(Photo: The Baltic Sea from Love Boat, June 2015. Asko Mononen)
There's an old
Chinese story saying "A frog in a well doesn't know the sea..."
I have been
discussing with hundreds of people about eLearning, blended learning, mobile
learning, new way of learning and working since last century...
I remember few
frustrating, tragicomic discussions very vividly. In early 2000, one public
officer in managerial position complained "we have 1500+ discussion forums
on our intranet, how am I supposed to be on top what is going on in each of
them? I don't have so much time..." My answer was: well you're not
supposed to, an BTW it's also impossible...stating some facts about doubling
amount of information in internet every 5 years....yes, so slowly - but that was
almost 15 years ago...
Another memory from
Fortune500 company where the global program manager complained "I
constantly receive sms&email at 4am
from the other side of the globe, why do my managers expect me to work 24/7???" My answer was something like: "well, they don't, neither does anyone
else... Have you noticed that you can mute your phone whenever you want? :-)
As a consultant or
employee of large (and small) companies, I have met a lot of people who are lost
like the frogs in a well in a digital era. Many of our paradigms, mental models
and tools are inevidently outdated. The millenials/Z-generation are inherently
better with coping with vast amount of information, overwhelming sensual
stimulus and continuous distractions - because that's the only reality they
have ever lived in.
I have been talking
since last century about "projectification" of the work, learning and
life. This means transformation off the fixed term jobs, working places and
lifelong things (including relationships -check the divorce statistics) to more
temporary setups, e.g. freelancing, virtual work, etc.
I just listened
Harvard Business Review podcast by Evernote CEO and learned a new word: "snackification".
(Check yourself).
I learned that I need to update my pitch and learn more about millenials world.
Short example is that on PC/laptop the sessions on average last about 1 hour.
On smartphone, the average session is 5 minutes but it happens tens of times
per day. Next thing on our doorsteps is wearables, where e.g. the gaming
session is just 5-15 seconds but repeated 100-200 times a day. Just think about
it for a second: how does it changes behaviour, content, requirements for
usability etc. MTV has tought us 3 second attention span (ct. to coldfish which
has 7 second attention span...).
I believe that we all
are frogs in a well in some areas, inevitably. Equally true is that we all have
the capability inside us to be sailors as well. That requires us being humble
and brave to look around us, accept the obvious. Then we just need to check
where the wind is blowing and adjust our sails accordingly.
On the air somewhere
above Baltic Sea,
September 23, 2015
Asko Mononen
