Posts

What’s Next?

/in , /by

What’s Next?

As 2021 winds down it is time for some reflection and some contemplation. What have we been able to get done in 2021 and what is next for us in 2022?

There has been a lot of confusion this year, wouldn’t you say? Politically, economically, and socially. Perhaps many of us ourselves have been confused. At Learning Without Scars we have been very busy.

  1. We received our IACET Approved provider accreditation.
  2. We revamped our website.
  3. We expanded on the Resources available to our followers.
  4. We introduced Podcasts to our audience.
  5. We added more Contributors to our blogs and podcasts.
  6. We created a Quarterly Newsletter.
  7. We created Audio Learning in multiple languages.
  8. We rounded out our Subject Specific Classes at 108 subjects available.
  9. We rounded out our Job Function Assessments at 18 available.
  10. We made available all of our Job Function Assessments in French and Spanish.
  11. We made our Parts Subject Specific Classes in French.
  12. We create Partnerships with Service Providers, Associations and Consulting Groups.

Now that is a Dozen Items to contend with and it is a list that we take a lot of pride in sharing with you. Ross Atkinson has been a large part of this work and we are most appreciative of having him participating with us in our business. I would like to extend our most sincere thanks to Norma Robbins and Louise Duranleau for their work in providing us the translations and audio tracks for the job function assessments and subject specific classes. And finally, to Caroline Slee-Poulos for her untiring work on working with IACET and completing our accreditation after nearly three years of work. My thanks to all of you.

Yet there are miles to go before we rest.

  1. In 2022 we expect to complete all classes in Spanish, French and English.
  2. We are modifying all subject specific classes to provide multiple quizzes in each class. These quizzes are aimed at improving learning and knowledge retention.
  3. We are working with Industry Associations to provide their members access to all of our learning products.
  4. We are working with Equipment Manufacturers to provide training to their dealership field personnel
  5. We are working with Systems Suppliers to provide training to their sales teams and support personnel.
  6. We will start working with Technical and Vocational Schools to introduce our subject specific classes into their curriculum for mechanical and technical training.
  7. We will be introducing new Products in the Learning area; – new Subject Specific Classes and more Job Function Assessments
  8. We will be adding new Zoom Offerings with panels of subject matter experts providing discussion on specific subjects and specific books that we are discussing.
  9. We will be looking to creating an industry wide Job Certification Program.
  10. We will accelerate our marketing activities with email blasts, e-books and snail mail programs.
  11. We will continue to improve the depth and breadth of our reporting to assist our clients in keeping track of the progress of their employees who are enrolled in LWS products.
  12. We will closely monitor our compliance with IACET requirements and keep them current with our activities.

While we are getting all of that done, we also intend to have thousands of individuals take Job Function Assessments and enroll in Subject Specific Classes.

We would not be in the position we are now, of being the supplier of the most comprehensive list of training products and employee development programs in the industry, were it not for the invaluable assistance we have received from you, our clients. Your suggestions and questions are all taken seriously and without your input and involvement we would never have gotten this far down the road. From our start with Quest Learning Centers in 1994, which provided Classroom Programs and Webinars, to Learning Without Scars, which is focused on Internet Based Learning we have depended heavily on your support.

Our purpose as a business is very simple.

We provide complementary resources to assist each individual to find their potential with blogs, podcasts, audio learning, suggested reading lists, newsletters and job function assessments. Then we give each person a pathway to achieving their potential through the use of Skill Level Pathways. To the thousands of you who have taken assessments and classes with us we say thank you. We know you are making a difference in your lives both personally and professionally through your commitment to excellence. We wish you all the success that you are dreaming about in your life. Your individual happiness is a true sign of a successful life. Thank you as well.

I want to close this blog, our last for the year, with a quotation from our Mascot, “Socrates.”

Socrates Says – Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

The Time is Now.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

Friday Filosophy v.12.24.2021

/in /by

Friday Filosophy v.12.24.2021

Socrates (469 BC – 399 BC) was one of the greatest Greek philosophers. He did not propose any specific knowledge or policy. He showed how argument, debate, and discussion could help men to understand difficult issues. Most of the issues he dealt with were only political on the surface. Underneath, they were moral questions about how life should be lived. Such is the influence of Socrates that philosophers before him are called the Presocratic philosophers. Socrates made enemies, three of whom brought charges against him. Socrates was tried for his life in 399 BC, found guilty, and put to death by drinking hemlock (a herbal poison). The story of his trial and death is the subject of a tract by Plato which is called the Apologia.

Most of what we know about Socrates comes from the works of Plato, who was his pupil. Socrates lived in the Greek city of Athens. His method of teaching was to have a dialogue with individual students. They would propose some point of view, and Socrates would question them, asking what they meant. He would pretend “I don’t know anything; I’m just trying to understand what it is you are saying”, or words to that effect. This is now called the Socratic method of teaching. Socrates is sometimes called the “father of Western philosophy“. This is because in the discussions he uncovered some of the most basic questions in philosophy, questions which are still discussed today.

  • The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
  • By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.
  • Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.
  • Wisdom begins in wonder.
  • Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.
  • The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.
  • He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.
  • I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.
  • Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.
  • I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.
  • Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.
  • Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

The Time is Now

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

 

Why Socrates…

/in , /by

Why Socrates

Our Logo – Socrates

By now most of you know that our logo is an OWL named after the Greek philosopher Socrates. He was the teacher of Plato and Aristotle. We chose Socrates as that is the method of teaching that I use the most. The Socratic Method. This method is most commonly described as “a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas underlying presuppositions.”

In other words, I teach by asking questions and helping my students develop the answers by critical thinking and debate. I help my students understand how to teach themselves.

Socrates aimed to establish an ethical system based on human reason by pointing out that our choices were motivated by the desire for happiness, and that wisdom comes from introspection.

I always ask at the beginning of every teaching experience that I have three questions: –

  • What is the definition of ignorance?
  • What is the definition of stupidity?
  • What is the definition of insanity?

Socrates is famous, among others things, for a wide range of quotations and I would like to share with you some of my favorites:

  1. True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.
  2. I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.
  3. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
  4. Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue – to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak.
  5. In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in adulthood just, and in old age prudent.
  6. Nothing is to be preferred before justice.
  7. Happiness is unrepentant pleasure.
  8. Enjoy yourself – it’s later than you think.
  9. Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.
  10. The unexamined life is not worth living.

 

He once said “Whom do I call educated? First those who manage well the circumstances they encounter day to day. Next, those who are decent and honorable in their intercourse with all men, bearing easily and good naturedly what is offensive in others and being as agreeable and reasonable to their associates as is humanly possible to be…those who hold their pleasures always under control and are not ultimately overcome by their misfortunes….those who are not spoiled by their successes, who do not desert their true selves but hold their ground steadfastly as wise and sober-minded men.” This is a description of an individual that all of us should strive to be seen as ourselves.

Today we look upon Socrates as a positive influence on the development of the human race. His life ended when the political climate in Greece turned against him. He was sentenced to death and was executed by Hemlock poison in 399 B.C. He was 71 years old.

The answers to my three questions at the outset of this blog are as follows: –

  • Ignorance is not knowing what to do.
  • Stupidity is knowing what to do and not doing it.
  • Insanity is repeating the same things expecting different results.

The issue of the CED magazine, of the Associated Equipment Distributors, that contained my last monthly column after twenty-five years, had a nice article written by my editor of more than twenty years, Kim Phelan. The headline, of the article,  included a statement of mine “Teaching Turns My Crank.”

May you learn something important for each of you every day.

The Time is Now.

P.S.: We are pleased to report that our Logo, Socrates, and our Company Name, Learning Without Scars, have both received U.S. Trademark protection effective May 2020.

Badges, the Computer, and College Everywhere

/in , /by

Badges, the Computer, and College Everywhere

Last week, we left off with Patrick Suppes and his realization that students learning online were receiving modestly better results than those in the traditional classroom.  This week, we continue with his journey and conclude our discussion.

In 1972 Suppes taught a class on the Introduction to Logic. He created a wholly automated computerized version of the class. He introduced the class on the first day and from that point forward he did not attend any lectures. The students did all their learning in the educational laboratory. Then he computerized his Axiomatic Set Theory course.
This created the important concept in learning science of “transfer” which is the process which people apply patterns and concepts learning in one context to another. Strengthening transfer is the goal of all good education programs.

The next step in this process brings us to Sebastien Thrun. His specialty is Artificial Intelligence. Carnegie Mellon hired Thrun as a professor in 1995 where he also worked on how computer science, statistics and machines interact. In 2003 Stanford hired him back as head of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. IN 2005 the pentagon’s Advanced Research Projects Agency held a contest to see who could build a car that used AI to drive itself across treacherous desert terrain. Thrun was part of the team that build the winning Volkswagen SUV. Google hired him to work in its research laboratory while he continued to teach as a tenured professor at Sanford. In 2011 he was viewed as a rock star in Silicon Valley. He gave a TED talk describing how he and his colleagues had built the self-driving car. Afterward Thrun watched an energetic former hedge fund analyst named Salman Khan. Kahn was the creator of the Kahn Academy, famous for instructional videos for elementary and high school students. Thrun thought the same could be done for college.

Thrun worked with Peter Norvig who was Google research director and they created a graduate course called CS221: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence: principles and Techniques. The course consisted of lectures and reading assignments and problems to solve followed by exams to certify what was learned. They put the videos and problems sets and emailed them to members of the global AI community to let them know that anyone could take the course for free. Within two weeks there were 58,000 people signed up for the class. This was when the administration caught wind of what was going on. Then the lawyers got involved. However, a New York Times reported heard about what was happening and wrote a story about the course. Enrollment quickly reached six figures and continued to rise. This was the beginning of the education revolution.

Thrun didn’t start any of this. There were others already doing many of the same things. Notably two professors at the university of Manitoba named George Siemens and Stephen Downes. What Thrun had done was call it a “course.” There were no caveats assigned to it. It was a course. He soon found out that his Stanford students started to take the class like everyone else and they got better grades than when they attended live lectures. BUT Stanford was disrupting the one thing about Stanford that mattered above all else; its name. Thrun gave the students a test to certify what they had learned and that is when Stanford stepped in. Thrun was giving away something for free for which Stanford charged $50,000 a year. The compromise was that Thrun could not issue college credits he could only issue a “Statement of Accomplishment.”

When the university said no to credits Thrun finished out his course and walked away. Then he started Udacity. Another start up aiming at University education online is Coursera. And there will be many more.

The problem is the recognition and the certification. That is why we are working with IACET: the International Association of Continuing Education and Training to obtain certification. This will allow our students to earn CEUs which translate into college credits.

Then Socrates will issue badges along with a “Certificate of Completion.” The badges will represent specific areas of learning: selling, operations, finance and leadership.

The Time is NOW.

Teaching and Learning

/in /by

Teaching and Learning

As many of you know I grew up in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The family rented in the city of Montreal and we owned a small, old house in the Laurentians, about an hour north of Montreal. Our house was on the end of a lake and the lake was home to a Country Club where, as kids, we learned to swim, play tennis, to canoe, play golf and other summer activities. The lessons were $5.00/per month and for that price we received 12 lessons, three a week, that lasted between 30 minutes and forty-five minutes. It was a wonderful way to grow up.

However, from an early age my life was split into two pieces: the city for work and the country for play.

Fast forward to my teenage years and I became involved with teaching swimming, first to children at the lake, and then to students at University. I was very lucky to have been given these opportunities at such an early age. The teaching soon moved from teaching specific skills to allow people to learn “how to” swim to teaching people how to “teach others” to teach specific skills, such as coaching and directing athletic learning. We created a program that allowed prospective athletes to learn the necessary to teach skills of coaching and teaching. I ended up teaching aspiring teachers how to teach at the University level.

I have been involved with teaching for a long time, more than 50 years. Teaching is a very interesting discipline and I have to admit that I love to teach. I love seeing the lights go on when a student “gets it.”

I approach teaching from a number of, in my mind, critical evolutionary steps.

First is “Pictures.”

I believe in “showing” people what the goal is we are working toward. This is what we call, in our classroom work “What It Looks Like When It Is Right.” This is now part of the Building Blocks Level of parts and service management training.

Next comes Story Telling.

I move to telling stories about what it is that they just saw in the picture. A story to describe what the picture was all about. Story telling is an important aspect of nearly everything that we do. Leading people is enhanced with good stories. Selling is all about story telling. Story telling allows the listener to more easily understand what is being taught.

Pictures Again.

A repetitive process to “imprint” the end result on the mind of the student. This is what we are doing, this is how we are doing it, do you see the picture? This allows us to follow my three critical precepts in leadership and also in driving change.

  • Understanding: everyone has to understand what we are doing. What are our goals and objectives?
  • Acceptance: everyone has to accept that what we are doing is the right thing to do. This means that we have to be open to a vigorous debate about our goals and objectives. This is a critical element of leadership and one that is not that common. Allow everyone’s thoughts to be heard and respected.
  • Commitment: Once we have these three steps completed and with strong agreement then we will have everyone committed to making it happen.

Teaching and Learning and…

That takes me to Socrates. Society has a polarity to it. There are competing views on nearly everything that we do and have done. Socrates did not want to get into the debate of what is right and wrong he simply pursued “Wisdom.” In the process he created “philosophy.”

In his approach, in much the same manner as we have created out learning offerings, he constantly was asking questions. What is a good market capture rate? How should we measure market capture? What is a good parts availability? Does that include your overnight delivery or is it right off the shelf? Lots and lots of questions. That is the foundation of how I teach and also how the Learning Without Scars.

Many people, who I respect, and have worked with over the years, say that the name of the Company is incorrect, they say it is the wrong name. The Company should be “Learning WITH Scars.” That could be one interpretation. I want people to engage in a fundamental understand on what they do. That requires thought. Remember Simon Sinek? His book “Start with Why” is truly thought provoking and enlightening.

He asks three basic questions:

  1. What do you do?
  2. How do you do it?
  3. Why do you do it?

The first question should be very easy to state. The second question perhaps a bit more difficult but after all that is what you do every day at work. It is the last question that is the poser. And, NO, the answer is not that you do this to make money. It is never the reason why. That is the result of doing what you do. The better you do it the more money you will receive.

The Time is NOW.

Outside the Box

/in /by

Welcome 2018!

After my assessment of how far we’ve come in 2017, I wanted to have the first blog post of this new year focus on where we are going.

Thinking Outside of the Box.

It seems I have been looking for the guy who first said “thinking outside of the box” and I finally found him. His name is Edward de Bono and he is a very accomplished individual. He qualified in Medicine at the University of Malta, then he was award a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford where he read Psychology and Physiology, followed by a PhD in Medicine, and another PhD from Cambridge. Suffice it to say this is a very well educated and intelligent individual.

He is a speaker at some of the most prestigious institutions in the world and has written more than 60 books on various subjects. He is a thinker and is very critical on our abilities to think. He goes back to the big three of teaching in Plato, Socrates and Aristotle, the men who were celebrated as “Absolute” heroes. They applied logic to discover what was deemed to be the truth. De Bono suggest that is a dangerous road. It has led us somewhat astray.

In 1967 de Bono wrote a book called “The Use of Lateral Thinking,” a phrase that struck a chord with the public. Lateral Thinking is the notion for changing perceptions.

This is the thesis of many people one of whom is Rory Sutherland.  The circumstances of our lives may matter less than how we see our lives, says Rory Sutherland, and he makes a compelling case for how reframing things is the key to happiness. From unlikely beginnings as a classics teacher to his job as Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Group, Rory Sutherland has created his own brand of the Cinderella story. He joined Ogilvy & Mather’s planning department in 1988, and became a junior copywriter, working on Microsoft’s account in its pre-Windows days. An early fan of the Internet, he was among the first in the traditional ad world to see the potential in these relatively unknown technologies. An immediate understanding of the possibilities of digital technology and the Internet powered Sutherland’s meteoric rise. He continues to provide insight into advertising in the age of the Internet and social media through his blog at Campaign’s Brand Republic site, his column “The Wiki Man” at The Spectator and his busy Twitter account.

The point of highlighting these two gentlemen is that as people we seem at times to get stuck in ruts. Joel Barker called them Paradigms. This is the social equilibrium that we experience in our jobs and at times even in our lives. Everything is just OK.

Well all of us have goals in our lives. We want to leave a mark somewhere and somehow. That is not going to happen if we are just OK.

Edward de Bono says quite bluntly that “Schools waste two-thirds of the talent in society. The Universities sterilize the rest. Does that strike a chord with you? It sure does with me.

I have been blessed in many ways in my life and career. I was raised in a family that valued school and education, my maternal grandmother got a Masters Degree in the early 1900s, rather unheard of at the time. I had a wonderful childhood which led me to teaching and leadership positions with amazing mentors who inspired me. When I finally got into a career I had incredible men take time to counsel me and encourage me and push me. I was, and still am, a very lucky guy.

I have never been a particular fan of the status quo. That made me very impatient as an employee and let me to a much better career as a consultant where I could move from one business to another and thus never get bored. It led me back to teaching when we started Quest, Learning Centers in the early 1990’s and it is now moving me to Learning Without Scars with my daughter in developing and producing dynamic internet based learning programs.

To me it is all about putting information in front of people and then helping them implement change. Learning is a voyage, it has no end destination, it has no end point. But once you see the lights go on with an individual and watch the excitement grow, well to me that is a wonderful thing.

So, in 2018 I want you to consider thinking, not outside of the box, but outside of the triangle. Look at everything you do and see if you can make everything just a little bit better. Read more, think more, laugh more and have more fun. Don’t forget that all work and no play will make all of us very dull indeed.

Happy New Year to each and every one of you.

Out with the Old and In with the New.

The Time is NOW. If not now WHEN?

A Good Start #MondayBlogs

/in , , /by

What a great day it is today. Happy Monday to all of you.

There is a great new world out there. In the period following the economic disruptions of 2008, caused in part by government overreach and a lot of greed in the banking Industry, I followed behind the financial management company PIMCO with their “New Normal” program with our “New Reality.” This new reality was a rebirth of the operational aspects of the parts and service businesses within the Capital Goods Industries.

We have made some good progress on many fronts.

In the late 1990’s business guru Peter Drucker mused that adult education was going to become one of the larger needs for business. He further suggested that there would be extremely large growth in the education workforce. We see this with activities such as Khan Academy, with a stated objective of providing world class education to anyone anywhere, and all of their content is free. Then there are other efforts such as EdX, a free education site provided by MIT, and Harvard, Berkeley, and University of Texas, as well as others and CorpU, which aims to unlock the collective genius of an enterprise.

This is where we are making our modest entry with Learning Without Scars.

There is a huge opportunity.

Today, the jobs report gave further evidence of the effects of the recent government regulatory efforts to reduce the burden that has been eating away at businesses everywhere.

Unemployment in the US is 4.4%, which on the face is a good number. But the participation rate, the percentage of the working age population that is in fact working, sits at 62.8%. Stated another way means that 37.1% of the working age population is NOT working. (Note: the participation rate in 2007 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics was 66.4%) The REAL problem here is that there are currently in excess of 6,000,000 jobs that are open in America that have not been filled. According to a recent CNBC survey 46% of Company Presidents and CFO’s believe that “the workforce is not receiving the proper skills training businesses require.” Further, 63% reported having had difficulty in filling skilled positions in the past 12 months.

That is the backdrop against we have created Learning Without Scars, and our new training.  We’ve all experienced great disruption to our “normal,” and in this New Reality we have our greatest opportunity: to learn and provide opportunities for learning to our employees.  You’ve heard me say it time and again – your employees are your “heroes.”  They’ve invested themselves into your business, and they deserve to have your business invest in their knowledge and expertise.

We can create a healthier economic and professional reality together.  It all begins with education.

The time is now.

The Big Reveal!

/in /by

Most of you know that we have created a wonderful image of “Socrates” as our Company Logo. A special thanks goes to Joanna Slee-Poulos, who created this image. She is a huge talent. We chose to use Socrates deliberately.

Socrates, who lived between 469 BC and 399BC, is credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He also introduced a form of teaching that involves a commonly used tool in teaching in which a series of questions is asked, not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight to the issue at hand. our learning business. This is a bedrock principle of our learning platforms.

Today I want to introduce our latest entry into the blogosphere, “Socrates Says.”

I would like to thank Jason Brown for his skills in producing this animation. I hope you enjoy it in which case you can “like” this post. Comments are always welcome as well.

Friday Filosophy: Socrates

/in , , /by

Most of what we know about Socrates we have learned from his students, especially Plato.  We know he was a Greek philosopher and a teacher.  From his teachings, we developed the Socratic Method: a style of teaching that involves the asking of multiple, open-ended questions of the students.

It was Socrates who told us, “I cannot teach anyone anything.  I can only make them think.”

As we have learned in the many centuries since then, thinking is the foundation of all learning.

From this Greek Socrates, we have named our Learning Without Scars “mascot.”

lws-owl-logo

We felt that the owl was apt, as owls symbolize wisdom.  And naming him Socrates took our commitment to continuing education into the perfect symbol.

At Learning Without Scars, we are dedicated to continuous improvement for people: managers, supervisors, salespeople, counter people, and every individual working to make your dealership a profitable and effective business in today’s market.

Let us show you what happens when you have highly trained staff who are confident in the job that must be done.

Join us in 21st century, online employee development.  You won’t be disappointed.

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2015-14

/in /by

Today, Good Friday, I would like to provide you with quotations on knowledge, may all of you have a truly wonderful day and week. Please take a moment to reflect on knowledge with this Friday Filosophy #2015-14.

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.

Benjamin Franklin

Real knowledge is to know the extent of your ignorance.

Confucius

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

Socrates

Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.

Peter Drucker

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

Marilyn vos Savant

A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.

Plato

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

Immanual Kant

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it’s not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

Terry Pratchett

Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.

Peter Drucker

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

Plato

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Albert Einstein.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

Bertrand Russell

Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society in every family.

Kofi Annan

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

Plato

The time is now.