Learning and Developing through Home Repair: Social Brickworking

This post was written by Jacob McNulty

Welcome to the next part in the series of home repair and organizational learning - for the foreword, please visit here.

The initial plan was to put up drywall on all four walls.  Once the plaster came down, though, and we saw the exposed brick beneath we changed our minds and decided to keep the look of the brick. 

Unfortunately the brick was badly deteriorated, brittle and would flake off with the slightest touch.  I remembered that my neighbor was a contractor and that they had exposed brick in their foyer.  I went over and asked about what he had used.

Not only did he show me the product, he also offered the use of a special sprayer.  He then came over, showed me how to apply the first coat and left me enough product for four more coats.  Just by knowing who to ask I was able to solve my problem - and I didn’t spend a dime.

This situation is similar to what happens in many organizations daily:

• The plan changed mid-stream (from drywall to exposed brick)
• I relied on my social network to solve my problem - I went to someone I knew that I thought would be able to help me

Organizations can enhance these exchanges that naturally occur.  By providing corporate yellow pages (a list people’s areas of expertise) and by providing venues and resources for employees to share information, organizations can optimize the informal exchanges that most people turn to for their job-related information.

Tags: Action learning, business training, corporate training, development, informal learning, learning, learning strategies, organizational learning, professional development, social networking, workforce development