Visualizing my Values

I recently took part in an emotional intelligence assessment tool designed by 6 Seconds to help me determine my emotional intelligence strengths and weaknesses. The test was relatively painless, and I found that I have strengths in the following areas of Emotional Intelligence:

• Exercise Intrinsic Motivation - I have internal drive and motivation that moves me forward.
• Exercise Optimism - I believe that my efforts now can influence what happens in the future.
• Pursue Noble Goals - I am goal-oriented - my long-term goals shape my decisions and actions.

I think I already intuitively knew that I had some of these strengths, and it was helpful to have them validated and emphasized. It is easier to benefit from something if you can name and focus on it.

Creating My Personal Compass
I followed up on my results with with Tracey Austin, an extremely well-credentialed, experienced coach at Franklin University. In our coaching session, he suggested that I create an image that shows my "True North Star," something that helps me to maintain focus on what is truly important to me. I decided to call it my Personal Compass. 

My Personal Compass for a successful life.

Explaining the Compass
I am not completely satisfied with it, but I think the "compass" above captures most of what is important to me. My purpose is to achieve success, the inner circle. I define success as godliness and the aspiration to become godly. Godliness in action is obedience to God and service to the people around me. I certainly do not assert that I am a godly person, but I try to work toward that ideal - I do all I can to live the life of a follower of Christ.

The middle circle indicates the four areas of my life in which success is critical: myself, my family, my church, and my employer. I have set standards of living for each of these areas, and I constantly set goals and work toward success in each. I believe that if I am diligent and true to these priorities, they will point me to a successful, happy life.

The outer circle represents my values, or the means through which success should be achieved. To be successful, I endeavor to dream and envision my desired future, I work hard to reach my goals, persist in my efforts, achieve successes, create opportunities for myself and others, believe in God and in myself, serve the people around me, and always have fun in my work.

I think the image captures my values and priorities - I will probably adjust it as time goes on. At some point, I'll frame the image in my office so that I can refer to it daily. Thanks to 6 Seconds and to Tracey for helping me become more self-aware and move forward in my goals!

A Challenge to the Slacker: Live Your Potential

I am often amazed and saddened by the number of people that go through life living far beneath their God-given potential. I have learned through many years working with students and coworkers that everyone has the ability to achieve incredible success in their own lives and profoundly impact the people around them. And yet so rarely do people achieve what is within their potential.

In fact, I sometimes get tired of seeing people floating through life, consuming without contributing, failing to see and do the many incredible things that are available. What wasted potential! What a sad thing to watch people of such potential wallowing in their own apathy, falling short of their incredible potential to live a full life and share their rich blessings with the people around them.

What do You Want?
I write this blog post as a sort of challenge to everyone that reads it. What do you want out of life? Is there something that you wish you could do, something that you've wanted to achieve in life but haven't yet done it? Is there something you would like to see, some place you would like to go? What do you want out of life? How do you want to bless and help the people around you? How can you more fully fulfill your own destiny and divinity? When you die, how do you want to be remembered by the people you love?

I am sure that you do have answers to these questions, I believe everyone does. Everyone has the desire for something better. If you do want something different in your life, keep reading. However, if you don't want to accept these challenges, don't waste your time by reading the questions below.

What it Takes to Set and Reach Goals

• Figure out what you want! Discover what you really want to change in your life. Read and answer the questions at the beginning of this post. Think deeply and seriously about where you want your life to head so that you find true clarity on what you really want in life.
• Do it. If you want something meaningful in life, then go for it. Do what it takes to make it happen. Don't spend your entire life thinking about it, worrying about it, and discussing how things aren't quite ideal for you to be able to do it. Get out there and start doing!
• Focus. Minimize and eliminate distractions from your life. Cleanse yourself of mindless television and internet surfing. Consistently increase activities that contribute to personal growth, health, learning, and success. Be sure that you do not get distracted by what you can't do in your own circumstances. Focus on what you can do and do it!
• Plan. Figure out exactly what you need to do to reach your goal. Research what it takes. Talk to people who have done it. Figure out what you need to do. If you can't figure out all of the steps right now, that is totally fine. Just do what you know you can do right now. If you step toward the thing which you desire, you will find yourself closer with the pathway clearer.
• Learn. To succeed, you must fill your mind with positive, true knowledge. If you want to change who you are, you have to drastically change what you allow others to teach you about life. You must acquire and trust knowledge that gives you personal power. Read scripture to heighten your understanding of your divine nature. Listen constantly to motivational speeches and talks to build confidence in yourself and in your abilities. You must flood your mind with good, pure, motivating, useful knowledge so that you have the power to sustain success. And you must eliminate that which lowers your view of yourself and your destiny.
• Get used to discomfort. Working toward new goals and dreams is difficult because it takes you out of your routine. Humans naturally like things to be comfortable and even predictable. Human beings like safety. But if you want to change and improve your life, you have to become friends with the pain of learning, action, and setbacks. After a time, however, you will learn to enjoy these difficulties as personal challenges and will welcome them as a way to improve yourself.
• Get help. If you do not have the knowledge, skills, or resources you need to reach your goals, get help from the people around you. Your spouse, friends, children, clergy members, teachers, managers, and even strangers are very often willing to give you support and guidance in your goals. Seek out the people who will teach you everything you need to do be successful.
• Persist. Keep working toward your goal. If you do not give up, then you cannot fail at reaching your goal. Think about it - as long as you continue to move forward toward your goals, you will succeed! I have seen many of my students overcome incredible obstacles to complete their studies because they kept moving forward and reached their goals. Be persistent - get back up when you fall down. Learn from your mistakes and adjust your approach. Just keep moving toward your ideal life and you will quickly find yourself living it.
• Find joy in the struggle. Working toward a goal is often as satisfying as reaching the goal. Training to run a race can be as exhilarating and beautiful as running the race. Learning so that you can pass as class or earn a degree can be as enriching as earning the degree. Consciously and consistently placing yourself on the path to success is success itself, so learn to love the process and path of success.
• Celebrate success. Set short-term goals for yourself and when you reach them, rejoice! If you run 3 miles for the first time, celebrate! If you complete a difficult course, or lose X number of pounds, celebrate! You are moving along the path to a more fulfilling, successful life.

So, what are you going to do? If you are not satisfied with your life, will you get up and begin to shape and create the life you desire? Or will you continue to meander through life living below your potential for happiness and success? Are you willing to accept the responsibility to make the changes you wish to see in your life? Are you willing to sacrifice the comfort of the apathetic slacker? It is never too early or late to learn, grow, change and achieve.

Are you willing to pay the price?

To Reach Career Goals, Be Deliberate

I thought I would share some ideas from a recent conversation I had one of my former (now graduated) students from the IDPT Program. We were discussing approaches for working toward career goals and career aspirations, and this student was seeking general advice on how to approach their own career goal setting. In this post, I'll give a summary of the ideas that I shared with this student. I should point out that there are clearly many other important pieces, including interviewing, applying, networking, but my focus here is on preparing and qualifying for the positions you desire.

I want to note that I have applied these strategies in my own career and have been very pleased with the success I have had. It has been a difficult process filled with a great deal of hard work and sacrifice, but I am now enjoying many of the blessings that come from that hard work, and I am excited to keep moving forward in my career.

How to Reach Your Goals: Be Deliberate
The most successful people in the world are successful on purpose. They are deliberate about where they want to go and work hard to get there. In instructional design, we use systematic processes like ADDIE to deliberately ensure that we are being systematic and thoughtful in our approach. You can use this same approach to design your career:

• Analysis - Look at several positions that are similar to your ideal job and analyze them to see what the job requirements are. Identify what education, credentials, knowledge and skills, and previous positions are required. Then compare the requirements with your own current capacities and credential so that you can identify your gaps- where you fall short in the requirements.
• Design/Develop – Plan out exactly how you can start working on filling the gaps so that you are qualified. Depending on the position you are working toward, you may need to work in different prerequisite positions before you are qualified to work in your ideal position. This means that you will need to map out a progression that makes sense and helps you build your qualifications. At the same time, be sure that you keep learning and growing and credentialing yourself. The more you can demonstrate that you have the required  knowledge and skills, the better.
• Formative Evaluation – talk with several professionals to get their feedback on your plan. Be sure to interview or follow others who have done what you want to do - they will be able to give you pointers on where you can go and what to do.
• Implement – Do it. Start moving down the path. Keep doing things that will prepare you. You should be sure to work hard so that you can be fully prepared and qualified to take the position you desire.
• Evaluation – Identify what is working and want isn’t. Keep trying new things and stick to the things that are working. 

The most important thing is to keep moving forward – we all get into that phase of life where it seems like things are not going the way we planned. But if you keep working and moving toward our goals and dreams, you will eventually arrive.

Remember, if you want to be successful, you will need to do it on purpose. Work toward your dreams in a purposeful, determined manner, and you will be surprised at the rapid transformation that comes into your life.

Related Post: Creating Results in Life

I hope this approach is helpful to you. I have used this process in my own career and have been thoroughly surprised at some of the things I have accomplished in a short period of time. Best of luck!

30-day Challenges

I am a very goal-oriented person. I am always looking for something new to work toward, something to focus my energy on and achieve. This is one reason that I have worked hard to earn many higher education degrees. It is the same reason that I am constantly reading, writing, and moving.

30-day Challenges

I have come across a couple of blogs and videos lately that highlight the idea of doing 30-day challenges. For example, this video:

Because I am slightly obsessed with learning, goal-setting, and pushing myself to do new things, I think I will try this out for the next few months to see what comes of it. I'll write about my experiences here. My plan is that when I commit to a challenge, I will work to complete the challenge during the challenge period, though I might not necessarily do a challenge every month.

My First Challenge: Whole Foods, Plant-Based Diet - May 1 through May 31

For my first 30-day challenge, which I already started beginning in May, I am going to eat a "Whole Foods, Plant-Based Diet." What does that mean? It means eating no animal products, including meat, fish, eggs, milk, or cheese. I am eating only plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, and grains. It has gone pretty well so far.

Why am I doing this particular challenge? First, for personal health and well-being. I've been exposed to some research that indicates that animal-based proteins are directly related to obesity and many chronic diseases. In contrast, a vegetable-based diet appears to help one achieve a sense of well-being, weight loss, and a significant decrease in risk for cancer and other terrible diseases.

Additionally, as a practicing Mormon, I already adhere to a fairly strict health code called the Word of Wisdom. Because of this code, I do not drink coffee, tea or alcohol, nor do I smoke or use recreational drugs. The Word of Wisdom also recommends eating meat "sparingly," which reinforces my desire to eat in this manner. I believe that spiritual benefits will also come as a result of this challenge. I plan to report on my progress and success at the end of May.

Future Challenges
Here are some of my ideas for future challenges.

• Do 50 pushups a day for 30 days.
• Send 30 real letters to friends and associates in 30 days (thank you cards, compliments, etc.)
• study a totally new topic or skill I'd like to master for 30 days.
• draw or paint a picture each day for 30 days.
• read the entire New Testament or Book of Mormon in 30 days.
• do an extra act of kindness for someone each day.
• work out 6x a week for 30 days.
• 30 days of 30 minutes of meditation, study, and prayer.
• 30 days no complaining.
• 30 days no television or movies.
• read 6 new books in 30 days.
• write a novel or book in 30 day. Apparently this is already a thing.

Any other challenge suggestions? My goal is to do things that I believe will help me enjoy a more fulfilling life physically, mentally, or spiritually... We'll see how it goes!

To Reach Your Goals, Avoid Distractions

If you don't decide what to do with your life, someone else will decide for you. 

Whether we know it or not, we all have goals, in life. Goals give us direction, focus, and something to work for in life, but so often we seem to get distracted from reaching these goals. Distractions are ever-present in our society - the constant flow of information, entertainment, and the influence of others can overwhelm our ability to think clearly and move forward toward our goals. I have observed that many people simply do not reach their full potential, and this is often due to distraction.

Previous Post: How to Set and Reach Career Goals

Ask Three Simple Questions:
To overcome distractions, I have found that asking the following questions are extremely helpful. These questions are designed to help you clarify your goals and help you move forward toward what you really want.

1. What is my goal? What do I really want out of this meeting, this day, this conversation, this life? The goal here is to help you keep a focus on what you really want to achieve.
2. Is what I am doing now helping me reach my goal? Think of how your current thoughts and actions are contributing or distracting from your goal.
3. If not, what can I do right now that will help me reach my goal? Focus yourself on activities that will help you reach your goals.

Obvious Distractions
Here is a set of obvious distractions that might be keeping you from your goals:

• Mindless facebook time or internet surfing
• Purposeless television-watching
• Frivolous chatting or gossiping with coworkers

These kinds of activities are important and can relieve stress, but if used excessively, they can totally distract from your own purposes and goals, and in time you may lose your ability to succeed at what you really desire.

Less Obvious Distractions
The previous examples are pretty obvious, but here are some examples that you might not have considered before. These examples are more internally oriented in nature and are not as easy to monitor, but they are definitely distractions.

• Worrying about what other people think of you
• Worrying that someone might say no (or yes!) to your requests
• Allowing personality conflicts or issues to distract you from the goal

I have noticed that people (myself included) often allow their pride and their insecurity to get in the way of their goals. I have seen rooms filled with very well-educated people become emotionally charged that nothing is accomplished and the goal remains unfulfilled.

So, try out the three questions above and see if they help you keep your focus on your goals.

Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning
Right now at Franklin University we are undergoing a revision of the university's strategic plan. The strategic plan was initiated five years ago when our current president, Dr. David Decker, took leadership of the university. The university's goal is to match the needs of students and employers and provide meaningful education to as many people as possible.This goal is expressed in the university's mission, which is described here.

I was asked to serve as part of the steering committee for the revision of the strategic vision, and I am also co-chair of one of the sub-committees that is researching and writing a small section of the plan. Franklin's mission as a non-profit organization is something I can stand behind, and I have enjoyed being a part of the strategic planning process.

What is Strategic Planning?
Since I am fairly new to this concept, I thought I would write a little about what strategic planning is. Strategic planning is an organization's process for creating its strategy. It usually includes plans for implementing this strategy, including plans for allocating resources to achieve its goals. Strategic planning is a process in which the following are typically identified:

• The organization's current state
• The desired state of the organization, including specific goals and objectives
• A proposed path for reaching the desired state, including allocation of resources, sequence of activities, and milestones
• Description of opportunities and barriers, strengths and weaknesses, and internal and external threats to the plan

Strategic Planning and Human Performance Technology
This process is very similar to the 2012 HPT Model, which is a process model for improving human performance. The basic phases are very similar, though the HPT Model tends to focus on causes of poor performance and the creation of a solution that addresses these causes.

Strategic Planning and Goal Setting
The Strategic Planning process is also very similar to the process used for goal setting. However, goal setting is usually used by an individual, and strategic planning is typically used by and organization. 

Strategic Planning at the IDPT Program
As I have gone through this experience in assisting with the strategic planning initiative, I have realized that I can use the same process to create a strategic plan for the IDPT Program at Franklin University. I have done this in part, but a more comprehensive strategic plan could really help me to create a program that more fully serves the needs of its students and the organizations that hire its graduates. I hope to create some time for developing this strategic plan beginning sometime in the beginning of Summer 2013.

Day 2 of Chairpersons Conference

Leadership Transitions Training and Development
Workshop by Katherine Frank, Margarte Thomas Evans, Cathy Foos, Rob Tolley and Mark Pomper

The focus of this workshop was the development of faculty during large transitions within a college. There are very often big changes in an organization's structure, and it is important to continually develop a chairperson as they fit their role. There were a couple of points that I thought were particularly important:

• It is vital that an organization fosters leadership from the beginning. Very often an organization is reactive when a new chair position opens up. Instead, training and development should be a key part of faculty development so that a succession of leadership can take place.
• Personal relations with faculty are the most important aspect of leading as a chair. If you can have a positive working relationship with the people you lead, you will be much more effective as a leader, even if there is disagreement on decisions made.

Notes on Progressing as an Administrator
I am a relatively young faculty member - probably the youngest faculty member at my university. Moving to a chair position as early as I did was probably a little early in my career. However, it also gives me the benefit of learning a great deal in a short amount of time. I am still not totally sure of my career direction, but one of the possibilities is to work in my career as an administrator in higher education. I have enjoyed my work as chair, though it can be quite difficult, at times. And I think I have some of the skills and abilities that would make me a good academic leader.

I met with Dr. Kent Crookston, professor at Brigham Young University, for a brief one-on-one that the conference arranged for its attendees. Dr. Crookston and I discussed  potential career avenuse I might take, and we ended up discussing the possibility of working toward becoming a dean or even a provost. During our discussion, he gave me the following pieces of advice:

• Be strategic -have a goal in mind. Where do you want to end up?
• Decide what kind of institution you would like to work in. My experience as a faculty member has been in smaller, teaching-focused universities. If I want to move to larger research universities, I will likely need to earn tenure before I can become an administrator at those larger universities.
• Find a mentor who has done some of the things you want to do. This mentor can help you begin to prepare for the next position.
• Study administration. Read leadership journals and magazines. Get deep into the literature. Dr. Crookston recommended the Harvard Business Review as one of the best. 
• Stand out in your current position as a leader without appearing overly-ambitious. Do your best to shine at what you are doing now.

Truthfully, I am still not sure exactly where I would like to end up in my career. I am happy where I am now and feel good about the work I am doing. I can see that I might excel as an administrator, but I have a passion for teaching and writing that I would like to hold on to. Whatever I decide to do, this  knowledge gives me an idea of the kinds of things I might do to really move forward in my goals.

Navigating Waves of Change

Jeremy Buckner, Christine Dalton, Kara Stooksbury, Laura Wadlington

The final presentation I attended was about peer-led professional development for academic chairs.A group of fairly new department chairs were confronted with a need for developing themselves as chairs and decided to create a series of workshops for doing so. They created for workshops for themselves and their peers within their college around the following topics:

1. Personality, work style and communication - In this session the participants all took the Jung typology test, which helped them to start looking at themselves and how the prefer working and communicating. They discussed their results with their peers and planned out ways to work with their strengths.
2. S.W.O.T. Analysis of own departments - In this session, participants performed a S.W.O.T. Analysis of their own departments. This is an exercise in which the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats related to the department are analyzed and articulated.
3. A Session with the Chief Financial Officer - In this session, the CFO of the university presented the reality of the financial state for the departments in the college. She answered their questions and helped them see how their work related to the college's budget.
4. Departmental Strategic Planning - This session has not yet occurred, but it will involved planning for the coming 5 years. This is something that I believe could be very valuable for me and my program. We are on a good path, and I believe that we could really move the program forward with some disciplined work.

The presenters said that they found that there was a greater sense of collaboration among the participants, and the participants were surprised to find that there were some great similarities between the departments.

I am excited to see what I learn tomorrow - looks like another set of good presentations.

Book Review - "Instant Influence"

I recently listened to Dr. Michael Pantalon's book Instant Influence. In this book, Pantalon synthesizes research that he and others have done on how to influence others by helping them find motivation to make some kind of change in their life. He presents a series of questions that have proven to create motivation in others and help them create their own motivation to make change in their lives.

According to Pantalon, when you are working to motivate another individual, you must adhere to a few key principles:

• Affirm the individual's free choice, their autonomy to choose their own actions. This affirmation must be sincere.
• Do not tell the individual to change. Do not tell them why or how to change - have him or her generate personal reasons and ways to change.
• Have sincere care for the individual, have a true desire to help the individual move forward.

Pantalon recommends asking the individual 6 Questions, which are designed to help the individual determine their own motivation for doing a specific thing. After identifying a change that you believe the individual should make to improve their life, ask the following questions:

• Why might you change?
• How ready are you to change on a scale of 1 to 10?
• Why didn't you pick a lower number?
• Imagine you have changed. What would the positive outcomes be?
• Why are those outcomes important to you?
• Whats the next step, if any?

The goal of these questions is to help the individual determine his or her own internal motivation for doing the behavior in discussion. I believe that the internal motivation is much more powerful than any outside motivation, and these questions appear to help an individual tap in to that internal motivation.

Pantalon also recommends using these questions to help motivate oneself into some kind of action or change in your own life. I have personally used these strategies on myself since reading the text and find that it truly does provide a surprising sense of internal motivation and excitement about making changes that seem important but that are difficult to start doing.

As a scholar, I prefer books that appear to be based on sound research and experience, and Pantalon references his own research, the research of others, and his experiences using the system he promotes. I found the book easy to follow and found the many examples very helpful in aiding me to understand how the 6 Questions can be applied.

Great, useful work.

How to Stop Being a Jerk

I find that I spend a lot of time analyzing people. I just can't help it - I am a scholar and a researcher, and it spills over into how I observe the people around me. For some reason, I am fascinated by the behaviors of the absolute jerks of the world. You know who these people are - they can be rude, unpleasant, demeaning, and arrogant. (You can read my analysis of one category of jerks in my post about Toxic Coworkers).  Here is one definition of a jerk:

\ˈjərk\ - an unlikable person; especially : one who is cruel, rude, or small-minded

What is amazing about so many of these jerks is that they usually do not realize that often their own jerky behavior actually limits their ability to succeed. It is true that an individual might find some short-term success through the use of manipulative, toxic actions; however, over the long-term, that individual will reap the negative results of their negative actions. Here are some of my own observations of toxic (jerky) behaviors with the corollary healthy behaviors in a work environment:

Toxic and Healthy Behaviors

Toxic Behaviors (in coworkers)	Healthy Behaviors
Constantly critique others Complain daily about work situations Gossip about and slander other coworkers Find fault with everything others do Constantly angry, use foul language Lie about others	Share constructive, formative feedback. Focus attention and communications on what can proactively be accomplished Speak positively of others (when deserved) Facilitate success in others Control anger and use professional language Speak truthfully and kindly of others

Character is the Foundation of Behavior
Somewhere beneath behaviors lies the character of the individual doing the actions. One must pause to consider what a jerk believes about themselves and others. What are their assumptions about life? How do they perceive their roles in life, in their families, and in the workplace? What do they believe will bring them happiness and success in life? What principles do they allow to guide their actions? Are they even aware of their own beliefs and assumptions about life? Perhaps being a jerk is simply a result of having very little self-awareness, an inability (or a lack of desire) to look honestly in the mirror and acknowledge what is found.
 

Unhealthy Character	Healthy Character
Appearance/possession-focused Selfish Gratification-focused Focused on short-term Careless attitude toward of resources Abusive toward others	Character-focused Giving, serving Self-restraint, delayed gratification Focused on long-term Respect and judicious use of resources Respect of and service to others

Change Character Through the Power of Beliefs
If character is the foundation upon which our actions are built, how might we build our character? To change our character, we must change our perceptions, or beliefs about the world and about others. I have found that beliefs that are (1) true and (2) empowering yield the greatest shifts in character and therefore action. Understanding and believing these principles provides a great deal of personal power. I've outlined a few below. Notice the sequential nature of these principles - each principle leads to the following principle.

Empowering, Healthy Beliefs:

1. My actions have results. This is often called the law of the harvest - whatever you sow, that is what you will reap. One verse of scripture reads "That which ye do send out shall return unto you again." This is true in every aspect of our lives, including our relationships with others, and understanding and believing this principle can provide a fundamental shift in how reality is perceived.
2. I have the power to choose my actions. Our "free will" or our ability to choose our behavior is like a muscle - we can exercise it to increase and control our capacity to choose our actions. We have the capacity to respond to our circumstances in ways that yield positive results. The famous quote states, "The problem is not the issue, the issues is how you deal with the problem." Unfortunately, this means that we cannot continually blame others for our actions.
3. I have the power to choose the direction of my life. We have the ability to clearly identify and articulate what we desire in our lives - what we want to know, do, become, or have. We can set a direction for our lives. This belief can be enacted through the process of goal setting, which I describe in this blog post.
4. I can move my life in the direction I desire through purposeful action. This is really a combination of the previous three beliefs. We have the ability to live a life of purpose, and it is by setting goals, selecting actions that will help reach those goals, and doing those actions that we move in a purposeful direction.
5. I have the ability to positively influence and benefit people around me. This belief is a natural extension of the previous four. I have found that working to positively influence and bless the people around me has brought me significant intrinsic awards. In addition, sending out positive energy and actions to others will inevitably yield a return of positive energy and actions. It is through healthy interactions with others that our success becomes most fulfilling.

Applying to Education

So, how does this relate to instructional design and education? I believe that people are infinitely more empowered when they learn principles of this nature. In education, we tend to focus our attention on surface-level learning - knowing facts, solving problems, gaining skills - and we ignore the foundation on which all human behavior resides: our beliefs and our character.

I also believe that true educators already embody many of these beliefs. They dedicate their lives to positively influencing others.

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What reactions do you have? Do I oversimplify the issue? Do jerks just need to change what they believe about life to become less jerky? Your comments are welcome...