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

Inexpensive and Effective Learning

Businesses are smart to be cautious in today’s economic climate and the ever present desire to do things better, faster and less expensively is stronger than ever before. One of the ways companies have been saving money is by tasking employees with additional responsibilities while simultaneously cutting budget dollars for training. If this seems counter-productive to you, you’re not alone.

As employees take on these additional tasks, it would make a lot of sense to provide them with even more effective training and the resource tools they need to get the job done. Informal and inexpensive learning solutions such as Wikis can serve both roles.

Wikis are finally being accepted as a viable resource tool for capturing employee knowledge, enabling collaboration and educating new and existing employees. By constructing well-structured informational pages on company procedures, best practices, new products, etc… employees can quickly find the information they need to help them perform their job, while also sharing their personal knowledge for other employees who are seeking answers.

Generally speaking, most people have a basic understanding of how Wikis are useful for obtaining and sharing information. Here’s a quick and entertaining video to explain how they are effectively used for collaboration…


While some naysayers still claim that the information found on Wikis contain too many errors, studies on the accuracy of Wikipedia versus Encyclopedia Britannica conclude that the gap in content errors is smaller than you might think. In one study from 2006, the results showed an average of four mistakes per Wikipedia article against an average of three mistakes per Britannica article. One could only assume that the content contained within a company-controlled Wiki would be even more accurate.

Informal learning solutions are the future of corporate training and the future is now.