The Analogy of the Fleas: Self-beliefs, Learning and Success

I believe that an individual's beliefs about him/herself have profound influence on their success in learning and in their success in life. Our beliefs are the foundation upon which we build many of our thought patterns, our attitudes, and our actions. (I write more about this here). Unfortunately, these beliefs, particularly self-beliefs can be limiting in nature.

Fleas
We can learn about this principle (surprisingly) from a jar full of fleas. As the video below demonstrates, if you fill a jar with fleas and place the lid on the jar, the fleas will jump and hit their heads on the lid. But leave them for a few days, and the fleas will adapt to their environment and, to avoid the pain of hitting their heads, eventually will not to jump as high as the lid.

The Lesson
So, what do we learn from these fleas? Just as the fleas began with the capacity to jump higher than the lid of the jar, we as human beings have the capacity to accomplish great things. However, through our experiences and our own reasoning, we sometimes come to believe that our ability to succeed is limited. For example, when I was in grade school, I excelled at mathematics, and I regularly won in-class math competitions. However, as I transitioned to Junior High School, I ended up having trouble with algebra and eventually dropped out of math. Ever since then, I have avoided math classes and held the firm belief that I am not good at math. In essence, my beliefs about myself limited my ability to succeed at math.

This applies in all areas of life. I have several friends that I know have the capacity to achieve great success. But I find them using phrases like "I guess I missed the boat on getting an education," or "I could never accomplish as much as (that person) has accomplished." These beliefs about themselves and their capacity to succeed limit them in their learning and in their lives. The beliefs may have begun based on some sort of experience, (like me struggling with algebra classes), but a temporary setback should never be interpreted as a life-long ultimatum.

Breaking the Pattern
So, how can we move beyond the limitations that we place on ourselves? I believe that the following suggestions will help an individual begin to shape positive, affirming self-beliefs and will help them begin to move forward in their learning and in their lives more effectively:

1. Flood your life with new, empowering knowledge. Placing new beliefs into your mind can help empower you and give you a new perspective. I have found that motivators like Zig Ziglar, Norman Vincent Peale, Stephen Covey, and Anthony Robbins have helped me to see the world from a new, empowered perspective. I recommend reading their works and listening to their audio seminars. I also recommend reading sacred literature that teaches of your own worth - I have gained deep personal beliefs about my own worth, and these beliefs have given me a foundation of confidence in myself and in others.
2. Remove dis-empowering relationships and messages from your life. As I mentioned in my post about toxic coworkers, some individuals are toxic in nature and actually tear down everyone around them. To achieve true success, it is vital that you eliminate these individuals from your life, wherever possible. In addition, the media we listen to, view, and interact with can heavily influence our perspective on ourselves and our lives, so be sure to control the flow of information so that true, positive, empowering knowledge is obtained.
3. Set goals. Plan out what you would like to accomplish in your education and in your life and then identify exactly what must be accomplished to reach those goals. When I plan out exactly what I must do to succeed, I realize that the first few steps are actually doable, and I often begin to move toward my goals.
4. Do something that is difficult. Accomplishing a difficult task can help build confidence in your abilities and give you the skills and tenacity required to do something that is even harder. Success breeds success, so set out to do something difficult and worthwhile.
5. Recognize setbacks as temporary. My friend and coworker Tracy Austin once articulated the belief that, "There is no failure, only feedback. There are no mistakes, just lessons learned." Viewing your shortcomings in this manner enables you to learn from your experiences as you move toward personal success.

I believe in the power of the individual to achieve great success. As I work to improve and heighten my self-belief, I find that I am blessed with opportunities to move forward in exciting, new ways. I close with a powerful quote:

To show your true ability is always, in a sense, to surpass the limits of your ability, to go a little beyond them: to dare, to seek, to invent; it is at such a moment that new talents are revealed, discovered, and realized.  - Simone de Beauvoir

MS Degree, Instructional Design and Performance Technology

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have recently been appointed the Interim Chair of the Masters Degree of Instructional Design and Performance Technology at Franklin University. I thought I would share a little more about this program, which is offered face-to-face in Columbus, Ohio, and online.

Our program focuses on two closely related, important fields:

1. Instructional Design -  In this program, we provide students with practical experience using theory and tools for creating high quality training and e-learning.
2. Human Performance Technology In this program, we provide students with real-world experience diagnosing performance issues and implementing and evaluating interventions to improve performance.

Video Overview
This excellent Video provides a more in-depth description of the program and gives potential students an idea of the types of careers that graduates are qualified to pursue.

We are currently accepting applicants for students beginning the program in Fall, and anyone with a bachelors degree can apply. The application deadline is July 16th. To apply, click here. 

More Information on the Field and the Program
I receive a lot of questions from people on what we do in the learning and performance field. I've answered some of these questions (and questions about the MS Degree) here.  For more information about the program, you can visit the program website or submit an inquiry to Franklin University Enrollment Advisers. Also, feel free to contact me or comment below for more information.

6 Principles for Using Data to Make Decisions

Using Data to Make Decisions
If you want to succeed, you must be willing to base your decisions on reality. But work in the knowledge society can be so complex that making the right decision becomes extremely difficult.

In my experience in the world of competitive education, we must be goal-oriented and must be as efficient and effective as possible. But how is this accomplished? How can we ensure that our activity will actually produce the results we desire? I believe that appropriate use of data is the single-most important component to be used in making effective decisions. (And no, I do not mean the fictional Star Trek character Data, though it would be awesome if we could use him to make decisions...).

Related Post: Leadership and Effective Decision-Making

Below are 6 principles for making effective decisions based on data:

1. Have goals. What does your organization want to accomplish? These goals should be measurable, something that you can know you have accomplished. They should be concrete enough to align with your organization's mission but should be flexible enough to adapt to the environment in which you operate.
2. Identify performance measures that indicate (1) progress toward your goals (sometimes called leading indicators), and (2) accomplishment of your goals (lagging indicators). Lagging indicators will likely not change often, for example, the number of persons served, number of students graduating, amount of money made, etc. No matter the purpose of your organization, there are specific goals and these goals must be measurable and measured. How you reach your goals might change, and therefore your leading indicators might change as well.
3. Automate measurement of performance measures. Decisions are most effective when based on reality, so it is crucial to make the data readily available. This automated measurement can be done through technology or through people, and often it is a combination of both.
4. Organize the data in meaningful, relevant ways so that they can be interpreted, understood, and linked to our goals and to our decisions. Data is only useful if it appropriately represents important aspects of reality (i.e. your goals) and enables effective decision-making.
5. Use the data. You can use data to perform several key functions, including (but not limited to) the following actions:
1. Identify whether you are moving toward and reaching your goals.
2. Identify where you are having performance issues. These issues can be articulated as performance gaps, meaning the gap between desired performance and actual performance.
3. Identify what is causing the gap. This data should come from many sources and should be comprehensive in nature. You will often have to gather additional data at this stage to get a real picture of what is happening. This data can be gathered through observation, interviews, focus groups, data mining, existing reports, etc. Be sure to gain data from all relevant sources and triangulate all sources to get a holistic, realistic picture of what is happening.
4. Identify what can be done to close the gap. This part is usually a pretty easy step because it should be based on the cause of the gap. Again, you may need to gather additional data from the sources identified above.
6.  Make a decision and implement it based on the results of your data analysis. Again, if you do not base what you do on thoughtfully acquired, thoroughly analyzed data, then you will be much more likely to make poor decisions that could have potentially disastrous consequences.

As I wrote about in a previous post, humans have the tendency to jump to conclusions, to do what seems best based on instinct or previous experience. And while this approach can often be effective, it does not always work. We must be willing to gather and use sound data to make our decisions, or we will be left in the proverbial dust by those who are willing to do the work required to make good decisions.

Principle-Based and Data-based Decision-Making
I want to be clear that I am not advocating an arduous process of data-gathering and analysis every time a decision must be made, which would be rather counter-intuitive. As human beings, we have the capacity to generalize our experiences into principles and best practices, which can guide effective decision-making. Experienced leaders and professionals can often intuitively discern effective decisions based on their experiences in similar prior situations.

Perhaps, then, we might use principles to guide our use of the data. Indeed, our mission, goals, and strategies can be based on principles and values and informed and refined by data. A combination of principle-based and data-based decision-making, therefore, becomes most powerful.

Thinking Systematically
Making decisions based on data aligns with the idea of thinking systematically, and it requires discipline and hard work to focus efforts on the systematic activities that will bring the results we desire. This systematic process can be applied in any setting and should be used when specific results are desired. For examples of how to apply systematic thinking, consider the following previous posts in which I share examples of thinking systematically:

1. The ADDIE Process (a systematic process for designing effective instruction)
2. Setting Professional Goals (I describe a systematic process for doing this)
3. A post describing the ISPI-adopted HPT Model (a systematic process for improving performance in business) 

You will note that these processes all follow the same basic pattern: (1) identify where you are and where you want to be; (2) plan out how to get where you want to be; (3) do your plan; (4) see how well your plan worked; and (5) adjust your plan and keep trying. This process is powerfully effective, and when data guides the decisions made at every step, success becomes much more likely.