This article first appeared in Horizons magazine, Issue 55 (Autumn 2011)
When was the last time you managed a quiet, focused fifteen minutes of reflection and review with your group? Almost no speaking, just the occasional smile, laugh or tear. A mental journey through the physical one they have just been on.
Unless you are working with Trappist monks, the chances are that this is a rarity for you, as it is for most of us. However, there is one fool-proof way of making it happen.
A slide-show of pictures from a group’s adventures is a beautiful way of rounding off a programme and with modern technology it is easier than it has ever been. If we embrace reflection as a key part of experiential learning, and believe that an image is worth a thousand words, we can help the participants relive the emotions of a programme and reinforce the learning that they bring.
Capturing Images
The key to a good slide-show is having lots of good, relevant images. The days of slide film are almost behind us and, if you want to use the images during the course, you are going to have to go digital. Digital cameras are cheap and ubiquitous and most participants will have one on their mobile phone. Read More »
The format is pretty simple, guests, who are normally famous or highly regarded in their field, chose 8 pieces of music, one book and one luxury they would take with them if stranded on a desert island. Previously presented by Michael Parkinson and Sue Lawley, it is now hosted by Kirsty Young (r).
While the music is played in full, the real interest comes in the conversation between Young and the guest as she probes into their past lives, gently but without shying away from revealing questions. Since by definition they guests have all be successful, it provides a fascinating insight into how they got where they did. If success and successful people interest you, it’s well worth a listen.
If you want to give it a go, it’s on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday at 11:15 and repeated on Friday at 09:00, or you can get it as a podcast.
Planning their next move. Apprentices from a major telecommunications company plan an overnight trip on foot and by canoe in the Lake District to scout out locations for a walking tours company.
Come on in the water’s lovely! In a steep mountain river in North Wales, a participant realises he may not have done his wetsuit all the way up.
With a run of festivals coming up, first the Winter Solstice, then Christmas, then the arrival of the New Year, we at Totem are going into hibernation for a couple of weeks before emerging in January to set you more challenges, help you have more adventures and most importantly, to help you learn from them.
Every year we look for a piece of advice or prose that sums up the festive period for us and every year we come back to the same one. This piece could probably be read every day with becoming old so once a year won’t hurt. It’s from master storyteller Neil Gaiman and if it needs a title, “Benediction” would probably suffice.
May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.
Have fun in the snow and we’ll see you all in the New Year.
North East of Australia are the islands of Melanesia. New Guinea and Vanuatu are probably the best known of them, conjuring up images of blue seas, white beaches, palm trees and cloudless skies. However, in the years following the Second World War, some very strange goings on took place in this tropical paradise.
The islands were of strategic importance to both the Allies and the Japanese as a launch pad for both aircraft and ships patrolling the Pacific Ocean. At different times, both side set up bases on the islands and with them brought many of the accoutrements of Western civilisation. Manufactured clothing, medicine, canned food, tents, weapons and other goods arrived in vast quantities for the soldiers, who often shared some of it with the islanders who were their guides and hosts. Such luxuries were previously unheard of and had a significant impact on the quality of life of the Melanesians.
With the end of hostilities in the Pacific theatre, the military shut up shot and the soldiers, sailors and airmen headed home. Gradually the remains of the supplies they had brought dwindled until nothing was left.
With little understanding of the events that had brought the cargo into the islands in the first place, some of the islanders began mimicking the activities and clothes of soldiers, such as performing parade ground drills with wooden rifles.
In the last month we’ve had three groups of apprentices through our Personal Learning and Thinking Skills course, challenging themselves and thinking hard about learning in the beautiful surroundings of Snowdonia. With more groups taking on the course in the coming months we asked one cohort to come up with some advice for those that followed in their footsteps. With no prompting from our Development Guides, this is what they produced;
It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It’s that they can’t see the problem -G. K. Chesterton
There are a number of systematic ways of solving problems. Some are useful in very specific situations, while others are powerful but very complicated. One of the ways we teach people to solve problems at Totem is using the 5 eyed method.
IDENTIFY what success looks like
You can only really solve a problem when you know exactly what outcome you are after. When the problem is solved, what situation will you be in. Step one is to sort out what it is you are trying to achieve.
ISOLATE the real problem
If you have ‘flu which has given you a headache, you can stop the headache with an aspirin but while it might make you feel better, you will still have the ‘flu. You have tackled the symptom not the cause. The key to problem solving is to be able to look at all the symptoms and decide what the underlying problem that is causing them is.
INNOVATE multiple solutions to the problem
Once you have isolated the problem, you should come up with multiple solutions to the problem. It is unlikely that your first idea will be the best so produce as many as you feel necessary before committing to one course of action. This is known as ‘divergent thinking‘
IMPLEMENT the chosen solution
You then must chose a solution from the many that you came up with. Consider the merits of each and the drawbacks, eliminate one at a time if you need to until you have your chosen path of action. This process is known as ‘convergent thinking‘.
Once you have chosen a solution you must implement it to the best of your abilities.
INVESTIGATE whether the solution solves the problem
Finally, it’s important not to assume that because you chose the best solution from the ones you thought up, it will automatically work. Put a system in place for investigating whether your problem has really been solved. Make sure that all of the symptoms have gone away and the underlying issue has really been resolved.
We’ve just finished running a mock assessment centre for the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nottingham. It’s aim was to give students a chance to experience what an assessment centre is like before they have to do so for real, and a chance to reflect on their performance in teams with feedback from peers and our Development Guides.
More than eighty students signed up for the day and spent it building contraptions that Heath Robinson would be proud of. Machines that sorted coins, threw table tennis balls and climbed ropes, along with a few puzzles, codes and a research paper. There were some extremely inventive solutions to some of the challenges but ultimately victory went to the team that was organised, managed their resources, knew when to give up on a project, used the strengths of team members and kept track of time. These are all the behaviours that major employers are looking for today.
It was such a success that the University in-house magazine ran an article on it and asked for our top tips for students who have to attend assessment centres. Here is our advice for those who find themselves applying for a job where a centre is part of the process.
Five Top Tips for Assessment Centres
1. Get involved. You don’t have to be the leader of the group, or even the loudest, but we are assessing your contribution, if you don’t contribute, we don’t have anything to assess.
Using a slide-show for reflection
Capturing Images
