CREATING A LEARNING PLANET [3 of 20]: A Storyboard Interpretation

[continued from the Last Post.]

Appended below please find the third panel from Dilip Mukerjea's storyboard interpretation on the intermediate objective of creating a learning culture.



[to be continued in the Next Post. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

CREATING A LEARNING PLANET [2 of 20]: A Storyboard Interpretation

[continued from the Last Post]

Appended below, please find the second panel of Dilip Mukerjea's storyboard interpretation on the intermediate objective of creating a learning culture.



[To be continued in the Next Post. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

CREATING A LEARNING PLANET: A Storyboard Interpretation [1 of 20]

Dilip Mukerjea shares some of his innovative ideas about creating a learning culture, which serves as an intermediate objective to creating a learning planet.

Appended below please find his storyboard interpretation. Altogether, he has created twenty story panels.

Here is the first one [1 of 20], to be followed by the next subsequent one, for the next nineteen days.




[All the images are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

DR JOHN NAISBITT, THANKS FOR THE MEMORY!

A WISE QUOTE FOR MONDAY MORNING

"People often say I'm a child at heart. In fact, I think I just have access to [my childhood], I have a very clear memory of it. We were all children once. We just need to show a bit of respect for it."

~ French taleblazer Luc Besson, whose great stories had helmed the movies, 'Nikita', 'Leon The Professional' (with Jean Reno), 'Taxi', 'Taxi 2', 'Taxi 3' & 'Taxi 4'; 'Transporter', 'Transporter 2' & 'Transporter 3' (with Jason Statham in all 3); 'The 5th Element' (with Bruce Willis), & 'Kiss of the Dragon' (with Jet Li) - all favourites of mine!;

THE SUPERBRAIN STUDY SYSTEM (S3)

Appended below is an artful adaptation by Dilip Mukerjea of my 10-stage 'Study Smart Process'. He calls it the 'Superbrain Study System' or S3 for short.

It's done in the form of an Inter-relationships Map, which also gives a systemic perspective of how the tools & strategies can impact a student's academic performance.

In other words, the vital elements of goal setting/goal getting, time & self-management, stress-busting & energy engineering, must take precedence, before the application of read-study strategies as outlined, in order to ace or attain success in the ultimate exam.

Once the student can set up the resourceful mind-set & create the supporting environment to learning, or studying for that matter, all the read-study strategies will automatically fall in place quite easily with minimun effort.

More importantly, at the end of it all, the exam will become a breeze!

Dilip & I are often intrigued as to why schools don't teach such a system before their students embark on their class lessons from Day 1.

Nonetheless, the tools & strategies will be featured in the forthcoming trilogy of books, geared for students from Primary I to Secondary IV, to be released in March.

Please stay tuned!

THE LAW OF CEREBRAL PHYSICS

Last night, despite being pretty tired, I had started to read the first few pages of the long-overdue book, 'Borrowing Brilliance', by entrepreneur David Murray, on my bed.

The book was among a large stack of books on my bedside table. It had in fact been there for quite a while, together with the other books.

I didn't finish the reading as I had dozed off. My wife had apparently come to switch off my reading light & to remove the book while I slept.

According to him, he had lost US$50 million to learn a valuable lesson, which he wanted to share with readers.

"Ideas are constructed out of other ideas, there are no truly original ideas, you can't make something out of nothing, you have to make it out of something else.

It's the law of cerebral physics.

Ideas are born of other ideas, built on and out of the ideas that came before. That's why I say that brilliance is borrowed."

Gee Whiz! I am going to enjoy the book.

Please stay tuned!

VIDEO LECTURES: MANAGING IN AN UNPREDICTABLE WORLD, by Prof Donald Sull

Here are the appropriate links to a series of video lectures by Prof Donald Sull of the London Business School:

Part 1: Fog of the future
Part 2: Future reconnaissance
Part 3: The strategic agility loop
Part 4: Executing with commitments
Part 5: Leading into the fog

Pro Sull is also the author of 'The Upside of Turbulence'.

Introducing FLAMES DREAMSCAPE

Here's a quick snapshot - or sneak preview - of Dilip Mukerjea's latest masterpiece to show kids how to do their "strategic visioning". He calls it 'FLAMES Dreamscape'.

It will be an integral part of his new trilogy of books for school children, from Primary I to Secondary IV, who aim to excel in an 'Age of Transformative Productivity', an apt term coined by futurist/thinkologist Dudley Lynch.

The trilogy is scheduled to be released in March.

MY FAVOURITE PICTURE FOR THIS WEEK

AN INTERESTING LESSON ON COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

A WISE QUOTE FOR MONDAY MORNING

"The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might of the force of habit - & must understand
that practices are what create habits. He must be quick to break those habits that can break them - & hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help them achieve the success he desires."

~ J Paul Getty;

FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS!

Ever since returning from Jakarta, Indonesia, just before Christmas Day last year, I have been very busy, physically & intellectually.

In fact, as mentioned earlier, I have been inundated with several project consultancy appraisals, in strategic partnership with my good friend, Dilip Mukerjea.

One has involved the creation of a new learning ecosystem for children, drawing upon internal as well as external landscapes in the existing premises, for a client.

Another has involved the conception & design of a digital web-portal, which entails the utilisation of an intelligent digital concierge to guide web-users on learning, creativity & innovation from wherever they may be.

More importantly, there were also several projects relating to eventual implementation in Indonesia, in collaboration with my good friend, Alex.

One involved the conception & design of a proposed curriculum for a 12-month Business School for Kids, interspersed with outdoor adventure camps to inculcate risk-taking behaviours, among other important entrepreneurial traits.

Indonesia has many beautiful natural landscapes to provide such an outdoor facility. Best of all, at low cost!

Another one involved the implementation of a systematic hand-holding program for students, in a defined centre or in the schools, to master my proprietary development of the 'Study Smart Process', which entails ten important process stages.

At this very moment, the projects are still in the "finalisation of negotiation" stage.

Actually, what has fascinated me most is the stretching of the intellectual muscles - firing on all cylinders - in my brain to deal with all the potential challenges & to come up with all the possible solutions.

In the course of preparatory work, I have to use a broad variety of software tools e.g. Excel, Powerpoint, SmartDraw, MindManager, etc., to flesh out initial ideas through mapping, storyboarding, flow-charting & spreadsheet analysis.

I also have to surf the net & read up on the latest & new technological developments, e.g. exploratory hypermedia, information mining, adaptive clustering, intelligent personalisation, digital content manipulations, technology-based & blended learning, paper prototyping, etc.

The resultant research has certainly helped me in the problem/opportunity exploration & project development process.

Frankly, the foregoing stuff was entirely new to me, although I have some inklings as to what they can do & contribute in the design & development of my projects.

[Dilip has also taken the opportunity to convince me to pick up a Mac Pro. I may consider it after the CNY holidays, to coincide with the expected launch of the new range of Mac products. Looks like there will be more & new learning curves for me.]

During the course of initial exploration, there were also many extensive hours of intellectual sparring with my good friend, Dilip.

By the way, for the digital web-portal, much of the intellectual property, which will form the total digital content library, will come from Dilip.

For me, the greatest challenge will be the digital manipulations of his published thoughtwares, as a start. The work has yet to start.

What also has excited me most is that the proposed layout of the system architecture as conceived by Dilip & me on our own for the digital web-portal has been given the OK by a system architect, engaged by the investing party to appraise the project.

In between the many project appraisals, I have managed to spend some quick time to catch up with the backlog of my reading.

In the light of 'firing of all cylinders' on my part, so to speak, I have been very slow in posting of my weblog. This is inevitable, as I have to consider first things first.

Regrettably, my weblog readers will have to bear with my "absence" or intermittent postings from time to time.

In fact, I have also not been posting any of my book reviews on Amazon for quite some time.

Worst still, I am also caught up in the preliminary preparation of my planned relocation to Ho Chi Minh City with my wife. We are currently finalising the building plans with the architect over there.

If the current projects materialised in the not-too-distant future, I will definitely be pulled out of semi-retirement, & also may have to shuttle frequently between Singapore-Ho Chi Minh City-Jakarta.

Nonetheless, I am not complaining, as long as I can continue to "indulge" in 'firing on all cylinders'. It's my only new way of keeping my brain intellectually alive & physically active. My body, too.

YOUR BEST FRIENDS MIGHT BE YOUR WORST ENEMIES...

Here's an interesting brief from the global training & performance improvement outfit, Vitalsmarts, which helps to shed some light on the above matter.

In a nut shell:

A study conducted by the authors of 'Influencer: The Power to Change Anything', a New York Times bestseller about behavioural change, found that people who surround themselves with friends who actively encourage or support their efforts are significantly more likely to succeed at achieving new goals (up to 38 percent more likely).

Go to this link to read the brief in its entirety.

THE INCREDIBLE INVISIBLE MAN

I certainly admire the creative antics of the 'China' man in the following video:

[Source: Dr Marc Dussault, Personal Mastery weBlog]

D/OE vs SWOT ANALYSIS

Most people are familiar with the traditional SWOT Analysis tool.

Here's a new tool, designated as Defensive/Offensive Evaluation (D/OE), which is advanced by its creator as an effective alternative.

I like its extensive value creation process & vulnerability probing mechanism.

Take a close look. Explore possibilities with it. Here's the link.

A WISE QUOTE FOR MONDAY MORNING

"The entrepreneurial mystique? It's not magic; it's not mysterious, & it has nothing to do with the genes. It's a discipline, & like any discipline, it can be learned."

~ Peter F Drucker;

[The foregoing quote is my inspiration for creating & conceptualising a 12-month, 52-module 'Business School for Kids & Teens'. It will be one of my new projects in Indonesia, as the curriculum design involves the holding of 3 outdoor adventure camps - to inculcate risk-taking, team-building & leadership - of 3 day's duration each, to coincide with a breakdown of 3 semesters for the entire program.

Indonesia, with its vast & beautiful landscapes, has all the natural facilities for such camp venues.

Classroom learning will be combined with a multi- as well as an inter-disciplinary content immersion, in conjunction with project-based actvities, individual projects & group discussions, field-trips to businesses, interviews of successful entrepeneurs, portfolio assessment, sales bazaar or trade show, plus live presentations involving business plan pitches to a real-world venture capitalist panel.

The curriculum is even designed to include a career exploration module, to allow the kid or teen participants to consider a safer, alternative route - in order to gain valuable professional working experience - prior to embarking on an entrepreneurial initiative.

It will be a great opportunity to infuse young people with the entrepreneurial mindset. The entrepreneurs of tomorrow are in our schools today!]