The Illinois Model

Last week, I published a satirical blog  where I put a negative spin on eight (8) stereotypical personalities, behaviors, and traits in the workplace.  When taken at extremes, each of these eight (8) can be toxic ...which is exactly how I portrayed them. But how can these same stereotypes be reframed as  heroic ? Let's have a look at the other side of the coin:  FLASH CARD LEARNER.  She owns knowledge and data. Better than mere possession, she actively  hunts for it. She knows where to look and how to filter the signal from the noise. I use the saying "connect-the-dots" about finding relationships between things. Our Flash Card Learners are the ones who first collect -the-dots. This woman will bail you out of trouble when you can't keep your facts and figures straight. ONE TRICK PONY.  This guy's got depth. He's an expert in his field, albeit a narrow field. The generalist just can't go as deep into the problem as your One Trick Pony. ...

I'm a policeman. I'm also no stranger to toxic  personalities, traits, and behaviors in the workplace.  But the more I interact with those in corporate settings or other organizations and industries, I realize we all   have the same people among us. There's eight (8) stereotypes in particular I'd like to highlight: FLASH CARD LEARNER. Do not be impressed by the master of memorization. He bathes in facts, acronyms, nomenclature, and jargon. He recites isolated statistics and bits of data without any sense of context. You swear this guy goes home and shuffles a stack of flash cards just to stay on top of his game. You prefer to google the information when you need it. Keep this guy on your team for the local tavern's trivia night. ONE TRICK PONY. She may embrace the term hyper-specialist . But what we really mean is that she's got one skill, in one area, to solve one problem. The One Trick Pony excels in such a narrow field of expertise, she mind as well ...

There's no value in collecting blocks unless you're connecting them to build something awesome! Changing people's minds. Learning Management Systems. Mount Stupid. Machine learning. Athletes and Navy SEALs. Why You Should Stop Trying to Change People's Minds.   David Marcus talks about engaging with people who hold opinions that are different than our own. In age of social media (and anonymity within it), we need not look far for differing perspectives...and the anger and disrespect that comes with it. What benefit is there to these engagements?  LMS Features: What To Look For In a Learning Management System.  Dr. Ayesha Habeeb Omer talks about ten features that a learning management system should have. As e-learning, distance learning, blended learning (...or any of the other of the  "______ learning" buzzwords) grow in popularity, LMS will equally growing in demand. I've been lucky to be using an LMS that is responsive to the instructional desi...

There's no value in collecting blocks unless you're connecting them to build something awesome! Defining terms within systems thinking. Student agency. Failing firearms trainers. AI and organizational values. Scribbling ideas. Tools for Systems Thinkers: The 6 Fundamental Concepts of Systems Thinking.   Leyla Acaroglu dials down the intensity and returns us to the basics of systems thinking. Whether you're brand new to it, or been studying it for years, Leyla's piece defines and explains terms in a simple-to-understand method. The Intersection of Critical Thinking and Student Agency.  Jenny Pieratt argues that teachers too often (and wrongly!) focus on the outcome of knowledge and less on the process of thought. But how can we develop learners who take control of their own learning? Is it possible to teach our students  how  to think? A Tale of Two Failures - Part 1: Two way the firearms and tactical training industry gets it fundamentally wrong.  Dusti...

There's no value in collecting blocks unless you're connecting them to build something awesome! Parachuting cats. Silos in policing. Contagious suicide. Organizational change. Dirty fish tanks. Facing Complexity: Wicked Design Problems.  Daniel Christian Wahl delves into "wicked" proble ms -  “ a class of social system problems which are ill-formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision makers with conflicting values, and where the ramifications of the whole system are thoroughly confusing. ”  More specifically, Wahl addresses the  role  of "design" within the world of complexity, and the limits of "science." I have recently been spending a lot of time studying design...and I connected a lot of ideas through this  piece! Silos - @WeCops Debate.  Emma Williams and Ian Wiggett teamed up for this piece. Ian was a recent guest in a #WeCops Twitter chat on silos inside policing. Ian and Emma discuss h...

There's no value in collecting blocks unless you're connecting them to build something awesome! On-task students. War against expertise. Playfully drawing systems. Reductionism. EQ in the military. T he Tyranny of Being On Task.  Andrew Miller is an instructional coach (and former classroom teacher). He discusses the pressure for teachers to ensure students remain on-task . This is a futile attempt to increase learning efficiency. While this article is mostly about children and adolescents, there are outside arguments that the same lessons can be translated to adults as well. How can workplace training benefit from these theories?  The War on Experts.  Dr Gary Klein argues there are five distinct communities fighting against expertise : d ecision research, heuristics & biases , sociology, evidence-based performance, and information technology. How or can experts learn from and contribute to each of these communities? Nicky Case: Seeing Whole Systems.  T...

One needn't look far to find an online video of some copper somewhere losing his temper. Relax, gender police. I use the masculine pronoun here because of two reasons: #1. Statistically, there's more men in policing. But more importantly...#2. Women police officers are almost never the star attractions in these cops-flipping-out videos. So back at it... I'm about to enter my third decade of policing. In nearly twenty years on the force, I've let my emotions get the best of me more than a handful of times. I'm not talking about the tears of sadness after leaving the scene of a brutal crime, a deadly accident, a suicide, a failed family, or an abused kid. I'm referring to the instances where I unnecessarily responded to someone by taking the low road of sarcasm, intimidation, disrespect, insult, name calling, or attitude. Of those times I can recall, I look back on them with embarrassment. Simply, those were times that I lost. I got introduced to the co...

There's no value in collecting blocks unless you're connecting them to build something awesome! Assumptions. Kids sports. Data Visualizations. Navy ship collisions. Sales adaptability training. Assumptions can be a situational awareness barrier.  Rich Gasaway comes to us from the fire and medic services. He brings up a discussion on assuming, guessing, estimating, and other time-saving tricks in the world of human decision-making. I'm a believer that we need to make assumptions in chaotic, adaptive environments...especially when the stakes are high and time is crunched. Because variables in complex situations are often unknown and unknowable, experience and intuition is what helps those assumptions be as accurate as possible.  How Kids' Sports Became a $15 Billion Industry.  TIME magazine's Sean Gregory takes us inside the world of youth sports teams. The journey leads from local, community-based teams to private, national, "professionalized" teams...

There's no value in collecting blocks unless you're connecting them to build something awesome! Witty replies. Sexual sins. Optimal learning environments. Renaissance Men. Better understanding of mistakes. Great Zinger!  Buster Benson humorously discusses the use of witty responses used to embarrass or expose an opponent in dialogue. I see zingers used in social media arguments all the time. In an age of digital anonymity, it seems zingers are more and more popular, with less respect and less intent to find middle ground. The points are adding up and the divide is widening. Thoughts?  The Physiophobe: Modern Man Against Reality.  Professor Anthony Esolen uses the word physiophobe to describe a person who fears the way things are. He uses the concept of sexual sin to explain his rationale, but his argument can be extrapolated into a wide array of applications, fields, or topics. The claim that we manipulate the way things are should challenge the way we think abou...

In the story of the doctor who attended police SWAT school , one of the skills that I identify in adaptive people is the ability to triage.   In emergency medicine, triage is the process of a hasty evaluation: to determine the threats to life of an injury or illness,  as compared to another patient,  balancing the potential for reward or success, due to an increased demand on limited resources . Imagine a fully staffed, but empty hospital emergency department. No patients. Doctors and nurses sitting around...waiting. In walks an injured person. There is no triaging going on here. It's purely an evaluation and investigation - followed up by all-hands-on-deck response. On its face, the process might look the same as triage...but it's not. There is no second or third patient splitting the attention and resources of the medical staff. Triage is a comparative process. It plots two or more things against each other. It ranks problems and opportunities according to...