Teams and Metacognition

I've been side tracked by facebook and twitter for the last year. I've posted short updates on my life and my opinions which have mainly been directed at my peers. (And I play there because I like being able top comment on their posts.) But I find that I am censoring myself. The truth is that I have been trying to have a conversation on FB that is probably most suited for a blog. Here I am not limited to 147 characters and I am not worried about straining relationships because of my perspective. So, I hesitate to say, you may be hearing more from me here and I may begin to explore my personal struggle with my new surroundings.

You see I have moved to a different part of the country and my social network has expanded to include people that are much different then back on the east coast. This is compounded by the fact that I now live in a boarder state and I find myself confused with the way people have come to their conclusions. You see, I'd like to say that I approach the issues of the border with logic and reason but I completely lack the experience in the region. Don't get me wrong, as a Latino immigration has been ever-present in my life but I have a starkly different perspective than the locals.

Immigration is, directly or indirectly, a daily topic here in the SW. The issue surrounds the people in this community differently than in any other part of the country and I find there is a common rhetoric that is predominant in my new set of friends. It is a privileged and homogeneous group and they tend to be unaware of how nice they've had it. There is less diversity amongst my new friends and they all tell the same story. To be honest, I haven't come to terms with the difference and I really struggle with the fact that my perspectives are so different. Maybe I feel intellectually alone...Gasp. This isn't meant to be a self reflection, but there are a few stories in this place that keep coming up again and again. Because I spend most of my time at work, its not a surprise that it happens there.

I work for a state entity. It is a government job but it is also Higher Ed. So when coming to work here, I expected a particular level of intellectual rigor. Either I haven't found it or the intellectual process has taken place around a topic that I wasn't prepared or willing to engage. All the political drama aside, I am part of a young diverse team. Most of us are under represented minorities or from other parts of the world. We all have very different approaches and our story has been mainly about building. Our organization has been going through a lot of change and we keep hearing about building this team and getting to know each other more. The truth is, the efforts have been half hearted and mediocre at best. Either way, the issue of team building has been approached in terms of learning each other's styles and preferences so that we can communicate better. This is where metcognition comes into play.

Metacognition is awareness of one's cognitive processes, as well as an ability to develop a plan for achieving a goal and evaluating one's effectiveness of reaching that goal. (http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Metacognitive_knowledge) This seems to be a really important strategy in pedagogy. Conceptually it makes sense too. It is important to teach children to develop an understanding their own learning process so that they are able to formulate plans and evaluate their own progress. I hypothesize that this is what is missing on my team. We are all asked to share our personal styles but it's suggested that we do so so that we can learn how to communicate with others. In reality we should be asked to understand how we learn as individuals so that we can learn how to adapt to meet the team's needs more effectively.

So, to the purpose of my post. Is it important to engage in a metacognitive analysis when building teams? I can tell you all day long that I am visual learner and somehow that makes it ok for me to continue to ask for visually presented information. But is the true role of metcognitive analysis to force team members to self assess in order to find ways to change or "flex" to different styles? How effective has this been in your experience? Your thoughts please.

The "V"

Mark my words:

Housing sales increased in the month of December. Housing Prices are up. Jobs were cut this week, but employers commonly lag in recognizing when the economy is turning positive. I'll also mention that I have gut feeling that this is almost over. Does this mean that the initial bailout worked to free up the credit markets and therefore bank lending? What about Obama's proposed stimulus plan? If the economy is begining to swing positive and Obama manages to get his stimulus plan then that makes the positive slope steaper, right? Your thoughts are always welcome.

Another way to Football/Engage

I stumbled upon this Washington Post article through kottke.org about a project called MyFootballClub.co.uk. The basic premise is as follows, 31,000 members pay a minor monthly fee to a nonprofit which owns a soccer team in England. Here's the catch, each of the 31,000 members are part owners of the club. They vote on major and minor decisions, but most importantly, they are engaged in the business.

Why does this matter? We hear a lot about using social networking and Web 2.0 tools to advertise businesses or products. Seth Godin, for example, talks about creating a tribe. The concepts are all fine and well, but how can one apply these strategies to their business? Can anything be wikified? Are all products created equal? What are the repercussions if done incorrectly?

As a consultant I've seen plenty of organizations get very excited about new technologies and strategies but overwhelmed with the implementation. This reminds me of some comments about the TV show We Mean Business on A&E:

"When I watched the episodes,  it was my turn to be surprised.  I was surprised by how resistant to new ideas several business owners were. Some argued openly with the team about their ideas. There was a follow-up video done a few months after each makeover, and in several cases the owner had un-done parts of the makeover. (Usually in those cases the business was not doing any better, either.  Remind me the next time someone gives me advice, to take it.)"

- Anita Campbell @ Small Business Trends

In light of the pitfalls of 2.0 marketing and the challenges associated with change, MyFootballClub and other examples of consumer engagement are exciting and demystify social networking for small business owners.  These strategies are particularly important to nonprofits who rely heavily on customer (donor) engagement.

So, to step back a moment. I want to be an owner of a sports team, too. If I were business owner, I would want people to be so excited about my product that they create new niches for it. But the steps for getting to that point can seem overwhelming. Let me know if the tone of this post is TOO cautious.

It starts...

Whatever youir political views, you have to admit that the use of web 2.0 tools to engage the electorate is exciting. The engaging has begun. This from the Change.gov website:

"The story of this campaign is your story. It is about the great things we can do when we come together around a common purpose. We want to hear your inspiring stories from the campaign and election day."

Exciting!

Politics and the Internet

What I like about online marketing is that it is targeted. It makes the consumer feel like the center of attention. *Barack Obama ran a campaign that uses one important marketing mantra, this is about you, your experiences and how your life can be better with the product/solution I offer.

Obama has created a huge contact database. Access to the attention of the people on this system is priceless. The all important question... How will Obama further engage these relationships in the political process? I can see the whole 'Google for Government' and CapWiz like tools become really really important. Will Facebook and MySpace pick up a 'contact your representative' tool now that political action is so important to so many people?

Strictly in terms of these great web 2.0 tools, it would be a shame for these relationships to be wasted.

Tell me how you would like these relationships/web 2.0 to be used in the next 4 years.

*My spell check marked Barack Obama as misspelled. Will his name be added to word processor dictionaries so that the name Barack Obama no longer shows up as incorrectly spelled?

Polling and Data

Everyone's all a buzz with the general election coming up. We see cool touch screen maps on CNN and tons of polling data all around us. I just heard that one candidate took a stance on the whole Georgia/Florida water feud to pick up some votes from Floridian oyster farmers. What?! This is really crazy to me. How does the campaign even know these people exist?

My issue isn't with oyster farmers. I question these polls. As a matter of fact, I am a huge huge suporter of informed decsion making, and guess what, data is information. Let me contextualize my point of view.

For years I worked with non-profits. Non-profits are notorious for being disorganized and mismanaged*. But the misuse of data and innacurate conclusions from poor quality information collection struck me from the begining. I happened to be working for an awesome small organization which has now gone national. Fortunately they were cutting edge: 1) They had a database to track all of their "clients" 2) The database tracked a lot of different types of data 3) They understood the value of using this data for making decisions for and about their "clients" 4) They were willing to learn. I was fortunate enough to be put in charge of the database and I was the lead number cruncher. Interestingly enough I spent most of my time educating my co-workers in how to accurately communicating our results. It was easy to say that 80% of our clients improved when in reality 80% of clients received the instruction and tools which we believed led to improvement. Big difference.

But I digress. As I got deeper into the data analysis and our number crunching became more complex I stumbled upon an anecdote from a college prof. She warned of the dangers of using statistical software to do data anlysis. In her day she had to write the code for the stats software and then crunch the numbers. It took her years to get the training to do this and guess what, she knew her stuff. Today data analysis software easy to come across and large data sets are often offered for free. This means that more people are crunching numbers and coming to conclusions. Today's statistical conclusions, in essence, are cheaper and this has effected the quality of the conclusions. Understand this, the people crunching the numbers today don't necessarily have the same training as the people crunching numbers years ago.

So, I pose this question. Do you trust poll results? Everyone has their unique methodology. Everyone has their biases. Is it possible for polls to be used as a political tool to sway the public? I have seen organizations want a good result so much that they unknowlingly distort conclusions. What is your opinion? 

* This isn't a statement about all nonprofits. There are many organizations that are awesome businesses and I think some publically traded companies should take a hint from some of these smaller organizations.

photo by re_birf

Back on the ball

Its been a while since I've added anything to the blog. As you know I was traveling a good bit in Ecuador and now I'm back stateside and I've settled in the SW. Now this is a big deal for a few reason's:

1) The desert - I spent a portion of my upbringing in FL and I don't mind the heat. As a matter of fact, I like heat and humidity. The heat without humidity worries me.
2) The wife begins a PhD program and this means a lot of hard work for a long time.
3) This is a "small town" and this worries me the most.

Not that there is anything wrong with small towns, coming from DC, I think it will be a challenge to get used to "the volume" of interactions. If you take the law of large numbers into consideration, it will take longer to make contact with that one meaningful person if there are fewer interaction (because there are fewer people). This particularly of concern because I gave up a job in DC and now I must find work in Tucson.

So, I hand it over to you all, how do you find that one meaningful interaction when there are fewer interactions taking place? What is the best starting point in a close nit community?

PS: The posting will happen more frequently now that I'm back on the ball. Thanks for the patience.