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I had an opportunity today to have the dedicated ears of 18 mid-level managers at a large organization where we are just at the launch phase of creating a community of practice.  This is a group of sales people in a competitive environment and the suggetion of sharing ideas with one another has to be approached very carefully.  Last night I began assembling slides and this morning I went back to put on some finishing touches - I checked my email and saw this article from CLO magazine. 

I included a screen shot of the article as a way to illustrate to the group that learning in organizations is moving away from just formal content delivery and more toward enabling easier access to necessary information.  These ideas really resonated with them and some of the responses were, “like MySpace” or like an “eBay seller rating” for peer reviewed content and also “like Amazon.” 

I wrote recently about how there was a seeming disconnect between some Chief Learning Officers (CLO) and these progressive modes of learning but it’s encouraging to see the gap gradually narrow with entries such as this.

As organizations begin to find the collective intelligence of their workforce through social network analysis and tap their full potential through communities of practice and the software to support them, they will be poised to unleash the true potential of knowledge workers.

In a recent article from CLO magazine, they profile an organ procurement organization that shares information across the country to ensure that patients are getting what they need in time to save their life.

It’s this approach that I think many more organizations could adopt and apply some structure too which would translate into tremendous value.  In today’s world we can not inject people with the information they need…there’s too much.  We must make it easy for them to find.

A community such as it sounds has been formed in organ donation group, serves as an ongoing conversation of ideas and information that is always easily accessible.  What opportunities does your organization have to increase the access to your information?

Enjoy your holiday weekend!

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.

I’m a day late on April’s Big Question from LCB but here are my thoughts to the following question:

ILT and Off-the-Shelf Vendors - What Should they Do?

In the age of Google, informal learning, mobile learning, social networking and the countless other areas that are being explored as avenues for learning, what does the future hold for those in the business of instructor-led training (ILT) and off-the-shelf courseware?

The diversifying portfolio being utilized at progressive organizations presents a wealth of options and an infinite number of combinations that can be used by a learning professional. 

If I were the owner of a company that solely provided instructor-led training and/or off-the-shelf coursework the quick answer would be to diversify my offerings to match what learning professionals are using in the market.  But - there is still risk associated in diversification, namely in lack of focus for my internal organization as well as brand confusion in the marketplace.  Plus it’s too easy to write…

There will always be a market for face-to-face training and mass produced content and I would make it my goal to determine the right business model for these services to be successful. 

The first step in doing so would be to determine which scenarios in the quickly changing field of learning would continue to sustain ILT and off-the-shelf material.  What unique features or benefits do ILT and off-the-shelf coursework provide?

ILT:  real-time access to an expert; face-to-face collaboration with peers; etc.

Off-the-shelf coursework: can provide superior delivery for content that won’t change often; can be used to provide content to large populations; etc.

What situations would benefit from these unique characteristics?

How about new-hire orientation programs where you want to impress new-hires with content that won’t change often and establish connections with their new peers?  ILT and off-the-shelf material may be a fit.  How about certification courses that leverage the same or similar information year after year?  The off-the-shelf model could be the answer.

After completing this analysis I would look for opportunities to re-brand my company as one that excelled in these niches (i.e. new-hire orientation, certification, etc.)

Additionally, I would seek out strategic partnerships with other organizations that offered complementary services (i.e. communities of practice) and present that package to the market. 

Although ILT and off-the-shelf are known not to contribute to the majority of how people learn in the corporate world, they are still viable modes of instruction and therefore will remain as something that organizations will seek to purchase.  Therefore there will continue to be a market for these services - it will just take savvy strategic planning to position a company to win in the new market.

LCB is at it again this month with another great big question - or is it a great, big question?  And…has it been a month already???

The question for March is:

 What would you do to support new managers?

Ray Sims was the first to post and proposed utilizing audio self-paced learning, coaching and a community of practice.  Ray is targeting two areas that have been proven to speed someone’s integration into a new role:

1. Quickly becoming part of a network
2. Relevant knowledge is distributed through-out a long period time

There is too much stuff for people to remember; especially when starting a new role.  Learning to me is about providing easy access to information at the time people need it.  Audio learning, coaching and a thriving community will certainly go a long way in providing muliple access points to the information a new manager will need.

I feel there is also room for another piece here as well.  If learning is about access to information, how do you ensure new managers will experience lasting change in skills, mindset or behavior?  Just as they develop at anything else…practice.

An integration period is a prime time for new managers to participate in an action learning project.  In an ideal world their groups would consist of other managers at various stages of their management career.  The initial sessions would immerse the new manager in activities to heighten self-awareness (i.e. a 360 degree assessment conducted in their former position, a Myers-Briggs or DISC report, a natural abilities test, etc.) after which participants list which areas in which they would like to develop.  Next, the managers are exposed to some foundational content (my favorites are Appreciative Inquiry and systems thinking) that will be the concepts to which they’ll be held accountable throughout the program.

A relevant, timely business challenge is presented to the participants and they are responsible for all data collection, solution design and execution.  All the while a learning coach acts as an embedded reminder to participants of their individual development goals as well as referring them back to concepts from the initial workshops.  Over the course of a few months participants present a solution to the business challenge.  Throughout the time they have been forced to reflect on their own behavior and new concepts via the action learning coach.

It is only through being made to apply the concepts that participants will be quicker to adopt any new behaviors, mindsets and skills needed to be a manager.  Along the way a cross-functional network of managers of varying tenure will be formed and provide a solid foundation for knowledge transfer and knowledge management.  This will also serve to support the overall company-wide community that Ray suggested.  As the grayer managers move on, relationships have formed and developed the infrastructure for the insights, experience and stories to be passed on to the newer managers.

This combination of learning and development create a killer combo for the rapid on-boarding of managers.  It’s not successful because the new-comers are going in to management roles, though.  It’s successful because the new-comers are human and that’s the way we learn and develop.

The beauty is that this is a foundation that can be tweaked for positions all throughout the organization - not just managers.

I just got married on November 11th and we decided to go to New Zealand for our honeymoon.

Through all of my reading in the field of learning and development, I seemed to remember a blog of a similar philosophy that came out of NZ.  After just a couple minutes on the net I found it was Leigh Blackall in Dunedin, NZ.

I sent him a quick email a couple of days before we departed the States and heard back from him shortly after.  I was able to meet up with Leigh for a quick tour of the Univeristy in Dunedin two days ago and am now updating my blog from an Internet cafe in Christchurch, NZ.

It’s amazing the power that technology has given us.  Not only did I find someone on the other side of the world that shares many of my views - I was able to shake his hand and take a walk with him.  Setting this up took me probably a total of 30 minutes (searching, writing emails, etc.)

My new wife and I were discussing the impact of technology on us.  Historians will link us with the Internet, iPods and a technological revolution.  It’s fun to be part of it.

I recently spent a weekend in Washington D.C. to make a vacation out of the inaugural CLO Academy that was being held in Lansdowne, VA.

It was a quick trip in D.C. so we were rushed to see the major sites. We started at the National Archives building where they have on display the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence along with access to countless other historical documents.

While up close and personal with these very elaborate and elegant documents, I wondered what the process would have been had our country been formed when the Founding Fathers had access to some of today’s Web 2.0 tools that we’re now using for learning and collaboration.

Imagine Benjamin Franklin and John Adams developing their ideas for the Constitution on a wiki, Thomas Paine keeping citizens informed about the American Revolution via his blog rather than the pamphlet ‘Common Sense’ or all of the Founding Fathers forming a community of practice that keeps in touch about their progress via an online portal.

What they would have gained in efficiencies back then is perhaps what we would have lost in enjoyment today. It’s tough to imagine throngs of people gathered around and craning their necks to sneak a peek of the final wiki page of the Constitution. Would John Hancock’s digital signature have the same impact as the pen and ink version does?  Probably not.

Don’t mistake my tone, though.  I’m all for these Web 2.0 tools and enjoy the efficiency they bring to offices and homes each day.  It just seems that the more efficient we get, the less that opportunity for nostalgia exists. 

On the other hand, perhaps these advacements will serve to make the historic documents all the more rare as times go by so that in several decades our societies will just appreciate the fact that they’re on paper - let alone written by hand.  If this serves to create more awareness and interest in our history, I say that’s one more benefit of the progress we’re making.

Is it me or is building a community the big buzz in the field of learning and development today?  It seems that every organization I’ve gotten involved with for my own personal development is offering a membership in their own community to go along with it.

This includes Masie’s Learning 2006, the CLO Institute’s CLOinfo, TrainingOutsourcing.com’s Forums and many, many others.

This is not to sound cynical - I think the idea of having communities that can support each other’s on-going learning in a particular area is a fantastic idea.  I just think that there is a possibility for this approach to be diluted within the field of learning and development to the point that there are just too many.  I know I cannot physically keep up regular involvement with this many different communities. 

A major driver in people’s continuing participation in a community of practice is that they get value from their involvement.  It will be challenging to keep all of these communities thriving to the extent that members get enough value to participate in all of them.  I’m sure that some readers would advise me to pick a manageable number and go with those.  That’s tough because I’m the person that doesn’t want to miss any nuggets - don’t make me choose.  If there are relevant ramblings happening in many dispersed communities - might I not be the only one that finds value in a many of them?

At some point I think that people in the field of learning and development may need to consolidate these communities and perhaps one front-runner will emerge.  I am hoping so - I don’t want to miss a thing.

It’s obvious that our world is undergoing changes that are far beyond advances in organizational learning and development…but some of the similarities are apparent.

Business 2.o’s recent cover read “The Next Disruptors:  Meet 11 Companies Whose Breakthroughs Will Change Everything.”  In it we meet businesses that are tackling everything from software to lending to advertising.

The common thread through all seems to be individualization.  Consumers today are becoming more and more catered to and as a result are receiving products and services that are more refined to meet their needs.  We get what we want instead of taking what we’re given.

• Advertising:  Most people were forced to watch commercials on TV breaks because they didn’t want to miss what was “up next” - TiVO has changed that forever and advertisers are now forced to rely on products placed in the actual shows.  Think there’s a market there?  Hamet Watt does.  His company NextMedium “automates and standardizes the process of product placement in TV shows, movies, and videogames.” 
• The two players mentioned in the technology space are Coghead and NetVibes.  Both are built on the philosophy of end-users creating exactly what is right for them.  With NetVibes, more for the individual, “users can rapidly change the look of their start page, select content, add RSS feeds, and custom-build features from other Netvibes users.”  While with Coghead, more for organizations, users “who can code a simple Excel macro should have little trouble using Coghead to create even sophisticated enterprise apps like logistics trackers, CRM programs, or project management systems.”
• And then there’s lending.  A company by the name of Zopa has created a peer-to-peer model for people to lend and borrow money that cuts out the bank, gives lower rates to borrowers and a return to individuals as lenders.  Brilliant! 

These three examples reflect the progressive trends bubbling up in learning and development.  No longer do participants want to sit in a class when much of the information being presented doesn’t pertain to them.  They want to ‘fast-forward’ to what matters.  They want the option to customize things just they way they need or like them.  And, they get most of what they need from their peers. 

Hence the popularity of podcasting, social networking sites, nano-learning, workflow learning, mobile learning and communities of practice.  Take out the middle-men, edit out the commercials, let us get the information to do our jobs when we need it and how we like it.

In the coming years I’m sure we’ll see this trend of customer customization only grow.  As societies figure out that they control what the market gives them, more and more we will be demanding just what we need.  The field of learning and development is paralleling these changes and what is now considered traditional training will be so 1.o.