Innovation

--from Paul Light, a professor of political science at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota:

“Innovation is a term that has taken on a lot of baggage over the last few years, so some people see it as the great mystical search for the light bulb or a magic solution to a problem. But I define innovation as removing barriers to doing what comes naturally, the common sense solutions to our problems. First, innovation should be driven by something you want to change, something you want to improve. You know you want to solve a problem, and the measure of whether an innovation works is whether it actually addresses and solves the problem you are trying to attack. It doesn’t have to solve it completely, but it should result in some positive improvement. It’s not just innovation for innovation’s sake – rather it’s directed towards solving a problem that people care about. The second thing that you look for is whether or not the problem you are trying to solve is worth solving, is it a serious concern? Is there a concern about the impact on the quality of life in the community? I know that that’s a big issue, but what we should be caring about is pursuing change that improves the quality of life for our citizens and for future citizens. We should be thinking about each project, or each innovation, adding somehow to our ultimate quality of life. And finally, I believe that imbedded in the definition of innovation should be sustainability. We ought to be worried about whether the programs we are trying or the new ways of delivering services, or the investments we are making and all the training and energy that we are trying to harness, is actually going to add something that will last longer than three years. We want to do things that will make a difference, solve problems, and be worth the trouble—and if they work, we need to worry about their long-term institutionalization. This is not a simple definition of innovation – it’s laden with values of innovation for what, not just a project or doing something new – it’s an innovation that makes a difference in the lives of people.”

To Heather and Scott on the Occasion of Their 45th Wedding Anniversary
Margaret E. Holt


As you were together at Chateau Elan
I pondered of how time is gone.
How people come, and people go.
Nothing in our days is slow.

But I took some time to meditate
And wonder about your first date.
And all that’s filled your wedding cup-
What you achieved without prenup.

So many years-
Some with tears.
Your bond withholds this test of time
A union proof of life sublime.

Dividing Into Groups

Dividing into Groups
Margaret E. Holt

Often in adult education we like for the students in our classes to move into small groups. Students and some faculty often just ask folks to count off -one, two, three, four- and then the ones, two, threes, and fours form the groups. This strategy for forming the groups is not very creative. In addition, students leading a session that requires groups will just ask folks who are sitting near one another to form a group. If this happens often, the students in the class have little or no opportunity for exchanges with a wider group of people. I like to vary the criteria often in a class to guarantee the possibility that the number of people with whom anyone interacts is expanded.

Some methods I've used that have generated more enthusiasm have been as follows:

Ø Clip horoscopes from the paper and have students form groups according to their "signs". The discussion of the horoscope for the day also often generates good will and some levity that can revitalize a late afternoon or evening class.

Ø Another method is to have people group according to their pets. Dogs' people, cats and dogs, cats, dogs and other fauna, other fauna, and no pets might be the categories.

Ø Still another possibility is to ask people to group themselves according to sibling relationships. Do they have only brothers, sisters, brothers and sisters, or are they only children?

Ø Type of transportation most frequently used: bicycles, buses, American cars, foreign cars is yet another possibility.

Ø Another technique is to form groups based on the "first initial" of people's names. Typically, divisions occur by last names, but it is more unusual to be put with others who first initials are closest to one another. Fred-Franklin-Frances, etc.

Ø Another method I've tried later into a semester when the class has been divided in a lot of different ways already is to group males and females separately. Because of "political correctness", instructors have avoided this. My experience is students occasionally enjoyed seeing if men and women actually held very different perspectives on certain issues or questions.

Ø With increasing numbers of students from outside the United States, other ways to group for some topics may be to have some national and international group formations. Several times in my public policy class, this was very effective, and I believe valued by both the national and international groups.

Your ideas?
Of course, colored stars or stickers can be randomly adhered to folders or handouts in advance for achieving a new mix of groups.

I'd really like to know other creative methods you've employed when grouping people. I'm also interested to know of any methods people have employed "on-line" for forming small groups within the larger classroom community.

Peace Now

Must reads:

Pledging to Vote for Peace - Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20060317/cm_thenation/1569733


Molly Ivins:

http://progressive.org/mag_ivins0306



Kurt Vonnegut

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0305-27.htm

The First Tulip of Spring

The first tulip of Spring
Margaret E. Holt


Today is March 16, 2006-
So it “officially” isn’t Spring.
Nonetheless my first tulip has opened its petals.
The others still are closed.
Why did this one peek at the sky earlier than its neighbors in my garden?
Did it want to beat the other guests to the party?
Did it think there could be an advantage being firstborn?
Or is it afraid the chances to see the earth may be wearing thin?
What does this first tulip know?


“After ages during which the earth produced harmless trilobites and butterflies, evolution progressed to the point at which it has generated Neros, Genghis Khans, and Hitlers. This, however, I believe is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return.” Bertrand Russell

Waiting

The following was written by Dan Mulhern, the First Gentleman of Michigan. To read all of his columns in his publication called Read to Lead, go to this website: http://www.michigan.gov/firstgentleman/0,1607,7-178-24402_24777---,00.html

For in the culture that envelopes all of us with its tempo of haste, it’s worth thinking about waiting. In the season of hitting year end goals AND decorating the house, buying gifts, making cookies, etc., waiting is about the last thing we’re inclined to do. Heck, Stephen Covey’s first habit isn’t “wait;” it’s “be proactive.” If leadership is about anything it’s about jumping in. But despite all that pressure and haste, maybe leadership could stand to wait:

To wait until someone has finished their sentence, instead of practicing the Fox News victory-through-multiple-and-loud-interruptions approach to dialogue.

To wait to check email, voicemail, and phone messages, when there is a live person who is seeking your attention (even if it’s not a high-ranking official, but “just” a child, an intern, or a clerk).

To wait before jumping down someone’s throat, long enough to ask yourself, “is this what’s really got me so mad right now?” (especially if that throat belongs to a child or someone else lacking in defenses); or

To wait while an issue ripens, while people (your kids or staff or board or partners) understand it and appreciate its significance; to wait while they see its urgency and its complexity, so that . . . . . . . when you do act . . . . . the action has been developed well and the solutions have significant support. (Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky describe this marvelously in a chapter they call “Give the Work Back” in their book Leadership on the Line).

To wait that last 30 seconds at the end of a tough meeting (for whatever might need to be expressed); or that last 30 seconds in the car with your kids while a good song is ending; or another minute with your spouse before you clear the table. Because sometimes something good comes that wasn’t on the agenda, wasn’t on the road map, and wasn’t even on your radar screen. Sometimes, God appears in those moments – as a shot of truth, a moment of peace, or the awareness of growth.

Okay, hadn’t we better be getting back to work?

Conversations with Roger

I have a really dynamic-thinker friend named Roger. For several years he has asked me the most difficult questions. I have deep regrets that I haven’t kept a file of what he asked and how I’ve responded, so I’m going to start one now.

Not trying to start a lengthy conversation, at least not by email,
but...
In reading the item about Daniel Gerber on page 10 of this newsletter it occurred to me for the first time that there may be a connection which I had not seen previously between what it takes for successful public engagement and what it takes for successful adult learning. At least, we have to believe in adult learning if we are to believe in deliberative democracy I think. If no change in people’s opinions occurs, of what value is engagement? Seeing this connection, I wondered if that is how you became interested in all this? Do you see deliberative democracy as just one arena for adult learning? Or are you all about the democracy piece? No need to get into this now but I am fascinated by the idea that what it takes for good adult learning is also what it takes, at least in part, for good engagement. Do you have your own set of best principles or practices for adult learning? Enough...
Roger

Roger-

--Once upon a time . . . . In my home, in my community, my high school . . . all the central places in my formative years I was introduced to "democracy" and democratic practices. I was a Girl Scout, and in innumerable organizations where we made choices, held elections. My father, especially paid a lot of attention to national and world events, always read the paper, watched the tv news shows, and talked about these things at our noisy dinner table. I don't know completely why I had a sense of "social justice", but I was always attracted to people who were concerned about poverty, civil rights, racial harmony, etc. The chaplain at my Methodist undergraduate university had gone to school with Martin Luther King, so Dr. King came to our campus along with a lot of other civil rights activists. I hung out with war protestors and people who were worried about the plight of Mexican farm laborers. One of my good friends was Baldemar Velazquez who led FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee). It seemed he was always going to jail for leading protests on behalf of the workers. Perhaps because my father had been a Teamster I was pulled in this direction with my thinking. Baldemar, btw, eventually was awarded a $100,000 McArthur Award.

I also was always pulled toward teaching, which I did after graduating from Ohio Northern University. Then when I came to Georgia, I was naturally attracted to Adult Education, the League of Women Voters, and the feminists. There's a pattern here for sure. My major professors for both my masters and doctorate were committed to matters of social justice. Adult education had a natural connection because early on the field was committed to literacy and the preparation of immigrants for citizenry. Now I must say the field of adult education has lost its moral compass and many have sold their souls to the corporations in areas of human resource and organizational development.

I'm familiar with the work of Kolb and Malcolm Knowles (both these guys are in the article in your newsletter). Knowles is considered the father of adult education, and the guru for many. They are both a little mainstream for me, and my heroes and sheroes are more intentionally involved with social justice movements. Soon after completing my doctorate I was hooked up with Kettering because of my work in adult education where I had a chance to wax on like I'm doing now (even though you tried to steer me away for a lecturette) about what you can do to encourage adults to participate in civic forums.

I believe we are at a critical juncture as far as our democracy is concerned. If citizens don't wake up pretty fast, our democracy is going to operate more like at best a monarchy and at worst a harsh dictatorship. I think the message in Yankelovich's Coming to Public Judgment is accurate. As I think I told you before, I have the new book that he has written with Garfinkle, but I haven't had a chance to get into it.

So yes, once upon a time in my life there was a strong linkage between my enthusiasm for democracy and my enthusiasm for adult education. They divorced in the last decade, and I'm not sure we can get them back together. However, I've continued to encourage my former students (Pam, Vinny, etc.) to rekindle the relationship. Much that is in the early literature of adult education is inspiring and socially constructive.

For me, it comes down to whether or not as citizens we feel any responsibility for others. Too many people claim constantly their "rights". Too few address their "responsibilities."

If you do want to examine any of the adult education work that illuminates the best practices and principles, I'd be pleased to make recommendations.

Best, MHolt

Margaret,

Whew! A lot to digest here. I think we'll have to join that group you told me about in Athens so we can get to know you better. There's a lot to know!

The thing that struck me earlier was just the idea that there is an implicit assumption in deliberative democracy that people can change their views. That is a form of learning. If so, then the democracy field should be able to get from the adult learning field, how best to structure one's processes so that the change in views that one wants to take place actually takes place. I see this as important in a situation where polarization is commonplace and learning or changing seems to be the furthest thing from anyone's mind. How would you teach or move forward with polarized adult learners? How is that for a question! Roger

--Roger - You ask the toughest questions of any person I have ever met. Well, of course we do know that people change their views, therefore they can! Seriously look at how the views are changing about the Bush Administration and the Iraq War. But before you think I'm going to bash Bush, let me make it clear that I'm very disgruntled with the citizenry. Like many at the Kettering Foundation, I don't think the public is apathetic - but I do think there is a part of the public that is fat and lazy as far as informing themselves. We think we are great "educators" but we don't have the number of critical thinkers that I think our country really needs.

I think people allow themselves to get "polarized" because it's easier to make it through the day if you are sure about stuff. If you are completely sure about any policy issue one way or another, that says to me you haven't done your critical thinking. It fits in with my take on work done by people like William Perry on intellectual development. It's much easier and quicker to see things in dichotomies, but we know that real issues don't work out that neatly. That's why people like "expert" opinions. I don't have to do the hard work, if I leave all of this stuff to experts.

I believe people can learn, people can change, but the part I'm not so sure about and am kind of scared about is if it takes crises to whip people into paying attention. It's a bit like people working with folks addicted to drugs and alcohol talking about the need for some people to hit bottom. Does our society need to hit bottom before there is constructive change? It might be too late, if that's the case. Maybe really running out of oil, water, etc. is inevitable, and the majority of people won't take world events seriously until they personally suffer.

In adult education we have empirical studies related to people's learning and changing. Perhaps some of the most interesting literature has been around the concept the adult education folks called "perspective transformations." I think when you told me about "seeing your own lens" for the first time, that could be categorized as learning transformation. You talked at length about a changed perspective in meeting with the folks who had autistic children. So I took away from that conversation that you had learned something that caused you to think about an issue in a new way. In the psychological literature that I've scanned, I've learned that the concept of perspective taking is very intriguing. To me doing the Kettering work is very much about perspective taking. How much capacity do people have to actually consider the perspective of others conscientiously? Most of us get very wed to our own perspectives, so what elderly people, or Native American people, or disabled people, etc. think about something is not easily comprehended/considered. I think what you did when you were in that situation with the parents of autistic children is that you were able to honestly consider their lens. For all of us, this is very difficult to do. Nonetheless, I think we can help/guide others to learn to do this. If you want to read something "far out" that connects with this a bit, get a copy of Buddha in Redface.

I wish I had recorded all our conversations since I met you. You've asked the most challenging questions, and I really wish, I'd kept them in a separate accessible file.

Best, MHolt

Quirky Humor

I have the most difficult time throwing things away, and a lot of what I have is on pieces of paper. Take this memo for instance from 1996, which was distributed in the management department of a major university that will go unmentioned. (Keep in mind the general wealth of management departments, please):

RE: Coffee Service

This is to let you know that we have determined that the coffee service charge will be $5.00 per month for the months of March, April, and May. At the end of this period, we will review the costs of the service and assess the user charges again.

You will soon receive a bill for the month of March. However, you may wish to pay for all three months at once. This is acceptable. Please wait to receive the bill before attempting to pay. The bill will contain necessary information.

All of those who responded "yes" to the original memo inquiring about interest in participation, will receive a bill. If you did not respond at all and later decided to participate in the program, let us know. I've listed below those of you who did not respond. We appreciate your cooperation.

I read once that in academe the fights are so vicious because the stakes are so low.

Truths about Poverty

Today, some of my friends in Athens, Georgia, are learning about building huts for the homeless from a model program started in Atlanta. The huts are not intended to be permanent, but they are intended to give people a better type of shelter while they are trying to improve their situations. My friend, Dorothy, who lives in Cincinnati sent the following article. My response follows.

Being Poor's the Real Crime as Cops Nab Trash Thieves
Joel McNally
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Madison Capital Times (Wisconsin)

Now we judge the success of a government program by how few people it helps. By that definition, President Bush was right. Brownie really was doing a heckuva job at FEMA.Forget about homicides, rapes and armed robberies. The police have far more important priorities. Someone is stealing our garbage.

The great thing for the police is that solving these crimes doesn't take a lot of crack detective work. These heinous crimes are being carried out in broad daylight, and the perpetrators very seldom have getaway cars.

They are urban poor people walking boldly down the street with enormous plastic bags full of cans slung over their shoulders or pushing shopping carts piled high with multiple bags of this valuable loot.

The shopping carts are stolen property, too, not to mention those large refrigerator boxes that some of these people turn into plush condos for sleeping during these cool Wisconsin nights.

These poor people think they can waltz up and down our alleys, eat food out of our trash containers and then make off with our most valuable garbage, aluminum cans that have a street value of 75 cents a pound.

Well, the police are out to put a stop to crime in the streets (and alleys).

Milwaukee Municipal Judge Jim Gramling, a judge with a social conscience, told Journal Sentinel columnist Jim Stingl that he has seen a parade of poor people in front of him recently charged with stealing garbage.

Gramling, who unfortunately is retiring from the bench, said he routinely voids these tickets, which carry a fine of $122. He said he's seen police pile multiple charges onto poor people, including a $300 fine for failure to obtain a junk dealer's license.

Doesn't Gramling realize these people are committing a horrible crime by stealing our garbage? The police are trying to put a stop to it. I forget why. We weren't really using those cans any more. But it must be the principle of the thing. When we put our cans out in the alley, we expect them to be picked up and taken to a recycling center.

Actually that's what alley scavengers are doing. They pick up the cans and take them to a recycling center that pays them 75 cents a pound for collecting about a gazillion.

In my neighborhood, we actually could use a few more freelancers. Our garbage is collected every week, but our recycling bin has been known to sit brimming with cans and newspapers for months. Old, yellowing editions of the New York Times with headlines about the Titanic curl out the top.

So the cans are getting recycled, and along the way a hard-working poor person might be able to feed his family.

People who dress up in nice suits and work in tall buildings don't work anywhere near as hard as someone who spends all day hauling enormous bags filled with cans up and down alleys.

Let's see. At 75 cents a pound, you only have to collect a hundred pounds to earn a whopping $75. You could live on that for days.

Kin Hubbard, one of those homespun humorists in my home state of Indiana, used to say that being poor is no crime, but it might as well be.

Increasingly, we criminalize the act of being poor. It may be an aesthetic thing. We don't like to see poor people. Not only do they wear unfashionable and even unsightly clothes, but they painfully remind us of their existence.

When we ended welfare in this country, we told ourselves we were doing poor people a great, big favor by forcing them to get jobs. But, of course, most of the jobs we provided for them did not pay enough to lift them and their families out of poverty.

Still, we told ourselves welfare reform was a tremendous success because we slashed the welfare rolls. It was an entirely new way to define the success of a government program.

We used to judge the success of a government program by the number of people it helped. Now we judge the success of a government program by how few people it helps.

By that definition, President Bush was right. Brownie really was doing a heckuva job at FEMA. The more people Michael Brown allowed to die in the streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the fewer people the Federal Emergency Management Agency had to provide services.

But this entire plan of keeping poor people out of sight and forgetting about them is destroyed if we have to see and hear poor folks rattling carts through our alleys stealing garbage.

We haven't quite reached the point of Mexico City, where entire families live in an enormous dump outside the city waiting for the garbage that sustains them to be delivered.

So our poor people have to go out and get their own garbage. You could call that entrepreneurship and the American way. Or you could call it a crime.

Dorothy - here is something on the same topic that I noted in my journal. In addition I think the same is true when the police here arrest Hispanic men standing near Home Depot and Lowes. They arrest them for “Loitering”. In fact, they are standing hoping they will be picked up to work. It really bothers me. I agree 100% with Cynthia Tucker who wrote this in her AJC column today (March 5, 2006): “But the rapid influx of undocumented workers has a fairly simple solution: Impose harsh penalties – prison time – on the business executives who employ them, and fewer companies will take the risk. If fewer jobs are available, fewer workers will cross the borders. It as simple as that.”

Too many people see themselves as victims. Some of the kinds of people who I think are real victims are like the man who worked in one of our public schools (Oconee County, Georgia – one of the wealthiest counties in the State) and was arrested for stealing. Here’s my only understanding of the story from the police blotter. Teachers reported in the school that money was missing from their desks. The school principal installed some type of surveillance camera in a room. A male employee was viewed taking two dollars from a desk. On the same video he was shown two more times, each time returning one of the dollars. He was fired.

Now, how should we think about this? First, he was guilty of taking the money, second it was a miniscule amount of money, and third he reversed his actions and returned it. All I’m saying is there is more to this story, and that is not revealed in the police blotter. In today’s paper there is a story of two men arrested at a local grocery store for stealing two carts of groceries. Now for sure, they were stealing. But then I have to say to myself, just what were they stealing? Groceries. They are guilty of a crime, I accept, but is there a deeper story when the objects stolen are groceries and not a Mercedes or jewelry? Maybe, maybe not. What does stealing groceries mean to our community? Is the community’s problem that we have thieves or is it something else?

A Christmas Puzzle

“When I was growing up, every Christmas we would get a puzzle to solve as a family. By coincidence, there was a family next to us that also got a puzzle to do every Christmas. Now, my father is in the military and I have one brother, so we had a small nuclear family of four people that approached our puzzle in a rather military-like, hierarchical fashion. But the family next door had eight kids and dozens of relatives hanging around all the time, so their puzzles were solved in a far more chaotic way.

At our house, the puzzle was always placed on the same table with two chairs, and if you wanted to work on the puzzle, you had to wait. Further, the puzzle was done in a very organized fashion. You first found pieces for the corners, which could take hours just going through the box. The second job was to fill in the border. Only when these first two jobs were completed would you work on some inner section, and even then there was a rule that you were to look for pieces that could be identified by the color or pattern of the section being worked on. So when you sat down at the table you had to find out where we were in the process and move ahead logically.

Of course, growing up in the family it seemed perfectly normal to me. However, I noticed that the people next door did not use a ‘puzzle table,’ but worked wherever in the house they happened to be sitting. Also, sometimes six or seven people would be working on the puzzle at the same time. Some were looking for corners, some just found three or four pieces that fit together, and some thought they’d like to do a border. Although they worked in this very chaotic way, their puzzle always got done before ours. It made me mad because we were so much better organized.” From Terri Holbrooke, “Novell’s Ten-Thousand Piece Puzzle” in the book The Infinite Resource by William E. Halal, Jossey-Bass, 1998.

Speed Dating

I wonder if speed dating leads to speed divorcing? Do people who do either have more robust ventromedial areas of the brain? Can they rapidly detect if their “candidates” are all cashed up or flossing? This increased capacity for getting a quick fix on a potential partner would have been a great advantage, I suppose, on the Dating Game. How is our culture priming people for love? More than our spas are into a reshaping of the sexes. “Fast” trumps “stuff”, I think.

Pandemic Preparedness Here

The Cornertalk program on the Pandemic here in Athens tonight was disappointing. The two "experts" in the group, one from the local Public Health Department, and the other from the campus Office of Security-Emergency Preparedness were a little "thin on guidance." They both indicated that they go to a lot of meetings about this, but there is nothing close to a plan that I could tell. They talked about the usual preparations for quarantine, social distancing, preparing to stay at home for a long period of time, and handwashing and hygiene. Other than that, we were told we would be welcome to become volunteers for Emergency Preparedness. I can understand not wanting to unnecessarily scare folks, but certainly citizens could get better direction than this. Obviously, I think students need more of a plan because they live in such close and restricted quarters. I would only guess that at this time they would want to bolt in their SUVs if they got news of a Pandemic. Our Public Health Department has 200 employees to service 30,000 people.

They gave us a Preparedness Bulletin with this guidance:

>People should wash or sanitize their hands right before touching food pr putting fingers in their eyes, nose or mouth for any reason. Touch nothing in between.
>People should avoid breathing where others have recently coughed or sneezed.
>Sick people with fever or cough should stay home and stay away from others.

Duh. I am underwhelmed. I don't think having a plan would scare me; what scares me is not having a plan.