Engaged Learning

Facebook / LinkedIn – Day 5 – Why you SHOULD be Using Them at Work

Dec 11, 2009 Social Media & Network Challenge

(Warning – this is a longer post – but it is worth it.  I promise.  It makes the case as to why we should use social networking sites not only inside of organizations, but also why we should not block employees from accessing outside sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.)

Before we get to the topic of using Facebook and LinkedIn at work, I want to tell a story which was prompted by the comment yesterday from @LisaMeece108.  Hopefully this will give you one example of the many benefits of these social networking sites.

When I first joined Facebook I also joined my high school’s graduating class Group that one of my old classmates created.  From that point on, I felt I was inundated with friend requests.  Some were old friends I had lost contact with and I was excited I knew where they were.  Others, to be honest, I barely remember or had not even thought about since the “good ol’ days.” If I accepted their friend requests, their updates started showing up in my “stream.”  I started learning a lot about people I really didn’t know any more and I was skeptical about the value of these updates.

Fast forward to my beautiful cousin’s wedding. 

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Tags: e2.0 Andrew McAfee, Facebook, LinkedIn, social media challenge, trust

Facebook / LinkedIn – Day 4 – Updates & Groups

Dec 10, 2009 Social Media & Network Challenge

STATUS UPDATES

A couple days ago I was in a meeting where a person said, ” I just don’t see the value of Facebook.  I mean, seriously.  I don’t care that someone ‘is waking up with a cup of coffee’ or is ’slowly recovering from yesterday’s surgery.’  What a waste of time.”  He then grabbed someone’s iPhone with the Facebook app running and started reading off the updates.  I must admit, some of them did sound silly.  But let me give you a simple example of how something so mundane and initially inconsequential can help.

Photo by paulcole on Flickr

Every year our church likes to book a camping area for everyone to go camping together.  It just so happened that I was flying in that Friday night and was going to make it just in time to leave with the family.  But the last leg of my flight was delayed.  I called my wife and let her know, then I jumped on Facebook and updated my status: “Flight is delayed.  Can’t wait to see the fam after two weeks away and go camping. Hopefully I will be there in time to meet them.”

When my wife arrived at the campsite she suddenly had a number of people helping her out to set up the tent and get everything ready for her and the seven kids.  Why?  They saw the update, knew I would not be there with them and pitched in to help.  She kept hearing, “I heard Kevin will be late.” How was that, my non-Facebook using wife thought?  Did he call everyone?  No, it was the Facebook status.

The other day I found out that my friend’ wife was coming home from the hospital after delivering a baby.  Since we now live 2500 apart , I had not heard about the birth, and probably would not have until his wife was somewhat back to normal.  But I found out early, thankfully!

Then, last week, I had an business acquaintance message me through LinkedIn.  We have talked numerous times and had lunch together once.  He is a great guy and I have been impressed with his work.  Unfortunately, work is something he didn’t have any more and he let me know through LinkedIn.  Now, I can have my eyes open for him.

Can the updates be abused?  Sure, and some people are better at doing that than others.  But other times, those small, seemingly insignificant updates can make a big difference.

GROUPS

Facebook and LinkedIn both have GROUPS which you can join (without giving away private information about yourself).  Once in, there is usually a discussion on that topic.  The Groups can be organized around causes, ideas, conspiracy theories, music artists, professional initiatives or goofy topics.  Just about whatever you can think of, personal or professional, there will be a group for you to join.  Some groups are VERY useful – sharing information and asking/answering questions.  It becomes another set of people who have common passions to collaborate and connect with.

TO DO – Join some groups (Difficulty Level: EASY – Time: 15- minutes total)

• Go to both Facebook and LinkedIn and search groups for your favorite causes and professional interests.
• Join them and jump in on the conversations!

Tags: Facebook, groups, LinkedIn, social media challenge

Facebook / LinkedIn – Day 3 – Friending & Connecting

Dec 8, 2009 Social Media & Network Challenge

Now that you are on, let’s get you connected.

Photo by dan taylor on Flickr

FRIENDS in ‘real life’ are not the same as friends online.  In face-to-face relationships there is a certain etiquette with friends. Online, there is a totally different etiquette with friends. We won’t go over all the nuances, just know that it is OK to have thousands of friends on an online network and never really ’speak’ to any of them.

Then why have them?

When you need them, they will be there.  For example, let’s say you find a past coworker from 10 years ago on LinkedIn and connect to them.  Next month, suddenly, you are laid off.  What is the best way to find a job? Through networking.  Suddenly, you have a MUCH larger network to contact and that past coworker is no longer a distant memory, but a valuable resource.

Or, let’s say that you were involved with a volunteer music production group.  In time you quit, moved across the country and life moved on – but you were friends with this group on Facebook.  Five years later you get the itch and want to start up a similar production group in your new town.  Even though you did not stay in touch via mail or even email very well, not only do you know where to find this group, but you can instantly contact them to get advice.

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Tags: Facebook, friends, LinkedIn, social media challenge

Facebook / LinedIn – Day 2 – Strategy

Dec 8, 2009 Social Media & Network Challenge

“You’re kidding, right?  You mean you need a strategy for signing up for these social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn?”

The answer is “No, you don’t.  But if you don’t, you will.”

Many people jump into social networking without thinking about what they are doing.  They go for the cool factor and forget the common sense factor.  Many people sign up, fill out their profile and start connecting (or ‘Friending’) to as many people as they can, just because they can.  They also accept friend requests from anyone.  Then, this happens…

The intent here is NOT to scare you. 

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Tags: Facebook, LinkedIn, privacy

Facebook / LinkedIn – Day 1 – Introduction

Dec 7, 2009 Social Media & Network Challenge

Week 5: Facebook/LinkedIn: Day 1

Photo by Tim in Sydney on Flickr

As physical entities, we can only be in one place at one time.  We only have 24 hours in a day. Because of these two facts, our “reach” is limited.  “Reach” can be defined as our potential sphere of influence.  If we have three meetings, back to back, we have to remember the travel time between each one, the customary introduction and exit rituals will each take time, and that switching from one group to another is not always easy.  (And remember, each of these meetings must fit everyone’s schedule, so even the availability for these meetings is diminished.) Because of this limited reach we are not able to be in contact with those people whom we might value the most – family, friends and colleagues – as often as we might like.  We often also have to whittle out some groups altogether – even though they may be valuable – because of this limited reach.

Yet, what if we were not bound by our physical bodies, nor time?  What would happen to this reach – this potential sphere of influence?  What kind of influence could we have if we were able to stay in contact with thousands of people?  What could we accomplish if we could join meetings or groups when it was convenient for us?

Social Computing allows us to do this. 

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Tags: Facebook, LinkedIn, social media challenge

Be a Designer, Not Just a Trainer

Mar 26, 2009 Selling Social Learning, Social Learning SIG

As Dave and I talk about in the latest podcast “Be a Designer, not just a Trainer” (iTunes link) “Performance Improvement” or HPT (Human Performance Technology) should be at the top of the food chain.  The following should be understood by us all:

HPT is (should be) in direct coorelation with goals

Learning is a subset of HPT

Training is a subset of Learning

eLearning is a subset of Training

Yet so many times we skip the HPT & Learning parts and go straight for Training or eLearning.  Why is that?

The point was driven home just now as I went to my LinkedIn page.  It asked for my Industry. I tried to find anything about HPT or Performance Improvement or anything like it.  Not there.  But there is eLearning, Education Management, Higher Education, Human Resources, Primary/Secondary Education and Professional Training / Coaching.  But nothing to do with performance improvement.

Too general?  Maybe.  But I don’t think so.  LinkedIn takes what are the most popular categories.  How many of you would consider yourself an HPT professional?  Exactly.  That is why it is not an option.  That is why ISPI has a lower membership (10K) than either ASTD (70K) or the eLearning Guild (35K).  This is backwards.  We should all be ISPI members and THEN ASTD or eLearning Guild members.

Unfortunately, too often too many people jump from goals to training and skip the inbetween.  Why can’t many break free of this rut?  My opinion is that this is what those in executive management expect.  They expect training.  Come to them with some other solution besides training that will work better and their reaction often is, “Why are you doing that?  Aren’t you supposed be doing training?  This isn’t your department.”  I know – I have had it happen to me in the past.

But if we are going to be effective, we have to think of ourselves as Designers of human performance, not Trainers of content.

Tags: astd, design, elearning guild, ispi, LinkedIn

Requirement to Social Learning Adoption #4 – Trialability

Feb 26, 2009 Adoption

“Trialability is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited basis.” (Diffusion of Innovations, p. 16)

Isn’t this down economy great?  Don’t get me wrong, just like the next guy I wish it wasn’t happening.  We are all feeling the effects of it, some more than others.  But it is making us step out of our comfort zone and try some new things.  The easier it is to try these new things out, the better adoption we will have.

With each Twitter follower, I look at their profile and latest tweets.  There was one person today, in particular, that followed me.  Phil was just laid off of his work.  He created a twitter account last April, updated it three times in the first two hours and then didn’t touch it.  Until now.

Now he has a reason. Phil might be saying, “Hey, it can’t hurt.  I might as well try it out – give it a shot.”  Not only is the relative advantage higher than it was before, but he can try it out as an experiment.  Pretty soon he sees that making a connection gets his name and situation on a blog read my millions of people (OK – WAY overstated), but now he has some loose connections that might help with the job search.

The first time you at sushi did you stuff the whole thing in your mouth?  Not likely.  You probably nibbled at it, like I did, and got a general taste of what this raw fish was going to bring to you.  Then, if you liked it, you tried more and more until – possibly – you scarfed down the whole plate.

Why do you think razors are cheap but the blades cost a fortune?  If the razors themselves are cheap enough, people can give it a trial run without losing much.  Then the razor company hopes you love it and buy the blades once you are hooked.

Or the numerous “30 days free!” offers.

To gain adoption, try making social learning useful on a trial basis. Let people get their feet wet.  Give them a reason to try and then make it easy, painless and costless.  When they try it out they will understand – there is less uncertainty.

This is one of my main tasks for any critics and those who don’t know where to start: Try it out.  Nibble a little.  Learn about what you are afraid and uncertain of by doing it.  Then it isn’t a mystery and you can decide if it works for you.

(BTW, Phil looks like he has some great experience.  If you are looking for someone with good HR, learning and leadership experience, check out his LinkedIn profile.)

Tags: diffusion of innovations, LinkedIn, Phil Power, razor, trial, trialability, Twitter

Multi-Tasking & Social Media – Mastering the Balance

Feb 11, 2009 Social Learning SIG

While reading Will Thalheimer’s blog on multitasking, I started playing out situations in my mind.

• Twitter, email and IM popping up new messages
• Going through my RSS feed
• Checking LinkedIn & Facebook
• Answering the phone
• Attending to visitors

Yet as we do this we are all learning.  So if it actually is a disturbance to multi-task, where is the line?  What is considered multi-tasking and what is considered fruitful learning & performance?  This is what I have come up with initially…

I see myself in a constant state of learning.  But those non-formal times of learning which are best for me are when they are targeted.  It doesn’t matter if I use 100 different resources or 1.  But if I am focused then I can use all my tools to accomplish a task.

For example, yesterday I was trying to find a way to create a movie in Camtasia, send it to Adobe Premiere and produce the final with a clear picture.  The ones I was doing were decent, but I needed more clarity.  To do this I integrated a google search, help search, Twitter shout-out and email.  I wasn’t multi-tasking.  Instead I was focused on one task even though I was using multiple avenues.

Recognizing this some time ago, I have turned off email popups and check my RSS feeds, LinkedIn, Facebook and NING sites on purpose (as apposed to haphazardly).  (Twitter I still have on, but often I let those go until I can check a bunch at a time.)  If I am heavy into the moment I let my phone go to voicemail.  And in desparate times I “pull out the plant.”  This large plant blocks anyone from visiting me.  All these things keep my learning and production focused, avoiding the multi-tasking.

One last thought – I have found there is some benefit to procrastination.  Interruptions don’t always receive immediate brain share.  They are put on the backburner unless they are an emergency (Covey’s “Important vs. Urgent”).  Sometimes they disappear before I get to them.  Often my brain will, in the background, deal with the situation so when I do allow it to occupy my time I can speedily take care of it.  The brain is a beautiful thing.

Tags: Camtasia Studio, Facebook, LinkedIn, multi-tasking, RSS, social, social media, Twitter