Ian M Rountree

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Embracing Practice and Theory in Social Marketing

January 10, 2011 by Ian 5 Comments

In a typical paroxysm of brilliant insight, Amber Naslund posted what she called “one of those pensive posts [that needs a lot of thought]” on Sunday evening. The crux of the post was how theory can play a role in such highly action-sequence oriented fields like marketing – especially social media and content marketing.

As Amber says in the post, current social media advice is largely prescriptive; How To and 3 Steps To, and so on. This is beneficial to a point, but is it all we can do to move the work forward?

From her post – Elements of Knowledge and Embracing Social Media:

And in many ways, when you’re starting something new, that’s exactly what you want. The what and the how. Some understanding of what the established and familiar rules are, some guideposts to meter your own activities and behavior, and some reassurance that you’re headed in the “right” direction, or at least one that makes sense to you.

But when it comes to comprehension, there’s more than just the instructive side of the equation. There’s also understanding.

This is an important point, and one that I think needs some more elaboration and consideration.

The Case for Theory Before Practice

If school has taught us anything, it’s that there’s a use for having domain knowledge before practice begins. Just like we teach our kids (or try to), if something’s too hot to touch, there’s an effect from touching it regardless of cautions. Learning anything early that we can apply before negative happenstance can be helpful.

There’s also the possibility for analysis-in-the-moment, for anything we have knowledge of before practice. When something beneficial comes from what we might otherwise perceive as a negative action (for example, breaking up a flame war by making an explosive remark yourself), a theoretical understanding of human motivation and debate habits can be really helpful; with a theoretical knowledge to guide us, we might understand why that explosive comment worked to diffuse the situation, and another one might have made things worse.

The ability to understand the effects our actions might have can be hugely beneficial. The question is not whether theory has a place, but whether or not it should come first.

The Case for Practice Before Theory

In the Karate Kid, when Ralph Macchio is being taught to wax cars and paint fences, he spends a lot of time being annoyed that he’s not really learning karate. His sensei, Mr Miagi, smiles and fails to explain until much later. After weeks of labour and practice, finally the lesson becomes clear; the Kid was building muscle memory for the activities relevant to his required expertise.

Of course once the purpose of the practice is explained, there’s a blossoming of understanding. Having the muscle memory for the work that needs to be done makes the actual doing of the work so much easier. All that needs to be done in each instance is decide which skill to apply in which circumstance. This makes activity of any kind highly strategic – counter follows block follows jab and so forth. Natural progression and rhythm of action becomes easily apparent, for reasons entirely different to the in-the-moment analysis that those who learn theory before practice take advantage of.

But Which Should Come First?

And should it always be that way? Matt Ridings (@techguerilla) almost immediately responded with a question about why linear thought about theory and practice were such a big deal. It’s a good question; not everyone needs the muscle memory that comes from preemptive practice, and not everyone else can apply theory to their initial exploration of a task or domain.

I think there’s a case to be made for both directions, but it’s a case that has to be made on a per-instance basis. Some of us are polymaths, able to learn a huge variety of things easily. Some of us are intuitive learners, others kinesthetic. There is a huge variety of learning style out there – and it’s on the teachers, the instructors… The sensei among us to look for the signs that a student (hello, fellow grasshopper) can benefit better from one style of teaching than they can from another.

Before we can decide which style of teaching to employ, however, we need to define our theory. That, I think, goes far beyond just deciding who learns what better in what form.

Me? I’m going to do some more study. I’ve spent the last year playing karate kid – and I know, from how the year turned out, that I need more of that. My muscle memory isn’t as strong as it should be in some areas. However, I know I can’t survive on practice alone. Part of my work this year, I think, will be building some core theories out of observations of my own habits, and tending to the things that have succeeded.

What do you think? Where are you on the scale of theory vs practice?

Image by Woodley Wonderworks.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: amber naslund, blog measurement, Blogging, blogs, follow-the-linker, internet, learning, metahuman, practice, rant-alert, social media, sociology, the-web, Theory

On Setting Priorities

November 16, 2010 by Ian 4 Comments

Recognizers in Lego - FlickrWe are so very digital lately.

Accessible everywhere, communicating ubiquitously, never shutting down, never stopping, always moving forward. We’re letting people in, engaging broader audiences, stretching Dunbar’s number to its very finite limits. We’re trading old tradition for new efficiency.

Is this a good idea?

Where did Sunday breakfast go? Sausages, scrambled eggs and fresh orange juice. Where are we hiding the time that used to be set aside for family dinner at the table? You know (I hope) – the time when everyone decompressed, together, shared their day’s experiences, and planned the week going forward?

I miss that. Don’t you?

I actually had a family breakfast this Sunday morning, for the first time in months. Sausages, scrambled eggs, mandarin oranges. An hour of sitting, quietly, decompressing with my family. At the table. With no electronics on.

It’s going to happen more often here – and I’d suggest you do the same.

Find some time to get offline, and put some perspective on your time – it’s not difficult, and I’d argue it’s part of doing better work. Supporting yourself physically, emotionally – and doing the same for your family and immediate community – is far closer to the base of Mazlo’s hierarchy of needs than writing your blog. I know, it’s blasphemy for some of you, but I’m serious.

How do we start? Here are a few ways:

  • Play with your family. Just you and a spouse? Pick a sport. Got kids? What do they like to do? Do it too. Got parents? Apply same as kids.
  • Re-learn handwriting. There’s power in paper journaling, and lots of people know it. Not a journal-maker? How about writing drafts on paper? Or developing non-digital creative tools like mind maps (there are some great tools out there to help with mind mapping) and so on?
  • Do something new. Whip up a batch of cookies from a new recipe. Organize your book shelves with the solemn intent of selling some dusty tomes. Anything, no matter how pedestrian – if you’ve never done it, try it once.

Go! Now! What are you waiting for?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: community, learning, sociology

Learning the Task Snowball Method

April 24, 2010 by Ian 5 Comments

Today I didn’t just hit Inbox Zero, I also hit Google reader Zero. it was a monumental achievement – I haven’t hit Reader Zero in months.

How?

I used the Task Snowball method, derived from the Debt Snowball method I just learned on the Get rich Slowly blot (though the post was from 2006).

Basically, Task Snowballing goes as follows:

  1. List all your tasks from least effort to most. It helps to make a physical record, on paper.
  2. Devote a set period of time to the tasks.
  3. Cross ofthe tasks in sequence as quickly as possible.

This may also fall into the Get To Done mode of thinking, or Cult of Done problem solving theory.  Either way, I have no email, no Reader items, no new Waves, and now, a new blog post under my belt, and it’s only 9:41 am. I have two hours later today to tackle some of the others.

The significance? go look for my last blog post. Then wait for my next. I bet the time is shorter from now to the next, than it has been between this and the last. Snowballing in action.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: cool stuff, nevermind the buzzwords, sociology, task snowball

How To Confront High Standards

March 3, 2010 by Ian 1 Comment

It’s been a very busy week, full of hubbub and learning – one of the things I keep getting confronted with is the dramatic difference between what any two people mean when they use the phrase “high standards” in relation to anything.

I have very high standards for myself – don’t you?

We all judge our own work in a different light than we judge the work of others, or expect others to judge ours. In situations where we’re butting our heads against the wall – whether because of new variables or values we think we know that turn out not to be as advertised – the idea of standards can go quickly out the window if we let it.

Three coats of paint on a wall might be your standard, even if two does the job fine and there’s no way to tell the difference after the paint has dried. So why hold to the three-coat rule? Don’t even ask – the reasons are just as often as apocryphal as they are fact-based, and trying to understand someone else’s standards without first understanding the person is pointless.

Develop a common language – or else!

Do we even need to ask how many words there are in the English language? What about migratory words that make their way in from other languages, or the adoption of foreign terms to describe very specific qualities or situations? Like measuring standards, precision in communication is something to be approached very carefully. Just because you know how to use “their, they’re and there” doesn’t give you license to run the language into the ground.

On the other hand, adherence to a dictionary view of speech and writing can be damaging in part because so few other people approach the process of getting on the same page from the same angle. Sometimes the same page can mean nothing – after all, is the word “communication” on the same pages in Oxford’s dictionary and Webster’s? No – then what’s the point of being on the same page?

Solve the obvious problems first.

Developing standards isn’t just about earning your stripes – quality’s nice and all, but they have to be transferable. If standards don’t mean what we think they do, and being on the same page isn’t helpful, what is?

I wish I could tell you, but I can’t. The trick is not looking for semantics and syntax, but checking for relevance and reliability. It’s not a goal, it’s a process, and it’s not going to be the same twice, even if you’re approaching the same tasks or problems equipped with the same tools.

If you’re treating new problems just like old ones without making sure you’ve looked for holes where once there were none, chances are that even in success you’re going to miss opportunities to excel and do something other people don’t. Trying harder is the same as repeating failure hoping the situation has changed. You may want to reconsider the difference between victory and success – another question of precision.

After all, if standards can’t be made standard, what chance do we have if we can’t communicate?

Photo by pasotraspaso.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: common language, linchpin fodder, oxford dictionary, sociology, standards, webster dictionary

How To Ruin A Compliment

March 3, 2010 by Ian 3 Comments

Actually, this is more about ruining the very simple phrase “You’re Welcome.”

It’s easier than you think. Instead of expressing a genuine reciprocation of the understanding that you’ve done something nice for someone, dismiss the entire event in as few words as possible.

Water under the bridge, some say. No problem.

I hate hearing someone say No Problem when they hear thank you. It’s become a universally accepted replacement for You’re Welcome, but it stinks, because at once you’re dismissing any effort you made on their behalf, as well as implying that a similar but perhaps broader request might sometime go unanswered.

Try it sometime, see how it feels. Spend a Wednesday answering with nothing but No Problem – then on Thursday, answer entirely with You’re Welcome, Glad To, or some other sincere acknowledgment that you had the choice not to help someone out, but did so anyway.

Own the work, and you’ll earn the gratitude.

Or is that too Seth Godin for you? You’re welcome.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: seth godin, sociology

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