#JohnWick_77_Challenge #7: Creating a 5-STAR Inventory
When/Where started: FEB 2019- Manila
A part of the 5_STAR eBook was to be able to have learners complete a 5_STAR customer service skills inventory. In late 2018 I had only conceptualized the inventory idea, thus had to really flesh it out to make it be part of the course. (Not to mention a new interactive feature of the eBook).
I am a bit of an old school tech guy and learned coding way back in the day with BASIC and Assembler languages. I learned this back in the days of mainframes. Though I quickly hopped onto the PC bandwagon (my first PC was an Amiga 500), unfortunately I was not smart enough to really jump into the HTML5 game when it first came out, even though I know I should have and somewhat regret it to this day. (Live and learn? LOL)
The bottom line was I could not put together an app like I wanted to and had to go with Google forms. Which for filling out this kind of survey was okay, but the problem is the way I wanted to deliver the report. The report required some data collaboration and complex calculations. However, the back end of Google forms can’t really handle it so I had to move things into another spreadsheet to manually calculate and generate reports.
This required a bit of manual dexterity with spreadsheets on the back end in order to produce learners reports. When I started the eBook I knew I would have to actually do this, but at some point I’m going to have to turn it into an app because there’s no way I could manually create reports for thousands of people. However, for a few test cases, like I did for my eBook characters, I was able to bang them out pretty quickly with spreadsheets and a report template.
Why a skill inventory?
When used correctly, skill inventories are a great tool for both self reflection and effective education. Questions worded as ‘can do’ statements as opposed to generic statements are more apt to make a respondent pause and reflect about how often they act a certain way. This then leads to effective education as the person is more likely to become intently focused on improving in specific areas thus focusing on specific actions.
The inventory also acts as a bit of a syllabus for both the course and workshop. I actually wrote the scenario above into the book narrative. Two of the main characters met at the workshop. One had completed the inventory prior to attending and the other had not. The differences in their reactions to the workshop content were obvious.
Please share how you have (or haven’t) found skill inventories effective.
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What is My #JohnWick_77_Challenge all about?
In January 2019 I was at a pretty low point in my career (and life) — at least from an external POV. After a string of pretty good education related jobs — I now had no job, would turn 60 in just over a year, was living with a (good friend) ex GF, and had exhausted my savings. But I was anything but depressed.
Frustrated? Hell ya. Depressed? No.
Though I had been quite busy (product development but no income) since choosing to leave a Chinese unicorn in June 2018. Like many of you, in my downtime I enjoy action movies to relax and escape reality for a bit. The two John Wick movies (remember, this is Jan 2018) blew me away. Not just the movies, but lots of the ‘behind the scenes’ videos! At one point I did a search of the kill count in Wick 1 and came across this infographic: https://www.visu.info/john-wick-kill-count
Though I like action movies — I am a complete anti-war, anti-gun, anti-violence guy. However, the number 77 began to resonate with me. From a storyteller POV, I began to look at each of the 77 kills as an obstacle that Wick needed to overcome to reach his objective.
Thus my #JohnWick_77_Challenge. To change my life situation I decided to accomplish 77 unique challenges in 12 months. [NOTE: I am now at month 14 and getting close to my goal] These challenges needed to be measurable actions and would also require me to have to learn some form of new skill.
Some context:
I am Canadain, have an M.Ed in Curriculum Design and have worked abroad (South Korea, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, China and Thailand) for all but four years since March 2003. Check out this link for a bit of an overview of the past 15 years:
