Why #11: Creates Accountability

photo credit: David Childers

WHY #11:Creates Accountability

Who, in your organization, is in charge of learning?

The answer should be: The learner. In fact, it already is whether we want to admit to it or not.  We may say that the training department is in charge of learning, and that is what most people may think, but they are wrong.  It is the individual.   And that is a huge shift in thinking that will need to happen.

The last, and probably most important  characteristic that encompasses all other characteristics is that of Accountability.  So many training programs use LMSs to track training initiatives.  There may be mandatory and recommended trainings for employees.  From this angle the learning seems to be pushed to the learner – as if the learner must be bribed to learn.  In reality, they are only being bribed to learn using the organizational learning method.

It is a Pull, not a Push method from the side of the learner.  If employees want to learn they need to go find the learning.  Parenthetically, if they use RSS, it is pushed to them, but they initiate it .  They command the learning.

But within social learning, the learner takes command of learning.  It is up to them to learn or to stay ignorant – to stay relevant or become obsolete. They can participate, or close themselves off from the learning.  This, in the end, is something that we cannot take away from each person.  But social learning does allow the learner to take more accountability and direction in their learning and how they give back to those that might learn from them.