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In case you haven’t heard Apple is releasing the second version of its mega-popular iPhone tomorrow.  People have been lined up for days to get their hands on this device.

Beyond the slick exterior and sexy buttons of the phone, though, I think the main attraction to this engineering marvel is the ease and speed at which it allows users to find the information they need.

As we move further and further through our transition to a knowledge society it’s my belief that learning solutions will need to focus more on allowing people to find what they need quickly and less on providing content.  The iPhone looks like a device well positioned to do that for personal use and no doubt for corporate learning initiatives.

I’m purchasing one over the weekend or soon after to complement my growing Mac suite of devices that all incorporate this notion of quickly and easily being able to find what you need.  

I’ll let you know how iLike it…

Over the last few years the nationwide real estate market enjoyed tremendous growth followed by a bursting bubble to level-set prices.  I see the same trend a comin’ in the learning and development field…

Traditional formal training has been classically overvalued and is now up against many alternatives for the learning practitioner.  My prediction is that over time this will level-set the contributions of various forms of learning and development.  Formal training has been shown to provide about 25% of the information people need to do their jobs yet it is currently the most highly sought after tool for many training departments.

As the market becomes saturated with more and more options (i.e. communities of practice, action learning) for use in learning and development I feel that CLOs will begin to leverage a more diversified portfolio for their investment and that formal training’s role will be diminished.

Too much infrastructure and ego exist for the bubble to burst as quickly as it did in the real estate market but I’m confident it’s coming…

LMS For Sale: custom app, barely used, functions well but realized we need something better suited to our needs

This month’s Big Question from Learning Circuits blog asks us to ponder what we’d like to do better as learning professionals.

As I look at my ever-growing task list it seems there is an endless stream of possible angles with which to begin so I’ll take the high-level road…

What I’d like to do better is more effectively get the message out about the power and application of non-traditional forms of learning and development (i.e. communities of practice, action learning, social networks…). I feel that these services are under served in the market and that organizations can benefit greatly by integrating them within their portfolio of learning tools.

As with any message it has to be palatable. So as part of what I would like to do better, I want to make sure the message(s) are in a form that get attention - this includes videos, podcasts and literature. Looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me for the foreseeable future…

We recently received the good news that the interactive graphic on our site - Orbital Paths - has been awarded an Addy through the Madison Advertising Federation.

We were honored to have worked with the fine folks at IQ Foundry to produce the graphic; one that we hope illustrates how we view learning and development in an organization.

If you keep up with tech even the slightest bit you know that Apple, Inc. overall and especially it’s Mac line of computers are red hot. I have several friends that have made the switch and have suggested for a long time that I do the same. For reasons that span from frustration with PCs to video/photo/audio editing needs to an organizational philosophy that better aligns with that of Orbital RPM, I decided to take the plunge. I converted.

Beyond just switching to a Mac I intended to jump in with both feet. I wanted to ween myself of Outlook in favor of Mail, iCal and Address Book. I would embrace iTunes for my digital entertainment needs and write these posts on a Safari bowser. While not giving up Word, Excel & Powerpoint for client work I committed to learning Numbers, Pages and Keynote for things that could live within Orbital RPM’s walls.

I misjudged how difficult a transition this would be. My computer is something that is tethered to me for the better part of everyday. Although my old PC had plenty of idiosyncrasies at least I was aware of them and usually sometimes knew what to do about them. We’d been through a lot together. The switch to Mac felt like moving into a foreign and unfamiliar new house built on green engineering after coming home to the same, outdated home in an aging subdivision for about 13 years. I liked the possibilities that were now offered to me but it was going to take some getting used to.

This is where the comprehensiveness of Apple’s strategy shone through. Apple asked the question, “Who do we count on for success?” Engineers, programmers and sales people are all obviously contained in there as they are for Apple’s competition. Apple applied the question to their entire value-chain, though, and concluded that customers were also an important part of this strategy working. Seems silly I know but stay with me here. Since Apple counts on its customers for success, they decided to include them in their learning strategy. They invested in my learning.

For $99 I chose to become a member of the One-to-One program. This program allowed me to take one hour of individual training per week for a year. That means I can get 52 [edit] hours of custom, just-in-time education for $99. This is clearly not a profit center for Apple. But is it a wise investment?

For their part of the deal Apple gets customers that are well versed in the unique features and benefits of their product. A product that is different from the one that all of their competitors offer and one that is different from what about 93% of their marketshare uses. To me it seems like a worthwhile expenditure to subsidize a learning strategy that will ensure newly converted customers will stay with their new product and of course buy more in the future.

The One-to-One program has been instrumental in my satisfaction with the new computer. Having to re-learn so many new things comes with a long list of questions. Knowing that I can have them answered weekly by a person that I’m sitting down with face-to-face instills a sense of calm in a situation that would normally produce high levels of anxiety. Oh…I forgot to mention that each time I’ve been in the retail store for my lessons I’ve bought peripherals that probably average $250 per trip; that will (hopefully) go down since I’ve only been to three classes but it definitely influences buying behavior to know that I’ll be in their store often

An important lesson is contained within Apple’s strategy. If they only focused on making great products but not ensuring people were able to use them I highly doubt they would be enjoying the success they are…I know that I would not be a Mac owner. By determining who an organization counts on for their success and considering those groups for inclusion in their overall learning strategy it serves to benefit the sponsoring organization.

Who all do you count on for success in your organization? Are any of them outside of your organization’s walls? What could they know more of, better or different that would increase your success? How can they be incorporated into your learning strategy?