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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Contagious

Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger. I was really looking forward to Contagious as my followup to his excellent book The Catalyst. Jonah is a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger

However, I found this does not hold the same spark. Actually, Contagious is really about common sense that most already understand. Many suggest a Malcolm Gladwell book which can share these ideas in his more impactful style. Perhaps they are correct.

But the world is much different for college students still facing COVID in 2022. For example, the quick use of Discord by college classes.

Here is a sample of how attempting to create an idea that will certainly catch on with college students meets hacking in 2022. In skipping the well established LMS for the cool features that appeals to students, it is only then that FERPA data has leaked across Discord servers. In addition, those same servers are running malware including drive by attacks on browsers. The malware is proving to also steal student’s data including their personal identifiable data and in many cases digital money used across Discord.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Conformity

Conformity: The Power of Social Influences by Cass Sunstein. He is currently a professor at Harvard and was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School for 27 years. He is the founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School.

Conformity: The Power of Social Influences by Cass R. Sunstein

From 2009 to 2012, he was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and after that, he served on the President’s Review Board on Intelligence and Communications Technologies and on the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board.

In 2018, he received the Holberg Prize from the government of Norway. Furthermore in 2020, the World Health Organization appointed him as Chair of its technical advisory group on Behavioral Insights and Sciences for Health.

In fact, his previous books Nudge and Noise are all best sellers and provide wonderful insights to human behavior. The focus of this book is addressing decisions influenced by social pressure.

Similarly, this can be for the better (logic, facts, and even experiments) or worse. So, it is very easy today to witness irrational social media posts influencing decisions.

Conformity has two faces

Cass begins by sharing a baseline that conformity is be positive or negative. As we know, conformity is a basic requirement and is proving to be necessary today. However, the focus is to understand the larger circumstances and become aware of the effects of conformity upon your decision making process. In addition, there is a real drive to understand the full impact of social media placing new pressures upon individuals to make decisions:

On social media, that happens all the time. The result can be to lead people to errors and even to illness and death. “Fake news” can spread like wildfire; informational cascades are the culprits. In 2017 and 2018, that was a particular concern for Facebook, whose platform has often been used as a basis for the rapid transmission of falsehoods.
pgs. 104-105.

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Education Reading TED

Latest Read: Bias Interrupted

Bias Interrupted: Creating Inclusion for Real and For Good by Joan C. Williams. Joan is professor and director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California College of Law. This book is addressing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within large organizations. Previously Joan wrote What Works for Women at Work.

Bias Interrupted: Creating Inclusion for Real and For Good by Joan C. Williams

So, when does $8 million not move the needle? When companies use the wrong tools to solve a business problem. This is the outline of Bias Interrupted. Joan’s message that organizations have been using the wrong tool trying to address DEI.

In addition, Joan delivers a solid breakdown via evidence-based data (over twenty years) to the origins of organizational bias. This includes both descriptions and examples of common biases along with actionable outcomes to change culture.

Joan is certainly focusing this book on large organizations. In addition, it would be fair to say the book is for supervisors, managers and senior leadership.

I felt this book is indeed a great read. Some may consider this to be short and more of an overview. However, there are practical solutions included. This may be best for busy leaders today.

On the surface too many organizations may believe their cultural bias cannot change. Worse, they are also terribly mis informed that a half day workshop is the instant cure-all. However, Joan provides an educational overview to organizational leaders to indeed discover how their tuned efforts can establish a better workplace.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Leadership Moments

Leadership Moments from NASA: Achieving the Impossible
by Dr. Dave Williams and Elizabeth Howell. Only with true leadership could NASA thrive in the face of certainly immense challenges, budget cuts, the loss of public interest and fatal accidents. Look no further than how NASA’s leadership proved over and over how they could reengineer their organizational mission and thrive.

Leadership Moments from NASA: Achieving the Impossible by Dr. Dave Williams and Elizabeth Howell

Dr. Dave Williams is an astronaut, pilot, ER doctor, scientist, and CEO. Dave has flown in space twice and is the former Director of Space & Life Sciences at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. In addition, he has received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and the Langley Research Center Superior Accomplishment Award.

Elizabeth Howell, PhD teaches at Algonquin College and in addition, at the Professional Development Institute at The University of Ottawa.

Accordingly, Leadership Moments from NASA dives into the leadership culture of this internationally famous organization. In addition, they examine the leadership styles and insights of NASA senior executives spanning five decades of human spaceflight result in lessons learned from critical moments.

Certainly the most unique aspect in this book is the entire world watched NASA birth and initial projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo culminating in landing on the moon and returning astronauts safely to earth.

Talk about global competition. Lessons from Sputnik truly changed America overnight. Honestly, overnight due to the impact of the cold war era. Their goal of racing to the moon is just extraordinary. NASA’s space mission is as much a story of leadership and teamwork as it is a story of exploration and discovery.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Decisive

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. Brothers Chip and Dan share their experiences and research insights to communicate ideas. Chip is professor of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Dan is a consultant to Duke University’s Corporate Education program.

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath, Dan Heath

Hard to believe that I read Made to Stick, their first book over 15 years ago. And it has been 12 years since reading Switch, their excellent follow up book. I am considering re-reading both since they are still powerful reminders of what we can be, even today.

Decisive was wonderful reading. Chip and Dan are delivering deep insights into bias. More importantly, they tackle the long held belief that Ben Franklin’s “weigh up the pros and cons and go with the winner” actually fails our decision making repeatedly.

Chip and Dan share their approach, known as the “Four Villains of Decision Making” that is much more effective. This is accomplished by framing choices in very narrow terms.

Many simply seek information or individuals who support an existing bias. This results in short term emotions, which leads to overconfidence. This can be easily identified with confirmation bias or perhaps implicit bias.

Chip and Dan move this forward by decision making methods broken down into four Decisive sections: Widen Your Options. Reality-Test Assumptions, Attain Distance before deciding, and Prepare to be Wrong. Many will find greater insights within their four methods.

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