Extraordinary times call for extraordinary learning and extraordinary thought. We are all on an accelerated learning curve just trying to cope with what's going on around us every day.
At the Learn and Get Smarter community meeting on Saturday, June 6th, 2020 we will explore societal and global solutions to the problems we are all facing. Are there models that have worked, to overcome the types of society-wide challenges we face? Are there methods of thinking that can help us bring in new solutions, not only to new pandemic problems (like Coronavirus) but to old endemic ones (like racism)?
Come to the community meeting
Saturday, June 6th, 2020
9 AM Pacific/ 12 Noon Eastern
Click on the green button to register for the meeting.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We need systems of healthcare, food distribution, financial wellbeing, education, housing, justice, and all other aspects of life, that honor the needs, the rights, and the inherent nobility of every member of society.
We need to let go of old ways of being and doing things that do not work, and that impact us all in negative ways.
Here's a summary of our work in the community meetings over the past several months.
(Click on the screenshots of the Trello boards to enlarge).
1) We used the structure of a mindset change course to brainstorm how to survive and thrive under challenging conditions
We discovered that while mindset change is important, it's not ENOUGH to help us cope.
2) We then explored using the structure of a "how-to" course, to see if what we need to do is develop new skills
Would learning new skills be the answer to surviving and thriving under conditions of uncertainty? We discovered that the answer was, once again, no.
We might indeed need to develop new skills. But skills alone are not enough to get us through.
Like having the right mindset, learning new skills might be PART of a strategy we can use to survive and thrive, but they are not the WHOLE strategy.
3) We realized that what is needed is a COGNITIVE STRATEGY.
We needed to find ways to LEARN HOW TO LEARN about what will help us survive and thrive in these unprecedented times. Having the right mindset, and learning new skills, are important PARTS of the cognitive strategy. But we also need more: we need to learn new ways of thinking.
Community members generously shared their expertise about complex ways of thinking, such as mind-mapping, the Cynefin Framework, and Systems Theory. We explored ways of holding different (and sometimes opposing) ideas in relationship to each other.
We related these ideas to our own experiences of life under current conditions on all levels, from the personal to the communal to the global.
The result is a collaboratively-developed cognitive strategy we are working on to empower ourselves and each other to find ways to fulfill our business missions under conditions of uncertainty, especially with respect to teaching online.
One of the highlights of the Saturday morning meetings has been hearing from members of the Learn and Get Smarter community about how they are adapting their products and services to meet the needs of their target audiences in these challenging times.
The creativity and innovation of this group is inspiring to us all!
We are still exploring this process, especially on the societal and global scales. As societies struggle to reinvent themselves in ways that work better for all their members, we can look for role models that have worked effectively to overcome large scale challenges. For example, we can explore the methods South Korea used to contain the pandemic, and the methods South Africa used to democratize their social structure despite a history of racial oppression and inequality.
As a leading-edge thought leader committed to teaching online in transformational ways, you are a different kind of front-line worker. You are at the forefront of helping people learn and get smarter online, and my mission is to provide products and services that help you do that.
Come to the community meeting on Saturday June 6th as we explore social and global systems that might work better than those that are crumbling around us now.
And keep in mind that if you'd like to make this the summer you get your transformational course online to support the people you are here to serve, the Course Design Formula® Master Course starts June 16th. Write to me at Rebecca@learnandgetsmarter.com if you would like to learn more.
