I described and discussed my problem, a critical piece of information tumbled out as I looked at it from a new perspective, risked being open with people that don’t know me.  I had to be someone else’s instrument.

Wow! The client loved it, my boss loved it, and I looked smart – perfect! From then on I knew that by working outside of my comfort zone, or playing the other guys instrument, new perspectives were available.  

Imagine how fruitful it would be if a business somehow became so internally flexible and nimble that cross boundary collaboration like we experience in a jazz band was part of the culture. Seems to me that a company playing like this is indeed one in which all its players are ... in the pocket.  Learning to collaborate, to be  “in the pocket” can be experienced in corporate education.  If you want to understand in detail how the program can be played contact us.  This is based on thoughts of Russ Corvey  www.corveycreative.com

 

3 social media behaviours indicating you have turned: as in Zombie

1. You know your Klout score
2. People have turned off your feed for over sharing
3. Check your social media accounts more than once a day and you have nothing there

Below is the Prezi presantation on social media zombies from a conference at Brunel University.

Conference Name: T4GOV EU funded projects the enable citizen participation, social inclusion and democracy through electronic systems and processes.  Agenda

The event ended with zombie dance as Rosie Marino helped a few of the attendies back to life

Zombie Dancing girls

Help your College Grad find a job using LinkedIn

You just spent thousands of dollars on your child's College or University education, now they need a job or an internship.    Attend the free webinar

Does your college grad have a LinkedIn profile, do they know how to set it up, have they updated it as they come into the last few months of their college years?  That is not the idea, but something they should do as part of best practice in finding a job. 

 Some truths:

• If you have a child in college you have a 90% chance of having a LinkedIn account, you have a few hundred contacts and they include co-workers from past and present job, the account is filled with people that you met and felt there was a good reason to connect or people that have reached out for some reason. Are you proud of your LinkedIn account?  Is your digital profile ready, are you digitally dressed for success?  Does your reputation transfer from the real world to the digital LinkedIn Profile?
• If they don't find a job, they live at home, you continue to pay for everything and they become depressed as they slave away in a coffee shop.
• Everyone loves helping young people and helping them find a job feels good.
• You are most likely to get a job from someone you know, knows people you know or has a connection to your family.
• Your child has limited contacts that will help them get a job, internship or provide insight/advice. 
• The digital world will mimic the physical world and in the physical world it is best practice to suggest that your grad writes to people (your friends/contacts) that have been successful and ask for insight, but not for a job.  This approach is faster, cheaper and measurable.  

The number One LinkedIn idea for college grads is use your parent's LinkedIn connections.   

Here is how it works:

1. Have them open a LinkedIn account and make sure it is "digitally dressed for success"
2. Add your child as a connection on your account (connect to them)
3. (Both you and your child should turn off all your updates/broadcasts)
4. They then need to go through each of your connections (in their account) and ask to connect with that person.  They should use the following process:

• search and find your parent
• go to bottom of the profile screen
• look for connections and then click on person you want to connect to
• click on connect and you will see this screen  

You must choose "Friend" or you will need their email.  Now do this over and over. (my son did this for my 1000+ connections).

Once completed you need to begin to produce content and start communicating.  Doing this will provide you more opportunities than applying for jobs the old fashion way.  If you like to receive the guide: producing Content to get you a job please drop us a note linkedIn@educaedc.com.  If you would like to attend our webinar on Using LinkedIn to find a Job after University sign up here

From a personal perspective: all three of my kids got jobs after University, 2 used my LinkedIn connections.  Did it work? YES because it helped them to focus on their digital profile, communicating, practicing and perfecting their elevator message while seeing the possibilities. 

Send in the Tags!

FOR REPUTATION SEMINAR DETAILS CLICK HERE

It happened so fast. As it does.  I was returning to my hotel after watching the Super Bowl with friends on Sunday night.  I was in New York City at a rather non-descript sports bar called “Reade Street Pub”.  As American football fans know, after a first half drubbing, a power outage during the opening moments of the second half seemed to electrify, pun intended, the struggling 49’ers and defused the leading Baltimore Ravens.  In the end, they couldn’t muster quite enough skill or time to win but it was certainly an entertaining way to spend my first evening in New York.

On the way back to the hotel, I decided to take the train after a brief search for a cab. It was near freezing temperatures and a subway entrance appeared like an oasis before me.  I took the E train from around Canal St. – I’m not sure – uptown planning to get off around 34^th St, my hotel, the Affinia, was just across from Madison Square Garden on 7^th Ave. As happens too often when I’m travelling in New York, I missed my stop, not realizing it until around 49^th Street.  No problem, I was now well within striking distance, I would just walk from there. 

I guess it was just short of midnight, early by New York standards. There were plenty of people on the sidewalks and many of the souvenir shops, restaurants and bars were still open, some just coming to life.  I walked briskly down 7^th Avenue down a very wide sidewalk.  I was feeling good, despite the cold, to be in the fresh air with a clear sense of direction, no mean feat, and with still toasty though bare hands. 

I’m guessing I was around 38^th Street, a relatively dark stretch, most of the storefronts were really office buildings with low illumination.  I was walking on the curb side of the side walk – a habit learned from long ago, you’re less likely to be accosted by beggars and other less savory types with a clear escape route – or so the theory goes. 

I soon noticed in my peripheral vision three dark shapes approaching up the right side of the sidewalk, talking loudly and laughing.  Two of the shapes were rather large, one tall and thin, the other tall and stocky. The third, judging by the pitch of his voice and his smaller stature was a young teenager.  As was also well ingrained, when walking in New York, I didn’t look at them directly but carried on down my “lane” as if they didn’t exist, keeping up my brisk pace. 

Without warning, the tall slender figure broke away from the group and was suddenly directly in my path, leaning forward, his left hand in the pocket of  his hoody, his eyes attempting to bear maliciously into me, “Give me your money!”  My first reaction was disbelief as I stepped back, “Is he joking?” I said to myself.  Something about my expression must have caused him to say almost immediately “I ain’t playing, give me all your money!” I stepped slightly to the left as his momentum continued forward, we touched for the briefest of moments, my forearm against his right arm.  I was surprisingly relaxed but at the same time acutely aware of his hidden left hand, it was clearly for effect – or did it actually hold a knife or a gun, nagged me for both the shortest and longest time. Amazing how the mind seems to slow time and grab onto the minutest of detail. 

After his insistence that “I’m not playing!”, I heard a voice say “I’m not playing!” and realized that it was mine.  My teacher has often talked about the importance of contact, the mantra “I know my opponent, but my opponent doesn’t know me” now rings hauntingly in my mind.  Even though the briefest moment of contact, it was clear that my young hoodlum “friend” was an empty suit, if he wasn’t packing a knife or a gun, or without help from his mates, it wasn’t going to be a contest.

And then, it was over as quickly as it started, the whole episode probably lasted less than ten seconds.  He thought the better of it and walked away with his buddies.  I thought briefly about pursuit but quickly decided that was a stupid idea, still bothered about whether he was carrying a weapon, not to mention not knowing how his friends were equipped.  And so, I continued down the street, welcoming a return to more crowded sidewalks and a flood of light. 

Later, in the safety and comfort of my hotel room as I replayed the events of the evening, I had a strange thought – social media interactions are so much different.  In the social media world my would-be assailant and I would have been decorated with the appropriate tags, for me “consultant”, “social media”, “martial artist” and for my attacker “convicted felon”, “repeat offender”, “wise guy”, etc (okay perhaps not that obvious).  The chances that we would have ended up “on the same street”, figuratively speaking, would have been much less.  And of course, if not from his profile, then from his messaging it probably would have been clear that we were unlikely to be friends.  This is what we call “digital body language” reading people, assessing their likely interests and their desire to connect by the digital records they leave. 

Soon, Google glasses and similar technology will be available that will allow us to use facial recognition among other things to assess the likelihood that a random passerby will attempt to mug you, factoring in their digital records – an interesting thought.  In the meantime, I’m going to stay out of “dark chatrooms”…

More than tags