Engaged Learning

Archive for August, 2008

If the Culture Doesn’t Support it, it WILL be a Fad.

Aug 28, 2008 Social Learning SIG

Donald Clark puts up a post about the ‘fadness’ of Learning 2.0. He feels that if it was all it was cracked up to be, we would see it mainstream.

“If informal learning was really all that dominant, then the adaptation and satisfaction rates of web 2.0 would be much higher as the learners would have been absolutely primed for this type of technology, no matter what flaws were in the implementation.”

As someone who has worked on implementing these technologies into an organization and a customer base, adoption of the technology does not depend upon previous use of technology nearly as much as the culture that surrounds it. I have seen plenty of people not use it - even thought they use it frequently in their personal lives - because their culture does not support it. To semi-quote many different people: when technology and culture clash, culture always wins.

This explains the quote he uses from McKinsey Global Survey Results,

“Companies are coming to understand the difficulty of realizing some of Web 2.0’s benefits. Only 21 percent of the respondents say they are satisfied overall with Web 2.0 tools, while 22 percent voice clear dissatisfaction. Further, some disappointed companies have stopped using certain technologies altogether”

“A higher level of usage is found at companies that encourage it by using tactics such as integrating the tools into existing workflows, launching Web 2.0 in conjunction with other strategic initiatives, and getting senior managers to act as role models for adoption.”

Look at paragraph #1 and think “Their culture doesn’t support it.” Now read #2 and you get the opposite. The higher levels of usage are because the culture DOES support it.

Through my research (although limited) the #1 correlation between using web2.0 tools and not - independent of previous knowledge or even willingness - was if they replaced current processes and tools with the new. One culture won’t change, the other will. One won’t integrate, the other will.

Very much a part of the culture is the willingness to change and do things differently. Those who are better at adapting will be much more successful at adopting.

I can’t say this enough - the technology is the easy part. The culture can be your best friend or your worst enemy (and often both).

Tags: culture, Informal learning, Learning 2.0, Web 2.0

A Reflection of Transitions

Aug 21, 2008 Social Learning SIG, collaboration

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday was my first official day (this year) back in the school world. We were asked to introduce ourselves. I mentioned that I was first hired on as a Training Manager.

A lot has happened in this time. My focus has changed dramatically. My day-to-day concerns are now centered around implementing, maintaining and strategizing around social learning / network / media initiatives with a side plate of formal training. I am about to give a training this morning on how to hold difficult conversations, but these type of occurrences (where I do the actual training) don’t happen nearly as often. My team does most of the training. We still have customer-facing training that we create and deliver. There is always the development and delivery of internal training. Yet my strategy is less on the formal and more on the informal.

With all the talk of social learning, web2.0 and informal communication and learning, we cannot neglect the personal touch as well. Social learning does not only mean Web2.0, but it means any learning that has a number of characteristics (which I will be blogging about next).

A couple days ago I spoke to Christine Martell who mentioned an instance (and I don’t exactly remember what it was about) where she was frustrated by a particular interaction she was having because everything was in short bursts and nothing was getting done. What she needed was a sit down conversation to learn and communicate and plan. That may not be totally correct, but my mind took me to this thought: We can’t be so caught up in the new social learning / network / media that we neglect or minimize those in front of us and the personal relationships we need to make and nurture. Too often I see others who’s noses are constantly burried in their iPhones or eyes are fixed on the screen when the most important ‘friends’ and relationships are all around them. We ought not ignore those that are right in front of us.

Instead, there needs to be a balance. When anything new is introduced we tend to do a balance check and teeter totter back and forth until we find our personal equilibrium. Mine is not the same as yours is not the same as Joes is not the same as… But we all know when we are personally out of whack.

But when we check ourselves and we achieve the correct balance with the new (insert whatever it is here), what a wonderful thing that is! Our world is that much more open and full.

Oh, the changes in life, the challenges and opportunities - aren’t they wonderful?!

Tags: iPhone, tranistions

Success Stories

Aug 18, 2008 Implementation, Social Learning SIG

Just wanted to pass these on. A bunch of success stories (case studies) when implementing social media. Although not learning centric, they do provide a ground for research and creating your plan.

Enterprise 2.0 Success Stories from 2007

Some 2008 Enterprise 2.0 Success Stories - Tell Me More

Tags: case studies

The Worst Evaluation Ever

Aug 15, 2008 social media, transparancy

Seth Godin’s “Can you bully someone into a sale?” post reminded me of being bullied into a favorable evaluation yesterday. I stopped by a local AT&T store to return an iPhone accessory - didn’t need it after all. Sitting on the counter they have these 1/2 page flyers that said something like, “We Strive for 5!” They want to be rated a 5 out of 5 in customer service.

Just as I was finished and about to walk away the clerk said to me, “We have random customer service evaluations. Have you heard about them?

“No.”

“Well, out of five, how was my customer service? Would you give me a 5?” (add a nervous grin)

“Sure.”

“Great, because my job depends on it.”

“Really? It depends on this evaluation?”

“Ya, it really does.”

Make me laugh! When asked directly, what was I supposed to say? “No, your customer service stinks. I will give you a 2.” Luckily, she had good customer service so I didn’t mind giving her a five. But seriously? There wasn’t any criteria and participation was forced upon me. This reminds me of when I would ask my mom if a friend could play and the friend is standing right nex to me. My mom used to HATE that (understandably)! But I usually got what I want if I did. And so does AT&T.

On the flip side, there are other evaluation tools that are very removed from this method. One, I have written about before: the brilliant ratemyprofessors.com. Students volunteer to come and, well, rate their professors. No one makes them. The process is totally detached from any school, so there isn’t a fear of reprecussions.

I have judged many products, and recently iPhone apps, on the comments and ratings given by users. Some I learned to stay away from, others I jumped on right away.

Opening up a place where people can talk freely without someone watching over them is a powerful learning tool. Give them a spot to discuss openly how they feel. Chances are the discussion is already happening - you just don’t know about it. You can learn a lot from listening in.

Tags: at&t, evaluation, ratemyprofessors.com

Dojolearning - Haheee-ya!

Aug 14, 2008 Social Learning SIG

The hidden sauce with most of the Web 2.0 / social media craze is LEARNING. I don’t think people get that. Whether it is about someone, something, or they want to have a discussion or keep up on the latest & greatest or a combination of all of the above. Very little of the companies get this and none that I have seen have taken their solution from a learning perspective from the beginning. Usually it is “We have a product. Oh ya, and you can learn with it, too.” But it is not focused on learning.

Dojo Learning is different. They recognized this and started with learning. Now please realize that not every web 2.0 solution has every aspect of web 2.0 functionality. That is because they are (usually) focused to accomplish tasks which shouldn’t use every bit of new technology. And that is OK. Dojo Learning is similar. It doesn’t have everything you might think of when you hear “social learning.” It is more of a course creation product with elements of social learning. Yet what it can do is impressive.

This is a great mix of traditional elearning and social learning. Anyone can easily create lessons online, either for a specific group or for the public. You can even charge for it or have it open and free.

When creating your lesson (which is parsed out in chapters) you can add anything: images, links, maps, podcasts, video, files, even widgets from other web applications. It seems like anything you really want to, you can add in. I love that. Others are very restrictive to what you can add, but this expands to pull just about anything in. Using this array of functionality can point the learner to potential resources on the web where they can learn more.

With everything there you might think that it is difficult to create a lesson. Nope. It is easy enough for anyone to create online instruction. And because it is online anyone CAN create it. You are tethered to a desktop license where only a few people can create the learning. True, it can’t do what other rapid elearning products like Articulate can, but it isn’t supposed to. And what Articulate can’t do, this can.

Then, at the same time, it has elements of an LMS showing the learning what courses they have taken and what they are in the middle of taking. It also gives the creator usage and billing statistics.

But social learning is all about interacting. I was pleasantly surprised to see this in their solution as well. In one tutorial they show how the learner can upload a picture to the page they are learning from which will be sent to the instructor. In this example they are learning of the rule of thirds in photography and the learner is asked to find a picture which uses that principle and then upload it. The instructor can then check the understanding of the student. But not only can the learning upload pictures, but they can upload audio, text, video and files.

At that point it is uploaded to a “journal” which the instructor and learner have access to. The instructor can then comment on the information the learner provided and they can have a discussion about it. This allows the 1-on-1 conversation to take place, it engages the learning and checks for understanding. The assessment is based around conversation.

It also allows chatting with the instructor (including archiving of the chat). Of course, for you to do that you have to be able to tell if the instrutor is online, which you can do. You can also see if other learners taking that course are online and chat with them.

Technically speaking, it gives you your own sub-domain - like yourcompany.learnerpages.com - which can be perfect for branding your learning. In addition, they give you templates for changing the look and feel. I didn’t see anything where you can customize those templates, but at least there is some variation.

Although not total social learning, this approaches it more than others. Sure, it increases the interaction between teacher and student but it does not allow much in the learners learning from each other, posting content, replying to each other - which is something I would like to see more of. The chatting is a form of that, but nothing like a wiki or blog. Yet, in their defense, they may not want it to either, I’m not sure.

For their revenue they charge by the month according to the number of courses you have. Of course, if people pay for it you may make this a profit center for yourself.

The product is still in its infancy as you can tell by the layout and graphics. Yet still it has a surprising amount of functionality (that seems to actually work well). Check it out.

Tags: dojo learning

Is KM Dead?

Aug 6, 2008 KM

Watch this video. Take the time, let it run in the background as you work. But keep your ear on it.

Is KM Dead?

This might become a semantics battle, but he points out some specific things that are dead:

One size fits all.
Documents and repositories = Knowledge
Knowledge resides outside of people
ROI of knowledge
The central repository that is controlled by a central department is good for an organization.

Do you think he is right?

(Here are some links to more discussions on the topic.)

Tags: Dave Snowden, KM

Changing Skills for the Learning Facilitator

Aug 5, 2008 Learning 2.0, collaboration

THIS POST asks, “Do you need to be a subject matter expert to run subject-based community?” If I were to change it slightly, “Do you need to be a trainer or SME to be a Learning Facilitator in the social learning world?” Then I got thinking, what are the skills of this Learning Facilitator? How are they different than an instructional designer or a trainer?

Here are some initial thoughts. A learning facilitator will:

Connect people together
Encourage discussion and conversation, while at the same time monitor to make sure that the conversations are appropriate
Listen to what the community of learners is saying in discussions
Listen to their suggestions and then adjust accordingly
Monitor discussions and flag the bad apples to keep it appropriate
Measure and report out on activity
Be an internal champion
Be an advocate for the learner as well as a consult to management
Have a strong understanding of the language and be able to express him/herself very will in written form - an experienced communicator
Understand and have a good grasp on the technology used
Be forward thinking and strategic to recognize other ways to increase the conversation and learning - technically and the good old fashioned way
Be a fresh perspective from their unique position of ‘listening’ to many different conversations
Be trusted and continue to build that trust
Help shape and create ground rules by using the learners
Be able to create goals and have a clear understanding of what they are and why
Be a Simplicity Maker - too often things like this can get too technical too fast. This person will have to keep their mind on the end user and keep things simple
Engage and personalize
Have a personality and use it
Help everyone learn how to use the new technology, why they might (and in some cases should) use it
Not give up
Face opposition, take a smack in the face, and keep trucking (later they will come back and kiss you)
Understand motivation and how people work and why they make decisions
Know the world of the company or customer, how they work and how to best suite the environment and opportunities to allow for maximum ease of use and adoption

Just some stuff off the top of my head, from experience and gleaning information from other sources (here, here, here). These part ways with the traditional training role, yet many are very similar.

Can you add to this list? Which are more important than others, do you think?

UPDATE: This does not need to be just one person. After thinking about it I think I made this out to be more of one job - which it could be. This could certainly be many people, however, focused part time on this for a specific learning context.

Tags: learning facilitator, skills

An Online Learning Facilitator

Aug 5, 2008 Learning 2.0, Social Learning SIG, collaboration

Yesterday I wrote about being a Learning Facilitator - not getting in the way, but connection people to other people to learn - On or offline. Then I stumbled upon TEACHSTREET.com. They help anyone find courses on anything. Photography in Portland, OR? Done. There were a number of courses for all levels.

This is about connecting those who want knowledge with those who have it.

Gather, control, teach and require has turned into aggregate, open, facilitate and house.

What can this teach us about what we might do in our organizations?

Tags: learning facilitator, techstreet.com

Guide on the Side or Expert Expediter

Aug 4, 2008 Social Learning SIG

Christine Martell’s post on ASTD today concerns how we, as training natives, might need to adapt to use social learning. She references Ray Jimenez’s post expressing similar concerns. Christine asks,

What do we do when content is generated by the users? Ray suggests we become trainer-facilitator-network weavers. Is our role shifting to be more of a guide? Creating rich resource pools which learners can dip into as needed?

I’m beginning to understand more why Ray is agonizing over social learning. Not only are we being asked to help others make fundamental changes in how they interact with technology, we need to do it first in order to be able to guide others.

Is our role shifting? I would say YES and NO. Social learning is a companion to formal learning. They coexist and compliment each other. In some cases social learning can take the place of formal learning, but from what I have seen it is not too often. There will always be those who will focus on formal training and not need to really change much. Their focus and strength is on, for example, creating e-learning content or facilitating an ILT.

There are others, however, who will need to change - and I would venture to say that this is more of us than the former group. The reason is because of something that Christine said above, “Not only are we being asked to help others make fundamental changes in how they interact with technology…” Usually this is an I.T. function (using new technology). Social learning bleeds over into other departments’ functions. In fact, I have seen much of social learning bleed not only there, but also into HR, strategic development, marketing, sales, legal, customer support… Where should this originate from? There have been those from other departments who have wondered if I am not stepping on their toes when I implement social learning. Where does it end? The short of it is that we need to expand beyond the formal learning roots.

We need to become Learning Facilitators in this role. We help others learn from each other. We don’t get in the way. We help connect people. We help facilitate the interaction and learning. We don’t filter it, force it, ignore it or heavily moderate it. Taking this role on is something we are not used to and can be down-right uncomfortable.

When I did presentation to a group of trainers and introduced this idea, they were taken aback because they didn’t want to lose control. So far, all the information flows through the training department - how can we let that go?

Well, that thinking is a facade. We trick ourselves into thinking that we have control of the information. We may have control of some information but I guarantee you that more information and learning is going around the training deparment than through it.

And, yes, we need to be the first to go through it. (Not that we don’t have enough to do!) Then we can lead others through.

OR…

Here’s a radical idea. Let them lead us through it. There are those in our organizations who understand Web 2.0 much better than the training deparment do. They are individuals who have been using this type of learning (without calling it that) for a few years. Use them. Let them help you. They can be a huge asset. Then, apply it to learning and the end business goals.

My (anti)Fortune Cookie

Aug 1, 2008 Learning 2.0, Social Learning SIG

$An ancient forest un\'earthed\'$ It has been WAY too long since I have written here. There are three main excuses:

A week on the Oregon coast - It doesn’t get much better than that!
A week camping with the Boy Scouts: Canoeing, white water rafting, hiking into and from a lake (3400′ increase in elevation in 10.5 miles one way - ohhhh my blistered feet!), mountain biking and rock climbing. Phew!
Launching our company’s external social network.

It is this last one that has kept me in the office way later than I would have liked for far too many nights, but it was worth it!

After a year and a half after conception, we have launched a social network to our customers. Last December we launched one internally and it has been a huge success. Going externally was the next step. It has been an uphill battle but one that has been a lot of fun - and the fun is not even close to being over.

Not all social networks can fall under the Social Learning banner, but some can. In fact, most company’s social networks are failing. For the large majority, it is because their focus and goals are in the wrong place. Most of the failing ones are not focused on learning and sharing. They are focused around a product or a brand. These types are very difficult to maintain in a social networking world. Not impossible, but more difficult. As that blog post puts it:

Looking at all this, the answer seems pretty obvious: many of the companies in the study did not provide a compelling incentive for customers to get involved with their communities. Many of these communities are set up with the idea that people want to come hang out in a community just to chat about a brand.

For me, when I am involved I am learning. It doesn’t matter what I am doing - even if I am teaching. We all want to learn. Get others engaged and personalize it for them and you will have a group who is learning and sharing - a Social Learning Network.

At the beginning stages of this project I held a kickoff meeting to explain what we were going to do. It turned into the most venemous, toxic meeting I have ever been in. The backlash was astonishing. I thought this might happen, so before hand I met with each member, gave them an overview and elicited their support - of which I received from each of them. It didn’t help.

A day after the meeting, the director of IT (who was in the meeting and went over the top), brought to me a fotune cookie. It reads: “In great attempts it is glorious to fail.” Basically he was saying that it was a worthy goal, but ‘good try.’ This had the opposite effect on me as I believe he would have liked at the time. Instead, it made me work harder for this. I became more focused.

Fast forward to the day before the launch of our external site. I pulled in essentially the same people - those who were the heavy players in creating it. I wasn’t expecting the same because we had all come so far, but I was expecting some push back: “That page doesn’t work for me,” or “This process won’t work,” or “I don’t like the layout, ” or “We don’t have enough content,” or something. Instead, there was talk about how we could help other companies do the same thing we had created. I fully expected (and almost wanted) some discord. But it wasn’t there. Everyone understood the value and was 100% behind it! What a contrast from a year and a half ago!

I have been asked many times, “Are you excited that you are launching?” Yes and no. ‘YES’ because we have come this far and this is a great milestone. ‘NO’ because it is only a milestone. The goal is much further down the road. And we have a lot more to do to make this successful.

Because the company wanted to keep costs down, we did everything in-house. They didn’t give me any official resources, but I was able to pull some cycles from a number of different departments. What they couldn’t provide I had to do myself. I created the layout, structure, stole the colors (since I am color blind - thankfully colors can be translated to numbers!), used other’s icons (legally), set up backend processes, changed an internal culture (most importantly), educated the employees on social networks, and adjusted as necessary. Having done all that, I wish I was a better web designer. There are a number of things I would like to do differently with that, but I am not sure I can put my finger on it. Oh well…

We still have to implement a number of features that will engage the customer even more. For example, we have strucutred it so that we will have at least 1500 self-registered members by the beginning of September, guaranteed. But for a start I am very happy with the result. This has been the most rewarding ‘work’ project I have lead. I put ‘work’ in quotes because although it is for pay, it has felt like play - it has been a lot of fun as well.

And still, I have the fortune cookie as a reminder…

Tags: coast, community portal, fortune cookie, meeting