Working out loud - taking some leave!

Vacation = relaxation?   I hope so!

Flying out on holidays in a few hours - three weeks of decompressing, and spending time with friends and family.  

Will I experience the vacation stress syndrome captured in the image below?   Will I be able to disconnect from my inbox? 

Let's face it, I don't have it in me to not check emails for 3 weeks.  Yes, I know the cemeteries are full of people who were "irreplaceable", and yet the sun still rises each day.  No, that doesn't help me. 

So I've decided to launch a social experiment:  I'll shut off my email (really!) for the entire time I'm on leave.  However, I leave a back door for people to reach me by emailing a dummy gmail account  - making it clear that it should only be used consciously, and in case of time-sensitive issues.  Full text of my auto "out of office" email below.

Will try to report back with some stats on how this worked (and if I kept my promise to not open my outlook). 

Congratulations! You’ve qualified to participate in a social experiment on emails during annual leave.

I am on leave from 30 June to 18 July 2014.  I will have excellent connectivity during my leave, but am not planning to use much bandwidth on work-related emails.

In an attempt to balance quality time with my family with being available for urgent work matters that may arise, I’ve decided that I WILL NOT BE CHECKING THIS EMAIL ACCOUNT.

That’s right.  If you sent your email in the date range mentioned above to my @cgiar.org email address I will only look at it after 18 July.

However, if you urgently need me, fear not:  just send an email to iddoisonleave@gmail.com and I’ll be sure to get back to you as soon as I can.

Best wishes,

Iddo

#FridayUpdate of 20 June 2014 (Week 4 of #WOL)

Another week has gone by, and here we are with my 4th #FridayUpdate.     Here comes the stuff:

Photo Credit: sqlknowledgebank.blogspot.com


Started work on the IBLI Case Study (woot!).  Initial set of interviews taking place this week with IBLi members, next week we'll expand to other ILRI staff and external partners. Will have a conf call later today with Andrew Mude and Shreya (consultant working with us on the case) to review and discuss the initial outline. 

Had several meetings (mostly virtual) around the CGIAR Development Dialogues (see lat week's update for more info).  Quite useful, and we have a revised proposal out now for peer-review.  Hope to get a revised version finalized before I go on leave at the end of next week!

Finalized ToR for the FEAST consultancy and working to get a contract process so the work can begin.  After weeks of planning  - I can't wait to actually get my hands dirty with this gem of a project.  

Caught up on CapDev work taking place in Uganda under the CRP Livestock & Fish - big assignment with 8 training modules on different aspects of the pig value chain.  The project, with 8 national consultants, an international consultant, and 4-5 ILRI colleagues is suffering from some delays and difficulties in getting an consistent quality of work across all modules.  At this point, we (i.e. the CapDev folks) need to wait till the content is produced/reviewed so we can start our instructional design work - seems like we have a ways to go before we can have the desired deliverables from this project.  Hope it will end well. 

Followed up with minutes and next steps for the revision of ILRI's Fellowship Guidelines.  It is proving difficult to coordinate time slots for such a large taskforce (15+ members), as many are traveling or on leave.  Hope we can keep momentum and advance quickly. 

Participated in a  steering committee meeting for the next CGIAR CapDev CoP meeting, which is scheduled for thew week of 8 Sept.  Great team, productive call.  Some interesting thoughts for drawing in partners and senior CG leaders' into the meeting. 

Consolidated and sent some comments for the Global Task Force (GTF) of the TAP (G-20) initiative on capacity development in agricultural innovation systems, which I currently Chair (representing the CGIAR).  The TAP holds much potential for collective actions in CapDev  - but really there are pesky governance and transparency / process issues that need to be addressed.

This afternoon will have a look at a longlist of candidates for mNutrition Quality Assurance Officer.  We had over 200 applications, but apparently very few suitable candidates.  If so, this would be disappointing and might hamper our plans to move quickly with the recruitment. 
 

Happy "International Working Out Loud" week

Yes.  Apparently that's a thing.  Here's the announcement on Simon Terry's blog.  Talk about timing for me to jump on the bandwagon as I enter week 3 of #WOL / #FridayUpdate.

(Photo credit: Simon Terry)

This week started with me finalizing a blog post in which I ask: Are traditional workshops effective in changing participants’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviors?  It is an attempt to reflect a bit on the learning that took place a recent workshop. The more I attend “traditional” workshops, the more I wonder whether our seemingly natural propensity for holding face-to-face workshops is the best investment of time and money in terms of learning outcomes. I believe we aren’t measuring our “ROI” on this investment rigorously enough, so it is hard to answer this question.   More in the blog. 

My colleague Susan MacMillan yammered me earlier this week asking that I share more about my involvement in the first CGIAR Development Dialogue (CGDD). The CGDD will focus global attention on the vital role of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, landscapes and food systems in achieving sustainable development. The event will take place on 25 September 2014 in New York City at the Faculty House at Columbia University, alongside the UN General Assembly, the inaugural meeting of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, and the UN Climate Summit. A by-invitation-only audience of circa 300 will attend. Thousands more will be included online through live webcasting and social media channels.  I have been asked to co-lead one of the eight parallel sessions on "strategic and effective partnerships", working in collaboration with colleagues from Dryland Cereals, WLE, Humidtropics, L&F, RTB.   The planning is still very fluid, and this week we received revised guidelines for the event.  It now looks like the parallel sessions will be moderated debates (think Doha Debates) with four high-level speakers of which three should be from outside the CGIAR.  Our team is planning to discuss and revise our proposal accordingly (luckily, we were already thinking about such a format).  More on this in due course once we have the panelists lined up, key messages, etc.

Spent lots of time working on finalizing the terms of reference for the FEAST blended-learning work I mentioned last week. It culminated in a 23 page detailed proposal, that I hope we can get past all the required approvals in the coming week or so so the work can begin  - we have an ambitious (self-imposed) deadline of mid September - which is quiet short considering all the deliverables: 

1.         Design and develop both blended (instructor‐led + self‐guided) and entirely self‐ guided versions of a learning course on the PRA methodology and FEAST tool, based on existing classroom materials, plus:

o    One module of original material on basic Excel skills

o    A brief facilitator enablement (“train the trainer”) class to accompany the materials

o    Job aids and reference guides for participants to use in the field

2.         Produce all necessary video, audio, printed materials and interactive eLearning for the course

3.         Set up, configure and populate an LMS (learning management system) to deliver the course content online, as well as track participant progress and run reports

4.         Development of metrics to gauge the success of the course and develop reports in the LMS to help track key metrics

5.         Assure that all eLearning content complies with the European Foundation for Quality in E‐Learning’s ECBCheck guidelines

6.         Create a brochure‐style website and promotional video on the FEAST tool

7.         Document the process and help create an internal CGIAR presentation on the value of learning development and how it was applied to the FEAST program

 
The work complexity is compounded by the fact that in many/most of the placed we run FEAST, internet connectivity is unreliable.  The dilemma we face is that most of the new / advanced tools all take it for granted that everyone is online and can access web-servers (where most of the tech is hosted) so if one needs (as we do) to have offline comparability, one starts a game of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole - so lots of reshaping of edges and cobbling together solutions.   Will work out in the end - but it really is pushing the envelope in terms of trying to figure out how to deliver a 'best in class' experience without the normal enabling environment.   I wish I had more instructional design colleagues actively engaged in similar work to bounce ideas on  - but the consultant we've shortlisted is great - so hopefully we'll be a two-person community of practice until others join the party ;-)

Other bits of work included a discussion on restructuring the EXTRAPOLATE workshops, chairing the inaugural meeting of a taskforce to revise ILRI's Fellowship Guidelines, working on CapDev protocols for CRP L&F, Discussions with the IBLI team on possible marketing options for the next sales windoes andf finalizing the ToR for an IBLI Case study, meeting with ASARECA and exploration of some potrential joint activities, discussions on a Tools for Systems Analysis portal for existing tech tools (Cross-CRP, initially Humidtropics and  Livestock and Fish), Touching base with a new ICARDA CapDev colleague who just joined our CGIAR CapDev CoP.  Last but not least, I also had the rare pleasure of some face time with both our DDGs this week - a general catchup with Suzanne Bertrand and a more detailed initial briefing with Iain Wright - very important as about 80% of my work is currently embedded in his Directorate!

Hope you have a wonderful International #WOLweek !

 

My "working out loud" experiment - here we go!

Virtually all website with tips for bloggers will tell you that consistency is the name of the game.  My last post was over 5 months ago, which kind off defeats the purpose right?   I've been meaning to write more often, and will try to blog about why blogging professionally is more difficult when it is not part of your established work priorities  - all the more so when you're on the road or in meetings upwards of 70% of the time. 

But enough of that.  Today, I'm starting another experiment, namely "working out loud".  I'm really not sure I'm cut out for it (I'm the kind of person that thought laptop privacy screens were an overdue invention!)  - but the cool kids in my CGIAR network are doing it, and I thought I'd give it a try.   Last week was my first official #fridayupdate and one of the comments I received is that it was too long for a Yammer post - and that I should blog about it and link back from Yammer.  So here we are.  I wasn't sure that a public post would be the way to go about work stuff, but then I remembered that we're publicly funded, so I really should put my work out there in case it would be useful for someone.    With that, here we go - WOL update for the week ending 6 June 2014:

On Monday we hosted a team from INSEAD / Toto Agriculture, led by Phil Parker and Ioana Popescu.   They are in advanced stages of preparing a 2.0 version of their system, which aims to have all the relevant information possible about agriculture available to various groups (extension officers, radio stations, etc.) in a customizable.  The Facebook of global Ag if you will.   Some seriously cool stuff.  They'd like to get ILRI content on livestock into the system, and it would be nice if we manage to find a way to make it work.  I am a bit skeptical, because we are anything but agile, and they plan to move very quick.   Ioana's work dovetails Toto, but is focusing on establishing individual credit scoring systems for smallholder farmers.  Could be a real game-changer in financial services at the BOP if it takes off. 

On Tuesday morning, we sent out the draft CGIAR Capacity Development Guidelines for the 2nd round of CRPs. The document offers recommendations on how CGIAR and boundary partners can successfully implement strategies for CapDev and highlights the key advantages offered by CapDev to CRPs, centers and partners. It was initially drafted by members of the CGIAR CapDev CoP, at a Writeshop held 7-9 April 2014 in Montpellier, France. The current version is a result of peer-reviewed by the CapDev CoP members during April-May 2014. I am really delighted to be part of the core team that is taking this forward.   We plan to actively seek feedback from Center DGs, CRP Directors and other internal and external stakeholders for feedback ahead of the next CapDev CoP Annual Meeting in early September.

I had a number of meeting with my colleague Ben Lukuyu around the work we're undertaking to revamp the Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) and make it more accessible and less dependent on 1-2 high level experts within ILRI.  I'm having so much fun in this process - pure instructional design bliss - and so happy to be able to introduce such CapDev / learning aspects into our work.  This week we shortlisted proposal from consultants based on a mock assignment, and we were very impressed with the quality of proposals.  We then had phone interviews later in the week and are hoping to finalize with a consultant next week  - so I can start working with them to deliver a re-designed blended learning course before a FEAST summit in Vietnam in September.  

I also had a meeting with the IBLI team this week, and we've decided to go ahead with the preparation of a Harvard-Style case study on the program.  We have a consultant lined up, and I'm gearing up to write my notes of the proposed approach and management dilemmas later today.   The aim is to have the case study ready before September, so I can test it in my course on "financial services at the BOP at the IOMBA / University of Geneva.  Very ambitious schedule, but hey - nothing ventured nothing gained, right?!

The new mNutrition project is finally signed - and we got a job ad posted for a  Quality Assurance Officer to who will work under me (and closely with my colleague Delia Grace) to manage a range of quality assurance procedures, and provide advice and guidance concerning mNutrition quality assurance systems and their implementation.  Some press releases on mNutrition are being planned, so more on this in a future update. 

Apart from that, lots of work around performance approvals, preparation for a revision of ILRI's Fellowship Guidelines, follow up on Livestock and Fish work in Uganda, and more - but will stop here for today.