Technology and Informal Learning

On a recent business trip, I found myself exposed to technology along every step of the venture. As I walked the halls of the airport, I had the option to use technology to print my boarding pass, check my bags, check my email, upload Halloween photos of the kids to my Facebook account, and download new music to listen to on the flight. On the plane, I could even swipe my credit card and watch Direct TV. On a daily basis, we as a culture are highly exposed to information via multiple mediums. Think of something you learned today and I will take a bet it was delivered via technology.

This makes me wonder why such a prevalent presence is still widely underutilized as a means of capturing “knowledge” and delivering “learning” within organizations. Sure, eLearning has been a core element of most training portfolios for years now, and we send out PDFs of workbooks and participate in a Webinar on occasion, but why stop there? What about “just in time” and “just for me” informal learning? When there is a performance-specific need that requires immediate attention, why not serve up guidance via portals, social communities, blogs, Wikis, etc. Each could be used to capture and share insights from subject matter experts, to probe and discuss trends and collect perceptions from peers or the masses. Early-adopters that understand the value are already taking full advantage of these tools. Ask yourself if you know someone that regularly uses at least one of the following to gather or share information; LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Skype, Wikipedia, or Google? These are core examples of how far technology can reach.

Why couldn’t an organization create an invite-only product-specific discussion group for their regional sales team on LinkedIn? Or why not a “leadership blog” where each month a senior leader in the organization shares his or her perspectives? Perhaps start a project-specific Wiki in marketing so that lessons learned are captured and accessible for the next project team? Each of these is a different way to provide “just in time” information that would be tailored for the end user—or “just for me.”

While I know the issue of “open dialogue-driven tools” scares some organizations, particularly compliance and legal. Just as there are guidelines for what you can do and say in the workplace, so too can these tools have standards of use. We need to remember that we are talking about adults or “professionals” using technology to advance their performance.

I believe adding these types of resources and allowing them to be tapped both inside and outside of traditional learning environments, extends the impact beyond the “classroom” and provides on-the-job assets that are dynamic and information rich.

Hive-Based Learning Strategies

Over the past six months we've spent a lot of time exploring the application of social media and knowledge management tools to the learning environment.

As an outcome, we've gotten a lot smarter about how these resources can cost-effectively supplement traditional learning methodologies - as well as gaining an understanding of the challenges and pitfalls of implementation.

We've branded our initiative as "Hive-Based Learning" - which we view as the design and development of training and performance support tools utilizing the integration of multiple information resources (such as knowledge management assets, social media channels and digital media libraries).

Most importantly, our strategy combines these resources and organizes them by job performance requirements. Driven by collaboration and communication, this learning approach also creates a growing network of knowledge capital that continuously evolves through peer and expert contributions.

We've got a couple of cool things to share with you if you're interested in seeing how we've approached this:

(1) Click here to check out the PPT presentation that provides an overview

(2) Click here to explore the prototype site that we created showing how these elements might support a real estate corporation's Green Asset Management initiative. Click into the lighting thread for the most populated view of how this integrated approach applies.

McKinsey > "Web 2.0 and Business"

Started working this afternoon on an overview of valuable McKinsey & Co. Study on "Web 2.0 and Business"...

Talking over implications with colleagues and (no surprise here), Jay Cross has beat me to it.

Great job Jay! Check out Jay's summary and insights at http://bit.ly/1ywGK