Bright, dislikes authority, a perfectionist.
His nature. A work ethic, a pragmatic bargainer, practical: Nurture (from his father Paul).
Chapter One : Childhood covers much of this Had he been brought up differently then what?
There are later insights when we meet his sister who was raised by his biological parents. REFERENCE Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
B822 Techniques Library : Random Stimuli of Various Kinds
1) Identify what it is you want ideas for.
2) Grab an idea from a paper, from looking out of the window, or by throwing dice. (In our case the facilitator had a collection of odd items for this purpose).
3) Connect this idea back to the issue, if necessary using Free Association or Excursion.
4) If it doesn't work try something else.
Could pick a fixed or specific element of the problem and do the same.
* Select grammatically appropriate stimuli: noun+verb, adjective+noun, but make bizarre combinations (which is how David Bowie often wrote song lyrics).
* Deliberately do something different, or speak to someone new or travel home in a different way.
* Allow the idea to incubate while going about your normal day.
CASE STUDY
We took a business problem and defined this in a way that was clear.
WRITTEN UP ON FLIP CHART
Various items were picked out from a selection brought to the workshop by the tutor for this purpose. He picked out a small, smiling lobster ornament as the stimuli and passed it around. We then played collective word association writing our word onto a PostIt note that the facilitator then put onto a set of double doors.
Once we had around 70 ideas and we had fairly exhausted our thoughts we stopped.
The role of the facilitator was to ensure that everyone offered ideas, that no one dominated. Collectively we put the words into groups and labelled these groups.
We took ONE theme and put it on a triple A1 sheet of paper.
We drew, collectively, a mind map still trying to generate ideas.
Finally, from these ideas the person whose problem it had been was invited to see if any answers had been offered.
The solution that was of most interest was indeed something that would not otherwise been thought of.
REFERENCE
Whiting (1958), Taylor (1962), de Bono (1970), Rickards (1974) and VanGundy
B822 Techniques Library : Drawing
Tried on Day Two of Residential School
| Finger painting
My turn to bring a problem to the sub-group and to use 'drawing', which in this case was finger painting. I took an non-work problem, of lack of swimming teachers for a planned swimming session expressed as blobs of various colours. * Needed to let go more before hand to conjure up an abstract image of the problem. * Became too left brain by explaining rather than simply expressing. I should have suspended judgement more. Could have associated with words. 
The painted response removed a gate/fence, turned sad faces into sun's and put a fish in the water with the swimmers. The perceived problem of swimming teaches locked away became a trip to the beach (good if you. Can plan in advance). A table used for validation was successful, cross-referencing multiple pool related features to see what this offered in the way of an answer. * There are other ways to use images to prompt comments. * Could have created a rich picture (even hired a cartoonist or artist to do this).
To cluster or aggregate the ideas this chart was used (akin to those mileage charts in the back of an atlas). Objects/themes could then be matched and mis-matched for possible combinations and insights. 'For many of us drawing a picture is closer to how our thoughts grow naturally'. REFERENCE Adapted from: Miller, W.C. (1987) The Creative Edge: Fostering Innovation Where You Work, Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley, pp. 91-5 |
"These are the happiest 180 minutes you will spend this year", we are told. This is said in a dead pan, pragmatic, no nonsense, but reassuring way by B822 Residential School Tutor John Evans. I take the view that I can always learn something new, especially when I think I've got it sussed: I've had my exam successes in the past or I wouldn't have made it to Balliol to study Modern History. My system was a fluke, lacked strategy and on reflection was unduly onerous. There is no short cut but never in my various careers have I ever heard such sense, such practical advice which must work if you run with it. 1) Never go into an exam with less than three pens.
I haven't sat a written exam in nearly 30 years. I haven't written much out by hand for well over a decade either since I gave up a handwritten daily journal for a blog).
Cf. The MBA handbook. Read Sheila Cameron's advice.
EXPECT TO INCORPORATE SOME OF THE FOLLOWING
2) Memory Visualisation (very much b822)
3) 'Other kinds of thinking' OKT chapter 5 Planning
4) Give it 10-15 minutes.
5) Relax and it will happen
6) Get the three diagrams and fix them in your head to show how blocks 1, 2, 3.
EXERCISE:
Turn to your neighbour and see if you can think of 20 things that you remember so far about B822.
FIRST BIG INSIGHT
You tend to produce, rather than a photographic record of the contents page, but what resonated for you. Work with this. INSERT IMAGE 7) Mind-map like links between the blocks.
NOW CONVINCED
We are all very different; this difference and complexity defines how a team will work. Not everyone of course appreciates this expecting others to come to line, to remould themselves into a preferred 'type'. 8) Res school is the fourth part of the exam. INSert IMAGE (I was at an awkward angle in the hall with the presenter usually between me and the flip chart so I need to redraw this). 9) Blocks 1, 2, 3 drawn out on a sheet. Set out what resonates with me.
10) B822 Library of Techniques There are 168 of these; which are you going to use or drop into the exam?
11) Identify the ones you have used and found useful. Two of three visual as well as the usual verbal or textual ones. Have some activity ones. Need 6-8 in your armoury. Visual, text, activity. And distinguish between them.
12) CREATE A GRID Justify your criteria for choosing these techniques.
Technique 1
Technique 2
Technique 3
Technique 4
Technique 5
13) Get six postcards of Windsor. (relating it to the RES School at the Marriott Heathrow, though I would have get postcard of passenger planes given the constant presence of planes taking off or landing). Relate these to Langley/Windsor Use these to Trigger off your memory and visualisation. Carry these around and keep reminding yourself. Form a 'wireless connection' with the information on these cards.
14) Arrive 30 minutes before you are due.
Story of person who arrived a day late. Exam locations are post code sorted. OU very organised and helpful. If you are away from home, elsewhere in the UK or even abroad, it can one arranged. OU students take exams in all kinds of extraordinary places.
15) Have some authors in mind; for B822 this is likely to include:
Amibale,
Hofstede
(the examiner sees that we have taken note of certain authors).
ID. No question about who you are. 180 minutes -15 5+50
16) BRAIN DUMP
Trying to answer three questions from a body of knowledge that you hold. See exam section of tutor group forum. 17) Unpack the question into its constituent parts.
18) Rough draft and score through afterwards Every other line. (have the space to put additions in later)
19) 10 minutes at end. CRUCIAL Your back memory tells you yet more that you may wish to add in.
20) Doing diagrams are good. Have a few and practice.
21) Snack, water. Resource can be cross referenced.
22) Good to show that you are applying current news (say FT)
23) Good example from your place of work.
CONCLUSION
Intuitively this is what I did decades ago, though in a wasteful and far less strategic way. The other thing I did was to invent great long mnemonics. The first letter would kick off a word, phrase or sentence that would collectively, sometimes running to over 20 facts or ideas, express all I knew or considered important say about Elizabethan history. One of these mnemonics is ringing in my head, eager to be remembered but just out of reach. This BRAIN DUMP BEFORE you read the questions is vital, just get this cue sheet written (though clearly in a way that doesn't suggest you have pulled it from your pocket).
Is it possible to leave an exam feeling euphoric? Yes.
How then to capture the essence of this for an assignment which should receive as much preparation, unfortunately the only parameters are getting it in on time and sticking to the word count. I like to write with adrenaline.
In the right context with the right people role play can be used to help see or experience a problem from a different perspective. Here however, Virginia Woolf and friends pull off a hoax and a treated as royal guests on one of His Majesty's battleships.
So many people describe this OU Business School module (B822 : Creativity, Management & Change) and the residential school I am currently attending as something that changed their lives; I've been waiting for that moment, or for a series of insights to congregate and like a celestial choir sing something special.
I was up at 5.00 am and writing (of course), taking a swim at 6.45 am in the pool here at the Heathrow Marriott, into an Elective at 8.00 am and the first Tutor Workshop at 9.00 am.
The second workshop kicked in after lunch at 1.30 pm then from 7.00 pm three more hour long electives in a row.
At no stage was I ever tired or bored, indeed I feel embarrassed even writing this, the very thought!?
Too much new, too important, too interesting, too interested. Like my second week at nursery school: amongst friends, secure, allowed and expected to have fun. Alert.
It was in the very last cessation today, during an hour of guided relaxation, shoes off lying on the conference room floor, lights out, soft music playing that my unconscious gave me a two word tip and did its best to visualise the love my children have for me and I have for them. I'm still trying to see what love looks like: white, a slightly crumpled unopened rosebud the size and shape of chicory but made of paper, or tissue. I tried (in the semi-conscious dream-like state that I was in) to cup 'love' in my hands as if I was scooping up water but it proved illusive, like a cloud.
After we were brought out of our semi-unconscious state (I fell asleep momentarily three times) we were all asked to share what we experienced; I eventually chirped up with the word 'profound'.
The detail of the day is here too, all typed up with pictures (courtesy of iPad and iPhone) of flip-charts, post-it notes, finger-paintings and slides. This will take a week to prepare as posts.
And I make it to the Olympics to work in the Press Office covering water-polo
Returned to swim coaching and teaching last weekend and even have a place to help out with a Milton Keynes club during the week when I'm away from home. Joy! Ten months on some of the swimmers (age 8-11 in teaching groups) remembered me and were keen to tell me of some of the fun drills I used to with them. (like sea otters collecting oysters from the seabed)
Today I went for a swim, albeit the pool at the Marriott Hotel, Heathrow, but I got wet, used a pull-bouy, got warmed up and have therefore made a start. I didn't have contacts, my excuse not to bother, and it didn't matter much. I can swim in a straight line.
The lack of control over where your head goes and what it reveals should understandably go with a note of considerable caution. There often is no such thing as an innocent dream. It sometimes throws me when what is apparent in the dream: its people, actions and events can once analysed tell you something you can't accept or dislike about yourself or others.
Context is everything.
What bothers you as you fall asleep?
What's on your mind?
A film you have just watched could very well fill your head; I'm still enjoying the afterglow of '500 days of summer': troubled because its truth but delighted in the outcome.
It is less the dream diary, but a diary that can help you put your subconscious to work.
Should you write up your troubled day, and should you care not only to bring work home with you but also take it to bed, then indeed, the issue that is strangling your budget, or losing you business friends could be resolved in a dream. Once you have that dream in the conscious arena you can even rework it like a TV producer changing the protagonists and outcomes.
I dreamt I was in a court of sorts (I can see it in my mind's eye but will neither describe it or attempt to draw it unless some detail needs bringing out).
I presume I was a prosecuting solicitor.
Two trials cut together one after the other (have dreams always been film literate?). The second case is a rape; he is 'cock sure' thankfully there is no murder involved. He deserves to receive the severest punishment. The previous case with a different barrister had gone off like a damp squib; perhaps it wasn't as serious a case but I felt the person had got off lightly and I blamed the barrister for not following my instructions suitably closely. In this second trial I have a word perfect summing up which I might expect this new barrister to follow. On the contrary, I find this person launch in more like a hack journalist/columnist than a prosecuting lawyer. I worry that the defendant will get off lightly; however, it soon dawns on me that this person is using my argument but not the script and like a stand-up comic (though with professionalism and the hint of a smile of confidence) they will deliver a knock-out blow: they have taken what I can provide and made it better.
Does this solve my problem?
It doesn't answer something specific. If the photocopier is broken and never gets fixed I don't think I'd turn to my 'dream spirits' for the answer.
Does it even suggest to you that this approach has legs?
Me, I'm the defence solicitor, not the barrister. I may not solve the 'problem' the defendant, though I make my contribution.
Nor have I had to resort to a set of 27 questions to reach this point (see below).
I do not imagine sitting with a bunch of colleagues interpreting their dreams would be appropriate or suitable; they ate too random, and so are we. But I do recommend this approach for personal problem resolution, but be warned, you may try to get your dreams to set out your next career move only to discover that in your heart you hate your job and sector and wish instead to teach English to Japanese school-girls.
The exotic essay. What happens if you choose an elective that isn't your cup of tea. So you write about what interests you hoping that you'll get marks for being obtuse.
I think I'm losing the plot now or getting into my flow: Olympics, Wimbledon, Grand National, Grand Prix. There are many occassions when NOT to write an assignment.
A podcast. Who needs the written word when you can say it with a smiley voice?
Lost the plot. Bitty. Random notes with. No beginning, middle or end.
An odd thing. A poem perhaps? Or an essay with a split personality that wasn't much improved by putting bells on it.
Any excuse will do: gone fishing, got a cold, computer ate it, dog ate it, parents unwell, children unwell, busy at work, made redundant (again) ...
I wrote one of these for an end of Module Assignment.
I got carried away with a single thesis. Not only did I stick to the topic, but I illustrated it. It was the image of a thermal on which career development was built. Problem was I hadn't given myself time to qualify my thinking, indeed, despite a heap of work I barely mentioned it (and barely got any marks). 
Here the essay has been bought online.
Sometimes it is easy to spot the pot. These days software does it for educational institutions.
To the right or to the left; if the essay shows any political bias it is going to score less well.
The essay that's going nowhere.
No idea, no essay plan, contemplates where it would like to go then reflects on where is would like to have been without saying very much at all.
The Perfect Essay(as described to me by my Geography A'Level Teacher, D.Rhodes, 1979)
After McKim, 1980.
Defer judgment. Don't be critical of others.
Aim for quantity. e.g. 30 thumb-nail sketches in 60 minutes
PHASES
How many of my early essays turned out.
REFERENCE
Adapted from McKim, R.H. (1980) Experiences in Visual Thinking, Belmont, C.A. PWS Publishers (Wadsworth Inc.) pp. 125-7
How many of my essays turned out even as an undergraduate: journalism. Heavy on the main idea but light on facts.
No introduction, no conclusion. What a shame.
Skewed. How those with a political stance write.
Short, but beautifully formed. More of a blog post than an essay.
A bunch of ideas that show potential, though none of them are relevant to the question. Sounds like me. I do get distraced. I like variety.
The seasonal distraction. Could be Easter or Summer, Halloween or Guy Faulkes. Something in the news or on your mind. It has nothing to do with the assignment. With a TMA deadline and a job interview coinciding I re-wrote the TMA coming out of the interview and just scraped a pass. Enthusiastic, full of ideas but no referencing.
Anyone like to offer some more:
'In Business' with Peter Day on BBC Radio 4 recently included insights on higher education from the Open University Vice Chancellor Martin Bean.
Martin Beanenlightens, enthuses and convinces us of a model that puts the student at the centre of things, supported by great teaching that exploits everything online and distance learning can now offer.
Personally I always need a transcript alongside radio or TV if I am to start to recall much that is said. I offer here a partial transcript.
The Open University point of view is expressed in the first eight minutes.
PETER DAY (PD) suggests that people are complaining about education. This is 'In Business' so that angle is on the graduates that join companies.
'Almost everywhere education seems to be failing to produce what people want from it'.
Now businesses are getting much more involved we are told.
Is education a problem or a business opportunity?
'Wherever they come from and whatever they are learning what should students be taught? That’s something companies are increasingly getting involved with because they are finding it difficult to get the trained people they need'.
Various industry leaders are interviewed, but a substantial part of programme, indeed the first 8 minutes of a 30 minute piece goes to the Open University, Vice Chancellor, Martin Bean, (MB) who we are reminded comes from industry himself having led education at Microsoft.
How is the OU introduced?
One of the global pioneers in new kinds of education was the Open University set up by the British Government 43 years ago to create distance learning based on broadcasting to reach students outside lecture halls. The Internet now provides huge new opportunities for the Open University. Here’s one of the OU’s online lessons:
The History of English in 10 minutes (narrated by Clive Anderson), an iTunes podcast is offered as an example of the online learning experience.
PD: Education is in some kind of crisis: why?
MB: Institutions needs to have the student at the heart of the equation otherwise it leads to dissatisfaction either with the teaching, or worse still the outcomes when they graduate.
Are employers getting 21stcentury skills, softer skills that are really about people, about the ability to collaborate, group problem solve, the ability to communicate effectively verbally, the ability to work in teams and our model as you know is based on practice-based learning, so the beauty of embedding learning in the workplace with the Open University model means that you're actually getting the best of both worlds. I think the fact that over 80% of the FTSE 100 companies in the UK sponsor an OU student gives a pretty clear indication to me that that model is one that overcomes some of that.
PD: There is competition from the more traditional universities now?
MB: Other more traditional universities are embracing more innovative practices that we’ve been using and I think that’s fantastic, that’s what students are demanding, these are students now that view technology and access and real time interaction an absolute necessity in their life.
It’s all about embracing the technology of the day.
MB: What’s on my agenda now is to continue to leverage the web, and the personalisation of the web, to fully embrace these new tablet and mobile devices that are proliferating the world and directly link them in to our virtual learning environments, so that people can get as much out of a tablet or mobile device as they do for entertainment today they can get as much if not more using it as a Higher Education learning device.
PD: Looking at the history of technology it is often thought that the new will replace the old?
MB: We have to redefine what personal means. The web has moved from being very content centric to very people centric.
The personal side of higher education is where the magic happens.
MB: What’s interesting though is the redefinition of what 'personal' can actually be. We used to think of personal as meaning physical, having to be in the same room, what’s interesting in what has happened to the web is it has moved from being very content centric to being very people centricand enabling us to engage and collaborate in Facebook-type ways that we could not have contemplated even five years ago.
PD: Is it better?
MB: It's not fair to compare classroom or lecture with online as it is all to do with the quality of teaching.
What is effective teaching?
When we get that precious time with an academic we want is discourse, want we want is challenge.
The real question is ‘what’s fit for purpose?’
Other contributors were:
Nick Wilson
Managing director, HP UK
Rob Williams
Principal lecturer, University of the West of England
Ralph Mainard
Deputy master, Dulwich College
Joe Spence
Master of Dulwich College
Jim O’Neill
Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Kunal Bahl
Founder of Indian coupon website Snapdeal
Krishnan Ganesh
Founder Tutorvista
Eric Schmidt
Chairman, Google
REFERENCE
Day, P (2011) In Business. TX 5 JAN & 9 Jan 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018xwtc (Accessed 10 Jan 2012)
Performing as Dracula in the 'Dracula Spectacula' at the People's Theatre, Newcastle December 1979
Who are you?
Is the problem deeper than 'making things work better' ? Are there issues regarding your 'identity' or 'life strategy' ? (Techniques Library, 2010)
Who am I?
or from a team perspective 'who are we?'
Write as many answers as you can.
When you run out ... keep going.
Put down anything that occurs to you, play word association, until 'something emergers'.
Working with a partner
Sit opposte a partner and give each other five to fifteen minutes each before the other takes up the 'call'.
The listener does no more: no comments, nods, smiles, frowns, just attentive listening.
(Sounds like a form a therapy to me, whether cogntive behavioural therapy or even psychiatry).
The listener can review but DON'T GIVE ADVICE.
Life Review
St Ignatius Loyola suggested looking back on your life from your deathbed.
Imagine your infancy
Imagine being five
Imagine being:
Imagine being very, very old
Imagine your death
Imagine being reborn
Return
REFERENCE
Adapted from Vaughan, F.E. (1979) Awakening Intuition, New York, Anchor, pp. 1987-9
The power of your wish makes the wish come true.
From Gawain (1982)
1) Set your goal.
Start on something easy, achieve it, and develop confidence in the techniques.
2) Create a clear idea or picture
Think of it in the present tense as something that already exists
3) Focus on it often
Integrate it into your life by thinking about it often.
4) Give it positive energy
Use affirmations. Suspend any doubts or disbelief. (This sounds like Zen. Did Steve Jobs get any of this on his trips to India in the 1970s?)
5) Continue 'til you have achieved your goal
6) Appreciate it when you get there
REFERENCE
Adapted from: Gawain, S 91982) Creative Visualization, New York, Bantam Boks, pp. 16-18
Ken Dodd
Ideas that could get you fired if suggested or are lauigh out loud funny; so there's a risk. (Techniques Library 2010)
Developed by Rickards (1974) as 'Wildest Idea' and de Bono (1982) as 'Intermediate impossible'.
Why beneficial?
Use these techniques:
Treat it seriously to see where it takes you
Don't get stuck on a non-starter (but aren't they all implicitally a non-starter if they are going to get you fired or ar laughable?)
REFERENCE
Rickards, T. (1974) Problem-solving Through Creative Analysis, Essex, UK, Gower Press.
de Bono, E. (1982) Later Thinkking for Management, Pelican Books.
VanGundy, A.B. (1988) Techniques of Structured Problem Solving, 2nd ed. Van Nostranran Reinhold. Technique 4.61. p. 202
Tim Blackman, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Open University: in response to the article by Baroness Blacktone in the THE: says,
It's interesting that selection has always been a hot topic in secondary education but widely accepted in tertiary education. Just as selective schools are our 'best' schools because of very little to do with the teaching but a lot to do with who they keep out, we should start to question just what makes a 'top' university.
What do you think? My take is as follows:
Life is messy; selection based on consistency of performance suits a type, not simply by background but by character. We gain when everyone is able whatever route they take to satisfy their desire to learn, indeed there may be greater appreciation and gratitude of the worth of education for those who haven't gone through via the conveyor- belt of privilege. The caveat is to respect those who not only don't want to study: they like to learn by doing, but who seek out to learn in a way that suits them and their circumstances. Flexibility has been the watch-word for this group until now; 'personalised' learning that turns an education into a carefully tailored and personally adjusted garment is the next step.
The thing that binds the extraordinary diversity of students at the Open University is 'the desire to learn', something that I find most humbling in those who have been imprisoned for their crimes and find salvation in learning, invariably through the OU, others, 'prisoners' of circumstance, can equally find the OU offers a way out and on, if not up and into parts of society that had shunned them because they not dine things in the right order and at the preferred time. Increasingly, in this century, courtesy of personalised learning through mobile devices the OU model of flexibility and 'distance' or e-learning could be picked up at secondary, even primary levels, something that is perhaps being demonstrated by the Khan Institute in North America, indeed happens anyway vicariously through learning in social networks or in online games.
The shift towards increasingly personalised, flexible, online and even mobile learning can only be achieved by self-selection; in the case of learning this becomes the point where the individual's desire to learn is 'activated' never mind the advantages or 'disadvantages' of their prior life opportunities. The 'system' will improve and benefit more by valuing this moment and therefore nurturing those who make it to a course or through a qualification via what is currently thought to be a 'different route'. To which I might add that 'who you are' at and during a short or extended period of learning matters more than the grades you were able to achieve in your youth, 'privileged' or otherwise. For many OU students the opportunity to learn, whoever and whenever they make a start, can with the nurturing and supportive environment and 'personality' of the OU result in countless extraordinary stories of lives being enhanced, turned around, given meaning, value and even status.
A final thought, I had this 'converyor belt of privilege': boarding prep school, public school, Balliol College, Oxford yet my love and respect for learning has only come from the Open University; I am a better person for it.
Might I also suggest that this perceived selection process leads to expectation that someone with such an education (not their choice but their parents') is then possibly obliged, like it or not, to continue into the Foreign Office, MOD, Banking, Law or Accountancy instead of developing a sense of how they are instead of what others want them to be?
REFERENCE
Tim Blackman, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Open University: in response to the article by Baroness Blacktone in the THE:http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=418423
Mark out a Time Line and begin at the 'time' the problem began.
Developing a careers information video some years ago I did this exercise with 50 Youth Theatre students by placing out long lines of coloured discs on the floor. I bought these from a sports shop: I think they are used in P.E. Classes.
I could then help them go through periods of their life imagining where they would be and the steps, literally, that they'd have to take to achieve their goals.
This was in turn translated into a video production where we represented all young people (Year 9) with one character and had them move through time using the combination of a partially dismantled running machine and a green screen.
There's clip on YouTube (JJ27VV) Corporate Showreel
I agree that this approach makes it 'easier to get into a strongly 'associated' or 'merged' state'. That the idea is easy to grasp, not simply because we follow Dr Who or saw 'Back to the Future' or even read HGWells, but we all have, written or not, a personal journey that can be envisaged as a time line with a past, present and future: a beginning and an end.
We are told that this could be considered as a variant of other 'Neuro-linguistic Programming techniqes' 'aimed at helping you shift your perceptual position'. I don't see this yet but am referred to a technique I've thus far ignored called 'Disney technique'.
REFERENCE
James,T. and Woodsmall, W (1988) Time Line THerapy and the Basis of Personality. Capitola, Meta Publications INc.
Bodehamer, B.G. and Hall, L.M. (1997) Time-Lining: Patterns for Adventuring in 'Time', Bancyfelin, Anglo-American Book Company.
Other people's dreams are a bore.
So don't read this unless you too are interested in using dreams or guided imagery to interpet and solve issues.
I woke with two dreams and lost one; they are after all like the proverbial 'fart in the wind': difficult to hold on to.
As I think about the dream I can recall I've decided it reveals too much about my character ... and is irrelevant to problem solving at work!
CONCLUSION
If you want to use a technique that is like chasing guinea-pigs around the garden do so. I'd keep it to yourself though or at least work with the insights offered rather than the content, feelings, images and actions of the dream itself.
A dream in which people set value in 'winning' the right to be assessed only once they have undertaken a challenge or initiation in which they have to run into an 'arena' where a coach & horses (think Wild West) is speeding around the circuit and like a game of tag must stamp their fist/hand on the roof of the carriage.
For reasons unknown seemingly because it is the end of the 'season' (period, ers, term) or ere are no (or very few) people about (audience) as the driver of one of these carriages I can, and do slow right down.
To disavow you of the apparent risk or danger the pony and carriage might be somehing brought into the 'ring' (it was open air, dusty and improvised) by a clown or dwarf (though it wasn't) as, looking at it, you can reach its roof at shoulder height, in other words, this 'carriage' could only carry one person (such as a child) I may sit atop to 'drive', or lead it/run it around the circuit, even though it is carriage-like in look and behaviour I don't recall any horses or ponies, biut it is powered (electric car or internal combustion engine).
Having 'enrolled' or help or enable a number of people to achieve/ do this task and so 'join' or have this chance to be part of the 'scene/group/exercise or 'assessment' the suggestion is, to give a particular well-known 'somebody' a chance to 'register' for the first time. I should slow right - might even come to a stop and go off for a while. The character who then raps/taps his hand/fist on the top of the 'carriage' is a 'Bill Wyman' type.
Elsewhere in this blog I have a set of 27 or so probing questions that are designed for me, the dream 'owner' to extract meaning and value - as I perceive it. I will do this exercise and PERHAPS offer it as a separate document. However, as this will of necessity touch on facets of who I think I am, the personal not just the public me, and potentially my work set-up (people-and institution) I must of course be wary of such 'exposure' and 'disclosure'.
Importantly, for B822 'Creativity, Innovation and Change' this has or will prove to be an exercise that I can offer for my next TMA; what I don't expect are colleagues to start sharing their dreams with me because to do so is highly personal. The context, people forget when considering a dream and its interpretation is the inner workings of a person and their feelings which are often contorted and exaggerated and reflect the interplay between their conscious and subconscious, their genetic make-up, and their upbringing and personal history.
There's a warning on this activity, that the techniques may draw up uncomfortable events from your past.
This also highlights a major problem with such techniques:they can throw up the unexpected.
I like to think I have ample experience 'working with dreams' ; I have used them to develop story-lines and ideas, even to some degree for personal cognisance so it felt like an obvious one to give a try.
Context is vital, picking the right activity or game for the people you are working with.
How well do you know them?
It also makes me realise that I'd like to be in a working environment with the kind of colleagues and friends where I could employ such techniques.
I feel like a big fail; there are two activities suggested for problem solving, or creativity, innovation and change: keeping a dream diary and this, which offers ways to explore a dream's meanings and to re-enter and work with this environment created by your subconscious.
There's plenty troubling me at the moment but I find repeatedly that holding onto a dream is like chasing autumn leaves in a stiff breeze.
Take this morning; just a few moments awake I recall I had been dreaming and that it had been a 'good one': vivid but apparently not memorable enough. I tried all the tips in the book to recover or return to the dream: you have to place yourself exactly as you were as you had the dream. I still can't get it; I feel like MacBeth clutching at the dagger; it is always just out of reach.
By way of example I have a snippet of a dream from a few days ago: returning to the campsite after some kind of trip or activity in the woods I find my tent has gone: everything has been removed, as if I had never been there. The plot is bare. Why should I be thinking this as I return to work after a two week break?
The 'activity' is then to work with and develop your feelings about this moment, been to re-enter the dream, not simply to see what happens next but to change or influence the outcome. This then MAY offer a solution or at least an understanding of your feelings so that you can deal with them.
How to work with a dream or metaphorical image:
Appreciating, reflecting, looking forward and emerging
P.S. I just returned to work and couldn't have entered a more friendly environment, my desk as I'd left it.
P.P.S. I realise why I am 'losing' my dreams: stress. I'm waking up with a jolt, some unpleasant thought in the back of my mind.
Steve Jobs was hugely influenced by Zen Buddhism; this I understand would play to the importance of intuition. Intuition alone is not enough; this for Jobs was also the product of intense effort to get his head around an issue; he immersed himself in it until, to paraphrase the historian E.H.Carr he could 'hear it speak'.
20 LIFE LESSONS FROM STEVE JOBS
http://mashable.com/2011/12/18/steve-jobs-20-life-lessons/
REFERENCE
Glouberman, D. (1989) Life Choices and Life Changes Through Imagework, London, Unwin, pp. 232-6
Isaacson, W. (2011) Steve Jobs. Little Brown.
I'm used to commenting on the news after the event, in terms of my thoughts on what Steve Jobs might have done for education had he still been around it appears I was ahead:
The intention was to taken on the $8bn text book business, to give every secondary school kid an iPad preloaded with all the text books they could need.
'All books, learning materials, and assessments should be digital and interactive, tailored to each student and providing feedback in real time'.
Steve Jobs quoted in Isaacson (2011:545)
He also favours highly personalised online earning with loads of vide keeping class for debate and discussion. Surely the class to some degree is redundant too given the increasing quality of the online experience?
REFERENCE
Isaacson, W. (2011) Steve Jobs. Little Brown
If enough people wish to discuss Steve Jobs I'll set up a group for OU folk over in LinkedIn?
Getting to the end of the 600 page biography I struggle to draw a conclusion. Perhaps he was Janus like, always looking in two directions, impish, black and white, loved it or hated it. Able to bend. Loyal (at least to his wife), even to certain friends. Selective then. He was in love with the way his mind worked.
He has been instrumental in changing the world and I feel better for having followed his products, if not his crede.
My iBook died in 2011; I have to replace it. Do I need a laptop if I have an iPad though? My inclination is to have something large and powerful enough to cut movies. The 'Full Monty' a 90 minute piece, to translate scripts I've written even developed as photo journals and start bringing some of the scenes to life.
The Steve Jobs Discussion Group on LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson-discussion-4236153?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr
Steve Jobs launching the iPod Nano
I can see that whilst the gift of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson is my gift of 2011 (on the last chapter), that I need it as a eBook.
I resisted making notes as I read 'because it's the holidays' yet now I am finding it repeatedly a nuisance to have missed a point or quote that under others circumstances I would have dutifully taken copious notes throughout. So here's one I couldn't afford to miss: From stand in CEO when Steve Jobs was ill in 2009 (but reflecting a Steve Jobs ethos)
'We are constantly focussing on innovation. We believe in the simple not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution'.
'We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allows us to innovate in a way that others cannot'.
'We have the self-honesty to admit when we're wrong and the courage to change'.
This is the kind of organisation I would like to work for. This is the kind of thinking needed for those studying B882 'Creativity Innovation and Change' and for H807 'Innovations in E-Learning'.
REFERENCE
Isaacson, W. (2011) Steve Jobs.
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