I retired from HP in the mid 1990′s as a Learning Technologies Program Manager. Cloming from a family of academics, I have always had an interest in education and learning. As a way to give back and as a stimulating way to do market research and test out process improvement ideas on ways to enhance the learning process for working adults, a huge potential market, I have been teaching in the Bay Area undergraduate and MBA degree programs at the University of Phoenix, about a course or so every month. Like my daily exercise routine of walking a couple of miles with my wife a weekly mental exercise routine of interacting with other adults and showing them how to assess situations, acquire and organize new ideas, formulate plans of action, and sell proposals to others individually and in groups has been enjoyable. It is similar to what I did in the 70′s and 80′s for Hewlett-Packard as an instructor for problem solving and decision making. Over several years I taught hundreds of supervisors and managers critical thinking processes of situation appraisal, problem analysis, decision analysis, and potential problem analysis. I found then and have seen since that some people do adopt new ideas and apply them to their jobs or school and many do not get very far in making changes to their way of doing things. It takes repeated reinforcement and encouragement and being in an environment where trying and growing is valued and edified.
My wife and I are new grandparents. Our daughter and her husband have created a miracle, having a healthy baby. They have done a fantastic job and they will be phenomenal parents. My wife and I are learning how to be grandparents and parents and in-laws. All of us are encouraging young Zac to lift up his head, stretch his arms and legs, look around, smile. We will be bringing stimulating toys and having encouraging personal contact with him every chance we get. There wll be books and outings and adventures galore for him.
He is in an environment of stimulation and growth and he will be able to explore the world and become the best person that he can become. We hope that his rate of learning and growing as a person will be as solid as the rate at which he has been growing physically. He started out at 38%ile weight and in 30 days he is 83%ile. He has grown almost two inches.
We will be encouraging him and helping him apply what he is learning in his daily experiences to explore and enhance his world. We will not stop encouraging him. He’ll develop his own life path, but we will be there to help him think big and work hard and be ethical and a good citizen and accomplish whatever he chooses to accomplish.
All of us need the same kind of environment throughout our lives, not just while we are growing up. All of us need opportunities to learn new things and apply them. Learning while doing is a hallmark of the educational program for working adults at the University of Phoenix and other similar schools and is a hallmark of CMC Group, a non-profit association for collaborative learning and doing.
The mission of CMC Group is to “help learn new tricks”. I deleted the “old dogs” part of the saying, since it is not just seniors who need to keep learning throughout life. With the turmoil in the job market these days, everybody needs to be on their best game when it comes to being flexible and building new skills. Our group uses social networking tools and business principles to offer financial rewards to people who are interested in staying on a creative path throughout life. We are in exploratory phase with various new product launch projects where educating consumers to new ideas can be very profitable. We are an open source community and willingly share what we are doing with others who have similar interests.
Right now, I have recently moved to the the San Francisco Area’s East Bay, after living for many years on the Peninsula and in Silicon Valley. In order to develop a social circle and a business reputation here, I do pro bono telecom and energy consulting for small businesses. I am consulting with small businesses with online expansion plans to help them seed affiliate and consumer clusters throughout the country. I am helping some idea people write patents for new ideas of doing things in healthcare cheaper, faster, better. Lots of continuous learning here.
Future posts will touch on these topics.
