Tuesday 17 August 2021

How to create an authentic blog

8 years to the day I created this blog and began open journaling and reflecting.  Now seems right to share a bit about my approach.  Originally following a 'call' in mid-2013 to trust the process of expressing not impressing.  As it says on the front of my blog site, the purpose of it is:

  • Who: I write about me, for me, and my own authentic expression, articulation and development.  However, people that have an interest in others' personal journeys and the learning technology specialism, may find the content helpful.
  • What: sharing my professional and personal life; experiences, thoughts, deep learning and growth.  Beware of my openness!
  • Why: to share my own journey and growth through continuous professional and personal learning with the wider world, with the hope of helping or inspiring others.
  • How: reflection in and on action; being open, willing and independent to learn and taking responsibility for my own knowledge, skills and experience to self-develop.

I detail my overall rationale, writing approach and other open journaling benefits of my blog in the blog post 'Why openness is good'.

Building off my asynchronous approach to a webinar that I previously described.  I'm attempting here to share my story of how I created and approach my blog.  Which I define as authentic; sharing my personal and professional learning and life – highs and lows, challenges, difficulties, failures, successes, vulnerabilities, achievements and my overall growth and educational journey.  I do think that this type of open platform reflection is uncommon practice, which I can see valid reasons for especially in this current climate (cancel culture, toxic workplaces etc), but that shouldn't stop people.  Perhaps people are becoming more closed as a result?  I have also noticed a sense of anxiety in people sometimes, especially when they have read my personal development type posts as they can be deep and revealing.  Which to some can be uncomfortable to even think about doing themselves.  I strongly believe in deep sharing and connection with others and will continue to express myself in my way.  As like with my LinkedIn profile, I use this blog to record and remind me of my activity and thinking as it can be easily forgotten!  I can't recall all my knowledge in a single recall/request, therefore a good structure (headings, questions etc) to tease information out and ongoing journaling helps me.  I really have found a way that works for me.  And I do feel a sense of personal success with how I use my blog.  Perhaps a reason is that I don't treat it as a service for others; churning out content to please 'customers' or earn money from it.

Before I get into it, just a little background context...  From my years of experience of open reflective practice, I can't stress enough the importance and benefits of reflective journaling.  However, a lot of thought power goes into my reflective writing.  Sometimes it's thinking in the moment or on the moment at any time of the day, writing on go, on the day or notes collected over a number of weeks to piece together.  I mainly publish my reflection openly here but I do journal as part of my full-time job, allowing me to consolidate my understanding and practice and keeping myself accountable.  For example, when I first started my Digital Practice Adviser role at Nottingham Trent University.  I created a Microsoft Word document named "One to one notes".  Initially this to be used to prepare and process my thoughts and progress updates on my work and projects.  However, this quickly became more than just a meeting preparation document, I used it to record and structure my thinking, responses and capture my feelings on situations.  It developed my confidence as I was able to position myself better in meetings and other situations by doing it.  This document captures my whole work experience in this role and it's been highly influential in my communication and leadership.  You do need to dedicate time to input though - akin to my approach that I walkthrough on the use of another medium.  I also used a similar learning log approach when doing FutureLearn courses and the recent Jisc Digital Leaders programme, as well as my Movement Medicine work.

Not only do you get the journaling benefits, you come across gems like these... I scrolled through the one to one document recently and I saw comments from when I first started to where I am now and it was heartening to see how much I have grown and changed in confidence - I had a tough challenge ahead of me adapting to a university and the team I was in.  I also came across a good piece I wrote in the one to one document that I had forgot about; a reflection on a good training session, as I was focussing too much on the negatives - published at the bottom of the blog post 'Facing my frequency'.  Another recent example was when I produced a short summary document for my top manager detailing my interest areas and strengths, with the aim of shaping my role focus towards them.  The content was originally adapted from some material I did a couple of years prior.  However, this exercise didn't matter in the end as I got a new role shortly afterwards, but my top manager said that it was useful and helped them reflect on the current position of the team.

However, there are some downsides to using the one to one document that I used to help me.  1) Sometimes I had too many notes and didn't prioritise them.  2) Much of what I had wrote was all fresh and not refined.  3) As I was prepared, I was better able to inject into conversations and meetings (not all bad stuff I'll add), and perhaps I should then structure how I will deliver my comments in those situations.

Now, how to create an authentic blog, based on my approach and experience...


Exporting my video via Microsoft PowerPoint distorts some of the audio, and after multiple attempts to resolve it I have decided to provide the original transcript below.


EDIT:

Where I say "I write and publish everything on my blog to hold it all in one area." at 04:27.  To elaborate on this, any meaningful social media posts I write, I include the text and hyperlink in relevant blog posts.  Meaning that when I back up/export my blog they are included too.  As you don't know when social media will become inaccessible or delete my posts.

Some good advice from Ant Pugh via LinkedIn:

"Want to improve your craft?







Friday 6 August 2021

Blending introversion with asynchronous working

Expanding a little bit on a Tweet I made recently that appeared to be popular on Twitter and LinkedIn:


Although I blog openly here about my professional and personal life, I'm naturally an introvert.  I may appear quiet in-person but that's usually a matter of who you are with and how comfortable you are around them.  I can silently engage, synchronously and asynchronously, but be present when I need to be.  I may even be one of those 'annoying' people that sit back through a conversation then input towards the end with a critical comment - just my in-built slow learner style.  I just like to try and listen and take in what people are saying and digesting it in my own unique way, especially if it's a complex topic.  I am a better writer than I am a public speaker!  I've stated this a few times throughout this blog.  A short while ago I did actually say this; "I can often be viewed as quiet and not be loud (maybe I should more) like some. I sometimes have 'tunnel vision' - just focused on stuff really."  You can be quiet and present but be productive and hard working!  I'm very good at strategising when alone with my thoughts...  Intertwined with introversion, I learn so much by being a chameleon and observing quietly, a natural behaviour of mine that I guess comes hand in hand with my own intuition.  Sitting back rather than being eager to be heard or take control of a situation.  By allowing myself to do this, in my current full-time role I learned so much more about the way the department was being run, which was telling of their wider plans without me being told them explicitly.  But it is also good for learning and predicting behaviours of individuals.  Again introversion is an advantage here.

Remote working has done wonders for helping quieter and reflective people become more visible and amplify their voice, as well as feeling included.  I found this article on 'An Introvert's Survival Guide to the Virtual Office'.  It has some great points in here that folks need to be aware of - I feel some aspects are applicable to in-person too, such as; "Don’t confuse introversion with being antisocial”.

Anyway, if the COVID-19 pandemic has taught me anything innately.  It is how it has helped me to improve my online delivery of webinars.  Thought I still need to feel people's energies and body language as it affects my performance somewhat.  A little story...  A colleague and I collaborated on producing a pre-recorded webinar for a symposium at our university.  In the spirit of new ways of working we approached this in a different way we had both done previously.  Instead of doing the obvious of confirming content and structure and arranging a date and time to record our presentation live.  We did the whole thing asynchronously.  We did the expected; had an initial meeting to discuss requirements, set up a PowerPoint in Microsoft Teams, inputted information on our agreed areas/slides, wrote our short transcripts for each slide in the notes section, then recorded our audio onto each slide - no picture-in-picture.  Exported as a video and enabled our individual audio files to play automatically after each other. 

Whilst it was a small collaborative effort, the personal and professional gains were much larger.  Actually the process itself was probably more valuable than the outcome of the project.  What I learned through this process, which wasn't new or unheard of, it but a new approach for us that was otherwise unforeseen due to circumstances.  Was the detailed planning on what I was showing and going to say, which improved my pace and tone.  It allowed me to speak more slowly, clearly and succinct.   Where if live I would be more freeform/messy in my speech, unconsciously looking at peoples cameras (if on) and comments in the chat pane and seeing my own face.  All of which do have an impact on my delivery and generally distract me.  Importantly I was able to see where I trip up over myself if I was doing it synchronously - which is often an issue for me!  This asynchronous way of working has built on my strengths and improved the way I now approach similar activities.

As collaborators we also gave and received developmental feedback on where we needed to improve our writing and audio outputs.  No collaboration can be fully exempt of conflicts and there was here; i.e. frustration in deleting an unseen screen recording and unnecessary use of ?! and how that was misconstrued.  Whilst we wholeheartedly addressed our issues positively through light-hearted conversation.  Some lessons I learned here; we both have certain needs fulfilling, i.e. I need to provide more notes explaining my decisions on retaining and omitting information and conscious use of language.  It also gave me confidence in that whilst I found it uncomfortable to make such comment on aspects I disagreed with, it resulted in a positive conversation - not heated or confrontational.  So speaking your mind (or heart) honestly and tactfully can make things better.  With asynchronous communication you do have to be more conscious and put more emphasis on maintaining written communication, so that everyone can keep updated and informed.  All minor things in the bigger picture of things, however it led to a positive outcome for both of us.  We both realised what we actually needed from each other and are better colleagues for it.  Conflict shouldn't always be feared as it can result in this.

Me personally, I do find that you can get more quality contributions in the collaborative work and in chat pane contributions.  Perhaps it's because we enable reflective practice before being put on spot - introverts are more likely to respond in this environment/set up.  Me personally I find this hugely beneficial, its how my best thinking can come to fruition.  Like now typing this, I find it really useful for my reflection of practice and experience etc.  As I've mentioned before; "...I speak to think, more than I think to speak...".  In this case I am writing/typing to think, rather than think to write/type.

A colleague shared this article 'Asynchronous communication for meaningful decisions, fair evaluations and fast learning' that reinforces some of what I have described above.  It has some good points to develop principles in order to align communications and collaborations:

  1. "Async communication is the foundation for long-lasting quality work
  2. Async communication removes biases and leads to fairer, more empathetic evaluations
  3. Async communication gives us more control and clarity in decision making
  4. Async communication is like breadcrumbs helping us navigate the maze of decisions
  5. Async communication increases discipline, performance and work quality"

Following on from the above.  A good thing about this small collaborative effort and the pandemic in general, is that I am re-evaluating the way I learn and deliver online.  At the beginning of the pandemic I quickly realised that webinars weren't engaging me, I need to be there in-person for attention reasons. So I'm using this as a mini-mission to develop ideas that aren't just look and listen, focussing on both teaching and staff development.  Some initial ideas that are not just briefing in style, in online synchronous and asynchronous formats:

  • Snippet 1-3 minute video > demonstration > Q&A/explore application/scenarios
  • Self-directed or facilitator-led H5P activity > facilitate Q&A
  • Pre-recorded short presentation > invitation to complete task > audience prepared to share outcomes

I may well return to these topics at a later date to expand on my thoughts and application of them.

EDIT: In December 2023, I saw a reply by a fellow Association for Learning Technology community member on LinkedIn, to the following question which I strongly resonate with.  It reflects a lot of my personality through their situation which is eloquently described.  Glad to hear this topic being discussed openly.

Professor Damien Page - "Loudness is often celebrated in organisations. Volume is an expectation, a requirement, an appendage to power, a proxy for status, for expertise. For influence.



Puiyin Wong - "In my experience, sometimes those who speak loads or loud in meetings etc don’t tend to have a lot of substance (not always but sometimes), it’s like as if they keep speaking then they can hide behind hot air and the lack of skills. I don’t talk very much in meetings because I listen, think, reflect and take action. I only speak when there is something worth saying, not speaking for speaking sake. Or I email people afterward with my points. Not everything has to be a public show and tell. Most of my bosses in the past don’t have a problem with this because they can see when I do speak in workshops and conferences, my words mean something and people listen to me, so being quiet in meetings were never a problem. One reason I am leaving my current job end of this year is because this approach of mine is being used against me constantly. Not speaking in meetings IS NOT the same as not contributing in meaningful ways. My work speaks for itself! Also, cultures pay a part in how much someone might like to speak in front of people, Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, particularly individualism vs collectivism explain this well."