When resources are tight and the number of people competing for those resources is greater than ever, a communication strategy that is cost-effective over the long-term, robust, adaptive and brings people and ideas closer together is a good bet. Time to restore not only sanity, but relationships in our work.
We have this remarkable paradox where the demands for more, better, appropriate, timely knowledge is greater than ever on problems that are becoming ever-more complex with more tools to generate and sort this information, and no time to actually use it effectively.
As social media folk, we might want to turn some of the marketing strategies we employ with others on to ourselves to see how we might better inform the public about the possibilities of social media and what kind of talk that they need to see walked before enlisting that next social media “expert”.
The revolution most likely will be Tweeted, but whether that is the cause or the consequence is why research on social media and social activism is needed. Otherwise, we will wind up with another chicken and egg problem.
If we continue to view social media as working/not working, good/bad, real/fake we start to miss the point that these tools and technologies are doing something and are supporting real people, some of whom are doing a lot; to dismiss that is to risk squashing the spirit and potential that we all have to advocate and participate in change.
Malcolm Gladwell recently authored an article for the New Yorker that has been widely circulated and debated within the social media world. The piece, entitled Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted, takes the stance that Twitter and other social media tools are not much better at facilitating social change than the coffee …
The Complexity and Peril of Either/Or Thinking in Systems and Social Media Read More »
Education is a complex adaptive system, but the current opportunities for transformation in education are being limited by a desire to limit creativity and increase bureaucracy. This is explored.
Today I’ll be wrapping up a two-day kick off to an initiative aimed at building a community of practice around Developmental Evaluation (PDF), working closely with DE leader and chief proponent, Michael Quinn Patton. The initiative, founded by the Social Innovation Generation group, is designed in part to bring a cohort of learners (or fellows? …
This past week I had the true privilege of attending a High Table Dinner with some of the University of Toronto’s future leaders from Trinity College. The guests, some faculty, but mostly students, came from many different disciplines and ranged from first year undergrads to doctoral students who were well on their way in their …
Over Educated and Under Developed For Innovation Read More »
