What Martial Arts can Teach About Learning

Aside from my career as a mild-mannered multimedia and eLearning producer, video podcaster and business owner, in my not-so-copious free time I teach martial arts (we all have alter-egos, don't we?).

I bring this up not to surprise or have you cringing in fear, my face can do that all by itself, but to put in perspective a discipline that can help anyone learn anything they really want to. But more than that, one doesn't have to be a martial artist to be a good learner; discipline is really all that's needed!

In the martial arts one starts with the basics. This means you lean basic postures, movements, transitions between movements, body awareness, situational awareness and a lot of painful discipline (the art itself is not painful, it's the getting your body to do things it considers impossible)...

Basic method of teaching martial arts involves:

• Concentration and focus
• Repetition and lots of it - one cannot become good at the arts without a lot of practice. For those who have practiced a musical instrument, you know what I'm talking about. Practice makes perfect as the saying goes. And perfect is nothing more than making the difficult look easy.
• Discipline - without discipline the practice would rapidly disintegrate into a severe ADHD moment and you would never achieve much. 
• A goal - without a goal in mind, you won't be able to learn much in context or that's relevant. 
• Intention - this is wher we apply a laser-like desire to make the "goal" happen through a lot of "practice" and "focus". Without intention you die (though the autonomic systems could keep you going for a bit, you basically croak!)

How are the above different from anything else we learn and do in life? Think about it...

Still thinking?

Think a little bit more?

Getting hungry? (the brain consumes a lot of energy when we think a lot. But don't worry, have a bite and then work out, you'll feel better!)

OK, all seriousness aside, the same things that make one a great martial artists also make you a great musician, writer, multimedia developer, graphic artist, doctor, actor, mathematician, etc. I left out politicians just because no one should be a career politician...

If you're a drummer and practice eight hours a day you will become a great drummer (not to mention get rid of all your aggression along the way - did I mention I used to drum too? :) ).

If you're a doctor, you need to know every part of the body and how systems tie together to keep one healthy.

If you're a teacher you practice your presentation skills and learn your materials so well that they become second-nature. Ah, that's a good point...

The whole purpose of the martial arts is to make the movements secnd-nature, effortless, with no though involved or needed. A great pianist plays with his or her soul, the mechanical part of the playing is so mastered that it becomes invisible, second-nature if you will.

Apply your intention to something and you give it life. If you're an eLearning developer, know your tools. How? By the same steps a martial artist, or anyone else for that matter, learns their "tools".

Without focus, practice, a goal and intention, mediocrity will always reign supreme. Give yourself the opportunity of becoming exceptional and you'll be on your way to becoming a very good martial artist.

Remember, becoming good at something is a struggle. If it were easy we'd all be masters, wouldn't we? Learn something new and get good at it. Before you know it, you'll be someone they all want answers from and you'll be a busy person hoping for a vacation one day...

Products and eLearning Communities

There's an interesting phenomena occurring in the software development industry and, possibly more so, in the eLearning world: user communities rule!

The whole concept of "community", be it virtual or actual, has its very roots in our need to belong, communicate and feel connected to something. It is mostly an ingrained emotional need. While there are many other benefits to belonging in a community, I'd venture that the emotional feed benefit is by far the biggest one.

But there is one problem with any community and one that most vendors struggle with: how do you balance the emotional need with the actual business need?

The emotional needs cares about the people in the community, the buzz they all so gladly accept and the feeling of sharing with others (though frankly, most people in communities lurk more than contribute). Communities, due to their emotional needs, can be fickle, demanding and even angry at times. Such is the nature of any community.

The real purpose of a community in Business is to share product knowledge, keep people up to speed on latest developments, listen to their needs and, hopefully, act upon those needs. The community  members can make what they want personally out of their interrelationships with other members both of the company hosting the community or of the community members.

This is a tricky balancing act and many vendors forget what the community purpose is and wind up losing their focus on producing a great product.  Then the community backfires on the vendor and the community members go elsewhere to seek comfort and the emotional need again. 

A vicious cycle in today's day and age!

Vendor communities are also an arm of the Marketing and Sales departments more often than not. And in both Marketing and Sales their goal is to make you feel happy, trusting and comfortable with their product offerings and solutions.  Technically run communities cater to programmers, develoeprs, engineers and the like. They are quite different in nature and scope. 

In the eLearning world, we have a rare combination of technical/emotional needs. Trainers are more empathetic thereby more emotional as they deal with people all the time. Instructional designers share many of the same attributes as trainers. eLearning developers. now often instructional designers, combine techies with more emotional types. Kind of like mildly autistic meets gushy (a dangerous combo at best!)

What I find about many communities is that they are much more forgiving the larger their emotional feed is. For example:

Great community + mediocre product = happy community members

Good community + mediocre product = less happy community members

Bad community + mediocre product = no members or unruly ones

Great community + great product = well, no one is there yet

I prefer a great product to a great community. I am more techie and less emotional when it comes to business ad development needs. I enjoy a great community but prefer a great product because of the amount of time and money we save in development. And that creates a better customer experience.  It's rare to find both a great community and a great product, but it is a noble goal indeed...

If you're in a community, don't suspend reality and become a "true believer". Enjoy the community but always stay focused on your needs as a developer or creator of content.  The community buss is one thing, but the reality is often another. As with all things, go in eyes wide open, brain turned on and with a purpose in mind. And if you're in a community, de-cloak every so often and get involved, share what you know or make valid criticisms so that we all get a better end product.