Exploring and expanding learning horizons

My name is John Ford and I am one of the proverbial "life long learners" that are active at Granite State College. Truth be told, as an adjunct faculty member teaching in an adult higher education environment, I never thought about blogging, but this is a great way to communicate to other people in the lifelong learning college community. My area of interest and expertise is in organizational development including behavioral science classes and business management. For the past 25 years I have been involved with various adult and continuing education programs and bringing career opportunities education programs into many national and international firms.

One things that always amazes me is the amount of hidden "tacit" knowledge contained within the people in various organizations. Often times we don't even know that we have this knowledge at our disposal. Once people discover this knowledge, they get excited about returning to or, in some cases starting their own education and career advancement program. It may be through night classes or weekend college classes.

Currently I am a vice-president at Bruce Mast & Associates in Portsmouth, NH, a firm focusing on organizational and personal effectiveness for leaders in today's challenging business environment. Developing individual and organizational leaders has always been fascinating to me. It is my philosophy that everyone CAN lead at any level as long as they understand the parameters of the work and the critical outcomes.

My favorite quote is by Naguib Mahfouz, who said: "You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by the his questions."

In this blog, hopefully we can explore the questions and together continue on our adventures as members of the lifelong learning college and work communities.