News, Information and Incredible stories to Learn and Grow
Insights, updates, and stories from the world of education and professional development.
Drive Growth with Relationship Banking: Cornerstone Performance Solutions' Expert Insight
Relationship banking is a critical aspect of the financial sector and plays a vital role in the macro-economic growth of a country, region, and province. Therefore, relationship banking teams are expected to possess various competencies, including implicit insights into clients’ needs; exceptional interpersonal skills; a capacity to find unique-, tailored solutions to client problems, and the ability to manage client portfolios expertly. These competencies ensure the sustainability and growth of client businesses and assets. At Cornerstone Performance Solutions, these skills are crucial for cultivating growth in all aspects of the economy. CPS’s research across the continent has shown that Relationship Managers need to have a skill set that exceeds that of their competitors to achieve success in their portfolios. One of the most vital components of relationship management is having implicit insight into a customer’s business, both financially and how it operates. A structured approach to client insight, solutions, client engagement, and portfolio management is essential to achieve this. Our ThinkTool process provides expert insight into a client’s business using a structured approach based on expert thinking. Coaching is an integral part of the journey to becoming a Relationship Manager. Line Managers are equipped with the knowledge to Coach for […]
Keeping learning fresh: Part 2
A well-structured and effective online learning journey is a multidimensional process. Learners, online facilitators, learning content, and the delivery platform all have a significant influence on the success of the learning endeavour. Adopting a cohort-based approach to online learning is a way of building even deeper success. It’s not new, but many self-directed journeys are not cohort-based and the students miss out on this valuable element of the experience. Most of all this creates a sense of energy and keeps the learning fresh because of the social learning possibilities that arise from defining and managing cohorts. What are cohorts? A cohort can be described as a group of people who are joined by shared goals or common experiences. In the realm of education, Holmes et al describe that a cohort consists of a group of learners who partake in the same academic program and build relationships with one another throughout the duration of their learning journey. Community and the opportunity to connect with other students and build learning-based relationships is the lifeblood of cohorts. Conrad explains that learners tend to perceive a sense of community based on both the support structures available to them and the contact with peers. This […]
Spotlight on communities of practice
Communities of practice are social phenomena that are getting a lot of attention lately because of the power they offer for knowledge exchange. These communities exist everywhere. Hobby groups, co-workers, and even the neighbourhood watch are all examples of communities of practice. The social aspect of communities of practice makes them highly useful in learning environments. If learning providers make intelligent use of the necessary technologies and processes, a community of practices promises sustained, meaningful interactions between learners, coaches, and the learning providers themselves. Communities of practice in online learning Asynchronous learning opportunities, flexible time management, guided learning journeys, and a relatively comfortable user experience all weigh in favour of online learning. What is potentially lost are the precious opportunities to have learners interact with one another in a social learning context. There is a silver lining - learning providers can create thriving, online communities of practice without having to invest in new tools. Using the technology already at their disposal, learning providers are in a prime position to begin implementing communities of practice within the online space. According to Wenger, a successful community of practice contains three component elements. These elements are the domain, the community, and the practice. […]
Keeping online learning “fresh” in ’22 - Part 1.
One of the major challenges currently facing learning providers is how best to assess learning when information is everywhere and students can just Google test answers. This obviously challenges reporting on the return of investment for the purchaser and compromises a valuable evaluation of the learning experience. Encarnacion et al. found that appropriate assessments are crucial ingredients for an effective online learning environment. No big surprise then, that the focus should not be on preventing students from going to Google for answers but allowing for the integration of what they find. The question is how? Problem based learning Seibert proposes the technique of problem based learning (‘PBL’) as a means to encourage both critical thinking and engagement in students. Application of prior knowledge and opportunities for collaboration with fellow students in a cohort can form the basis of a successful PBL experience. Seibert conceptualises PBL as the inclusion of “structured scenarios” which, when presented to the student, catalyses “exploration of resources and self-directed information seeking”. PBL is not a new concept, and has been used extensively in traditional learning environments for years. Suparman et al found PBL to be very successful in terms of giving students valuable skills. In terms […]
The power of virtual facilitation.
It seems adults learn most effectively in places not officially designated for learning. We do not find our greatest lessons in online classrooms or facilitated sessions. Instead, we learn best socially, from each other, in conversations and just about any place that presents us with an experience at a time in our lives when we are ready to receive it. What does this imply is required, when adults sign up to learn, for example in a virtually facilitated online session? Surely, it means the learning has to be more than “interactive”, it has to be alive? Learning designers have all kinds of techniques for doing this but as we spend more time online across all interactions, our literacy and skills on these platforms have escalated. The usual techniques for pushing up learner engagement and interactivity seem underwhelming in this new context. CPS has devised a methodology for designing virtual facilitation that truly creates stimulating conditions for learning. It’s called disruptive process facilitation. If you Google it you will find nothing at all, Google is ignorant, because its proprietary IP that’s woven into CPS facilitation design. Through a carefully designed approach to virtual facilitation, developed over many years, CPS creates conditions […]
“Dead scripts” need to be enlivened
John Vervaeke is a cognitive scientist whose long YouTube video series, “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis”, shows us the relevance of cognitive science to our everyday lives and even to how we learn. A lack of meaning in life often occurs when a person is stuck in a rut. Translated into Vervaeke’s cognitive scientific language, this means they are unable to grow and challenge themselves, because their perspective has been narrowed by “parasitic mental processing.” They have been frozen by an inability to filter in relevance and filter out what’s not relevant in their eco-systems. To think of this in Vervaeke’s terms, we need to avoid the above, the playing out ‘dead scripts’ - that is, a simple input-to-output function, something that, in all honesty, a machine could probably do. The ‘scripts’ we fulfil, our professional purpose, must be part of a living, growing system of “fresh” interaction and application. We must also update our concepts and strategies for learning, to address making dead scripts come alive in the learning domain. Individuals who find themselves acting out a dead script feel undervalued and insecure regarding their role in organisations, expressing dissatisfaction with having accumulated the years of information needed for […]
The challenge of finding time to study
Despite the pause on physical social interactions imposed by lockdowns and social distancing, life is still accelerating at an unprecedented rate. Speed dating, power naps, and apps to help us manage and save time have not helped. All the promises to save time, made by vendors of high tech devices have not created more time for us – overall time is a scarcer resource. Recently a company in New Zealand invented drive-through funerals, and as ridiculous as that sounds, they have made money. We “make time”, by waking up earlier and working later and limiting leisure time. Just getting through all our obligations and demands seems to take more and more time. When on earth can we find time to study? To help address this, we’ve compiled a few tricks and methods which you can hopefully adopt to make this a little easier. Technology has become an inextricable part of our lives, but how often do we make the most of what we have under our noses? The kindest thing you could probably do for yourself would be to declutter your desk and create a neat, clear workspace, so that you can focus, without looking through stacks of papers or […]
The need for a revised Organising Framework for Occupations in the Banking Sector
Author: Indira Bhagaloo - 2018 Introduction On 27 March 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the Youth Employment Services (YES) initiative, which aims to guarantee over a million young South Africans paid work experience during the next three years. This social compact between government, business and labour is part of government’s drive to achieve inclusive economic growth in the country – one of the goals of the National Development Plan, as encapsulated in Vision 2030. One of the advantages of this workplace experience is that it will clearly indicate which skills are most urgently needed in workplaces for them to function most efficiently and effectively. When the Sectoral Education and Training Institutions (SETAs) were re-established in 2005 by the Minister of Labour, they were tasked with managing skills development needs across various sectors, where graduates should be equipped with life skills to enter the world of work with ease and quickly become productive (Department of Higher Education, 2005; National Plan for Higher Education, 2001). However, it has been argued by the Department of Higher Education and Training, (2015) that they need to be repurposed to meet current training needs in the workplace. The report suggests that since their creation in 2000, […]
Adaptation, survival, and the 'Agile Equation'
This week, one year ago, calamity was closing in. COVID has been a crisis of disruption - it’s a year later, and the world is a changed place. We’ve been disrupted on a mega-colossal scale. Humanity has had to learn adapt in unprecedented ways. We’ve seen folly and heroism, and the casualty count has been catastrophic. Never has the truth been so besieged by nonsense, and never have cool heads and kind hearts so desperately needed to prevail. The challenges of survival have shifted patterns of human working, buying, travelling, interacting, loving, and politicking. The world can never be the same – probably in ways we will not understand for years. What can we learn from the pandemic experience? I have personally became intrigued by a cluster of adaptive patterns that I see described in business literature and observe in personal experience. I coined a shorthand phrase to describe it:‘the agile equation’: “Survival through disruption is a function of agility – the capability to adapt to rapidly changing and unclear or unknown circumstances. Agility requires, at a minimum, innovation, collaboration, and a relentless focus on open thought and critical problem-solving for value in multi-stakeholder ecosystems. Agility is degraded by authoritarian behaviour and compliance-driven work […]
From the CEO’s desk: Living your learning.
To live as a human is to live tethered to a dream. Some dreams are grand and glorious - the desire for fame, wealth, a worthwhile legacy - while some are more beautifully modest. Regardless of what final form your dream takes, we are tasked with spending our lives discovering the best tools and methods to find and shape our dreams. Whether your dream is superb or simple, CPS aims to empower those motivated enough to sculpt their dreams with learning and provide the learning journey that is a best fit for the job. In the Information Age, the global economy moved toward being a knowledge economy. This interconnected and disrupted economy continues to challenge us. Sources of knowledge, such as human expertise and trade secrets, are crucial factors in economic growth and are considered important economic resources. Today, in these COVID times we find ourselves grappling with what digital leadership means and the mindset we need to unlock the benefits that digital workplaces hold. Most of our dreams require scaling new heights in a changing landscape and the story that unfolds for each of us, inevitably involves learning. At CPS our learning involves technology, information, knowledge and digital access, […]
Slow Leadership: it’s not how you lead, its who you are.
Leading into a digital age, through a pandemic, in businesses threatened by economic contraction and disruption, knowing that the emerging future requires fundamentally different leadership acumen, is no easy task. Those who skilled up for the 4th IR caught an early wave that has not yet carried leadership far enough. COVID pushed everyone online and corona compromised leaders had to do a massive re-think of their businesses as “pivot” and “re-invent” became practical survival tactics, instead of concepts about possible future disruptions. For many businesses, two-year future focused strategies became operational imperatives over a matter of days. Leaders had to absorb the shock and act quickly and carefully - not all were up to the task. Leading in virtual spaces has clearly brought with it challenges of its own for leadership. The relevance and identity of leaders is in question, now more than ever. There is suddenly consensus that leadership is an “emerging field” as old ideas dissolve and new thinking takes shape to suit the current business milieu. Online meetings, connecting through screens, and COVID-19 stress, all coupled with general uncertainty about job security, requires a new “slow leadership”, where leaders are truly present, listening and engaged. The authenticity […]
Get a “welcome bonus” from your brain
Brains are truly remarkable devices. They can grow and change shape depending on what we feed them. We are constantly challenging ourselves to taste that sweet chemical cocktail that our brains release when we really achieve something. When your brain gives you the reward you worked towards, the feeling is unparalleled. Yes! Saying no to cake, jumping up when the alarm clock rings and keeping just one of those New Year’s resolutions all result in that addictive ahhh feeling. Once we know we can do something previously thought impossible, our brains give us big dose of positivity in the hope that we keep up the good behaviour … this is what I call “a welcome bonus” from your brain! Often the greatest possible welcome bonuses come from applying a new skill. Learning to drive, mastering new software, or applying leading-edge interpersonal tactics can give us a huge sense of satisfaction. So how do we maximise the welcome bonuses, get the learning loyalty points and convince our brains to give us the results we need? William Deresiewicz, American scholar and author, gives us a major clue: “It’s only by concentrating, sticking to the question, being patient, letting all the parts of […]
Get a “welcome bonus” from your brain.
Brains are truly remarkable devices. They can grow and change shape depending on what we feed them. We are constantly challenging ourselves to taste that sweet chemical cocktail that our brains release when we really achieve something. When your brain gives you the reward you worked towards, the feeling is unparalleled. Yes! Saying no to cake, jumping up when the alarm clock rings and keeping just one of those New Year’s resolutions all result in that addictive ahhh feeling. Once we know we can do something previously thought impossible, our brains give us big dose of positivity in the hope that we keep up the good behaviour … this is what I call “a welcome bonus” from your brain! Often the greatest possible welcome bonuses come from applying a new skill. Learning to drive, mastering new software, or applying leading-edge interpersonal tactics can give us a huge sense of satisfaction. So how do we maximise the welcome bonuses, get the learning loyalty points and convince our brains to give us the results we need? William Deresiewicz, American scholar and author, gives us a major clue: “It’s only by concentrating, sticking to the question, being patient, letting all the parts of […]
Infodemics and the wellness of knowledge
Fake news has become such a scourge in recent years that the term no longer needs to be contained in quotation marks. The world is currently experiencing a huge rise in mistrust for the media – especially, the dreaded “mainstream media”. As a result, we frequently wonder about the trustworthiness of sources of information. There was so much information disseminated about the COVID 19 outbreak that the World Heath organisation noted the volume and rapid scale-up of facts, but also misinformation and disinformation, and stated that it was an unprecedented “infodemic” that threatened to have a negative impact on the management of the spread of the virus. How then do we go about practicing information and knowledge hygiene that we need in to combat infodemics like this one? How do we equip ourselves for the rolling waves of infodemics that flood social media as so many “experts” pollute and carelessly litter our knowledge ecology? Sceptics and disbelievers have been vital throughout the course of human history in challenging the dogmas that societies often find themselves subjected to. The original Greek meaning of skeptikos was “an inquirer,” someone who was unsatisfied and still looking for truth. Scepticism is in fact a […]
The most remarkable trait. We can un-learn.
The most remarkable trait shared by humans is our adaptability. The variety in which humans can live their lives is unparalleled in nature; while two lions might have slightly different hunting preferences or grooming techniques, every big cat will sleep for most of the day. Compare this to the plethora of people, cultures and devotions whose followers number in the hundreds of millions, in a world of billions. We can attribute this beautiful tapestry of humanity to our innate ability to not only construct paradigms or thought landscapes, through which we experience the world, but also our ability and appetite to shift these paradigms when we need to. The best example of how different paradigms inform different modes of thinking lies in how our language influences how we think. Being exposed to a more complex lexicon from an early age will definitely set apart two speakers of the same language. This is all rather basic - knowing more words enables greater self-expression. Paradigms can also present themselves in much more subtle ways. Fans of different genres of music will have different opinions on the best albums of the century. Likewise, both visible as well as imperceptible life experiences eventually culminate […]