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CLO Events - NIIT 2007 “The Path to Organizational Effectiveness”

Begins: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 at 1:53 AM

Ends: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 at 1:53 AM

Entry fee: 0

Location: The University of Chicago

Link: Cloevents

NIIT CognitiveArts is a global provider of end-to-end learning solutions for major corporate and high-tech clients. The company has 25 years of experience helping client companies reach their business goals with integrated solutions that include strategy, curriculum design, content development, delivery and administration.
Link www.cloevents.com…

Tags: www.cloevents.com

I just read a great article in Fortune magazine about Social Network Analysis (SNA) and the benefits it can yield in an organization.

To me this is further fodder on what have been relatively obscure tools coming more into the mainstream and being refined for use with progressive learning and development departments.

Orbital RPM has just launched a SNA with one of our large clients as a way to find the best candidates to make up the ‘core group’ of a community of practice.  This is being implemented in a very large, traditional organization that has always relied on traditional training for its team members. 

 We will be using the same amount of money the organization would have spent on designing, developing and delivering a one-time course…an event…but instead we will be engaged with them for a year.  Helping sustain their learning community, manage the knowledge that’s flowing and integrate new-comers.  What a bargain!

It’s projects like these and articles like the one in Fortune that will allow us to chip away at the conventional mindset commonly applied to the training arena.

Just yesterday I wrote a post lamenting about the seeming divide between the world of CLOs and the implementation of informal learning methodologies such as communities of practice (CoP).

I have to eat a little crow on that one - not too long after I posted I received an email newsletter from CLO magazine and one of the segments was titled ‘A New Vision for Communities of Practice.’  In it is a case study about a United Way project as well as many insights from Etienne Wenger, considered to be the guru of CoPs.

Although small it’s great to see these two worlds begin to intertwine.  Follow the link above for a downloadable case study on the project while I sit here and enjoy the irony of timing.

Professionally my circles encompass both the competencies traditionally linked with a CLO (i.e. strategy, outsourcing, etc.) and the world of progressive learning & development (i.e. communities of practice, action learning, etc.). 

Given all of the research and data out there showing the impact of the more informal approach to learning it’s ironic to me that these two worlds rarely overlap…but they don’t.

That was reinforced yesterday when Trainingoutsourcing.com announced the “2007 - Top 20 Companies in the Training Outsourcing Industry.”  When you look down the list they are mainly software-based training content providers.  This is no fault of trainingoutsourcing.com - they are clear on the metrics that it takes to make the list.  I’m wondering about the buyers.  If 80% of learning comes from the informal side of the house, where are the outsourcing purchases associated with it?

Granted, it is the ‘training’ outsourcing industry and not ‘learning’ outsourcing but that should just be semantics in 2007.  It seems that, regardless of the data that shows what’s effective, people want something tangible.  The components of informal learning are a little grayer, a little messier, tougher to predict and certainly more difficult to price appropriately.  It is possible though.  I know because I’ve done it. 

Oh well - forgive the rant because this is actually one of the things that I enjoy about being in the field that offers the more progressive approaches to something.  It’s not an easy sell and I like that.  I feel like we are the little guy (looking at the list linked above I’d say that’s an appropriate feeling) and there’re many mindsets to be changed before our wares are in the mainstream…and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

If you’re looking for a good intro to the emerging world of collaboration technologies and how they’re impacting commerce, Wikinomics is a great start.  SocialText is currently offering a free download of Chapter 9 of Wikinomics.

 I highly recommend the read - it provides great stories, facts and insights on what media hindsight will surely declare a revolutionary technology.