Friday’s Finds #28

by

What I found of interest on Twitter this past week:

There is no point collecting common knowledge if it isn’t shared. There is no point sharing knowledge if it isn’t used. Jack Vinson

When you make the complicated simple you make it better. When you make the complex simple you make it wrong. Dave Gray

Does open source software drive open and transparent management? S+B makes the case. via @CharlesHGreen

The hierarchy-innovation trade-off via @nickcharney (he’s looking for discussion & debate on this).

One company at DevLearn 2009 reported an estimated savings of $3-5 million per year in linking global repair operations by using Yammer (private version of Twitter) via @lrnchat

Twittering the student experience via @jalam1001:

The academic departments involved in the study were so impressed with the affordances of Twitter that they have continued to use it in their pedagogic academic practices and plan to work with other bodies in the University such as the Students’ Union to promote the use of Twitter as a lightweight communication channel in the coming academic year.

“Within five years, textbooks will be the biggest market for e-book devices” Forrester Research via @charlesjennings

Australian guide to social e-learning in an academic context via @fdomon

Here’s a new social networking site dedicated to theatre: MITI Show Space This is one more Community in a Box that we’ll see more of as the internet becomes the medium for work, learning and co-operation.

Google Wave Cheat Sheet via @jsuzcampos

Social Media Marketing – Review

by

My own interest in social media is from the perspective of learning and workplace performance but the lines are getting fuzzy between marketing, communications, learning and training, so Social Media Marketing may be suitable for a wider audience than just marketing. This is one of the latest books in the for Dummies series produced by Wiley.

social media marketing

In Part 1, Shiv Singh covers the overall lay of the Internet landscape comprehensively and without any hype. In reading this section, I thought that this is the kind of information I would give my own clients. It covers broader aspects, such as general trends in social media use, as well as specifics like setting up Twitter alerts.

Part 2 is the hands-on section of the book and deals with developing an online voice, reaching your audience and most importantly, dealing with criticism. Part 3 could be called “SEO in a box”, and while it’s not of particular interest to me, this is what most companies (for profit & non-profit) are looking for – how do I actually market with social media? This section includes a chapter on the fast-growing mobile media marketplace. There are lessons here that translate for the learning function as well, such as sending mobile text alerts for changing content.

The headings in Chapter 12, “Energizing Employees within Your Company for Social Influence” could just as easily be incorporated by HR/Training as Marketing:

  • Encouraging your employees to collaborate
  • Picking social software for social influence
  • Don’t try to control too much
  • Surfacing the connections
  • Taking search social, too
  • Allowing alternate access
  • Making the goal to de-structure and de-organize
  • Giving employees other choices

The final section is on best practices and common mistakes and, given the complexity and changing nature of the field, these may change. Here are my picks of those provided:

Best practice: Conduct many small tests frequently and build on each one

Common Mistake: Not being patient

Overall this is a comprehensive book for someone new to the field and is a good reference for those with experience. It’s the kind of book I would recommend or give to clients to provide us with a common point of reference.

Wirearchy in practice

by

So far, wirearchy as a managing framework for networked business and organizatons is the only one that makes sense to me, which is why it has a category of its own here.

“A dynamic two-way flow of power and authority based on knowledge, trust, credibility and a focus on results, enabled by interconnected people and technology”

A while back, Jon Husband parsed wirearchy to see if it still made sense, and it does. In looking at the parts of the framework; they are, for the most part, embraced by progressive organizations:

  • knowledge – check
  • trust – check
  • credibility – check
  • results – check
  • interconnected people – check
  • interconnected technology – check

However, there are not too many places where you actually see “a two-way flow of power and authority”. Actually, the only place I’ve seen this two-way flow is in cooperatives or loose networks, like our group, the Internet Time Alliance. I’ve recommended before that the training department inverse the hierarchical pyramid, but can corporate management do this? Can there be a real two-way flow of authority? We have a two-way flow of authority in democracies, but this usually flows up the the pyramid only every four years or so.

Corporations were created to give limited liability to organizations that were taking on large, capital-intensive projects. Today, many corporations are based on intangible goods and services, like software or processes. Do we still need a corporation to enable wealth for post-industrial businesses? Open source has shown that software can be developed faster and cheaper (and many would say better) without a corporate structure. There are alternatives.

We should be looking at alternatives to the corporate model because networks are not markets and networks require structures that are more flexible and can respond faster to change than hierarchies. I’ve said before that work in complex environments require faster feedback loops. Social networks, which are comprised of people that we trust in some way, can speed up feedback loops in our problem solving at work. However, to do this, we have to already have that connection. The organization has to incorporate social networks as part of its structure and perhaps that is the first step in developing a wirearchy: giving explicit permission to engage in social networks and bypassing, or even obsolescing, the formal communications structures.  If the work still gets done, you don’t need the formal structure any more, and you’re on the road to becoming a wirearchy.

Simplexity – review

by

In Simplexity Jeffrey Kluger writes an easy-reading book on “why simple things become complex and how complex things can be made simple”.

simplexityFirst of all, this is not a book for anyone looking for a deep examination of complexity theory. Kluger is a writer for Time, not an academic or researcher. This makes Simplexity a very easy read and rather enjoyable. It’s the kind of book you want to take on a business trip, as it will give you some interesting ideas and perhaps help you look at things a little differently.

The book is organized into chapters that read like short stories. Topics range from “Why is the stock market hard to predict?” to “Why do people, mice, and worlds die when they do?”. My favourite chapter was, “Why is a baby the best linguist in the world?”. I learned that the first 9 months of life are essential to language learning and that a baby’s brain can do some amazing things in language acquisition. It had me questioning some of the common practices in language education.

For business professionals, the chapter on “Why do the jobs that require the greatest skills often pay the least?” is informative. The story of Beth Bechky, a workplace ethnographer, tells how she discovered that engineers in a firm would spend hundreds of hours developing blueprints to pass on to the assemblers, with the instructions, “Build to the print”.

The assemblers, in turn, accept the blueprints, shoo the engineers away – and often as not simply put the drawings aside. Never mind building to the print, many of them barely look at it. The source they turn to instead is one another. The more experienced assemblers figure out how the job should be done and tell the less experienced ones what to do. When a question arises, all of them simply consult one another.

The back cover compares Simplexity to Freakonomics and I would say that it’s a fair comparison. It’s a fun read and will make for interesting dinner conversations and may provide some insights, but it is only a shallow dive into complexity theory.

Friday’s Finds #27

by

As part of my – sense-making, moving from tacit to explicit, sharing with others – PKM system, here’s what caught my attention via Twitter during the past week. This week, I’m going to focus more on what others found interesting, as there was a lot of traffic as a result of the LearnTrends conference. LearnTrends once again emphasized my perspective that Work is Learning and Learning is the Work.

#learntrends

Janet Clarey (@JClarey): “We need to help people get around in their network and learn from it, instead of building Communities of Practice.” via @rlohuis

Chris Hardy: “new technology plus old organization = costly old organization; need new biz models and plan DAU [defense acquisition university].” via @littleasklab

Deb Schultz: “Organizational learning will be about connecting the dots for content instead of creating the content.” via @rdeis

Jerry Michalski (@jerrymichalski): “Kids are naturally curious, traditional education suppresses it; ‘unschooling’ of adults brings curiosity back.” via @SuzNet

Gary Woodill (@gwoodill): “We only started to really use classrooms a lot in corporate training after the founding of ASTD in 1947.”

Danny McCraine (@dmccraine) “If we know the public school system is broken, why do we emulate it in a corporate environment?”

Comments from George Siemens’ (@gsiemens) Session:

“opens the whiteboard up to let participants create the agenda…whoa! crazy fun! ” @chambo_online
“Very intrigued to have 130 people writing on a whiteboard all at once at #learntrends … and amazingly, it didn’t suck” @cynan_sez
“130+ people writing on same Elluminate whiteboard and GWave also being completed. Online learning has arrived” @GillianP

Jay Cross (@jaycross): “Hallmark of Future Work. Past: Subject Matter Experts. Future: Subject Matter Networks” via @Melissa_Venable @rdeis

JimFolk (@JimFolk) “Agile networks > now agile learning #learntrends see concept of Edgility that I use.”

ScottSkibell (@ScottSkibell) “Wow, I never thought of training as a form of media. Many similarities to other industries. Some aren’t good.”

Jane Hart (@c4lpt): “Ask the [social networking group] how they will determine whether the community has been successful.” via @dmccraine

@mdkemmler “Interesting comment someone made – ‘Sharepoint is a creativity powervac'”

via @gwoodill Study on mobile phones/PDAs for informal learning – PDF

George Siemens (@gsiemens) “‘networks as cognitive agent’ – a useful professional phrase when explaining to the unconverted” via @GillianP

Let me sum up #learntrends: “context; agile; social; augmented; mobile; meta; networks; culture; CoP; 3d; virtual; systems” via @jadekaz

The Cost of Not Paying Attention to Culture & Social Learning

The CLO article on France Telecom’s toxic culture and how training was thought to be an effective way initiate culture change, raised many comments on its sheer folly [Training is a solution in search of a problem]:

Sometimes it takes a series of events so unfathomable for reality to truly hit home.

Just ask France Telecom. Since the beginning of 2008, 24 employees at the company have committed suicide and an additional 13 have attempted suicide. Many of these victims left suicide notes implying the company’s working environment was a key factor in their decisions — one even explicitly cited “overwork, stress, absence of training and the total disorganization in the company.” Some of the attempts occurred on France Telecom premises.

In September, the telecom giant announced the launch of a training program that will teach its 22,000 managers to recognize signs of depression. However, this reactive measure is akin to handing out first-aid kits. It addresses the symptom rather than the root problem: The organization’s culture is quite literally toxic, slowly suffocating its employees.

Group-centric work and training

by

Individual Training

In the +20 years I spent in the military, much of it was as a student on course. In the military there is a whole system that governs individual training, in our case it was CFITES.

CFITES

CFITES comprises several volumes of instructions, including all of the ADDIE steps. A lot of resources are put into preparing individuals for duty and the system is designed for large numbers. Much time and effort goes into training a soldier and in peacetime there’s not much other than training to do anyway. If in doubt – train. Military Instructional Systems Design (ISD) has greatly informed and inspired civilian training. Frameworks such as the Systems Approach to Training, developed by the military, have over the years been adopted and adapted by corporations and government agencies.

Collective Training

Groups of soldiers who will work together usually participate in “collective training” and this typically follows some kind of cycle of preparing for operations, performing missions and coming back from missions. During the preparation phase, units work through the types of operations they think they might have to do. These are scenario-based rehearsals of varying intensity. For instance, one group exercise may solely focus on communications systems and processes.

What is interesting is that the collective training system is much less formal. There are guidelines, but not several volumes of guidance. For the most part, the training specialists are only advisors on collective training. The combat operations folks run the show here.

However, the military has a distinct advantage over business when it comes to collective training. The military is not always on operations. Due to the tempo of operational duty, soldiers need to come back and recuperate and this is when training can be conducted. Business, on the other hand, cannot afford to take staff away from their work for long. Business may be lower tempo than combat operations, but it’s always on.

The Military/Industrial Legacy

In corporations and large organizations, the training focus is predominantly on individual skills, usually based on some variant of ISD. However, as Jay Cross and I explained in the future of the training department, training is inadequate in developing the emergent practices necessary to operate in complex networked environments. The military is able to get around this weakness through collective training prior to operations, or pulling troops out of the operational theatre for special training. Also, new operating procedures are constantly updated with information from the Lessons Learned Centre.

Civilian organizations have taken one part of the military training model – Individual Training – and applied it to almost all training. This is part of the problem which could be partially addressed by focusing less on formal individual training and supporting informal learning. But the big challenge for businesses is to conduct collective training while working (being operational) at the same time.

Not Group Think, but Think Groups

The reality of working in networks is that the individual is only one node within multiple relationships of varying strengths and value. How the group works together and to whom it connects becomes very important. How then can networked workers do the equivalent of military collective training while still working effectively?

groups

Something like the Lessons Learned Centre could be a good model for a more operationally-focused training department, communicating the emergent patterns that are observed in day to day work. The official objective of the training department could also shift from supporting individuals to supporting groups. This would be a major shift and we might then see a number of changes:

  1. Training would have to move to the group because you could no longer pull individuals out of the workplace for courses.
  2. Each group has its own work context so it becomes critical to involve each group in the design of tools and interventions.
  3. There would be many groups to serve, so better feedback loops would be needed to ensure a two-way flow of communications.
  4. The training department would be busier serving many masters and may be forced to emphasize do-it-yourself solutions for groups (a good thing).
  5. The training department would learn more about the work being done (a real good thing).
  6. Courses would become an option of last resort.

The new training department would have to be focused on “Connecting & Communicating”, such as lessons learned, and I would bet that the first set of tools they would grab would be some kind of social media to enable better communications and networking.

invert pyramid

Time to get off the train

by

In Alvin & Heidi Toffler’s book, Revolutionary Wealth, they discuss the “clash of speeds” of our various societal structures, using a train analogy.

Speeding along at 100 mph is the enlightened business train; adapting and using new technologies (exploiting change).

Still fast at 90 mph is the civil society train; NGO’s, professional groups, activists, religious groups (demanding change).

Keeping up at 60 mph is the family train; working, shopping, trading & selling from home (adapting to change).

A distance back, at 30 mph is the union train, still focused on a mass-production mindset (denying change).

A bit further back at 25 mph is the large government bureaucracy train; slowing everybody else down (fighting change).

Limping along at 10 mph is the education train; protected by monopoly, bureaucracy & unions (blind to change).

Way back is at 5 mph is the international agency train: comprising organizations like WIPO, WTO, IMF (immune to change).

Even slower, at 3 mph is the political system train; discussing, debating but not accomplishing much (too busy to change).

Pulling up the rear at 1 mph is the legal train; so far behind that it hasn’t noticed the beginning of the financial bubble, let alone its collapse (rigor mortis).[can the law keep up with technology?]

tofflers trains

Reflecting on the organizations I have worked in and worked with, I think these speed comparisons make a lot sense. Given that certain businesses can change so much quicker than education, it’s obvious that educational reform will come from without, not within, the system.

When we significantly change how we work, our education systems should follow suit, but due to its design constraints, the Edu-train cannot keep up with the Ent 2.0 train. Perhaps the only option for the passengers is to get off and find another train.

Across the chasm

by

I’ve written before how I use the chasm model to explain my professional work of 1) seeing what is ready to cross the chasm by 2) staying connected to the innovators & being an early adopter so that 3) I can help mainstream organizations. It’s a graphic summary of my consulting practice. As you can see, I ignore the Laggards.
Chasm2.jpg
In the field of web social media for workplace performance, what technologies are the Innovators experimenting with?

Which ones are now being picked up by the Early Adopters (like me) and finally, which technologies and ideas are ready to cross the chasm to the Early Majority?

Innovators Early Adopters Crossing the Chasm
Technology Simulations Micro-blogs Blogs

Role-playing Social Networks Wikis

Waves Mobile Social Bookmarks
Ideas Emergent Learning PKM – PLN – PLE
 Performance Support

Subject Matter Networks
 Complexity
 Informal Learning

Group-centric Learning
 Flow
 Online Collaboration

Any other ideas, additions or comments?

Social learning is real

by

Once again, I’m learning from my colleagues, as yesterday I realized how important self-direction is in enabling social learning. Now I’m picking up on Jay’s post on Social Learning Gets Real and see how it connects to Jane’s observations. Jay has described several aspects of the future of social learning (below) and they map to the matrix (farther down) I created based on Jane’s five types of social learning.

get real jaycross

As Jay says:

In the past, we’ve focused on individuals but work is performed by groups. Hence, I expect us to start helping groups learn to perform instead of individuals.

Why is this important? We have structures and systems in place that promote and validate individual training but we leave almost all of the social learning to chance.

For example:

Would it be better to 1) take a generic classroom workshop on information management or 2) spend a few hours serendipitously learning on Twitter.

Is it more effective to a) read prepared case studies or to b) co-create your group’s case study that can be shared with the entire organization?

social learning is real

Jane Hart’s social  learning definitions:

  1. IOL – Intra-Organisational Learning – how social media tools can be used to keep employees up to date and up to speed on strategic and other internal initiatives
  2. FSL – Formal Structured Learning – how educators (teachers, trainers, learning designers) as well as students can use social media within education and training – for courses, classes, workshops etc
  3. GDL – Group Directed Learning – how groups of individuals – teams, projects, study groups etc – can use social media to work and learn together (a “group” could just be two people, so coaching and mentoring falls into this category)
  4. PDL – Personal Directed Learning – how individuals can use social media for their own (self-directed) personal or professional learning
  5. ASL – Accidental & Serendipitous Learning – how individuals, by using social media, can learn without consciously realising it (aka incidental or random learning)

Social media and self-directed learning

by

I found Jane Hart’s post on social media FOR learning most thought-provoking:

I have decided to categorise the use of social media in the following 5 different ways:

  1. IOL – Intra-Organisational Learning – how social media tools can be used to  keep the organisation up to date and up to speed on strategic and other internal initiatives
  2. FSL – Formal Structured Learning – how educators (teachers, trainers, learning designers) as well as students can use social media within education and training – for courses, classes, workshops etc
  3. GDL – Group Directed Learning – how groups of individuals – teams, projects, study groups etc – can use social media to work and learn together (a “group” could just be two people, so coaching and mentoring falls into this category)
  4. PDL – Personal Directed Learning – how individuals can use social media for their own (self-directed) personal or professional learning
  5. ASL – Accidental & Serendipitous Learning – how individuals, by using social media, can learn without consciously realising it (aka incidental or random learning)

This had me thinking about how best to explain these categories to clients and folks not immersed in social media and learning. I started by looking at it as a 2×2 matrix, but of course there are five categories, so that wouldn’t work. However, the axes of the amount of direction versus group size made sense to me, so I created the diagram below. What jumped out at me after the fact, and I’ve highlighted in red, is that social media for learning requires a lot of self-directed learning, either individually or as a participant in a group/organization. Externally directed learning (FSL) is only one of five possibilities. Good food for thought on the future role of the “training” department, isn’t it?

social media for learning