The Joys of Volunteering

My parents have volunteered all their lives and served as fantastic role models for me. As children, we were constantly encouraged to participate in community volunteering opportunities with our parents. I will never forget my birthdays growing up because many of them were spent serving food to the poor and underprivileged or to sadhus and sanyasis (holy men). In hindsight, those days were special not only because they were my birthdays but because serving others reminded me of how privileged I was and made me feel grateful about all that I was given.

My Mother, Mrs. Swarn Batra, who sadly passed away this year in June, was an epitome of service. She held an MSc. in Zoology and served as the Principal of a Kindergarten School for a few years. Along with raising five daughters, managing all household work, being busy with a job, and taking care of her aging in-laws, she always found the time and the energy to be caring, empathetic and kind to others. She would often demonstrate her kindness through food and over the years cooked and served food to many people, young and old, rich and poor, friends and strangers; always with a smile and and always with an overflowing plate. More formally, she volunteered with Age-Care India and led and participated in many medical camps that took doctors and medicines to patients in small villages and towns surrounding the capital city of India, New Delhi. Her work enabled access to good health and medical treatment for the underprivileged and poor people. But what people mostly remember her for is her generosity and willingness to listen to the pains and sorrows of others without ever mentioning her own struggles. She also organized many national and international events/functions in association with Siraiki Sahitya Sangam, Age-Care India, Senior Advocates Association, Rotary Club of Delhi, Saket Cultural Club, India International Centre, India Islamic Cultural Centre, Arya Samaj and Sanatan Dharm, etc.

My Father, Dr. J.C. Batra, is a Barrister by profession and a community-builder by choice! He has been an ardent volunteer all his life and filled key positions as both a professional and a community volunteer including as President – Age-Care India, Director and Life Trustee – Institute for World Congress of Human Rights, Vice President – Council for International Affairs and Human Rights, Vice President – Author’s Guild of India, etc. He has spent countless hours and energy on his work with Siraiki Sahitya Sangam, Age-Care India, Senior Advocates Association, Rotary Club of Delhi, Saket Cultural Club, Noida Golf Course, Sehreeti, India International Centre, India Islamic Cultural Centre, and Chinmaya Mission, Ramakrishna Mission, Servants of People Society, etc. He is 82 years old and at this very moment he is a full-time volunteer at Shri Anandpur Dham, a center of devotion and spiritualism in the heartland of the country where the nearest Railway station is 30 kilometers away! 

Community volunteering was a big part of my childhood. Informally, I also engaged in professional volunteering and mentored many newcomers to the L&D field. But I had not engaged as much with  professional volunteering in a formal, structured way before I moved to Canada. It was my own immigration experience that motivated me to support other immigrants and help them integrate into the Canadian life and become successful and contributing citizens of this country. I wanted to give back to my community. 

Over the last 10 years, I have served as a volunteer author to encourage community action. I have also taken on the role of a ‘Workplace Connections Mentor’ to help new immigrants navigate elements of educational qualifications, credentials, work experience, networking and other aspects of the Canadian workplace culture. Along with face-to-face mentoring, I have engaged in online mentoring helping folks who haven't arrived in Canada yet and need a little more guidance before they make the big leap. My family and I have also served as "Family Settlement Mentors" helping refugee families learn about Canadian culture, practice English, embrace the many ways of living in Canada and develop new friendships. I currently serve as a volunteer Board of Director at ISSofBC, an immigrant serving organization in Vancouver, BC.

I say this all the time but I can never get tired of saying it. 

As a volunteer, I have received far more than I have given. 

We all want to make a difference; volunteering gives us an opportunity to do so. It is through volunteering that I feel connected to my community and feel that sense of belonging and integration into this country. Volunteering has helped me identify my own strengths and areas of development and has brought me a deep sense of fulfillment. My work as a volunteer has been reflective and deeply moving. I have developed compassion and gratitude and received hope and inspiration from every individual that I have met and interacted with. 

I owe this passion towards volunteering to my parents and to my own immigration journey. And I am happy to say that as I am following my parent's example, my daughter is following mine. When I look back at my life, I feel satisfied knowing that I made a positive difference to someone else's life. 

“Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.”

― H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Blooms Taxonomy: Not a Verbs-Based Framework

Original Image: Bloom's Taxonomy Verbs.png, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Like many new instructional designers, 20 years ago, I was introduced to the Bloom's taxonomy and with it, a verbs list. 

As far as I know, the original taxonomy by Bloom and Co. focused on assessment, providing examples of test items for each of the six categories. These test items explained certain behaviours (or verbs) associated with different objectives. The revised taxonomy by Anderson and Krathwohl focused on clarifying that educational objectives indicate that the student should be able to do something (verb) to or with something (noun)-a verb-noun relationship. The revised taxonomy included a table that had the list of cognitive processes, the alternative names (verbs) and some definition and examples. Neither of these publications, as far as I know, included a "verbs list" that we see in both higher-ed and workplace learning contexts.  

I am very careful about using or sharing verb lists just because the same word may take on a different meaning depending on the context. I am sure we have all seen the same verb appear under different categories in different lists available online! I don't think Bloom's taxonomy was meant to be a verbs-based framework. Such an approach relies on firm and consistent use of language, which is rather challenging. 

When mentoring new instructional designers, I have let go of the verbs list and focus on sharing the taxonomy, categories, and the cognitive processes and sub-processes involved in learning. I also stress the importance of the relationship between performance outcomes, learning activities, and assessments. 

The way I look at learning, I want to assume that all learning objectives are performance objectives and need to be about things we need to do (apply; apply not always meaning hands-on) and any enabling objectives can be simply tagged under performance objectives using any verbs.

So, yes, we need to understand, identify, define, categorize, etc. but ultimately, we want to be able to do something and apply our learning. 

References:

• A Pragmatic Master List of Action Verbs for Bloom's Taxonomy: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2020.00107/full#B31
• Reevaluating Bloom’s Taxonomy: What measurable verbs can and cannot say about student learning https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci6040037
• A Learning Science Alternative to Bloom's Taxonomy https://learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/1116/a-learning-science-alternative-to-blooms-taxonomy
• Alternatives to Bloom’s Taxonomy for Workplace Learning http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning_design/alternatives-to-blooms-taxonomy/

The Present is Skills; The Future is Learning

Photo by Steve Buissinne from StockSnap

New Jobs - New Skills

Nothing can highlight the importance of skills more than a pandemic can! During COVID-19, we have had a high demand for "Contact Tracers". These are people who are hired to trace and track the spread of infection by interviewing people. Although contact tracers have been around for decades, COVID has instantly created up to 100,000 new jobs for contact tracers across the United States. As part of New York's contact tracer pilot program, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in April that he will hire at least 30 contact tracers for every 100,000 individuals in regions across the state. In total, the program is expected to include between 6,400 and 17,000 tracers statewide. Here, in BC, Canada, in just the Vancouver Coastal Health region, a 12-person team of contact tracers that existed before COVID-19 ballooned to more than 270 people. In the UK, the Government is recruiting 25,000 contact tracers to deliver its new test, track and trace strategy. 

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with Bloomberg Philanthropies, launched a free online course “COVID-19 Contact Tracing” on May 11 to help train a large national workforce of contact tracers as some states and cities in US made a move to reopen. 

Gurley, who serves as a lead instructor for the online course given by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, made it clear that in order to take the course, people do not need a background in infectious disease or public health. Infact, she emphasized that the course was designed so that anyone with at least a high school education will be able to follow it.

Skills Versus Degrees

International Health associate Tashrik Ahmed, PhD ’19, is part of the Bloomberg School group who developed the Coursera curriculum that teaches the fundamentals of contact tracing. When asked, "What does it take to be a successful contact tracer?" this was his response:

"You don't need to be a formally trained epidemiologist by any stretch of the imagination. In addition to some basic knowledge of how the disease is transmitted, what is really needed is the ability to understand and put yourself in that person's shoes, to be able to communicate with them and have them open up. 

Active listening is number one. That is the paramount skill for a contact tracer, and curiosity is the second one. You have to be curious, you have to probe. You can't take the answers you're given at face value. Meticulousness is the third key skill. Someone who is very detail-oriented is a huge value to contact tracing.

A best practice is to have a contact tracer that's as close as possible to the community they’re interacting with. If the outbreak is among a Hispanic population, you should get contact tracers from that community. As part of the probing process, the contact tracer needs to understand cultures to ask the right questions. For example, right now is Ramadan. A culturally-aware contact tracer would be more likely to think to ask about iftar and fasting and going to prayer at night. A tracer without an understanding of the community can’t be expected to know that. You get more responsiveness from the people you're talking to if they're dealing with someone who is from their community and understands their context."

Given the above information about the skills needed for contact tracing, what "degree requirement" would one establish for such a job? Isn't it more about the core skills of information gathering, communication and documentation layered with empathy and understanding of cultural context?

Roger Shapiro, a professor of medicine at the Harvard School of Public Health says, "It takes some training, but it's not impossible to train almost anybody with reasonable social skills, who can work off a script, begin a conversation with people, convey a few key messages and collect data."

The Need for Reskilling

A McKinsey study found that 62 per cent of executives believe they’ll “need to retrain or replace more than a quarter of their workforce between now and 2023”. 

This article by McKinsey highlights, how "Even before COVID-19 emerged, the world of stable lifetime employment had faded in the rearview mirror, replaced by the expectation that both executives and employees must continually refresh their skills."

And that, "The pandemic has only heightened the urgency of doubling down on skill building, either to keep up with the speed of transformation now underway or to manage the particulars of working in new ways." 

Move to Skills-Based Hiring

I largely work in the areas of skills and competence development, competence assessment and competency-based Recognition of Prior Learning frameworks. In all these sectors, skills and competencies are the most important currency! In addition, recognition of all types of learning including formal, non formal and informal learning is critical. 

When businesses and organizations view a degree as a blanket qualification for all types of skills - technical and interpersonal - they are often shocked by the lack of real workplace skills. But transforming to skills-based hiring is not simple. Although skills are the currency of the future of work, many organizations haven't adapted their recruitment and talent development strategies to move towards skills-based hiring. Why? It requires significant upfront effort and investment especially around validating existing skills. It requires changes not only at a system level but also at a cultural level. 

To move towards skills-based hiring, we need to ask ourselves key questions like:

• Are all current roles and job descriptions based on skills and competencies? 
• Do we know the existing skills that our employees possess?
• Do the skills and competencies tie back to the business needs? 
• Can we effectively anticipate future skill requirements?
• Do the learning and development efforts help bridge the gaps in these skills and competencies to meet the business needs?

Skills-based hiring and continuous learning can enable organizations and countries to better respond to some of the challenges that we are likely to face in a post-pandemic society. Skills-based hiring can also increase the entry pool and enhance our ability to hire and retain a more diverse talent. This calls for a paradigm shift, not only within organizations but in education and training systems where lifelong learning and adaptability are valued throughout the educational journey. 

A 2016 World Economic Forum report found that “In many industries and countries, the most in-demand occupations or specialties did not exist 10 or even five years ago, and the pace of change is set to accelerate.” The increase demand for contact tracers around the world is one such example. So are the new positions related to health and safety administration, such as greeters at malls, offices and construction sites who screen people for COVID symptoms as they arrive. There are many other industries including healthcare, manufacturing and Information Technology including AI and machine learning that are doing well during COVID and are increasingly seeking skilled workers. 

With increased remote work, rise of gig-based economies, digital transformation and automation, the landscape of work has already started to change in a post COVID world. If the only thing that's constant is change, skills are the currency that can help us survive in the present and continuous learning is the mindset that can help us thrive in the future.

Reimagining the Future Post COVID

Several weeks ago, I participated in an insightful webinar where Josh Bersin described the idea of a 'Back-to-work' Playbook. In his post, Josh describes how companies have responded to COVID-19 in three phases: React, Respond and Return (see exhibit).

Josh describes the React stage as "coming to grips with the new reality". The shutdown of businesses and work was an example of the React stage. The Respond stage is all about "adjusting business practices to the new reality" and the shift from face-to-face learning to online learning is an example of this second stage. The Return stage is about "business transformation" and many businesses are currently in this stage where they are thinking about making big changes to their business operations and processes.

The Safe Work Playbook example from Lear Corporation (detailed in his post) does a fantastic job of putting things into perspective. This back-to-work checklist by Josh Bersin Academy does a good job of supporting the 'Return' phase.

While it is important to focus on 'back-to-work', it is equally important to understand from organizations and people that never left work! Needless to say, all essential services continued to be available and manufacturers continued production. But they had to be the first ones to react, respond and return. Some innovated to on-demand manufacturing and others pivoted very quickly to pandemic-related manufacturing. The 3-D printing industry was one of the early sectors to respond to the needs of increased demand for PPE for nurses and doctors. So, were schools and universities that shifted to emergency remote teaching. And there are learnings to be had from those early innovations.

Now that some countries and companies are beginning to see themselves in the Return stage, it is perhaps time to think about to the next step in this process?

In an article in McKinsey & Company, the writers highlight how industries need to think and act across five horizons. On this path, beyond Return, there is Reimagination and Reform (see exhibit).

"To rebound from the coronavirus pandemic, industries must undertake a journey that begins with resolve and ends with fundamental reform."

In March 2020, Greta Thunberg tweeted this:

Add caption

As we move forward, it is time to think about some of the issues and crises that we were suffering through in the days of what we called as normal. As we make our way forward, perhaps the most important thing to remember is that there is no going back. 

In terms of the workplace, we have seen how remote work is suddenly 'normal' after years of it being an exception or a challenge to the norm. In the same light, schools and traditional brick and mortar universities rapidly shifted to distance learning where making this technology leap was their greatest challenge and a potential roadblock for growth just a few months ago.  The 'future of work' as we knew it is here and it is now. This is the time to let go of the shackles of our minds and part with habits, systems and processes that haven't worked. 

We are all defining our new normal as individuals, companies, countries and the world. This is the time when we need to think out of the box and take the leap beyond what we know to what we can imagine or perhaps that what we cannot even imagine. Where is that leap of imagination taking you?

References:

• https://joshbersin.com/2020/04/the-back-to-work-playbook-its-being-written-now/
• https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/advanced-electronics/our-insights/coronavirus-five-strategies-for-industrial-and-automotive-companies

Resources: 

• https://www.osler.com/en/resources/regulations/2020/the-employer-s-covid-19-return-to-the-workplace-playbook
• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/guidance-business-response.html
• https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1PhtKhFRE96lzx7fUQe91lPJp3_UWDjua-35HRgTO1hQ/mobilebasic

Related:

• https://tarunagoel.blogspot.com/2020/04/learning-and-development-post-covid-19.html

Preparing Instructional Objectives - Robert Mager

Photo by Anne from StockSnap

If you’re not sure where you are going, you’re liable to end up some place else. – Robert F Mager

In May 2020, we lost one of the pioneers in the area of improving human performance: Robert (Bob) Frank Mager (June 10, 1923 - May 23, 2020). To us, in the field of instructional design, he is well-known for developing a framework for preparing #instructional objectives. His work on criterion referenced instruction (CRI) continues to influence my own work related to defining occupational standards, developing competencies, designing assessments and recommending Recognition of Prior Learning models.

"The origins of Instructional Design dated back as early as World War II with the need for creating training programs. Mager had firsthand experience with these training regimes. However, he found that they were not meeting the goals that they were set out to meet. From this phenomenon, Mager went about seeking ways to improve training delivery. These experiences led Mager to publish his work in a book later titled, Preparing Instructional Objectives: A Critical Tool in the Development of Effective Instruction." (Wikipedia)

I always recommend his foundational book to people who are new to the instructional design world. 

Preparing instructional objectives by Robert F. Mager.
(Available in Public Domain, Google-digitized).

If you are an instructional design veteran, what book do you recommend to folks new to the field?

#MayTheFourthBeWithYou

It feels surreal to get an opportunity to celebrate something during this pandemic. Yesterday, I officially completed the Certificate in Adult and Continuing Education (CACE) from University of Victoria, BC, Canada. I completed the certificate with an A+ grade and in 4 years to the date! #MaytheFourthBeWithYou

We moved to Canada in 2011 and in many ways had to restart our lives here. When I became a Canadian citizen in 2015, I aspired to add a Canadian credential to my resume. At that time, having the name of a prestigious Canadian University on my resume meant that I belonged (it does take more than that). But more importantly, I wanted to walk-the-talk and demonstrate to my 16-year old daughter that no matter where you come from, your age or your experience, it is important to keep learning and keep striving to be better at what you do. I wanted to model the behaviour that I’d like her to demonstrate. And now, after completing CACE, I feel not only a sense of belonging but a sense of accomplishment and pride that only comes from working hard and chasing a dream.

When I had decided to pursue CACE, people asked me why I felt the need to do add a certification to my portfolio. Their concern came from a good place. I have over 20 years of experience in the field of learning and development so I had covered a lot of ground in my area of expertise. The certificate was intense with four required courses and a minimum of four elective courses. Each credit was roughly 40 hours amounting to 320 hours of learning officially (but I spent way more time than that). This included hundreds of pages of books, at least one assignment every week of each course, reflective course-end papers, participation in discussion forums every second day and peer reviewing other assignments. In normal circumstances, 40+ days spent on self development doesn’t seem like too much but when you combine that with a full-time job, a family to look after and several volunteering positions, good time management skills becomes the make or break issue.

Before enrolling for CACE, I had reviewed many other options including popular industry certifications, diplomas and even a second Masters degree. But CACE felt right because it is a nationally-recognized credential and an award-winning one. I took that at face value when I signed up but now I know each word to be true. Besides, it was offered in a blended format (both online and in-campus) and that meant I could rely on late night readings and weekends to complete the certificate. There was flexibility in the choice of electives and that meant I could learn more about areas of learning and performance that I am most passionate about.

The CACE certificate is geared towards working professionals who want to gain practical insights in the area of workplace learning and I can tell you that there was no shortage of real-life in each course. The program coordinator(s) acted like guiding posts along the journey, always encouraging and always available. The learning environment encouraged co-creation and strong peer connections and I made some fantastic friends along the way who collaborated openly and critiqued honestly. The facilitators were top notch and were co-partners in the learning journey and I’d like to thank them for pushing me to challenge my own beliefs and ideas about adult learning and workplace performance and for sharing theirs.

I was so looking forward to my graduation day in June in all my gear but due to the current COVID-19 situation, that has been postponed. But for now, I can rejoice in these little moments of happiness. I am proud to be a CACE graduate and I hope that my education, experience, and passion for learning will always position me to keep growing and help others in their learning journeys along the way.

Learning and Development Post COVID-19

https://stocksnap.io/search/work+from+home

COVID-19 has pushed us into a place of change. And this change has become a catalyst for reflection and innovation. There are many lenses to choose from as we all think about the future of learning and L&D post COVID-19. For now, I am choosing the remote work or work from home lens given that: 

• People have suddenly been thrust into remote work without a choice or a preference and that might continue to be the state in the near future (the important factor being - not everyone likes to work remotely)
• Not all businesses and work can be done remotely and won’t be done remotely in the future either
• I have over 10 years of experience working remotely after having worked for 10 years in a 9-5, daily commute, office environment. So, I know a thing or two about remote work and remote learning

While the tools and technologies existed for many years, remote work was always an after-thought. 

Well, not anymore. 

We are now in the midst of perhaps the largest social and technological remote work experiment of the industrialized economy. Remote work is no longer an exception, challenge or a hypothetical situation; it is the reality of work today and will likely be a big part of the future of work. This has a huge impact on all functions of an organization including the work of L&D especially if our goal is to drive better work performance given the current circumstances and future realities. I don’t know what will be the long-term impact of COVID-19 on learning and I ponder about the impact of quarantine, social distancing and remote work on memory, cognition, learning and behaviour.

As much as technology is helping us in the short-term, we are already seeing the impact of too many synchronous video calls in the form of ‘Zoom fatigue’. L&D will need to critically explore the challenges of remote working and remote learning. Workplace learning and development will need to be guided by evidence-based research practices that consider factors including online distraction, laptop fatigue, work productivity along with employee mental health, emotional well-being and stress levels in a post-pandemic, technology-driven world.

But I am hopeful of some unintended positives consequences of COVID-19 on remote work and on L&D. 

• I hope that L&D does not end up converting all classroom training into webinars but rethinks the idea of learning while working remotely and looks at tools and processes to support learning for enhanced remote work performance 
• I hope L&D lets go of the control. With organizations and employees getting a fair taste of personalized streaming and customized content online, L&D has an opportunity to position ‘learning’ as something decentralized, distributed, collaborative, personalized and a 24x7 endeavor. I hope L&D leverages this opportunity. 
• I hope L&D looks at blending synchronous and asynchronous, self-paced and collaborative, self-directed and instructed, desktop and mobile-based learning opportunities, etc. Perhaps, now is the time when L&D can bring the 70/20/10 model into fruition especially focusing on the 70 and 20 and creating opportunities for collaboration and co-creation, for informal and non-formal learning. 
• Back in 2015, I wrote about how L&D needs to help employees move along their maturity continuum and help them define and follow their path from dependence to interdependence. If not now, then when? 
• I hope L&D understands the importance of taking on the role of curator of learning opportunities rather than the creator of courses thus enabling employees to learn how to learn.
• Finally, I hope L&D strives for the highest level of impact where we act as the invisible glue that seamlessly integrates learning into the working lives of those we serve irrespective of their physical location.

While we are all trying to find some kind of remote work arrangements in the short-term, in the long-term, employees will need to get comfortable with the idea of ongoing remote work and leveraging technology to do so. Now, technology can serve both as an opportunity and as a barrier. If remote is the new normal, L&D (like Operations) will need to push for a stable, reliable and consistent technological infrastructure to support continuous, non-disruptive work and learning from home. If not, the technological divide between the have and have nots will widen and the marginalized will be pushed further away from mainstream with fewer opportunities to work, learn and grow. 

If working collaboratively from a distance is the new normal, it will need the acquisition of new skills, attitudes and mindsets for optimum work performance. L&D will need to take the lead and enable the development of these skills, attitudes and mindsets. L&D will need to create the channels of learning, growth, communication and sharing and help employees learn new ways of working efficiently and effectively.

This does not mean more elearning, virtual webinars and online video meetings. Instead, I hope to see L&D step in as the curator of learning and connector of shared experiences, enabling employees to be more autonomous and self-directed in their continuous learning journeys.

The Unfolding Story

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” ― Philip Pullman

Back in November 2019, I completed a FLOMicroCourse: Teach With Stories with DeniseWithers. Denise is an award-winning filmmaker and strategist, who has helped over 100 clients use story design to launch new ventures, transform programs, shift policy, engage stakeholders and accelerate innovation.

The objective of this particular course was to describe how stories facilitate learning, identify ways to use story in our teaching and design an effective, story-based learning activity.

Stories have been used for ages (since cave men) and have always been a critical tool for knowledge management. In many non-western cultures and indigenous cultures, elders continue to use stories as a way to talk about the past and their experiences and share their knowledge and wisdom with the younger generations and the community at large. For me, stories are immersive, engaging and emotional. I often find myself a captive audience for my father’s stories. When I hear a story, I want to relate it to my own experience and find a way to make it useful for my current situation.

As I reflected on the course notes shared by Denise and the inputs from fellow participants, I drafted the following storystorm to highlight some of the ways in which stories can be used for learning:

• to share and learn from mistakes
• to create a scenario or set a context for the problem at hand
• as an emotional glue - to generate emotions and make things memorable
• to situate audience into an alternative reality - one that’s not theirs - so they are more receptive to feedback within that role-play
• to give deeper meaning to data
• to capture the key take-away from a learning experience
• to share knowledge - a key concept or idea when shared as a story is more likely to be shared forward
• to help audience derive multiple meanings from the same story by using alternative endings; the audience may even draft their own ending
• to capture the learning journey of how an expert got from being a novice to an expert
• as a teaser/marketing material to launch new training programs for the organization 

There are many benefits of stories. But there is something to be said about the ethics of storytelling. I am reminded of a powerful TED talk on the dangers of a single story. 

In 2009, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a fabulous TED talk called “The Danger of a Single Story.” The talk focuses on what happens when complex human beings and situations are reduced to a single story thus breeding stereotypes. What are the consequences of a narrative where African children are always shown as poor, malnourished and uneducated? Her key idea was that we need to appreciate and highlight the heterogeneous compilation of stories and that if you reduce people to one story, you’re taking away their humanity.

One of my favourite sentences is from the book, Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide (Sharan B. Merriam, Lisa M. Baumgartner, Pg. 264):

‘Life’s narratives are retrospective, always in process, unfolding.’

We bring with ourselves the stories of who we think we are. But we can also change our own stories and become something we never imagined we could be. Looking at our own life as a story can be so empowering because we can change the narrative anytime. Stories are transformational because we are our own story.