#more generalized forms of grading like the letter grading system are unlikely to be entirely replaced. However

[guppy-with-amilkpopsicle]

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[allinyourmindclimbing]

The pictures all belong to John Gill / copyright John Gill !!

INTERVIEW with the legendary John Gill.

(Interview done by - and intro written by Jean-Marc Winckel in 2008)

John Paul Gill Jr., born February 16, 1937, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama (USA) is my all time climbing hero beside Wolfgang Güllich, Klem Loskot, Tony Lamprecht and some others. I admire his philosophy about climbing, especially bouldering. He is a mathematician, a gymnast, a climber and for me a philosopher, a wise man. « There is an affinity between math and climbing. It has to do with independence of effort and good pattern recognition skills, coupled with a desire to solve problems and explore. », so John.

As a gymnast, he discoverd bouldering and introduced the use of magnesia (chalk) and the dynamic movements into climbing. The jumps were aesthetically pleasing him. The picture where he does a one-arm front lever (see the pictures) became very known throughout the whole world. Therefore, he is also known as the father of bouldering. Climbing was for John an extension of gymnastics. In his first article in the « American Alpine Journal » in 1969 named « The Art Of Bouldering » he wrote : « …the boulderer is concerned with form almost as much as with success and will not feel that he has truly mastered a problem until he can do it gracefully. » But what I admire the most about him are his ideas about the mental strength in climbing and how he experimented with it.

Pat Ament writes in his biography about John Gill : « … He found in bouldering sharp, clear reality, and on occasion a feeling that – with the right consciousness – he weighed a little bit less. The right mental attitude might inspire « a slight sensation of telekinesis » or in fact minutely perceivable levitation. It was easy to listen to such concepts, as they flowed subtly and with somewhat of a sense of humor from Gill. After all, he did at times seem to defy gravity. »

In Yosemite in the late ‘70s Yvon Chouinard said about John : « Climbing is still in a stage of pure physical movement, and the next step is going to be mind control. I think Gill has already gone into that, from watching him prepare for a boulder even in the late ‘50s. … You’re going to have to use meditation and Yoga to be able to get up some of the new climbs, because pure physical strength and technique are not going to be enough. … I think it’s going to be Zen and the art of rock climbing. »

In the beginning, John found inspiration for his mental training by reading the books of Carlos Castaneda (« A Separate Reality », « The Teachings of Don Juan », « The Art of Dreaming », …) Often he soloed long, easy graded routes to enter mentally another world and experiment with the flow effect. Experiences such as these were entirely the consequences of meditative practices, for he NEVER had used psychedelic drugs.

Furthermore, Pat Ament writes in the biography : « Gill spoke of a mystical reality that, as he described, was an « extension of the hypnagogic state. » He suggested that certain exertions in bouldering occasionally produced an apparent separation of « I-consciousness » and physical body, « similar to how the mind of a long-distance runner seems to soar above the automaton-like running form… » … Gill seemed fond of the phrase « kinesthetic awareness, » meaning perhaps « self-realization, » a turning inward where all realms – sensory, mental, athletic, artistic, intellectual, mystical, spiritual and aesthetic – are united. »

In his essay « Notes on Bouldering – The Vertical Path » John described that the « outer value » of bouldering, pure difficulty, is just one aspect of the sport. The « inner value » of bouldering has much more to offer. But to acquire it one has to break away from competition !

In his description about a climb near Pueblo that John Gill and Chris Jones soloed together, Chris said : « One must be free to choose a more difficult way than the easiest, if that is what strikes the fancy of the moment. The rock must be a menu, for this « menu-soloing .» The choices, freedom, movement, mental acuity inspired by the exposure, warmth of the sun, feel of the rock – the EXPERIENCE is everything. »

I am SO happy that I had the chance to have contact with John and ask him to make a little interview with this living legend. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did ! Let it be a little inspiration for you to improve yourself, change the way you see things, change your views about climbing and enter mentally another world while climbing.

I advice you to read the biography « John Gill – MASTER OF ROCK » written by his friend Pat Ament (ISBN : 0-8117-2853-6) and have a look at his website www.johngill.net !

Have fun … it’s all in your mind !

1. When and how did you discover bouldering/climbing ?

In 1953, as a junior in high school in Atlanta, Georgia, a classmate, Jeanne Shearer (Bergen) took me along to north Georgia on a one-day expedition to try to find a cave in the middle of a limestone cliff. She had ropes and carabiners and slings, and I was fascinated with dangling above an abyss and scrambling about. I started bouldering – without knowing that was what I was doing – in 1954, while a student at Georgia Tech. Seemed like a natural extension of the gymnastics I was learning. A couple of years later in the Tetons Yvon Chouinard told me I was "bouldering", something he and his pals did in a light-hearted way at Stoney Point near Los Angeles. No one had the faintest idea of the history or origin of the activity, and it was strictly playtime on the rock, not serious climbing. Some Brit, I'm guessing, told someone at Stoney Point in the late 1940s or early 1950s they were "boulderers".

2. Do you still boulder/climb a lot? If not, how did you put the sport behind you?

I quit bouldering over twenty years ago after tearing the biceps off my right forearm in a bouldering accident. After thirty-something years of chalked-up dynamics, my body said "enough". I returned to my other climbing love – modest freesoloing – for a number of years. These days, with arthritic shoulders and chronic rotator cuff problems, I still enjoy traverses right above the ground, and I may get back into some solo climbing this summer, as well. However, I can't jump off boulders anymore, regardless of mats.

3. Do you consider climbing in general as a sport or a lifestyle?

For me it was an athletic lifestyle.

4. In how far do you relate mathematics with climbing and gymnastics with climbing? What do they all have in common?

I'm not sure mathematics has much to do with gymnastics, but the problem-solving aspect bears some relationship with the more cerebral aspect of rock climbing or bouldering. Gymnastics was good for me, for I began climbing with no athletic background and the still rings and gymnasium rope led to chalk, dynamics, and strength. I did gymnastics for its own sake as well, enjoying learning difficult moves and feeling the grace and precision necessary for the sport.

5. What do you mean by “option soloing”?

Picking and choosing among different possible lines according to difficulty or aesthetics when going up otherwise relatively easy terrain.

6. Do you stay in tune with modern bouldering, the magazines or websites?

Not really. I read some of the articles occasionally.

7. What differs in your opinion the climbing of today from the climbing when you discovered the sport?!

The level of naiveté. When too much is known about an activity and the standards are very high, it seems more like work than play. There was a different sense of adventure back then, more like a pilot flying by the seat of his pants in the 1920s when compared to modern flight training. Jets are neat, but think of the time the old barnstormers had!

8. What do you think of the current grading system in bouldering and the 20+ moves boulder traverses? Should they be graded as a route or a boulder problem?

The V-scale seems adequate, although I'd like to see one set of numbers or letters for all kinds of rock moves, low or high, short or extended – a system incorporating some sort of additional marker to distinguish power from endurance.

9. What do you think about the recent grade-explosion? Wouldn't a scaling system that is in constant evolution or a grading system depending on the number of ascents be more appropriate?

Every generation since the 1950s has seen a "grade explosion". If the circumstances are right, yes, a simple ratio of attempts vs. success might be a nearly-objective system. But this is very unlikely to occur. In gymnastics, in the 1950s, there were A, B, and C level moves. Now there are D and E and super E additional levels of difficulty. The open-ended structure is entrenched and would take a nuclear detonation to change!

10. How many moves had a typical boulder problem "at your time"? And how high were they?

Depends on where they were. At Jenny Lake the problems were very short, just three or four moves, if that, on 12 foot-high boulders. In the Needles of South Dakota, they were somewhat longer, sometimes up to 30 feet, but that was rare. I used to compare a problem with a gymnastic routine, which would have 7 or 8 moves at most. More than that and you were on a climb.

11. Why didn't you put a mattress under your boulders? For ethical reasons, transportation issues or are the young guys cowards? :-)

Are you kidding? Pads were invented to make money. We would take a simple and cheap top-rope along for some of the problems with bad landings or exposure. The "ethics" of not using a top-rope was subtly encouraged by pad makers. A mattress? Puleeese!

12. Is a boulderer a better gymnast or a gymnast a better boulderer?

I don't think there is a solid correlation. In my time – in the 1950s – being a gymnast helped, but not necessarily now that rock climbing has become so specialized and advanced. Better to avoid the excess weight of gymnastic muscle tissue.

13. Didn't you offend any purists and climbers of your time when you started using chalk and doing dynamical movements?

There were some – usually those lucky climbers whose hands stayed dry naturally – who complained about chalk. They didn't feel good losing their genetic advantage! There weren't many who complained about dynamics, although climbers had to become stronger over the years to successfully apply dynamics to the rock. The old adage about three-point suspension came down through the ages in British circles, where climbers objected to the "excessive" use of modern gear. Geoffrey Winthrop Young and others recoiled from the idea of risking falls. Also, the US Army strongly encouraged their mountain troops to follow that practice.

14. You began rock climbing around 1953! Does climbing guard against arthritis?

Little correlation, if any. My shoulders are badly arthritic, but that came mostly from still ring work years ago. My hands and fingers are fine, and it's been 55 years now. I suspect, however, that some types of crack climbing may lead to the condition./p>

15. Do you think the best climbers in the world are that good mainly through good genetics or through dedication?

First genetics, then practice. Without a good anatomical structure, the higher levels of difficulty may not be attainable.

16. Do you believe that yoga and meditation exercises help a lot to increase the level of climbing?

What I found was that meditation increased my enjoyment of climbing no matter what the level. Why does everything have to relate to reaching a higher number?

17. In Pat Ament's biography about you, Yvon Chouinard said: "Climbing is still in a stage of pure physical movement, and the next step is going to be mind control. I think Gill has already gone into that,... in the late '50s.". Please comment on that and do you agree with our saying "it's all in your mind!"?

Speaks for itself, doesn't it? But I think mental control is achieved while actually struggling on the rock – itself a disciplining authority - rather than sitting in an ashram.

18. In how far did the books of Carlos Castaneda help you to enter mentally another world?

They were a tremendous help. After entering another form of reality I saw the true and ancient foundations of religion. Saint Theresa of Avila was a pioneer in this realm.

19. In your essay "Notes on bouldering-The Vertical Path" you wrote that aiming for difficulty in our sport is unhealthy! Why?

Did I say that? Huh. It's not unhealthy, but it is overly confining. There are other dimensions of the sport. One can climb as a moving meditation – not to increase difficulty levels, but to enjoy a kind of epiphany.

20. Please explain and tell us a little bit about "kinaesthetic awareness" and the "flow effect" you experimented with for many years?

Any gymnast can understand the flow of a routine and feel graceful and precise movement. It's not merely to impress the judges. It's an inner reward. It's too bad that the sport of bouldering has been taken over by those who see it as simply competition and a numbers game.

Thank you very much for this interview John and we wish you good luck & health and all the best for the future and may the force be with you!

[theechosas]

Reforming the Grading System, Not Grade Culture, is the Key to Fixing SAS’s Toxic Academic Environment

To put things simply, I would like learning a lot more if there weren’t this thing called grades.

Unfortunately, although students, teachers, and administrators alike take pride in the academic excellence that SAS has cultivated over its hundred-year history, the pressure of academic achievement has become a toxic burden rather than an opportunity to overcome challenges. In Luca Lee’s written piece “Graded” published in our school’s Ascent magazine, he frames the issue perfectly:

We have created ourselves a competitive environment, a one where many of us look only for answers, forgetting to indulge ourselves in the challenge.

Although grades have always dominated, if not defined, learning experiences for students at SAS, the toxic nature of SAS’s academic environment extends beyond grades or GPAs. Any form of academic work, not just academic measurements, has become sources of stress for students’ daily lives. Areas of passion, be it a project or investigation in an area of interest, could easily be transformed into areas of stress. As a result, this completely impedes a student’s ability to enjoy learning challenges, as academic risks become threats to an academic portfolio rather than valuable experiences. For example, while capstones and projects are meant to incentivize students to take a more proactive role in learning, often times they ultimately become greater sources of frustration due to the pressure of achieving a high grade.

Granted, the issue is not unheard of, and thus action has already been taken— underclassmen have sat through various counselling core sessions to encourage them to strike balance in their respective lives, and college counsellors have presented many explanations to downplay the importance of grades. Counsellors have made numerous efforts in the past to relieve students of this seemingly unsurmountable pressure, but to no avail.

Even though there has been open conversation regarding the role of “grade culture” in our community, our actual grading system has seldom been included in the discussion. While grade culture does play a prominent role in fostering negativity within our academic environment, the role of the actual grading system is often overlooked and undermined due to its nature— the letter grading system is used in countless high schools worldwide. However, after many failed solutions that only involve simple conversation, it has become apparent that reform in the grading system, not attempts to create cultural change, is the only real chance the school has in invoking major ideology shifts in attitude or perspective regarding the topic of grades.

However, this issue is not one that is unique to our school community. Pedagogical research been calling for a change in the grade system as well. In A School Leader’s Guide to Standards-Based Grading published by Marzano Research, Robert J. Marzano states:

Grading is a well-entrenched element of education in the United States. As Lynn Olson (1995) observed, grades are “one of the most sacred traditions in American education… The truth is that… grades have acquired an almost cult-like importance in American schools. They are primary, shorthand tool for communicating to parents how children are faring” (p.24). In 2004, grading expert Susan Brookhart noted, “In a perfect world there would be no need for the kind of grades we use in school today…. [But] grades are not going to disappear from schools anytime soon” (p.4). This is certainly true; grades are here to stay. However, acknowledging that grades are an important element of schooling does not mean that the current systems and processes used to assign grades are necessarily the most effective.

In blunt terms, the current letter system does not adequately meet the standards of its own purpose; it’s simply impossible for a single letter to accurately reflect all the various complexities that qualify to be part of a student’s demonstration of mastery of an entire subject. Marzano elaborates on this point perfectly:

Translating an entire body of information about students’ performance and achievement over a quarter, trimester, or semester into one overall evaluation, or omnibus grade, is a daunting task for any teacher and not supported by much of the extant research.

To present a better visualization of this oversimplification, we can turn to metaphorical representations that provide an objective lens for assessing this issue. Mr. Matthew Zeman, an SAS teacher currently teaching AP Capstone Seminar and Innovation Institute, also recognizes this oversimplification in our current grading system. When explaining the issue, he turned to an unlikely source— video games.

For those who play sports games, player ratings are a familiar concept. These ratings are as overall scores that reflect a player's ability. In the case of NBA 2K, these overall ratings are concluded from different scores in various categories, such as inside finishing, midrange, 3PT shooting, among others. Here is an example of one those ratings:

This player, Lebron James, lacks significantly in some specific areas such as Midrange and Rebounding; however, he excels in others. All his strengths and weaknesses were combined for the overall rating of 96. Metaphorically, the overall rating would reflect the overall grade of a subject, and the different categories would reflect the different curricular standards. However, unlike the video game rating systems, the level of achievement in different standards are seldom communicated to students— while students are very aware of their overall score, the learning system hinders them from reflecting on the specific areas they need to improve on as a learner. Thus, this process undermines the complexity of each student’s learner profile, oversimplifying the “level of mastery of a subject” each individual student has achieved. This also damages the students’ ability to learn and improve on their weaknesses, which is again explained by Marzano:

In 2007, John Hattie and Helen Timpherly pointed out that “feedback us effective when it consists of information about progress, and/or about how to proceed” (p. 89). A single letter grade summarizing a student’s performance in one content area does not provide this type of specific feedback.

Furthermore, the concept of letter grades fully undermines the learning process— overall grades not only oversimplify the mastery of various skills or content, it also fails to reflect a learning curve. These are two hypothetical student scores that can reflect this shortcoming:

In these hypothetical cases, both students had 4 summative assignments evaluating one subject over the course of one semester. Student A performed at the same proficiency over the course of the four assignments, whereas Student B improved over the course of the semester. Yet, both of them would have the same average, despite Student B obviously having demonstrated a mastery in the assessed area. Therefore, this reflects that a grading system of averaging scores unfairly overshadow Student B’s true ability due to his or her early struggles

My experiences cannot reflect all the views of my peers, but for me personally, this type of misrepresentation is one of my main resentment towards grades. My fear of failure and low scores does not come from the failure itself, but rather from the fact that it will overshadow my future successes. Due to this misrepresentation, the grading system inevitably fosters the negative fear for failure. Thus, the toxic nature of academic in SAS isn’t something abnormal or unreasonable. How can students possibly learn to thrive when faced with academic challenge, or to “appreciate the learning”, under a system that already undermines (or even punishes) the learning process?

No amount of conversation can ever invoke a significant change within the student population. Especially for students that are also victim to deeply rooted academic pressure from parents, sessions of preaching to mass audiences will not be sufficient to lift the academic burden under a system that will not reward the learning process. Only when there is a grading system that does not punish students for failure—one that provides appropriate, not necessarily infinite, amounts of opportunity to prove consistent proficiency in the future, can a shift in attitude truly begin to materialize within our community.

There are courses in the SAS High School curriculum that already implement a reformed system that have proven to have positive effects on its students.

One example is the grading method implemented in the course of AP Capstone Seminar. In the course, various skills are assessed by collecting multiple evidence points that serve as data to measuring the student’s mastery of the selected skill. Essentially, every assignment is neither formative and summative, as each assessment is simply a data point to to inform the instructor regarding the student’s current level of mastery. At the end of semester, students map out their levels of mastery for each skill and engage in a conversation with the teacher regarding how their levels of mastery would translate into an overall letter grade.

However, this fluidity between the concepts of “formative” and “summative” inherently exist in every assignment or assessment. Formative Assessment & Standards-Based Grading, which is another book published by Marzano Research, explains this further:

In fact it would be accurate to say that, in general, a specific assessment is neither formative nor summative— it all depends on how the information is used. Theoretically them, the same assessment could be used in the formative sense or in a summative sense. John Hattie (2003) made this point quite eloquently:

As illustrated by Bob Stake’s maxim: when the cook tastes the soup it is formative, when the guests taste the soup it is summative. Thus a key issue is timing, and it is possible that the same stimulus (e.g tasting the soup) can be interpreted and used for both forms of assessment. Hence, it is NOT the instrument… that is formative and summative. It is the timing of the interpretation and the purpose to which the information is used. (p.4)

This grading method significantly limits the chances of a student being undermined by early struggles. Although the stress to do well is inevitable, the fear of being misrepresented in the grade book is taken away, which in turn removes a significant source of stress. However, it also does not take away the academic rigor of the course, since proving mastery would require consistent demonstrations of the select skill.

In contrast, within our school grading system, the terms “formative” and “summative” have become signposts for students to identify assignments they would need to “try hard on”, rather than tools of measurement to reflect an overall learning journey. While on the surface this may seem to be a product of students’ mindsets, this attitude is actually a result of an institutionalized separation between “what goes into the grade book” and “what doesn’t go into the grade book”. Since “formative” and “summative” assignments often measure the same skill or content area, there are no logical reason that explains why both shouldn’t be considered as measurements to inform a student’s mastery in a curricular standard. Thus, the notion that only summative assessments “count” is absurd considering that the two assessments essentially do not differ from each other. This standpoint is also reflected by Marzano’s argument also in Formative Assessment & Standards-Based Grading:

…a summative score should not be derived from a single final assessment. Rather, a summative score should be the most reasonable representation of a student’s final status at a particular point in time.

Thus, instead of perceiving each assignment as individual assessments separate from each other, we need to perceive assignments as data points that build towards a reflection of a student’s ability by the end of a given time frame (in our school’s case, a semester). However, the fluidity between formative and summative is not to be confused with a “infinite retake” system. In addition, teachers cannot possibly create a retake for every graded assignment, as it will interfere with the workload of future assignments. The system will have to rely on future assignments that can serve as demonstrations of mastery for a previous skill or standard.

The concept of formative and summative fluidity, however, also brings us to the major flaws and questions that arise from the current composition of final exams— the purpose of final exams is a blurry and undefined one. Currently, many final exams, especially for content-based courses, covers all subject areas or standards in the past semester. This has inevitable downsides, as again noted by Marzano:

As noted by Pellegrino, Chudowsky, and Glaser (2001): “often a single assessment is used for multiple purposes; in general however, the more purposes a single assessment aims to serve, the more each purpose will be compromised” (p. 2).

The degree can a final exam actually reflect curricular mastery is not established, which raises many doubts in its ability to actually evaluate a student’s level of proficiency. For example, how many questions is a sufficient amount to assess a standard or topic? If it’s essentially the same content as covered prior, why is it weighed more significantly? In straightforward terms, what’s the point of having an assessment that is essentially a review of all covered topics? If these questions cannot be answered in a clear manner, then this is an indicator that our system of final exams need to be reevaluated in terms of its role in assessing students.

There are counter arguments that can be made against reforming the grade system. For example, the current grade system at SAS already produces high scores and academic achievement— it is not a secret that SAS is one of the best academic institutions in the world. Grades provide incentives for students to put effort into their studies. However, it is indispensable to realize the relationship has become toxic. Does SAS want to produce learners who have a genuine passion for challenge who may occasionally dip below the mark, or does it want to produce stressed out and grade-obsessed students who will produce high marks at a heavy cost of their emotional well-being?  

Another legitimate argument can also be made that reforming grade culture would be a better solution to completely eradicating SAS’s competitive academic environment; some will argue that the pressure imposed by parents, peers, or even themselves are the real roots of the problem. On the other hand, reforming the grading system would be the most direct and clear option in solving the issue— eliminating the possibility of the fears themselves is more effective than somehow convincing students to let go of them.

Thus, it is time to rethink our approaches to fixing our academic environment; rather than focusing on what the students’ mindsets should be, we should start focusing on what can be done to shift those mindsets. This is SAS’s one real shot of truly upholding its historical promise of cultivating a lifelong passion for learning within its students.

Alice Qin 

[wikitopx]

Writing a Resume Profile Easy Or Difficult? You can write your resume profile easily if you read this post. Read the following.

Updated March 12, 2020

Some hiring managers recommend that job applicants begin their resume with a resume profile instead of an objective. But what’s the difference, and why might one be better than the other?

A resume profile is a brief summary of an applicant’s skills, experiences, and goals as they relate to a specific job opening. On the other hand, a resume objective simply states the type of position that the applicant is seeking.

Essentially, a profile is a very condensed version of a cover letter. Without restating your entire resume, it matches your qualifications to the job requirements. The intention is to show the hiring manager quickly and convincingly that you are the best person for the job.

A resume profile is also referred to as career summary, personal profile statement, profile statement, resume summary, or summary of qualifications. All refer to profiling your key qualifications for the job on your resume.

1. Benefits of Using a Profile

A few decades ago, before online job applications became the norm, resume objectives were the standard way to begin “snail mail” resumes.

However, the internet made it possible for employers to exponentially increase their candidate pool. While this was good for employers, it has intensified the competition between job seekers in many industries.

A resume profile offers applicants a way to stand out among the hundreds of resumes that companies receive. Most employers spend only seconds looking at a resume, and much of this time is spent looking at its top half. Therefore, even if employers only read your profile (located directly beneath your heading and contact information), they will still have a clear idea of your unique qualifications.

In addition, your profile should include resume keywords that will help your application get picked up by the applicant tracking system that many companies use to screen applications for job openings.

2. Resume Profile vs. Resume Objective

Stating an objective on your resume is a way to convince employers that you know what you want in a job, whereas a profile explains what you have to offer the employer and can help sell your candidacy.

Another option is to not use either and simply start your resume with your most recent work experience – but this sacrifices a key opportunity to incorporate the keyword phrases that are vital if your resume is to be ranked highly by applicant tracking systems.

It also makes a hiring manager have to work harder – instead of having a highlighted summary of your qualifications for the job top and center, he or she would have to try to ascertain from the “Experience” section whether you have the skill set required.

Most employers prefer resume profiles to resume objectives, but it's up to you to decide which works best for your resume considering your work experience, skills, the level of the position, and the qualifications for the job for which you are applying.

For example, while an objective might state, "Experienced English teacher seeking position at independent school," a profile would say, “English teacher with 10 years of experience in independent school systems. Success in developing creative teaching strategies to achieve passing grade levels on statewide exams." Unlike the objective, the profile answers the question, "What can this applicant offer the employer?"

As a general rule of thumb, using a resume profile rather than a resume objective is probably the best strategy for professionals with work experience. This is because the profile’s focus is upon the employer’s needs (and how the job candidate can meet these requirements) rather than upon the candidate’s own self-centric career objectives.

3. Tips for Writing a Resume Profile

Keep your profile concise. A resume profile should be between one and four (brief) sentences long. You can write your profile as a short paragraph or in bullet form. Alternatively, you can also begin with a descriptive sentence followed by four or five bulleted items describing your most desirable qualifications (such as “customer service” or “marketing” or “technical proficiencies”). Here’s an example of what this combined approach looks like:

Sample Profile for a Resume

Compassionate, high-energy Operating Room Nurse with 8 years’ experience serving rural communities via travel contracts.

Nursing: Well-versed in handling preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative stages of emergency and scheduled surgical procedures.

Patient Relations: Superb patient communications skills in both English and Spanish, addressing patient and family concerns and providing patient education with clarity and sensitivity.

Certifications: Current BLS, PALS, and ACLS certifications.

Key Strengths: Proven flexibility and dependability in working challenging shifts; available for overtime scheduling when warranted.

Focus on the job listing. In your profile, only include the skills and qualifications that relate to the specific job for which you are applying. A profile is particularly helpful if you have a work history that is unrelated to your current career goals—it allows you to highlight only your most relevant experience.

Focus on the future. A profile serves to show what you have to offer an employer—what you will do for the company in the future. Look at the job listing for insights into what the company is looking for in an employee. In your profile, explain how you will meet the company’s expectations.

Does a sales director position require someone who can improve the company’s sales record? Your profile may state you are an "Accomplished sales director with success in developing strategies that have generated 6- and 7-figure revenue growth." Explain what you have done as a way of showing the hiring manager what you can and will do if they hire you.

Location matters. It's important that your resume profile or objective is listed where an employer can see it when they first review your resume, so place it at the top of the first page, above your work history.

4. Resume Profile Examples

It's always helpful to review samples to get ideas for your own resume. Here are sample resume profiles for a variety of job openings.

When writing your own profiles, try to integrate your employment history and skills into the qualifications listed in the job posting, so you appear, at the hiring manager’s very first glance, well-qualified for the job.

I hope this information can be helpful to you. You will be solved the problem with Wikitopx.com. More ideas for you: Important Interpersonal Skills That Employers Value

From : https://wikitopx.com/job/tips-for-writing-a-resume-profile-713063.html

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[bornfromscarletcords]

Las Cordones De Nuestros Corazones (The Cords Of Our Hearts)

The following Is a werewolf production. It’s focus is a general observation of social sexiness, general naughtiness, the peculiarities of misusing one’s power especially in the workplace and especially-especially (twice for emphasis) in what some could consider erotic circumstances. As a disclaimer offense is not intended though most certainly imminent; werewolves are not cuddly pets, though when given some release from their restrictions, have a way knocking things off their feet, turning them this way and that, going up and down with them, then in then out, then in again until they can’t tell whether the difference between their insides and outsides. Again, your questioning and reproaching glances are entirely expected, you have been warned. Some names and circumstances have been flubbed (mildly altered), in short, we may or may not be lying; the world may never know.

Enter Alejandro Cariño, our protagonist, in a sense, though most of this story will probably revolve around the nature of antiheroes/antiheroines and or people who just sort keep skirting around the heavy hammer of justice, though with much style and passionate fire. Mr. Cariño, or as his female students, his boss the school president, and that weird janitor liked to call him “Señor Guapo” was a professor at a somewhat peculiar university. You see in this era, humans had gotten a little smarter than usual, and the members of the supernatural or preternatural, or just weird other than human categories were getting a little...well a lot dumber. Even if you’re battling a lemming carelessness can be your downfall, as so many would learn in this time. Anyway as a sort of preparation for what would be a rough transition from the shadows of mortal vigilance to potential “center stage” attention if you will, a series of insurance were pushed into motion. The most relevant, for the sake of this story, being the existence of multiple facilities of education dealing, primarily with the nurturing of weird ol’ nonhumans so that they wouldn’t hurt themselves every time they had to go buy milk from the grocery store or something. Was that not enough information, well tough nipples? This world ain’t fair. Well, anyway Alejandro sable melted in hot sexiness, melted in almond glazed muscles, dribbled on a redwood forest (for strong foundation) and then bound in debonair wolf wildness. He had flame, he had machismo, he had great curly hair he often kept pulled back in a wolf tail, no not a pony tail, you heard correctly. He was also on the slightly below average height side, but for some reason that just made woman see him as sensitive for some strange reason, like he’d be good at snuggling. Oh he was sensitive, sensitive to those choice and caressable fleshy regions of theirs. Alejandro taught some engineering, some botany, and some poetry, though he tried to limit his lyrical nature to the strumming of his guitar which always seemed to draw the ear of one pretty thing or another. He was every square inch of modern suaveness and though he didn’t look a day over twenty four, he listed himself as being something like forty-two, though Alejandro’s limitations had a way of escaping one’s attention when too inconvenient. In actuality he was probably something like a 1240, but who’s counting. How did he stay so mobile? Well he might say it was all his cardio, and his occasional enjoyment of veganism, if only for irony’s sake, though the attentive gaze would not have to look far to understand that old wolves had many tricks up their sleeves. The benefit and consequence of surviving so long when others did not.

Although much of a werewolf’s daily existence operated like a madman’s death indulging set of magical misdirection, like if a magician was giving his own eulogy while his corpse was still in the coffin; a degree of normalcy was not unattainable. In a world of miracles the impossible was eroded to nothing, though normalcy served as a shield or cloak more often than not. A bit of red smeared on your mouth around nosy neighbors? Don’t want to tell them about that annoying squirrel he was very much no longer amongst the living? Well then perhaps that red is just a lipstick malfunction and that strange odor the result of a new diet you’ve been trying. The latter being not exactly a lie.

There were many strange creatures at the university in which Alejandro served, known to the public as Cupid’s Eclipse University, in bold letters. In slightly smaller letters, almost imperceivable to most it read, School For Those Oddly Talented Few. As to where it was located, well you could say it moved around and, being honest, you were unlikely to find it anywhere near the surface. So artificial sky’s and cubed pseudo-dimensions aside, it was the picture of contemporary normalness...with magic…and an unusual amount of sexiness.

Alejandro’s students, the girls in particular, were precocious to say the least. There was a rather convoluted grading system that he still only knew in theory, and it wasn’t the strongest theory, so he could get anyone aged from 14 to 2000, though it typically capped at around 21 (as far as anyone admitted at least). He had a particular way of scooting most people below sixteen towards others professors, as he, quote “had endured enough trials in his day” unquote. You should note that he was from a different time, a very different time...though his questionable sanity aside, he seemed to meld into the modern world relatively well, at least well enough to receive a paycheck and charm sweet ladies. He got all manner of creatures whose minds he was allowed to shape, though it was their hearts and souls of which he was most passionate. From vampires to elves, gargoyles, succubi, you name it. Though to be honest, much of his attention was devoted to minding after what you might call his fan club. He did not particularly want a fan club, mind you, as too much organized attention on his activities could make simple indulgences evermore complicated. Still, with all their bouncing, growling, and maturation, he couldn’t exactly say he minded the heat that always seemed to be sparking his way. This fan club was almost entirely formed of wolf girls, which wasn’t to say he didn’t have admirers of other magical persuasions, it’s just that few creatures could band together in such an odd mixture of rivalry and friendship like a couple of werewolves.

Considering this fondness with which his students showed him, the president of the university had almost cornered him into serving as a representative for the werewolf identity group on campus. Being the wily wolf he was however he managed to escape such shackling responsibilities with a couple of flowers, candies and the sacrifice of serving as her personal chef for the evening. Few could escape a devastating blow to freedom like that one, perhaps it was because of all that time he spent with ghosts.

The regulars, so to speak comprised of Johanna, Camila, Olivia, Skylar, and Maddison. Johanna was more or less busting and blooming, her uniform barely able to contain that that soft yet supple and curvy personality of hers. Her heart beat to the rhythm of hot blooded awesome mounds of girl flesh. They were like melons Allah, forgive. She had hair falling about her frame like desert wind with a darkness to her skin which made it seem as if it too had been choicely baked with its arid heat. She was the most vocal, or at least the most physically expressive of the group, not afraid to shout down a crowd or  tackle Alejandro in the most compromising of times and places.

Camila was more reserved though no less resourceful, she had a tendency to bait him into their exchanges or wait till he was cornered and foolishly mistook himself as being alone and capable of relaxation, then she’d pounce, occasionally trying to capture him with rope or stun him with a glimpse of her half naked body bound in swimsuits, or leather and such. Her hair was frizzy and had a brownish red tint. There was a little scar just along the bridge of her nose which only made her look more charming, in a sort of well humored librarian sort of way.  She was all politeness and respectability until you let your guard down and you were bound to a chair with a now fully naked pseudo-adult covering you with all manner of moistness and steaming emotions. And her scent, oh, how she smelled so...consumable. Alejandro often prepared himself with a hand-towel to keep his manly sweat from overtaking him.

Olivia was on the short side with pleasing hips and a special sway or jiggle when she walked that always made Alejandro a little extra pleased when he dismissed her. She was prone to nervousness, a general aura of day-dreaming distractedness, and a folky sort of straightforward manner of speech which Alejandro could find endearing at the worst of times. Her hair was typically closely cropped with the occasional bang overtaking a side of her face. She comprised the majority of his least taxing interactions with his “club”. She was not one to make things particularly difficult, and though she often professed her love for him, the idea of touching him seemed to send her into a spin of heated hysterics that she often needed to sit down. This meant Alejandro’s usual gymnastics of lawsuit defying counter stalker techniques could rest a little easy as well, though he did make the pointed effort of forgetting her “dilemma” of touch with some harmless head petting or shoulder squeezing. She nearly melted, each and every time.

Although Alejandro was not unfamiliar to most werewolves, he was something of a mild legend, and had his share of horror stories, most of which involved him as the villain in question, the mysterious man, the clever old bastard, or the compromised yet fatedly risen...well hero is a bit of a stretch, but you could say ace in the hole. The last one had everything to do with the world’s unconscious need for underdogs, and few could be so thoroughly pushed under strange circumstances than Alejandro  Cariño, be it a mob of deranged humans, a castle of monsters, a pack of feral wolves, silly vampires, not so silly vampires, or ounce upon ounce of hot girl flesh. More relevantly, although many werewolves would have heard a story or two about the man, Olivia had actually been from one of the packs he could recently claim. In fact, he was almost sure she had followed him to the University just to give him grief. She had wild messy hair cut short “like a boys” as her mother used to tell her. Her reasoning for her fascination with him was shaped as if she wished to be his apprentice in all things wolf and battle. As if he were some general and not her botany teacher. Well, he had been a general a time or two in the past, but those were lifetimes ago, and he had no interest in half killing some child wolfling because she was foolish enough to request “training” from him. He was a dangerous man, which is a humorous thing to say, though it was true. He was not from the time of such pleasantries as “harmless sparring” not really, the best fighters he’d ever known acquired their skills by being tossed onto a battlefield and being able to move a couple of days later. Nothing says eye of the tiger like getting shot in the ass with an arrow and still being to able to kill your way back to base camp. She expected regimens, and diets, and push ups or something, or some hidden technique or whatever. He could have given her these things, if only to amuse himself a little, but in truth he doubted how much they’d benefit her, and such a complicated spirit such as her needn’t be prodded too much in the wrong directions, lest she make an enemy loss to the ways of forgiveness. He did not want her senseless brutalization on his hands. Still this did not stop her from trying to all but assassinate him every time he was late for class, or made the mistake of leaving the room just a tad too slovenly. He had to admit it was entertaining to move around with her a little, she was fun to spin, and flip, or pin down here or there, and she was good at grappling, but then she’d get just a little too serious, and his wolf would break out of him a little and he would scare her just a little too bad and then she’d avoid him for a couple of days. He did not like scareing her but it was better than him accidentally snapping her neck because she felt he cheated in some confrontation he’d wanted no part in anyway. Still that sad puppy dog look nearly twisted his mean ol’ heart. She was built like an athlete and looked as if she was touched by iron.

Skylar, was not a werewolf, not precisely, though she was a young woman who could become a wolf. Her mother had named her Harmony, but she preferred the middle name which had been her father’s choice. Not because she disliked her mother, mostly because she figured she’d get mocked enough for the conventional parts of being a citizen of the world without her name sounding like a new brand of body-wash. Skylar was native american, her hair was shaggy, full, and fell down to her back though she wasn’t shy to putting it into interesting braids. Instead of taking about a quarter of an hour of pain and somewhat grotesque shifting of flesh which was the price of the change for most werewolves, Harmony...I mean Skylar could become a wolf from one second to the next. She had something of a shaman’s magic, medicine woman stuff, though that had more to do with why she was so savvy with balancing spirits or interpreting dreams than it did with the speed or ease of her shift. It may have had something to do with why she found it so simple to banish or recall her clothing when turning from woman to she-wolf and back, but it was not Alejandro’s culture or expertise. She was his responsibility however. Skylar did not have as many classes with him as some of the other girls, but she was his Advisee, and he her Advisor. If they were a spy network it be more or less as if he were her handler, doling out information of importance, and steering her down paths best suited to her skillset and interest. As it was they got along relatively well, she had a bit of a sternness to her which kept most idiots from getting in her way, though she was not against congenial, yet cautious conversation. She had the aura of someone who knew there were things to be feared, and did her best to avoid interacting with them, which didn’t mean she was a coward, more like peculiarly experienced. Yes, Alejandro sensed something like an old soul within her, as well as a steady, yet intense fire in her heart. She considered him to be interesting as well, which she let him know every now and then, usually before inviting him to some private property of her parents or some restaurant out in the middle of nowhere which would undoubtedly require stopping at a hotel for the night. Somehow he didn’t doubt that she could sabotage a vehicle without so much as blinking an eye, she had top marks in his engineering classes.

Maddison was not so much his daughter, but her father, a close friend and in many ways a brother, had more or less entrusted her to him with punishment of torment, to the grave and beyond should any permanent harm befall her. Alejandro tried not to entertain the man’s nonsense too much but he knew how to make a, not so much a threat, but a spooky promise, and Alejandro was already terrified enough of airplanes, he’d been in too many aerial crashes to ever feel safe off the ground, so he didn’t want to worry about his strange friend blowing up his space heater or blaming him for some crime against some national government in which there was a good chance he was not responsible for. Like a twenty-eighty ratio, maybe forty-sixty if it got too close to rome, or the dutch. Maddison had a mane of golden locks so much that he often contented himself by buying bear themed paraphernalia for her so that she might resemble the fairy tail just a little more. She had freckles, and a cute way of scrunching up her nose when she was angry. She was also a mean little fighter like if Camilla's disturbing sense for positioning her prey met Olivia’s brutish grit. When he wasn’t proud he was scared she might try to kill him in his sleep. She had her own dorm, but she seemed to find a degree of comfort in sleeping at the spare room in Alejandro’s apartment. It was a little tense given how dominant she was but he had to admit he didn’t hate when the lil’ tike was around. It was like having a partner in crime, or a deadly teddy bear. She was only about fifteen but of the five she may have been the most dangerous. His friend had the misfortune of sexing up a witch, and so the girl inherited a bit of her mother’s magic, and witch magic was a triple edged sword on the best of days. More like a bomb of corrosives than the skeleton key many tried to pretend it to be. Her wolf seemed to balance it well, but it could only be expected to do so much; balancing her regular tides of emotions would take a swat team. Alejandro was not fool enough to ignore the tinge of possessiveness that seemed to linger in most of their interactions. She did not like the attention other women payed him and seemed to like to make it clear to the other members of the “club” that she more or less got VIP access to his more private moments. Alejandro didn’t mind this exactly as it usually distracted them from whatever plan they were making on assaulting his person instead focusing on battling each other.

Oh how beautiful they were, so radiant and dark and divine, well, Maddison was more creamy than dark but still, she held his heart just the same. They were his joys, his prides, his candles in the night, and he was sure that by the end of this they’d be his deaths.

Fariha, a vampire and one of his fellow faculty members seemed to find it particularly humorous to watch him dance around campus, avoiding one compromising collision or another. She was a vampire, and she owed her deep warm colors, pleasing voice, simple yet fashionable clothing, diversely balanced disposition to India, where she’d been born and raised. She wore her hair in long braids when her head went uncovered, though if Alejandro had to say, she looked more like a shaolin monk than a delicate wallflower, though she’d have been just as sexy either way. So many of his fantasies involved stripping her down, physically, emotionally, maybe both if his wolf was burning just right. The two had settled into something of a veiled rivalry with each trying to tempt the other with as little overt effort as possible. On hot nights he’d wear a red v-neck which all but sent her blood boiling as she crossed and uncrossed her legs trying to get some letter typed while trying not to stare in his direction, looking both pleased and pouty. She would often counter by using him as a place marker in the meal hall, claiming that he’d been saving his place in line, but before he could object or even dream about being aggravated, she’d press her curves all along the shape of his body talking about “what a crowded line” or how she “just needed to warm up a little”. For all his strength he considered forcing her then and there. Oh how he pleaded with Allah to smite whoever had made jeans such painfully restrictive clothing. He walked with a bit of an awkward hunch many of those nights.       

[andrebooker7532]

Amy Radin on Disruptive Innovation: Part 1 of an interview by Bob Morris

Amy Radin is a recognized Fortune 100 Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer, adviser and investor, board member, and thought leader on how to deliver innovation for sustainable, business-changing impact. She has been at the forefront of rewiring brands for growth and now applies her expertise when working with executives to reduce the uncertainty and realize the benefits of innovation.

The Change Maker's Playbook: How to Seek, Seed and Scale Innovation In Any Company (City Point Press, 2018), Amy's first book, captures her field-tested experience as the top executive accountable for achieving innovation results under varied, complex and rapidly changing conditions.

Amy is a graduate of The Wharton School and Wesleyan University. She serves on the global board of the AICPA where she is advising on marketing strategy and the impact of technology and workforce disruption on accounting and financial advisory services. She established and sponsors an annual social impact fellowship at the NYU Stern Graduate School of Business, benefitting students, not-for-profits and government agencies in the New York City metro community for over a decade.

* * *

Before discussing The Change Maker's Playbook, a few general questions. First, who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth? How so?

Many people have influenced me. For sure, my family and my dad’s business played a big role in setting the foundation for choices I have made.

I am the third of five children, with just a six-year age difference from oldest to youngest. Growing up in a large household, which also included my grandmother, definitely had an affect on me! My mother likes to attribute my personality to my birth order position, and she probably has a good point.

My dad owned an old-fashioned corner drugstore surrounded by diverse neighborhoods each with their own ethnic populations. He served them all, cared about customer experience, and set high standards for service. While earning a MBA was an important step in my education, working behind the counter in my dad’s store was where I really learned about understanding and meeting people’s needs, and the connection between doing right by your customers and community, and having money in the cash register at the end of the day.

My parents would not accept barriers to our educations, and they set high standards for both sons and daughters – we were not channeled towards a particular future based on gender.

More specifically, who and/or what have have had the greatest influence on your thoughts about disruptive innovation? Please explain.

I started on the innovation path in 2000 when the CEO at Citi Cards told me I had to “make the business more innovative.” Looking back, I honestly don’t know -- had I not had that conversation with him -- whether I would have landed here. Leaving his office after that conversation, I wasn’t sure if I had drawn the short straw or been singled out for a special assignment. I started to solicit advice from colleagues, and was introduced eventually to Larry Keeley. Larry was the co-founder of The Doblin Group (now part of Deloitte). He was and is one of the foremost global authorities on how to approach innovation as a discipline, versus as “cool stuff.” He was at that time the only external faculty member in Citi’s executive development program, which is why he was known within the Company.

We engaged Larry to kick-start our innovation efforts through a project that brought together the division’s summer interns to brainstorm ideas, then develop prototypes of concepts that had innovation potential, and pitch recommendations to the leadership team of the business.

Larry became a mentor to me, and an inspiration. I am very grateful for my CEO handing me that challenge, and for my nearly two-decade plus connection to Larry Keeley.

To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Different aspects of my education contributed different pieces, but there was no grand plan. 

I attended John Dewey High School, a progressive NYC public school with a program that brought to life many of Dewey’s philosophies all related to education reform. Notably, the school had a Pass/Fail grading system. Unlike other schools that were narrowly zoned to the surrounding neighborhood, Dewey drew from the entire borough of Brooklyn, so the student population was ethnically, racially, and economically diverse.

Because grading was Pass/Fail, I took risks and tried subjects I probably would have been afraid to try in a more traditional school. There were no GPAs (grade point averages).

At Wesleyan I majored in College of Letters, one of the first integrated majors to be offered at any university. It focused on the study of literature in its historical and philosophical context. You learn a lot about people and what makes them tick through this kind of program. A semester of overseas study was one of the requirements. I went to Spain, lived with a family in Madrid, became fluent in Spanish, and experienced a very different culture.

All of this influenced my decision to study marketing at Wharton. Nowadays, marketing has many unfortunate connotations. People sometimes think it is about manipulation and deception, and some people have definitely deployed marketing tools to nefarious ends. Classical marketing, practiced morally and ethically, is all about understanding people and their needs, and delivering on those needs better than anyone else to earn customer loyalty and commitment.

Marketing was a great foundation for the work I have come to do. Innovation requires an intense application of marketing principles to stay constantly in touch with fast changing market needs, and fast moving, unpredictable trends. The best innovations are grounded in understanding people and having empathy for their challenges.

Now please shift your attention to The Change Maker's Playbook. For those who have not as yet read it, hopefully your responses to these questions will stimulate their interest and, better yet, encourage them to purchase a copy and read the book ASAP. First, when and why did you decide to write it?

In 2010 I was introduced to a writer, Kevin McDermott, by one of my colleagues. It started as just a networking request, “Here’s a friend of mine, would you have a cup of coffee with him?”  Kevin came by my office one day, and we talked about innovation. He started to record our conversation, and after about 20 minutes he said, “You should write a book.” I parked that thought, and came back to it in 2014, when I left the corporate world and was trying to figure out what I would do next. I started talking to people who had written business books to understand what it would really mean, how to go about it, to figure out if I had it in me to write a book that would matter.

One of the authors I spoke to gave me the deciding piece of advice.  He said, “Write a book if you feel you have something to say.” I thought about that quite a bit as I tried to figure out what this new chapter in my life and career would be about. I realized that everyone seemed to be talking about innovation, but almost no one could make it real.

There are many titles on innovation written by academics or consultants. I realized I could bring additional, useful perspective, having been in the innovation “hot seat” as a practitioner in tough, financially driven businesses focused on short-term results.

My focus always came back to tackling the tough issues that derail even the best ideas in these complex environments. I felt I had something to offer that could be useful to a lot of people, so finding a way to share my experiences and those of other change makers was very motivating, and a challenge worth pursuing.

Were there any head-snapping revelations while writing it? Please explain.

Chapter Two was originally going to be about positioning, focused on a fairly traditional set of assumptions about what it means to position a product or service and brand for success.  But when I began interviewing and researching, a colleague challenged me to consider the bigger role that purpose plays in setting a framework for a brand to innovate. He advocated that the conversation should really be about purpose, and why that mattered to delivering important innovations.

As a result, I began to explore the connection between having a sense of purpose and executing innovation, and reoriented the chapter and the thinking behind the Seek, Seed, Scale framework. 

Purpose is what informs the “WHY” that matters so much to defining an innovation aspiration and sticking to it. Purpose creates focus that can be translated into decisions on where to place resources, how to prioritize, whom to hire (or not). It’s not a touchy-feely tree-hugging concept.  It really can be the beacon that sets direction and clarity on a path that is otherwise loaded with ambiguity, uncertainty and unpredictability – yet where many choices will have to be made. Since innovation can be so difficult to achieve, purpose can be the fuel that keeps the change maker going through tough challenges – it’s what they believe in.

To what extent (if any) does the book in final form differ significantly from what you originally envisioned?

At first I imagined that the book would be my great catharsis – that I would write down all of the advice I could offer on how to execute innovation, including where I turned out to be right when others in the corporate world rejected what my teams were pursuing. At some point I realized that would risk coming across as cynical. I wanted to offer something constructive and optimistic. I also figured that no one would want to read 200-plus pages about me, and being an introvert, I did not want to talk about myself for 200-plus pages either.  I realized that writing is very solitary, even lonely. So I decided that for each chapter I would interview a large handful of experts, to support, expand and challenge my hypotheses, and break up the solitary nature of writing.

I wanted to interview people from many sectors, and also from established as well as startup operations. Why? People love to dwell on differences.  Startups think legacy companies are full of dinosaurs.  Corporate executives think founders have it easy. My hunch was they could learn a lot from each other, and that there is a lot of common ground in terms of the challenges they face. That hunch turned out to be right, and because of this approach, the book ended up being filled with great stories and examples from nearly 50 change makers with very diverse backgrounds, businesses, and life experiences.

My one gating factor for interviewees is that I wouldn’t approach anyone who needed to get approval from within their company. I wanted to avoid bureaucracy. 

Why is it so important for change makers  to determine the WHY of change initiatives before the WHAT and HOW?

The WHY establishes the North Star.  Where do you want to head – what is the impact you want to have, and on what group(s) of people. How do you want to change their lives, or just make daily tasks easier and more delightful to accomplish. That’s the WHY.  Starting there allows you to rise above incremental action, be aspirational, and set up a challenge that requires innovation to solve.

Also, in my experience at least, being able to pursue action based on a clear and compelling “why” becomes a talent magnet. Most people appreciate context for their work, and high performers in innovation roles care more and more about knowing the “why.” They are intellectually curious and want to see meaning in their work.

How best to identify "real problems"?

Get into the environment of people who interest you, and see what they are struggling with.  You will see their reality, and have a much clearer picture of their needs and where you can add value.

Here’s an example of what I mean. A few years ago I went out on sales calls with a rep for one of the big insurance carriers, visiting financial advisors who were distributors for the carrier’s products. One advisor was at his desk, surrounded by stacks and stacks of brochures and other materials being dropped off by all of the other carriers and fund companies calling upon him to push their products.  Just being in his office and seeing how he was dealing with this mess made it much easier to understand advisors’ realities and their needs (certainly not for more products or collateral!) than had he attended a focus group or submitted a survey.

There is no substitute for getting into the environment of the people you want to serve, and seeing what is going on with your own eyes. Listening has to happen with all senses.

* * *

Amy cordially invites you to check out the resources at www.AmyRadin.com where visitors can find these free resources:

o An excerpt from The Change Maker’s Playbook

o The Seek, Seed, Scale infographic

o Sign up for my monthly e-newsletter

Visitors can also take the Change Maker’s Quiz and receive immediate feedback on their strengths and needs as innovators.

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