Harold Jarche

Face to Virtual

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Earlier this year I ran a workshop on informal learning in the workplace for about 25 people. This followed a year of web-based sessions with Jay Cross & Judy Brown, in which we used various technologies to connect with people around the world.

As much as I enjoyed the face-to-face session, I found it rather limiting. For instance, there was no back channel of text-based IM conversation going on simultaneously, nor could I pop a link or file to everyone while I continued the conversation. I found that face-to-face was a tad too  linear and not as productive as some of our virtual sessions.

Jay Deragon [who has an excellent blog worth subscribing to] talks about the increased productivity that virtual work can drive.

The number one reason that professionals want to participate in virtual teams more frequently is simple: increased productivity.  As the size of the virtual workforce in America today is growing, so is the likely impact on productivity and profitability for organizations. More than 90 percent of those surveyed agree (35%) or strongly agree (56%) that virtual meetings save time and money. We used to think that meeting face-to-face was the only way to build trust and teamwork. Armed with new technology and new best practices, we’re learning new ways to connect on a human level with people anywhere, anytime, said Dr. Jaclyn Kostner, author of Virtual Leadership.

Virtual work significantly reduces useless meetings, eliminates commuting time and helps each worker focus on what is important. Because you can’t watch each person and tell them how to do everything, the organisation must come up with real performance measurements, and that in itself will increase productivity.

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On effective teaching

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School is on in some parts of the world, like Texas, where Christian Long is returning to teaching. Our kids don’t go back to school until September 4th, but I was going through some saved RSS feeds and I came across these guideline on a post from last year titled Why we still need teachers, and it just seemed appropriate:

Rather than a minimally-guided problem-based learning approach, we see effective teaching when …

  • The goals of teaching include facts, principles, process, and application
  • Learning is interactive and not one-sided (wholly teacher- or student-focused)
  • Learning from example and problem-based learning are not mutually exclusive
  • The ties between theoretical and practical knowledge are explicitly looked for and taught if students don’t get them.
  • The limits and assumptions of information and subjects are considered, and applications to the real world, constantly reinforced.
  • Teachers are taught to be very aware of working memory demands of material – so they are able to provide organization or scaffolding for students unable to assimilate information or problem-solving steps.
  • Finally, practice and instruction in problem-solving are given, so students don’t get all A’s, but later flunk life.

I wish all returning teachers and students good luck in the coming year and may you be passionate in your teaching and learning, because that is what really counts.

Are our small towns ready for the next economy?

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Is it a trend when more US citizens move to Canada, hitting a 30 year high last year? I like to think that as we all become interconnected that it will be easier to choose where we live and how we do our work, making obligatory daily commutes a thing of the past. Much as I want that, most people don’t have that option and few employers are willing to offer it. Rob Paterson notes that some professionals are moving to PEI for the lifestyle and bringing their work with them.

I’m now in my fifth year as an independent consultant working out of a very small town. There are several others choosing to work from the home office and doing business anywhere. We’re still the minority though. The big question is whether this will become a trend and develop into the norm – people choosing where they live first. If it becomes the norm then there will be some fundamental societal and economic shifts; perhaps nine shifts.

Small towns are attractive to certain  types of people. I think that they appeal to young families as well as the newly retired or semi-retired, who want a slower pace of life. The challenge for small towns will be to offer what these folks really find important.  High-speed internet or even free municipal WiFi may be important. Access to a good passenger train service (with wireless Internet) may also be important.

There is an opportunity for small towns to position themselves as preferred locations for an Internet economy but the race may get fierce, as communities see their tax base leaving for greener pastures. The Canadian Maritime provinces need to establish the infrastructure that will attract knowledge workers and keep them here.  Companies like FatKat Animation in Miramichi are setting the example. However, our communities will also need good restaurants, multi-cultural experiences, openness to alternative lifestyles and all those other things that educated folks seek out.

It will be a big challenge to move from our not so distant agrarian economy to a knowledge economy, but if we miss the boat, we’ll end up as an economic backwater. What would attract you to move to a small town in Atlantic Canada? [by international standards, there are only small towns in Atlantic Canada]

Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants Coming to Town

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I’ll be hosting the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants next week (27 Aug) . This will be an open call but special consideration will be given to environmental themes (due to my work with AWI) as well as any fellow Canadian bloggers. Drop me a note if you have something of interest and want to be one of the required 7 (no more & no less) highlighted posts.

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If you’re not familiar with the Carnival, the hosts change from week to week but you can subscribe to the feed. This week’s post is by Michele Martin on her Bamboo Project Blog with several interesting links.

A new business model for online learning

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The learning management system has become the de facto delivery vehicle in the online training and education world. It is popular because it tracks learner activities, manages classes, controls testing activities and allows instructors some level of control. One of the primary limitations of the LMS/LCMS is that learners only use it when they are registered and cannot take their artifacts with them. Another is that the LMS environment does not connect with the learners’ other online environments; like Social Networking Systems, News, Photo Sharing or Blogs. As more learners use the Web for other work and social activities, the walled garden of the LMS becomes less relevant.

I’ve previously discussed why I don’t think that content is king in the online learning world and that community and context are critical in developing learning environments. Well the context sure has changed over the past decade and LMS vendors should start considering how to stay relevant in their field. First of all, there are many competitive open source LMS available for no licensing fees. One way to compete with open source would be to launch a FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) campaign, but this will only work for a certain period of time. You could also lock in your clients with your technology but you need lots of clients in the first place. Or you could sue your competitors, but this requires deep pockets and might even backfire.

A better option is to create your own ecosystem, as Linux has done rather successfully. Another, more pertinent, example is IBM’s Eclipse project which is a collaboration between several proprietary software vendors to create a common development environment.

So what if several LMS vendors got together on a basic open source learning environment and then they competed on adding high-value applications around this open core? Could this create a more sustainable position for future development, without the fear of vendor lock-in, but still providing a profit motive for the private sector? Maybe it’s time to think outside of the box.

Friday Reflection

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I’ve decided to stop at Step 3 for the series of small steps for knowledge resilience this week, but if there was a fourth, I would say that it should be to reflect.

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As I mentioned on Monday’s post, many organisational workers are so busy running around that they don’t have a chance to ask why. There is a time for action and a time for reflection. The tools that I’ve mentioned this week can be used for either, but you have to take the time to reflect. Review your old bookmarks, re-read comments and look at posts with new eyes.

I decided to use a single theme for the week on the advice of Bill Fitzgerald. It takes more concentration but in some ways is easier because of the self-imposed constraints. As an aside, with WordPress you can write all of your posts at the same time and then edit the timestamp so that they publish in order on consecutive days. This is handy if you’re going to be away but want to keep publishing.

Step 3: Converse

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The idea behind these last few posts has been to look at pragmatic ways to employ some tools to build resilience into organisations as they get swept by the third wave. Jon Husband describes the new organisational structure for the networked knowledge economy as a wirearchy. An important aspect of working in a networked structure is that every node (person) can now influence the entire network; quite different from a hierarchical, industrial organisation, with mostly up and down information flows.

In third wave economies knowledge workers are valued for their individual talents and the networks that they belong to. Titles and positions blur when the work requires creativity. Third wave organisations have to be creative because the second wave economies are already taking the cookie-cutter jobs and going to the cheapest possible labour pool.

A third wave workplace is more like this:

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A workplace where everyone can connect with anyone else makes each node important and means that no one can hide in the corner office, especially when the proverbial sh*t hits the fan. That is why conversation is becoming very important. Conversations help people make meaning, whether it’s between co-workers, with potential employees, customers or suppliers. These roles are also blurring, so each conversation has to be at a human level to value each individual. For instance, treating a customer as just another “consumer” can backfire when that customer is also a blogger with an audience of millions.

We learn through conversations and the Web gives us all kinds of options. Your organisation can let those with experience write about it (blogs) or you can record professional development events for use later (podcasts). If podcasts are way too technical for your group, then burn them on a CD and leave them at the door for the commute home. You can let everyone into the conversation while creating new procedures (wikis) or you can record events as pictures and videos and let people continue to talk about them (e.g. Flickr or YouTube).

As our societies changed into democracies, they became noisier. So too will the third wave workplace. However, that noise will be sound of knowledge resilience.

Step 2: Aggregate

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Let’s say that you’ve actually got your team using social bookmarks (my last post) and it’s going gangbusters, with hundreds of articles tagged and dozens of people sharing information. You’re getting into attention deficit, with too much to read and not enough time. Now what?

What you need is a feed reader, which is a way for you to decide what you want to keep track of and pulls all of your information sources into one location. Feed readers can be web or desktop applications. Popular web versions are Bloglines and Google Reader, while the Thunderbird e-mail client has an integrated feed reader or you can use NewsGator with MS Outlook.

I use Bloglines but many of my online compatriots seem to be moving to Google Reader. There are dozens of other options.

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Feed readers let you pull any new information from a site that has what’s called an RSS feed. Using automatic subscription widgets that can be put into a browser makes this easy and you don’t really need to know about RSS. Like social bookmarks, feed readers can be public or private, and your feed reader can keep track of all those social bookmarks, because they have RSS feeds. For instance, you can subscribe to my del.icio.us bookmarks or you can view the my public feed reader.

There are many resources online that can walk you through the set up of feed reader. If you’re stumped, leave a comment here or send me an e-mail and I’ll connect you with the appropriate resource.

The bottom line is that in Step 1 you started to share information that was previously locked-up on your workstation. With Step 2 you are using a tool that lets you control what you want to monitor and how you want to see it. You’re pulling information, instead of having it pushed at you, as you would with an e-mail newsletter. Pull is replacing push because we’re getting inundated with information. For instance, Jay Cross recently shut down his newsletter, replacing it with existing blogs and other social networking applications, such as the Internet Time Community (worth joining if you’re interested in learning technologies).

Aggregating your information sources (news, blogs, bookmarks) is not going to solve all of your knowledge sharing needs, but it sure is better than using e-mail. Most kids only use e-mail to communicate with their parents; it’s so last millennium ;-)

Step 1: Free your Bookmarks

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Here is the first small step toward knowledge resilience:

Perhaps the simplest way to start sharing organisational knowledge is with social bookmarks. Most workers still have their list of Bookmarks/Favourites in their web browser, but when they’re not at their computer these links aren’t accessible. Enter the social bookmark.

Social bookmarks are web sites that let you create an account in order to save web pages. They differ from those on your browser in that 1) they’re accessible from anywhere; 2) you can clip a piece of the page for reference; 3) you add categories (a.k.a. tags); 4) you can search your bookmarks; and 5) you can share your bookmarks with others.

Here’s an example from the del.icio.us application:

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Other social bookmarks I’ve used are Furl and Ma.gnolia.

Update: I now use Diigo

One advantage of social bookmarks is that they don’t require the IT department’s permission to use. You can start sharing what you find interesting/important with your team or section without any new technology other than a web browser and access to the Internet. You’ll also find that you will be sending a lot fewer e-mails saying, “hey, check this out”. By creating your own “tag” you can have everyone finding information about competitors or new trends. A tag such as “ABC123” can be used by everyone to identify something for a specific project, and then you can search for that tag and the system will show you what everyone has found.

If you want to keep all of this secret, you’ll have to mark all your posts as private and then give others your password. Another option would be use an open source social bookmarking system and bring it inside your company’s firewall, but that would take some cooperation from the IT department. An example of an OS social bookmarking application is Steve Mallett’s de.lirio.us [no longer available, but Ma.gnolia is now open source]

As you continue to use social bookmarks you will also see others who have bookmarked similar items and then follow their links to show even more interesting stuff in your field of interest. The more you share, the more you learn.

I use social bookmarks for everything except some password-protected sites, like my bank. I will also set up a new category for a client if it can help us communicate better.

To learn even more, watch Lee Lefever’s Video: Social Bookmarking in plain English, showing how teachers can use social bookmarks for education, but the lessons are applicable for any workplace.

Small steps toward knowledge resilience

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“It is not the biggest, the brightest, the best that will survive, but those that adapt the quickest.” Charles Darwin

In a few decades there may be only be one major automaker remaining. Can you imagine a world where automakers don’t reign supreme?

We take our current circumstances for granted, but so did carriage makers and chatauqua organisers. I don’t think that there is any doubt that we’re shifting our economic systems and we’re going to need new organisational structures to support how we live and work. But we’re currently in the period of change where second wave (industrial) and third wave (knowledge) economies co-exist and complete with each other.

Indicators of this fundamental economic change are that YouTube is getting bigger than broadcast media, and growing; while Facebook is grabbing everyone’s attention, including advertisers’. Old models, such as paying for information (newspapers, journals, thought-leaders) are declining. At the same time we are overwhelmed with all the information that is now freely available and we soon realise that we don’t have the attention span for most of it.

Many of my clients in traditional and hierarchical organisations are so busy with meetings, travel, commuting and other non-essential tasks that they don’t have time for their real job, which is probably some form of problem-solving. I’m in a non-traditional job (self-employed) and I have time to read dozens of books every year. I don’t spend time commuting and the only meetings I attend are focused on some deliverable. I have off-loaded some non-core tasks, such as accounting, and I have access to more cheap and free productivity tools than I can ever use. My work model is more effective and efficient for the knowledge economy than the industrial structures of most of my clients.

So how can industrial structures change into knowledge networks?

Business performance in a knowledge economy requires learning – all the time. Informal learning practices will have to be integrated into all of our work structures. Things like annotating, filing, reflecting, discussing and testing will be part of everyday work. If you need to be a creative problem-solver (what else is a knowledge worker?) then you’ll have to do the same. A lot of workers aren’t used to this, and those who want to be creative and flexible are often stymied by regulations and work structures. For instance, how many workers in large organisations are allowed to download and test new software applications? Of course their IT department says it’s for their own good that workstations are locked-down. A really effective IT department would ensure that there is a safe way for all workers to be creative with their productivity tools. My IT department does ;-)

Part of the transition strategy for any organisation that wants to build third wave resilience into its second wave structure will be the development of informal learning strategies. Trying out personal knowledge management or finding ways to share and be creative on a continual basis will have to become part of the organisation’s DNA. This will be a major re-wiring exercise but the future will belong to the fast learners.

My next posts will focus on specific practices that could actually be implemented in organisations to make them more resilient in a networked knowledge economy. This is important for organisations as well as individuals, who may find themselves being laid-off from an under-performing company. Ross Dawson provides some recent examples:

There are 4,391 media layoffs in the US in first quarter of 2007 are, up 93% on the same period in 2006.
AOL Time Warner sacks 5000 staff.
San Francisco Chronicle announces plans to cut 25% of its newsroom staff.