The Articulate CEO

Fast Thinking: Why Learning Styles Don't Help Learning

Read my latest post from the Fast Thinking Think Tank:

If you are in education or corporate training circles then almost certainly someone will have mentioned to you the idea of learning styles and the need to build teaching systems around the preferred learning style of the student. It sounds so logical doesn’t it? Each of us learns in different ways and therefore it is only sensible that we should be taught in a way that matches our preferred learning style.

It sounds logical but it isn’t...

...The fact is learning styles are subject dependent, they are teacher dependent, they are temperature dependent, emotion dependent… in fact they are dependent on so many things that they just cannot be measured. It’s a good idea to recognize that we all learn in different ways for different subjects and try to vary our teaching to reflect that but the idea that we have one preferred learning style which must be matched to maximize our learning is a very bad one indeed.

Read the full post here 

Fast Thinking: Referral Selling is Just Sophisticated Begging!

Read my latest post from the Fast Thinking Think Tank:

Referral Selling is Just Sophisticated Begging!

Just about every course or book that deals with getting referrals teaches you one single referral method - "asking" for referrals. They'll tell you how you have to give good service and then they give you a formula for asking for referrals. As far as it goes that may be all well and good but there's a HUGE problem with this approach. People HATE to ask for referrals. You hate it, I hate it, and the people that get asked hate it.  

For the approach to work you have to not only get over your discomfort over asking someone for the referral but they then have to get over their discomfort in asking someone else on your behalf.

...

So have a referral system if you want but make sure that you are providing an experience that is interesting. Be different, be quirky, be fun, be weird, be whatever you want but be something more than the norm. Share your stories and tell the world what you are up to in every transaction.

 Read the full post here.

Fast Thinking: You Know It’s Me ‘Cause I Signed My Name

Read my latest post from the Fast Thinking Think Tank:

You Know It’s Me ‘Cause I Signed My Name

When I read something sent out by a CEO or corporate leader I should be able to have the feeling that no one else could have written it. This is an absolute non-negotiable. Everyone’s writing needs to be different from everyone else’s.

And the only way that happens is if writers make different choices when they write, choices about the topics they pick, the words they use, the details they include, different beginning and ending strategies, and so on. The set of all the different choices a writer makes determines what is often called the “voice” in a piece of writing.

Full post here

Fast Thinking: Why Best Practice is Second-Best

In my latest post for Fast Thinking we examine the phrase and concept "best practice" and why, if you follow "best practice" you are by definition second-best.

WHY BEST PRACTICE IS SECOND-BEST    

The phrase "best practice" is tossed around so often now that it seems ludicrous that anyone would dare to question it but question it I must. Firstly, if you follow best practice then you are, by definition, second. You are simply copying someone else who beat you to it and worse than that you are often copying a standard that no one has given any thought to.

You see "best" implies that someone undertook some sort of comparative analysis and concluded that the "practice" in discussion was better than any known alternatives.

 

Read the full article here. 

 

Fast Th!nking: Why Performance Reviews Suck

This is an article I recently posted on Fast Th!nking as part of their Think Tank:

Why Performance Reviews Suck

Why do companies stick with traditional performance review processes even though they don't work? The people who give them don't like them and the people who receive them don't like them. Whether it be the 360-degree review, peer-to-peer or self-assessment every single performance review is uniformly useless because of the assumptions they make about human behaviour and the crucial bits of human behaviour they all love to ignore.

Full post here.

More Think Tank articles to come.

 

Fast Th!nking: How ‘Symbolism’ Can Make or Break CEOs and Their Companies

Here's my latest article I posted on Fast Th!nking as part of their Think Tank earlier this month:

How ‘Symbolism’ Can Make or Break CEOs and Their Companies

The symbolic channel in communication consists of symbols used to represent ideas or emotions and such is its power that CEOs and major companies are consistently undermined by it.

Most companies never consider the symbolic impact of their actions and how that may result in a completely different message being received to what was intended.

Full post here

More Think Tank articles to come...