WHAT ARE YOU ‘SHARING’?

Onigbinde highlighted that if there is form of distraction that captures the attention of the tutor and learner(s), the tutor should divert from the subject of discourse, address the object of distraction and return to the learning activity. That ensures that the mind of the learner is not trapped in the chain of distraction. If however the tutor and learner(s) get caught up in an attempt to kill distraction, learning does not occur.

As humans, we learn per unit time. Do well to be sensitive to take lessons as you navigate through life.

Much credit goes to the producer of a short video clip I saw days back. If you have not seen it, most likely you are on a tour to Saka’s village. The clip went viral and was really interesting. Nollywood is really doing fine, trust me. The protagonist addressed a press conference and it was seemingly a show of absurdity. Chai! The name “God” must have been used so much in days past.
So many comments have been made about the clip. The protagonist, in a bid to help the distressed parents of some abducted children, called for a press conference. Her emotions took a better part of her at some point, which automatically ended the clip. New York Times describes the reaction of the protagonist in the clip as “...stunningly callous’’.

Another episode I’ve been watching is quite fascinating. Let’s apply Onigbinde’s principle. There is an ‘ACT X, SCENE X’ I’ve been seeing for days. This is a learning setting where:

Tutor: Life, Students: Human Beings

In the process of learning, the video clip I saw came in. Tutor Life allowed us to understand the object of distraction. Many students saw the video and made comments and it was fun indeed! However, learning seems not to be occurring, and many have not returned to class. Many humans have stayed with the video, fellowshipping with the spree of absurdity that has followed the trend.
Wait a minute! What lesson(s) have you taken from this trend? Are you sure the best of you isn’t taken over by the comedy piece, distracted from the reality of life it presents? Perhaps your performance would be worse if you are to address a press conference soon!

It’s high time we returned to class and take lessons. ‘Oga at The Top’, ‘Diaris God o’, ‘E no go be president’ and the likes have trended in the most recent past. What lessons have you taken from these shows of shame? Some of you do not know the website of your work place till date! Shhhhh!
Enjoy the trend. Enjoy the show of absurdity. However, do not get carried away in the frenzy of it all. Return to class now with your faculty of learning activated. We are at a stage where your ‘mess’ can trend on the social media in nano-seconds. You have ‘shared’ enough videos and images. What happens if we ‘share’ your chats? Plenty ‘bazookas’ and nonsense? Chai! Have fun but don’t cease to learn.

Take lessons and never let go of them. Many are trapped in these shows of absurdity and have truncated the process of learning. Remember, the spectator is always the best footballer. You can ‘share’ this post to help someone.

I CAN'T KNOW

Prof. S said to us in CSC 406 class that we’d grasp the concept of his course years after we graduate. We all believed it and simply studied to scale the hurdle of his examination. Many had good grades but I doubt if I understand the concept till date. I believed a lie that I won’t and I don’t. That’s really sensitive! In learning, perspective has a lot to do with your level of participation and understanding. Once you believe you will not understand, that will be your experience!

Words are powerful forces that penetrate into the deepest parts you can never imagine! Let’s divert a bit.

‘’I don’t know.  I don’t have money’’, answered Mrs. Tapatimo. Her husband was broke and needed aid but her weather forecast was always that her account was in tomato red. She never had money but she had resources.  I also need to highlight the fact that the guy might not have been financially prudent enough when his finances were good.

On a fateful day, the man returned with a 6 feet by 7 feet  Mouka foam. His dream of replacing their old rugged foam was realized. Mixed feelings visited madam’s return! Why? She was excited to see the new foam. She was also excited to see that her room was rearranged and the painter was on the way. Her hubby got a cold hug. She stuttered and asked for the old foam. The excited hubby asked her why she was particular on the whereabouts of the foam.

‘’Good news my dear, I burnt it’’. Tears dripped down her cheeks. Your want to make a guess?

Many times I wonder why many of us act like madam. My psychologist friend said to me that when you speak to yourself, you energise yourself, so mind your language. Alright, madam kept N70,000 inside the clothing cover of the foam. Yes, she said she didn’t have money! Nice experience.

I wish I didn’t believe what Prof. S said. My study of a scenario in a virtual forum to which I belong rides on the core of the course he taught us. It was quite difficult to understand the case study until I told myself that I would understand the principle this time. And now I do, after several attempts at mastering it.

Learning could be simple or complicated. It’s a matter of perspective. If you believe you will never know, that would be your experience; even if you make an attempt to read after your honeymoon. When you say that ‘’I can’t know’’, you simply shut the door of understanding on your mind. When you make an attempt to learn something reasonable and needed, convince yourself that you will get it right.

Please keep learning.

Chicken Dogma

A friend once asked what to do when you suddenly discover you’ve been too far from a person whom you respect and has been of great impact to your hustle. The answer I discovered was to plan an unplanned trip the next weekend to apologize. So I went to Ilorin last weekend, and paid Alhaji N. I. Raji a visit. A great man he is I must tell you.

But this post isn’t about him nor the trip, its about a sight that caught my wondering fancy around Ogbomosho on my way back. So philosophical it made me think, so sudden I couldn’t reach for my phone to take a picture. But let me try to describe it as much as I can.

From my front seat of the Sienna-type car I took, I saw, on the left side of the road a cage, the type used in poultries to collect eggs, filled with chickens. Was just a row, five enclosures at best, about ten chickens as temporary tenants. The bewilderment struck when a dove, free as air, perched on the feeding trough for a cheap balanced diet.

*Insert imagined picture*

This picture to any other eyes could infer a million other profound thoughts, but the question I asked me was;

“What was life for chickens before we caged them for their eggs and penned them for their meat?”

In that line of thought, the superiority of the human race amongst others may be discussed, but I was more interested in the resulting dogma. Now, we all believe beyond reasonable doubt that chickens were created to be food for humans in all stages of their pensionless lives.

Maybe not all stages sha, but most… eggs through old age

My major muse is this, could there be other animals that haven’t been domesticated yet by the human race, but due in part to our “knowledge of what-is” i.e. what we met and have been told is good and allowed, we have refused to try new leads?

How was the chicken domesticated? Couldn’t we domesticate new birds too? Must we not explore because the ones before us did already?

On a broader perspective, there are a lot of dogmas we hold on to because we “met it that way”, or “that’s just the way it is” and questioning them a lot of times seem really stupid (some would argue this post is :D) , but no real development occurs without a marked change in thinking from "what is" to "what you want it to be".

In short, dogmas are comfortable, change isn’t.

Or what do you think will happen to the chicken if humanity ever stopped bullying it?

Find Your Sandbox

Growing up, I always wanted to ride a bicycle. I wanted to feel the thrill of moving at high speeds, the wind blowing my unbuttoned shirt like batman's cape. The only problem was that I did not own a bicycle and I never got to learn how to ride one. So on one fateful day in 2009, I went to a bicycle shop and picked up a nice Japanese Miyata road bike. I gently placed the bicycle in my car and walked it (gentlemanly) to my garage when I got home.

 

Quick puzzle for you, did I 

(A) take my bicycle out when it was bright and sunny and try to learn how to ride in the broad daylight or 

(B) sneak out in the middle of night when the neighbourhood was fast asleep to practice riding my bicycle. 

If you picked option B, then give yourself a pat on the back.

 

We all know that one guy that doesn't care what others think about him and would have been absolutely comfortable as an adult learning how to ride a bicycle in the daylight. For the rest of us, we need sandbox environments where it's safe to play, to fail, to learn without the fear of physical or social injury. Sandboxes relieve us of the burden of self-doubt and self-consciousness. For many of us, our sandbox is first our family and then our friends. Sometimes we find ourselves amongst "friends" we can't learn new things around without being ridiculed (in a "friendly way"?). Will you encourage your friend or put her down if she decides to learn a new, challenging skill even if she should already know how to do it?

 

Sandboxes help us get comfortable with learning different skills; they help us focus on the task at hand instead worrying about who's watching and what they think. It's on us to find the right sandboxes for particular skills we want to learn, sometimes our sandbox is among family and friends, sometimes it's group classes where everyone is there to learn, sometimes it's a private tutor, sometimes it's learning in a different city where no one knows you and sometimes it's learning in the darkest hours of the night.

 

After learning how to ride a bicycle, then swimming, piano, west coast swing, public speaking and even hoolahooping all after college, I am more comfortable learning in public these days. Most time though, I still prefer learning in my sandbox and showing off my newly learned skill in the spotlight. Have you found your sandbox?

BEING TEACHABLE

ww.samofeming@.com

What does that look like? A URL? An email address? Or what? That was the question I asked myself when I received a letter by hand, from Femi Sam, who introduced himself as an experienced tutor in a recognized academy. He met me at the IT office of his good friend and promised to keep in touch. The informal letter (*laughs*) was quite directionless but I he specified that he wanted an electronic mail for himself. Then I understood why he sent his CV attached with the letter, so I would enter the right information into the fields. I was quite puzzled because the e-mail address he specifically wanted was ww.samofeming@.com. 

In the process of learning/execution, many times, many requesting organizations do not really know what they want, yet they appear as if they do. Some requests are absurd to the performer while to the requesting party, they make all the sense in this world. For a simple hearted person that makes impossible requests, it is easier for the performer to guide him through what is right to do. Sam Femi said I shouldn’t bother if the email address he specified was not available. I tried to explain the absurdity of his request to him via a phone conversation. He was not interested in my suggestion. ‘’NDBWY sir’’, I said in my mind.

I’m yet to receive any mail from that particular address. Many times, it’s difficult to receive corrections particularly if you appear like a know-it-all; when you do not want to step down from your rung of pride. Some people would rather manipulate a good hearted performer who tries to correct them, making him feel silly. It’s terrible not to be teachable!

Over confidence won’t allow you ask questions. ‘Oversabi’ deceives you that you know it all. ‘Over-saturated brains’ hardly open up to suggestions. Ayo Arowolo, a recognized financial consultant, said he didn’t learn much from his mentor at a particular point. He asked questions and when the ‘Baba’ made an attempt to answer, he would interfere and add take over from the man. The wise ‘Baba’ allowed him until he realised he wasn’t learning!  Until he became humble and teachable, he didn’t learn the principles that delivered him from his massive financial trouble. Can you sit to be taught what you (think you) know, and it will come out as a fresh idea? Are you teachable?  Assumption is the bedrock of a great fall in the process of execution.

Everytime you interfere with the process of help from a tutor, performer or colleague, the relationship ends with a NDBWY action. If you read well, I didn’t say that it’s bad to be confident in what you know. I simply said it’s terrible to be over confident, causing you to turn down suggestions which are seemingly contrary to what you know, or below your knowledge level. There’s a way to help the performer/tutor even if his propositions are wrong. The point is- listen first!

Avoid the NDBWY chain. Relax so that it won’t always be ‘Nice Doing Business With You’ (NDBWY) because you are not teachable. Think about this!

Human Nature

Uncle Mike once told me that if they ask "why?", I should tell'em that it's human nature. The more you learn about yourself and people in general, the more you recognize the nature and nurture that makes you unique and the nature, needs, goals and aspirations that you make you similar to others.

Call it selfishness, survival instincts or being smart, but Human Nature 101 tells us that all of us are looking out for ourselves and the best way to get what we want is aligning what we want with what the people that can help us want. Why does your neighbour play his music so loud right into the night? Why is it so hard to get people to invest in your great business idea? Why would your friends rather watch the English Premier League instead of supporting the local clubs? Why aren't we helping the less privileged among us? Why are our politicians so corrupt?

The answer, human nature. We want what makes us feel good, what we get rewarded for, what would help us mitigate potential losses, and what would lead to future gain. We avoid what we don't enjoy, what we get punished for, what pricks our conscience, and what takes away something we value. The key to getting what we want then is to make it easy and appealing to do the things we both want and to make it hard and unappealing to do the things we want them to avoid.

It works in business and also in our personal social settings. Online shopping and mobile payments make it easier for us to shop, laws are put in place (and when enforced) make corruption less appealing, we confront our neighbours when play their music too loud and we create elaborate business plans in order to make investors see the potential opportunities and risks in our ideas.

In a broader social setting, we need to align what we want for our society with human nature. Some people get a sense of satisfaction from sacrificing their time and resources to help others; how can we help them help our society? When volunteering, these people do not expect any financial incentive in return as long as no third party is profiting financially from their help. When working professionally in service fields, these people go the extra mile to take care of their customers.

There are others among us that would sacrifice their time and financial resources for a chance at fame and astronomical financial gain; how can we help them help our society? What technology hubs, research laboratories and workshops do we need to invest in so our engineering minded entrepreneurs can have a short at solving our problems and padding their bank accounts? Which tools do you need in these hubs and how much should you charge per use so you get your return on your investment?

Some of us want to be seen as nice, some only respect force, some would rather spend money to save time and some spend time to get money. We are all different and we ourselves are different people from day to day. As you understand yourself and the people you deal with, you realize what drives you in specific situations, you realize what you are good at and start seeing how you can help those around you get what they want (when it's in line with what you want).

This is true whether what you want is financial returns, a satisfaction that you fulfilled your role as a friend/family or at times, a clear conscience.

Dismantle Your Mind

Hi there. It’s (a) ‘Good Friday’. Compliments of the season and thanks for dropping by to read this piece.

If you have never met a perfect man, you have really missed! Is there a perfect man? I met one sometime ago. Before doubt engulfs your heart, kindly digest this piece. This guy is an interesting guy who is a strong team worker. We met on a project and we connected perfectly. Our relationship was perfect! We became partners in business and the going was good.  I had met my ‘best’ colleague and resource partner up until...

Many times in life, we meet several people in particular force fields – careers, religious, even family. It’s normal to cling to a set of people with whom you think you share values. I had met my perfect man and interestingly, the guy was perfect. We worked in the strategy office and produced results. But something bothered me, which I didn’t attend to as I enjoyed my sojourn in denial of that fact. I was afraid to face it. Perfect Shaun knew it all. He made sure he had the last say every time. My calm nature permitted his choleric spree. I refused to be bothered since we were producing results, although he took the glory ninety-nine percent of the time.

Being recognized for his good works in the organization, his ‘know-it-all’ sense was propelled. He registered his dissatisfaction every time his ideas were not welcome. We had an altercation and he said “there is nothing I don’t know, so no one can rubbish my ideas”. Isn’t that interesting? He had read so much and simply believed he knew everything about ‘systems control’. This guy had developed a sense of confidence in that thought line.

Many times in life, we arm ourselves with interesting thought patterns and never question them. It is not abnormal to run an appraisal exercise for oneself on a consistent basis. Like late Steven Covey rightly highlighted that it is a mature act to consistently think about the way you think, so that you’d consistently perform a mind audit.

Overconfidence is an index of an ‘unchecked mind’. There is a thin line between what you have the capacity to do and what you think you have the capacity to do. Being sure is a sign of well developed capacity but being overconfident subtly makes you lose sight of warning signals, for you have become confident in your prowess. My friend has changed jobs already. I met three other of his former colleagues who feel that he’d be shipwrecked if he continues with his ‘know-it-all’ mindset.

Dr. D once told me that he succeeded to a point in medical school with residual knowledge. He stopped studying, became overconfident in his academic prowess. His mind grabbed on to that fact such that he never studied properly. At some point, he had terrible academic issues! He had to dismantle the thought pattern that he knew it all, humbled himself and began to learn actively, all over again. He’s a successful medical doctor today. The fact remains however, that he lost some years.

Perform a check today: anytime you think you do not need to learn more, it is what I called ‘Knowledge Saturation’. You need to do something, which my e-mail signature expresses with the statement ‘’if need be, dismantle your mind... then re-gather it’’. I wish @SirAyoade will soon write on how to perform a surgery on your mind when you are saturated with knowledge. Initiate a dismantling process if you are in the phase of ‘knowledge saturation’. How? Ask Google!