great catalysts reduce roadblocks

Great quotes: 

"Because rather than asking what might convince someone to change, catalysts start with a more basic question: Why hasn’t that person changed already? What is blocking them?"

And this: 

"These five ways to be a catalyst can be organized into an acronym. Catalysts reduce Reactance, ease Endowment, shrink Distance, alleviate Uncertainty, and find Corroborating Evidence. Taken together, that forms an acronym, REDUCE. Which is exactly what great catalysts do. They REDUCE roadblocks. They change minds and incite action by reducing barriers to change."

Catching up (yes, I have quite a bit to do) to sharing this from Jonah Berger via Maria Shriver  https://mariashriver.com/the-5-key-roadblocks-to-change/

Mitch Joel has a good conversation with Jonah you can listen to here ->   https://www.sixpixels.com/podcast/archives/spos-740-jonah-berger-on-being-a-catalyst-for-change/

1 week until PodCamp WesternMass - April 7 - save and buy your tickets today!

I am part of the organizing committee for the social media learning and sharing event. If you would like additional details, feel free to reach out and ask. This is where I go to learn what is or isn't working in the social media world.

Tickets are $45 today, $50 April 1, or $15 for students. Holyoke is only a 90 minute drive!

April 7th at HCC

PodCamp Western Mass #10 April 7, 2018 Kittredge Center at Holyoke Community College April 2018 7 PodCamp WesternMass #10 is a week away... And in case you've been wondering whether PodCamp is for you, here are 5 Reasons why you should join us: If you're an absolute beginner (or nearly so), we have sessions for you. It's an unconference for everyone, at every stage of the game.  If you have experience or tips to share, your bringing that to the community is what fuels PodCamp. Help facilitate a session or just schmooze in the hallways. It's all valuable. Meet others who are on the path with you - running a business, starting a new one, doing community work, or just learning how to get the word out better. We're all in this together! Hang out and make friends. Seriously! This is an event that has the super-power of attracting the nicest people. We don't know quite why....we just know it's true. Did we mention the food? Your ticket price includes coffee in the morning, a delicious healthy lunch and happy hour snacks at our 4:30 gathering at Slainte. So, no need to pack a lunch, just grab your laptop, a smart phone, tablet or a pad of paper.   Your ticket price includes: Coffee and tea when you arrive 5 Classroom sessions of your choosing A fabulous, healthy lunch, including gluten-free & dairy-free options Networking happy hour with munchies If you already bought your ticket, we can't wait to see you! And because sharing is caring, please forward this to a friend or colleague who should be there with you! Get your tickets here. If you have any questions, just hit reply. We'd love to hear from you! See you soon, The PodCamp Organizing Team Copyright © 2018 PodCamp Western Mass, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: PodCamp Western Mass 20 Northampton Street Easthampton, MA 01027 Add us to your address book

Get your ticket to PodCamp WesternMass now!

Only a couple of days left to get your ticket to the longest running PodCamp in New England. This gathering of practitioners and explorers is a good way to find out how to reach your customers and engage your community. Learn and share on the social media tools available. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn... 

This is where I go to learn about how to do more and to do better what I do in the social media arena! Join me on Saturday, Apr 2.

Take a day trip to Holyoke!

Powered by Eventbrite

PodCamp WesternMass

Learning events on the horizon

What is Tech Day Camp?
Full day of workshops from experts in their field, especially geared towards the small business owner, non-profit organizations and YOU!!

Saturday March 23 at Tri-Country RVT in Franklin, MA

For registration and additional information visit http://techdaycamp.com/



PodCamp WesternMass

PodCamp is an un-conference about social media and online networking. It is an open and collaborative event with discussions and interaction from attendees. Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join. Some sessions will be planned ahead of the event, but plenty of spaces will be open for the topics YOU want to discuss and learn. Tickets are $30 ($15 for students), but all are expected to participate and/or present. You can participate by giving a presentation, demo, or joining into another cooperative event, being on a panel/roundtable, or in other ways helping out on event day.

Saturday, March 30 at Holyoke Community College

For registration and additional information visit http://pcwm5.eventbrite.com/
(Note I am helping to organize this event!)


SOBCon 2013

What is SOBCon?

SOBCon is a 2-day interactive business “think tank” that moves ideas to action. Attendees increase their business IQ in an engaging and positive learning environment, take away actionable and measurable business plans, and create a network of connections to drive their companies forward. Want to know more about this "inspiration incubator", and why YOU should attend our next event? 

For registration and additional information visit http://www.sobevent.com/
(Note - This is one event I will be at and one I would rather not miss again having missed the very first one.)

Fun is not just child's play (video)

The thing that hasn’t changed, and I don’t think will ever change, is that the operative word in music is “play.” You have to have a playfulness about it. As the world shifts, it’s starting to understand more and more that to have a playfulness about any and everything is actually the way of having a better life, or being more creative, or being more productive. 

The rules are: The more playful we get, the more we can get rid of the rules.

Composer Hans Zimmer discussing VJam
From Bernie DeKoven


If that quote tickles your imagination, how about this one?

Children play whenever they can – as soon as their most urgent needs are met, and whenever they are not prevented from it. That ability to stay in the moment, to grasp opportunities for exploration, joy and challenge whenever possible, is probably what most people mean by the word “childlike”.  Morgan

And if you had fun with both of those quotes, you'll enjoy this video as Morgan and Bernie get together for a delightful conversation:

Place to be to learn and share

Unfortunately, my schedule has conspired against me getting to the 4th PodCamp WesternMA but I hope that doesn't mean you can't go. PodCamp is a wonderful thing. I truly hope that you can go!



Other events coming up:

PodCamp Connecticut is looking to set a date.

FiberCamp will be held March 9-11
http://www.commoncod.com/2012/01/31/fibercamp-boston-2012/

NewBCamp in Providence will be held Apr 28
http://www.freegeekprovidence.org/events/newbcamp/

#pcwm
#fibercamp
#newbcamp

Your diary is unwritten

I found and retweeted these the other day in the Twitter stream:

How diaries are relevant to #careers... #1 we tell the story as we go#work #jobhunt #diary 

How diaries are relevant to #careers... #2 it's not alone but our experience always has a voice #work #jobhunt #diary 

How diaries are relevant to #careers... #3 every day presents an opportunity to add or create something new #work #jobhunt #diary

Then due to being behind the firewall at work, I missed Paul's thank you tweet and his follow up question:

@shersteve I thought of you the other day when I read this tweet bit.ly/AzxQ44 from @Bumble_bee3. Would you have a view?

@Bumble_Bee3's tweet asks if Paul had any success stories about moving to another career from teaching. Once upon a time, I started my career to be a teacher. I substituted for six years in the Pawtucket (RI) School Department and and also coached track and field at St Raphael Academy during that time. It was good but unfortunately did not lead to a permanent position teaching.


I found a position in the corporate world through a family connection and haven't looked back. I also did not leave teaching in that the teaching and coaching background has helped me every step of the way. 


I approach each opportunity as a learning situation. What is the big picture? What is the business problem we are trying to solve? How can we together leverage the skills and capabilities we have to accomplish this? I try to leave ego out of the equation. This is difficult as there are folks that you encounter who can not put their ego aside to consider any other way but their way to do something. So sometimes, you just need to suck it up and do it another way the next time.


1 - Knowing that you can (and we all should) learn something each day paints the world a color of opportunity! Observation is a good way to learn. We all have tools we use but maybe we don't use them all the same way. Maybe something someone else does would help you? and vice versa!


2 - Take what you have learned and share it in a way that in meaningful for the person you share it with. Make it real for them, show them how they can benefit. If you do that, you will more likely be successful.


3 - In addition to learning and sharing, find time to laugh each day. Life is too short not to find some enjoyment. The world is a crazy place, look at it with open eyes and laugh when you can. Time will pass more pleasantly if you do.


When I went to Twitter to dig into Paul's question and find Bumble_Bee3's questions, I also found that I missed the first of Paul's series of tweets:

Q: What book remains unfinished despite the efforts of millions of authors? A: A diary #work #career

It is quite appropriate that the theme song for one of the Job Search Jam Sessions appropriately was Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten". 


Our career needs to be explored. The book on our life at any one point in time is incomplete. What the future holds remains open and dependent upon us. No one else can do what we can. The future is unwritten. Learn, share and laugh as you write each new day!

finding a place of balance (video)

Posting this hear for me to review in detail later



There is so much goodness in this, I didn't want to wait to share it.

Enjoy! Change is about finding a place of balance!



Thanks to Nancy White for sharing this

Explore the Archives

From the archives comes some goodness. There is much to explore in the archives here and much to explore among what I contributed to the Joyful Jubilant Learning blog. The site posted the learning and sharing of our community as we expanded and evolved over the course of a couple of years.

I put some of my best writing there and it is still available for your reading pleasure.

Feel free to dive in and explore the archives of my writing
http://joyfuljubilantlearning.com/category/advisory-board/steve-sherlock/

While you are there, do go explore some of the other writing. What some of the others did was far better!


One of our regular features was Rapid Fire Learning

Another was "A Love Affair with Books"

K12Online Conference

The one thing you can should do today is to visit the K12Online conference website.

http://k12onlineconference.org/

There is so much goodness there, don't be overwhelmed. Pick one presentation!

Allow yourself to dive into it and explore how technology is helping the learning environment.

Then step back and think about how you too can use that for what you need/want to do?

Sweetness at the intersection

I like many of the ideas Joe uses to make his point. We do need to be careful with the words we use. Those words create our world. The world where intersections can happen, or not.



I love intersections. PodCamp and other unconferences are great intersections. SOBCon is more structured than an unconference but a great intersection!

Do you like intersections?

5 for Friday

1 - Open road, no traffic



2 - Shadows playing

3 - It's Friday, end of another work week.
Farmer's Market open today in Franklin

4 - A lost son returned home

5 - PodCamp Boston this weekend

What are you going to do today?

time to expand the mind

Narragansett Bay

looking out from Beavertail Light on the tip of Jamestown



Water

breeze

sunlight

time to expand the mind

What are you going to do today?

On the edge

Do you live on the edge?

Have you peeked over the ledge?




Do you go to the dock of the bay, or end of the rocks to fish?

Another successful event

Many were not sure what they were getting into. What is an unconference? How come the schedule is not complete? How will we know what there is?

Those who came and were willing to let things happen found out how good it was. They ended up with choices of good sessions to participate in. If they had a tough choice, and wanted a session repeated, in many cases it was.

We started the day with about 9 sessions already filled in on the board with others ready to go depending upon the wants and needs of the group. At the end of the Job Search Jam Sessions 3, this is what the schedule board looked like. We had provided 22 sessions over the course of the five time slots providing choices for each time slot and repeating many of the sessions.




(Yes, the sticky notes didn't want to stay on the shiny white board and even with masking tape, they had trouble staying in place.)

How many people came? 49 people participated, 31 of the 35 who pre-registered showed up along with 18 walk-ins.

A great big thank you to the other organizers and speakers who made this event possible.

experiment today

yes, I am trying something different today. I have posted my #the5 to Google+ and not used Twitter to share them.

An experiment. A try. We'll see how it works. If you don't have Google+ yet, let me know. I should be able to send an invite to you.

I really would like Google's tools to be better integrated together. Why isn't reader already enabled for +?

So this is just a test. I'll let you know when the test is over.

combine learning and sharing

Cruising among the RSS Feeds today, I have time to share #the5

"I tried Bittman's grain recipe this afternoon with barley, with perfect results" http://j.mp/nVn6u0 @franklinfoodpan #the5

"If you're strapped for topic ideas, consider turning to your organization's events for some inspiration" http://j.mp/quD2IV #the5

"I vaguely remember reviewing such a piece and approving its submission" http://j.mp/oIeMDa #the5

"My first project – building a non-permanent wine bottle path in my back yard" http://j.mp/pDQVrc what if a bottle breaks? #the5

"Forty-four percent of communications staff members said they spend up to 10 percent of their time" http://j.mp/qxlpWe #the5


And a bonus alert for Franklin to this scam confirmed by two neighbors on Monday.
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2011/07/attention-franklin-scam-alert.html


Using more whole grains is something we have been trying in our household for some time now. I'll add these recipes to our "to be tried" listing. One way to keep ideas handy is to write them down, or post them online in a place where you can find them again. Hence, a bunch of the things I do share (via Twitter) can be found again. Links to whole websites can be found via Diigo or Delicious. Pictures via Flickr or Picasa. Keeping notes helps to avoid vague remembrances. The wine bottle recycling project looks interesting. I wonder how easy it would be to replace a broken one? Time is one valuable and precious resource. How do you prioritize your time? How much time do you spend sharing? How much time do you spend learning? Is there a way you can combine the learning and sharing? This will help be more efficient and helpful at the same time!

What do you think?

5 for Monday - goal

Time for #the5 before I head out to work:

"My children will not be a conduit through which our resources become trash!" http://j.mp/r4Xa9i @franklinfoodpan #the5

"All the tweets about Twitter, and the best ways to use tweets, can get overwhelming" http://j.mp/nz4zRG #the5 

"It all begins with a goal: what do you want to accomplish using social media?" http://j.mp/qx02HZ #the5 

"issues they’ve encountered in trying to comply with the Rule when they helped consumers with short sales" http://j.mp/ocMp8T #the5

Yes, there will be another Job Search Jam Session - http://t.co/Nc2Rbbm hold the date for Sep 2! #the5

Michelle explores packing lunches for her family in Bento boxes. She keeps the basic problem, getting folks to eat good food in mind when packing the lunch. All the tips in the world on how to use some shinny object still need to keep this in mind. What is the goal? What is the problem we are trying to solve? If you focus on that and keep coming back to it, absorbing feedback along the way, you'll make good progress.


And the final note, is to hold the date for Sep 2. The Friday before the Labor Day weekend. What is so special about that? Another Job Search Jam Session will be held in Hopkinton. Labor Day weekend is meant to celebrate those who labor although more recently, it has come to mean more the end of summer. With so many folks still looking for work and the economy still sluggish, let's spend some time to share what we have learned on the job search with those who are still searching. For me, it will be a vacation day well spent.


If you are in the greater Franklin/Hopkinton area and want to help out, please let me know!

5 for Friday - etiquette

Five for Friday:

1. What better way to start the day with a piece from Robert Fulgham! 
2. Ronni Bennett chimes in with some good news on the legal front for elders in CA. Now let's see if other courts can do something similar. 
3. Terry Starbucker identifies a potential catastrophy with a great acronym! 
4. The FTC provides a quick primer on how to comply with the CAN-SPAM act (a seven point checklist). 
5. And net etiquette is collected on this site, simple and easy to share.

Sit comfortably for a few minutes to enjoy these links today:




"I hold out a $20 bill and drop it into the violin case, saying, 'Here’s another bet on courage.' ” http://j.mp/q0pAag #the5

"The Elder Court. This is such a brilliant and important idea that you should know about it" http://j.mp/oGccHA #the5

"potentially catastrophic to our otherwise orderly lives. It’s our potential for Mutually Assured Distraction" http://j.mp/ot03ru #the5

"the Rule also applies to a wide variety of communications with customers or potential customers" http://j.mp/pt9LUD #the5

"Although the title says there are 101 guidelines there are actually more than 101 guidelines on the site" http://j.mp/oi7OV8 #the5

What can you share today?

5 for Thursday - transition

Time for #the5 for today

Twitter for Android – Now with Push Notifications and Multiple Accounts http://t.co/UjlgRks #the5

Was the CIA's top Bin Laden hunter outed on Flickr? http://t.co/rw5J5dX #the5



Waiting For Your Balls To Land (It’s Not What You Think) http://t.co/sqrZfR9 #the5

The first three videos from Gel 2011: how the conference started http://t.co/nyA6wPK a good way to see what happened! #the5 @markhurst

"That's step one of the strategy: Feed consumers' hungers" It's all about feeding hungers. http://t.co/FzTPDzr #the5

Transition is a challenge. What is the tipping point for one to move from doing something, using something to changing? Is the incentive big enough? Is the move easy enough? Is there enough of a benefit to do so?

Some folks will move to the next shiny thing just because. Some will sit back and wait.

What you do should align with your goals and your focused effort. Does it fit? then maybe at the right time (even now) you should move. If it doesn't fit, then stand pat.

Aren't sure about your goals and focus? Then spend sometime on that! It will be time well spent later on.

How does this all play together with #the5? I have had my Droid ERIS for over a year now. The lack of sustained battery life has been growing increasingly frustrating. Occasionally I also run into space issues. A couple of weeks ago, both of these came up at the same time. I removed a bunch of apps, freeing up some space and all of a sudden the battery life is now something I can live with.

One of the apps removed was a rogue battery drain. Trouble is I don't yet know which one. Do I start adding them back one at a time? Or just go on? I am going on.

I have started playing with Google +. Gradually building my network of circles. One pleasant discovery is that the auto load of pictures to my private folder actually serves as an automatic backup of those pictures from my phone. I like that!

I have long been a Flickr user will I now change to use Picassa more? Time and circumstances will tell.

What have you learned that you can share today?