Henderson’s Hierarchy of Blogging

[Posted by Bill Henderson, crossposted to ELS Blog]

Regrettably, I have not posted a substantive blog post since Dec. 16, 2008. Although few things are more enjoyable than blogging (primarily becauseblogging relies heavily on reading and thinking), over the last severalmonths I have been swallowed up by other priorities.   To convey whathappened, I have created Henderson’s Hierarchy of Blogging, which is ashameless rip-off of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a staple of undergraduate education during the ’70s and ’80s.

Forthe last five months, I have spent most of my time toggling betweenLevels 1 and 2.  On a good day, I broke into Level 3.  I desperatelylonged for my Level 5 days–reading, thinking, and blogging.   

The most substantial activity over the last five months has been Indiana’s new 4-credit 1L Legal Professions course. In my case, this included two sections of 50 students each, a widearray of new teaching materials and assessment methods, organizingoutside speakers for class, meeting with students, and participating inweekly instructor meetings.  It was a grueling but highly rewardingexperience.  Suffice to say that my students, through their six andseven member Practice Groups, did some immensely creative that farexceeded my expectations.   I was bowled over by the power of groupintelligence–far beyond what a mere individual could accomplish. Moreover, I learned a huge amount from my colleagues as we taught thesame materials, often in very different ways.

Another major commitment was the organization of FutureFirm 1.0,a “collaborative competition held at Indiana University Maurer Schoolof Law on April 17-19.  Starting with a fact pattern for the fictionallaw firm of Marbury & Madison LLP,four teams of ten players (each comprised of four actual law firmpartners, three actual in-house lawyers, and three actualassociates/law students) worked over the weekend to formulate a new lawfirm model that would enable the firm to “survive and thrive over thenext 20 years.”  FutureFirm 1.0 was a hugely successful event, thanksin no small measure to the expert facilitation by Anthony Kearns, the national risk manager for the Legal Practitioners Liability Committee in Austrialia.  Hildebrandt made the weekend especially interesting by putting up $15,000 in prize money. [Lots more on this later.]

Withmy few hours of remaining time, I kept some travel and writingcommitments, ate a few meals with my family, but generally fellwoefully behind in my non-student email and virtually all other facetsof my life.   To the legions of people I have disappointed/irritatedover the last five months, please accept my apologies.   In anotherweek, I hope to be back to some modicum of Level 4/5 activity.