Friday’s Finds #26

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HJ twitter

What I learned on Twitter this past week:

Work

The Taylorist Stranglehold on buildings, management & IT via @drmcewan

“Hierarchies aren’t evil, networks aren’t chaotic. Both are incarnations of the same structures in the semi-ordered domain that is human life” @tonzylstra

via @skap5 – 17.5% unemployed or underemployed. Not just the bottom of a cycle. A burning platform for an innovation economy and transforming education.

The best potential clients for Enterprise 2.0 are 1) losing the industrial war, or 2) have a culture of pushing out/down power via @robpatrob

Founder Collective: we expect to generate returns almost exclusively from seed stage investments. via @jonhusband

Learning

via @JoanVinallCox Learning is a primal joy, like sex, & it is imperative, like eating & drinking.

“Students as enemies” metaphor is pervasive. This is not a done deal. via @smartinez @akamrt

Video: Discussions about using Twitter and microblogging in education. via @zecool

100+ ways to use social media for learning. via @c4lpt

The flu virus may be telling us to rethink our approach to science & education.

Look who’s smiling :-) Technology in the classroom. via @fmeichel @FrancoisGuite

Systems

Great article on the use of system dynamics modeling for complex problems in international development. via @hrichman

“The capitalist nightmare: search is both theft & the very ontology of the web.” inspired by @crowdedfalafel

Interesting similarities between Convergence of Key Media Trends via @kanter & Constellation W [Convergence & Ruptures] via @jonhusband

eCollab

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ecollab_-_badge_copie_normalI’ve been working with Frédéric Domon over the past few months and you may have noticed that we recently launched Entreprise Collaborative, a cross-cultural idea laboratory to exchange perspectives with experts and practitioners around collaboration and social learning in the enterprise.

One objective of our venture is to bridge two linguistic communities and learn from each by lowering the barriers to communication and cooperation. I have also updated some of my key articles, which have been translated into French and are now on the eCollab site. Our first bilingual White Paper with several contributors is another example of the collaboration we hope to foster and we will continue to publish these on themes that are pertinent to our professional communities. We are also launching a blog carnival.

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Frédéric was recently interviewed (in French) by Lilian Mahoukou at project doppelganger and given that  we’ve never met I learned some more about my colleague. The fact that I haven’t met business partners and clients is becoming much more the norm in my networked business.

It’s interesting to note that, as a student, Frédéric was counseled that information technology had no future, so he went into communications and marketing instead. I wonder what advice is being given to students today that will prove just as wrong.

To follow our bilingual blog go to: www.entreprisecollaborative.com, subscribe to the RSS Feed, follow us on twitter @ecollab, or follow the twitter hashtag #ecollab.

L’avenir de la formation en Entreprise

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Cette année pour notre conférence LearnTrends nous allons offrir une session en français – L’Entreprise Collaborative et l’avenir de la formation en entreprise.

Voici les Participants: Harold Jarche, Jon Husband, Frédéric Domon, Vincent Berthelot et Thierry de Baillon

Nous allons présenter l’Entreprise Collaborative, discuter l’avenir de la formation (discussion autour du theme du prochain ecollab) et vous demander comment on peut mieux servir la communauté francophone.

Détails :

LearnTrends (voir la flèche verte pour le lien vers Elluminate)

mercredi 18 novembre

07:00 h (Pacifique)

Learning to work

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Learning to Work & Working to Learn

The way we work is definitely changing, due partly to:

  • Increased connectivity to more people;
  • Increasing complexity in the work we get paid to do;
  • Distributed work that is more global in nature or influence; and
  • The need to learn as we work.

Look at these changes over the past century:

Individual Work — from Vocations to Jobs to Roles

Learning to Work — from Apprenticeship to Training to Collaboration

Organization of Work — from Local to Regional to Networked businesses

Consider this. Friends of mine have four children in their late twenties and early thirties. All are in the ‘workforce’. All four went to university and some have completed graduate degrees. At this time, not one has a ‘job’.

The world has changed and we had better get used to it and learn to adapt.

What are your roles? How do you collaborate? Where are your networks?

PKM Overview

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I will be presenting on personal knowledge management (PKM) for LearnTrends 2009 on Tuesday, 17 November at 12:00 noon Pacific (15:00 EST & 20:00 GMT). In preparation, I’ve created a 5 minute presentation (MP4) of the topic, summarizing many of the posts I’ve written on the subject (click link below to launch video).

PKM Overview

References:

Sense-making with PKM (explains processes in more detail)

Creating your PKM Processes (some suggestions)

Other PKM Processes (includes diagrams)

Learning and Micro-blogging (all about Twitter)

Web Tools for Critical Thinking (with diagrams)

Friday’s Finds #25

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Here’s what grabbed my attention on Twitter this past week.

Networked Life means less command & control; but more self-control Euan Semple

via @jclarey Confessions of a Learning Consultant: I have designed and delivered programs with no more than minimal impact on my client’s business.

via @moehlert “Students who spend 8 yrs in grad school are being seriously over-trained for the jobs that are available.” Harvard Magazine [good debate in the comments]

via @cammybean is a 2002 study at Sara Lee by Atos KPMG (link to translation from original Dutch) that 80% of learning occurred spontaneously during work [paraphrased]:

What surprised the participants at the workshop was that a large proportion of learning was self-directed by workers. Nearly 80% of their learning fell within the categories of “spontaneous learning at work”, “networking with colleagues” and “consulting manuals and instructional materials”. Based on these definitions, learning at Sara Lee is about 80% informal and 20% formal learning.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences & scientific stupidity: Donald Clark

via @kwheeler Why Silicon Valley beat Route 128 in Boston. Good article. TechCrunch

via @Socialearning The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education – Curtis Bonk

via @mathemagenic A personal view on knowledge work: Mathemagenic

via @dstojanovic Using twitter in academic setting? Here is how to cite. RT @GersteinLibrary: How to cite Twitter and Tweets

via @SoulSoup “The Complete Guide to Google Wave“, a free book you can download & share.

Internet Time Alliance Podcast

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My colleagues at the Internet Time Alliance and I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Dawn Poulos for Xyleme Voices (a podcast library on the evolution of training). It was quite enjoyable and the technology worked very well. Dawn is a real professional and I would recommend getting involved in this series, which includes podcasts from Janet Clarey, Lars Hyland, Clive Shepherd and others.

Harold Jarche, Charles Jennings, Clark Quinn & Jay Cross on Challenges and Misconceptions of Collaborative and Social Learning in the Workplace:

Part 1 managing collaboration

Part 2 CLO’s and the needs of business

Part 3 collaborative learning in a corporate setting

Part 4 social media in corporations

Part 5 integrating learning in the enterprise

The value of social media for learning

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The LCB Big Question this month is, “How do I communicate the value of social media as a learning tool to my organization?”

Here’s my answer, bringing together several threads I’ve been thinking about.

1. We live in a networked society. More of our work is being done within and between networks. In networks, there are no standard communication routes or protocols. Things get done in a much messier and uncontrolled fashion. You can’t impose a hierarchy and try to control all of the interactions and communications in a network. The network regards hierarchy as a failure, and routes around it.

2. When it comes to the kind of work that we get paid to do, the simple work is being automated and the merely complicated work is being outsourced to where labour is cheapest. This leaves us with the complex work, or the type of problems that require creativity, inductive reasoning and often require help or inspiration from others.

3. Complex work and work in complex environments require faster feedback loops. We need to get data, information and knowledge quickly, and cannot wait for it to be bounced up and down a chain of command. Social networks, which are comprised of people that we trust in some way, can enable us to connect to someone who may be able to help. However, to do this, we have to already have that connection. Social media allow us to initiate and nurture relationships with many people in many different ways. The quality of our networks becomes critical in enabling us to do complex work. Social learning is the enabler.

4. Social media, such as blogs, Twitter, and social networks help people find and connect with each other, based on some shared interests. With complex work, our challenges are now highly contextual and written best practices just don’t cut it anymore. We need someone who understands the nature of our problem who can use human reasoning to help us. We have to be connected to that person though. That’s why we need to engage in social networks, but these are not created overnight. We develop them one conversation and one interaction at a time.

networks-n-nodes

5. What are the value of social media as learning tools? Simply put, they help create networks of multi-way trust to share ideas, advice and feelings between people who care. Social networks have been shown to be the principal way that learning spreads in organizations:

Individual learning in organizations is irrelevant because work is almost never done by one person. All value is created by teams and networks. Furthermore, learning may be generated in teams but this type of knowledge comes and goes. Learning really spreads through social networks. Therefore, social networks are the conduit for effective organizational performance. Blocking, or circumventing, social networks slows learning, reduces effectiveness and may in the end kill the organization.

Économie du savoir

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Je participerai comme conférencier au forum sur l’économie du savoir à Edmundston, N-B, ce mardi le 3 novembre.

Pendant une journée, les entrepreneurs, les gestionnaires ainsi que les intervenants de la région du Nord-Ouest, auront la chance de découvrir les différentes facettes du savoir. Les participants acquerront des outils et des connaissances en plus d’établir de nouveaux contacts d’affaires pendant cette journée. Ils auront la chance de rencontrer différents intervenants et entrepreneurs de la région qui offrent un service relié au savoir ainsi que de connaître plusieurs histoires à succès des entrepreneurs de la région. De cette façon, les participants seront en mesure d’ajuster ou d’implanter une stratégie au sein de leur entreprise afin de mieux performer. Le tout dans le but de contribuer au développement économique de la région du nord-ouest du Nouveau-Brunswick.

Ma présentation sera, “ABC Learning” [anything but courses] voyant que les entrepreneurs d’aujourd’hui ont beaucoup moins de temps pour assister à la formation et ont un besoin plus grand au niveau de l’apprentissage. Voici la première partie de ma présentation:

Repenser la formation dans l Entreprise Collaborative

View more documents from Frédéric DOMON.

D’autres ressources sont disponible a ce signet social : economie_savoir

Friday’s Finds #24

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Here’s what caught my attention on Twitter this past week and some stuff left over from the week before:

Quote of the Week: Ingmar Bergman likened aging to hiking up a mountain, “The longer one walks the more winded one becomes, but the view!” via @marciamarcia

Food

Sustainable Food Lab: accelerate the shift of sustainable food from niche to mainstream

Lasagna gardening = my kind of gardening

Food for Thought

via @tonykarrer is an article on The Future of Knowledge Workers, or the aggregated insights of senior business professionals. I’m not sure how good any of us are at forecasting events, but I noted that collaboration ranked high on their list:

The survey asked what types of knowledge work are likely to become the most highly valued in the organization over the next 10-12 years. Collaborative work (project design team, global consultancy, etc.) received the highest ranking by the survey respondents. This is consistent with the high interest expressed throughout the survey in increasing collaborative support capabilities. Expert judgment work (research scientist, legal specialist, etc.) ranked a distant second, followed by process-oriented work (financial reporting, quality assurance, etc.) and transaction work (tech support center, billing inquiry, etc.).

“Emergent behaviors are unintended consequences that make you happy” FastForward Blog by @jmcgee

Rebecca Saxe: How we read each other’s minds | Video on TED.com seeing from another’s viewpoint via @BillBell

How to organise a children’s party (video) by @snowded “we manage the emergence of beneficial coherence within attractors, within boundaries”