Money Talks, Bullsh*t Walks

Ah the tentative marriage of Democracy and Capitalism. When times are financially good, incumbents win. When times are tough, the public moves to "throw the bums out!" In many organizations L&D is the long serving incumbent and as we know when organizational times get tough, L&D seems to be the first "bum" to get the boot. But what if the organization is profitable and division, departments and individuals can choose L&D services or not because they are a real cost (or investment)? 

In my organization we have charge codes for all activities. Simply put, if we don't charge our time on a customer project, we don't get paid (the org that is). To ensure that time and money is accurately recorded we have also had specific charge codes for non-project related activities, things like travel, training, and internal events. However this changed in 2015. Employees (about 80% of our workforce) are now required to charge any training event time directly to their project (vs. a single universal corporate code). 

Hold the phone! So any training taking 15 minutes or more outside of ones work will be charged against the profitability of the project? We may see managers and employees alike scrutinizing every offering and analyzing the impact of every attended event! Requests to L&D to build elearning, host a webinar, deliver a face-to-face event will plummet! Employees will now be cautious when selecting a training class over say a job aid or an informal coaching opportunity! Many employees will even forego an event altogether, instead promoting the idea to their peers that those in the know need to share openly and frequently!  

I couldn't be happier!

This can only make our organization stronger in my opinion. Better connected, thoughtful, continuously learning, and with everyone focused on the finances. Pragmatism can take it's rightful place on the learning throne! Unnecessary training and time away from doing the work will be on the decline. The question of "how can we get this information/skill without taking time out of work?" will be murmured throughout the organization. Now we may have a real opportunity to help people embrace workflow learning. More social approaches to knowledge sharing can thrive in these environments not because of some stale executive mandates to use an ESN, unconvincing presentations on loosely related industry comparable statistics re: social and informal learning, lukewarm peer encouragement efforts, or god forbid gamification tactics. No, now it's in using the model of business, it's economics, supply and demand, it's because people get hit in the wallet that behavior changes! 

At the end of the day, the bottom line is what matters and the fatter that bottom line is, the better.  Caveat Emptor! 

L&Ds Business Is Not In Driving Social Business

I'm becoming more convinced that organizational efforts to help people build social networks and personal knowledge management skills should not involve L&D any more than the Accounting department. And it appears it not just me. Sam Burrough and Martin Couzins recently co-led a MOOC on Social Learning and asked the question in a final Tweetchat: "What role should L&D play in Social Learning?" which for me is a small one. Additionally, in a recent Tweet, JD Dillon made the point that in organizations, many are really doing similar things:

However, I think James Tyer put it best in his blog post titled "Who Owns Organizational Learning? You." and I encourage you to read it.

My take? As social tools become more commonplace many people today are already (unconsciously) building networks and have developed processes (undocumented) to manage fluid knowledge without much assistance. These people may not be as effective as they could be, or will be, but the way to learn this is not through training which arguably L&D still looks to as the first choice. What people need is to be more conscious of their behavior and then they need encouragement to make their tacit knowledge (processes) explicit for others. This should not really be exclusively L&Ds charge, which organizational leaders tend to default to because when the word "learning" is uttered all eyes tend to turn to L&D. 

Social learning is structureless, the opposite of formal learning. Social transcends the traditional organizational boundaries of departments and divisions. It knows no hierarchy or roles. To help social tools and behaviors to be more a part of worker's activity, it must simply become more a part of the worker's work. Learning the work is done by doing the work and this happens best within the work itself not outside of it where L&D typically sits. 

My thoughts on this were further cemented by Dion Hinchcliffe's recent article in ZD Net "The Growing Evidence for Social Business Maturity". This article highlighted the move of organizations from social adoption to adaptation (of open, collaborative work). It spoke of the importance of organizational culture, the significance of executive commitment, business partnerships with operations and IT, goals and KPIs as keys to progression. It was all about the business, the business leaders, the use cases, ambassadors, CoPs, and community management. There was no direct mention of L&D... but for an implied mention when speaking of training - but it was more specifically termed "viral training"; Helping people use the platform's features and functions peer-to-peer. This would be a significantly minor role for L&D, especially if the tools are intuitive as the should be and even then, motivated folks figure the complex out.

Today there is much focus on trying to convert learning professionals to new understandings and practices using social tools and encouraging social behaviors. This is a mistake in my opinion. Many learning professionals don't engage or understand the practices any more than any other organizational roles - why assume they will be best suited? Connecting, communicating, curating, etc are not exclusive to a single department. The learning of effective social practices and tools is best done socially; through observation, experimenting, feedback and conversation. This will take time and mistakes will be made of course but I think less control is the best path to longterm success. It's a higher up decision that patience and trust are to replace command and control. So render unto L&D that which is formal and render unto the entire organization the social efforts that truly surround business execution. 

It's All Training Until It Isn't

The course is a seductive solution. I've written and spoken about this before as I believe it's due in part to years of formal learning dominating our lives, better known as learning learned helplessness. And because employees can't always wait for L&D to develop a solution they will take matters into their own hands. Sometimes this is good as they find the resource (human or material) to solve their own problem or it can be troublesome in that sometimes they create a PowerPoint presentation for others. It's enough to raise the hair on a learning professional's neck... but I say don't fight it. Appreciate their moxie and shift your focus to consultant and help people rethink the decision.

 It's about  an opportunity not ownership.

So what does Consultative L&D look like? Here are 5 short examples of actual engagement with some of our stakeholders that has not only worked to pragmatically solve a business issue, but helped enlighten those we worked with to stop thinking training only. Again, each of these began with something along the lines of "we need a course on..."

1. People Don't Argue with There Own Data 

A senior divisional leader requested training.  Donning Performance Consultant we stepped in to see if there was a skill gap and if it warranted training as a solution.  This is how the conversation went: 

Me:  "How are new employees learning the methodology and approaches today?"

Him: "Our programs that employ it learn on the job. Seasoned developers already know the general methodologies and our rendition is not that much different than industry best practices. The new individuals who are less aware will have a mentor who will sit with them to bring them up to speed.

Me: "What are the biggest gaps in execution today?"

Him: "Nothing that stands out. Each team/project does it slightly different to accommodate their project, environment, customer, etc."

Me: "Since our methodology is very much based on industry methodology how/where is it different?"

Him: "It’s different in just a few ways: it accommodates customer processes, documents, and tools."

Me: The objectives speak to having employees “Understand.” How will we know they understand? i.e. how will success be determined regardless of solution chosen? Are their project executables/deliverables that can be identified that would show knowledge/skill advancement?"

Him: "We are talking about very tightly knitted teams, they “self-organize” and are accountable for what they sign-up for. It’ll become immediately apparent if someone is not keeping up or they just don’t get it." 

As we dialoged it became apparent to him that a training course was inappropriate, too heavy and unnecessary. Today we are working on small modules loosely connected, some may be podcasts, SME video demonstrations, job aids and checklists that people can pull on as needed to supplement time with knowledgeable team members.

2. When a job aid will do, do a job aid.

After a SME crafted a highly visual step-by-step on generating financial reports in a PowerPoint presentation meant for a live session, I aimed to understand the need and overall objectives after the fact. Not one to throw the baby out with the bath water, we determined that simply following each screen could produce the desired results, no direct instruction needed. The next step was to fine tune through some actual user testing, then reproduce as performance support for use when generating the reports.

3. Need a presentation? Flip it.

Sometimes content is so new or the workforce is so new to the process that a more formal solution is warranted. It's important to strive to "do no harm" to the work flow and keep learning opportunities as pull vs. push for our employees. Recently I was approach again to help develop a live presentation. Ultimately it was determined, after a bit of dialog about attention and attendance, to release the session as prerecord and then tag it in our ESN. We'd give the audience a week to view and review as needed and then ask them to post in the ESN their additional questions for the SME to address along with peers.

4. Don't Reinvent the Wheel

In a desire to reaffirm the commitment we have to our client and ensure consistency of execution, the idea of creating a course for a segment of our workforce to complete on a client methodology and tools was promoted. In our analysis we though this would be redundant as much of the material was readily available. Our solution was to curate vs. create. Tapping into the already available formal materials we proposed an internal certification program which modeled similar certifications recognized by our folks. This two level certification not only recognizes employee completion of identified materials but will also acknowledges their successful application in using the materials in the authentic situations. Additionally, they are credited for sharing their knowledge and contributing to the growth of their more novice peers.

5. Pull not Push

Choosing a performance support solution over a course is not always the correct option. People need formal especially when they are new to the content or safety or security is on the line. However when people are more experienced they need less formal and more informal or social opportunities. This was the case with one of my first efforts. Initially a Project Manager's boot camp was proposed but this made little sense for our experience Project Managers just needing to understand the nuances of our organization's project management approach; which for the most part was very similar to what most Project Managers knew from their certification through the Project Management Institute. So instead we leveraged numerous SMEs to co-create job aids, templates and short recorded sessions to orient and reinforce our unique ways of executing project tasks. Each of these could be pulled on in the time of need.

Each of these efforts in and of themselves is small. They grew out of small conversations via email or phone call. In each one we have reinforced the approach I think L&D needs to take; small, embedded, impactful, and integrated with the workforce solutions focused not on just on learning but performing. For L&D to reinvent itself it must not only meet the business need but reframe the thinking throughout the organization one problem, one person, one conversation at a time.

Changing Words. Changing Practices. Changing Cultures

"Culture is an emergent property of the many practices that happen every day. Change the practices and a new culture will emerge."   - Harold Jarche

I always thought Harold nailed it with this quote, showing equally how obvious yet how difficult organizational culture change can be.

But where, when and how does change start? Is it through a huge strategy and subsequent tactics or is it smaller, more individualized, gradual. Practices are the actions we undertake and the behaviors we exhibit. Everything from how we conduct meetings, organize project teams, or decide how long to stand with a colleague talking over a cup of coffee. All are practices that make up our culture. Words to are practices as they are deliberate actions; thoughts transmitted. In the organizational learning subculture the words course and training are unfortunately defaulted to when people who don't understand them toss them around as THE solution to work performance problem. So if the words change does the related practice follow and then the culture shifts? Are words then the spark to ignite the potential change to come?

For me, each and every opportunity where the cry of "we need training" or a "we should have a course on xyz..." is raised I swoop into performance consultant mode and probe to determine the nature and significance of the issue and remind them for example that a PowerPoint deck is NOT in and of itself Training.  I'm relentless to the point where my staff asked me if I have a template of my responses. I'm also confident that on the other end of the call or email, eyes have rolled. 

Recently though a key leader responded in an email to my typical inquiries with the words "training" and "course"...

The words were in quotes. 

I sensed some subtraction by addition with these quotes bracketing the terms. Maybe it was an element of uncertainty, a glimpse into his internal questioning. However possibly he only wrote it that way to stave off my railing against training first, training always. Regardless, he was singling out the terms as being different than the definition. He was unsure what the solution was but used the only terms he knew with a subtle punctuational caveat. 

Maybe this then is the trigger, the first practice to change in an organizational culture - Words shared, one conversation at a time. 

The Social Element in Motivation

As I launched my campaign to yet again run a 1/2 marathon and begin a training regiment that will involve early morning runs in the heart of winter, my wife encouraged me to join Method 360, an exercise class she's been attending several times a week to strengthen her core and improve he overall fitness. 

She has, for lack of a better word, become hooked.  

So I joined.  After my 4th visit I could see that the owner/ instructor, Trish Gallen had nailed the recipe for motivation that Daniel Pink identified in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

Autonomy - Mastery - Purpose

Autonomy: for every exercise Trish promotes, she has alternatives that do the same but give you an option based on your fitness level and as you fatigue. As a newbie who was fading fast during one of my first classes, Trish shared several options to all of us and we could select one during that circuit. It didn't lessen the exercise but change was good.  Because I had choice, I couldn't fail, I couldn't quit and I couldn't blame her for how crappy I felt!  The choice was there, I got to own the exercise and I took it.

Mastery: success is personal. It is in feeling you are improving and seeing results. In my first class, feeling lightheaded, I had to step out for 5 minutes while she carried on with the class. The next time I felt like vomiting at one point and my transition between exercise (15 seconds) was slow but I pushed through. by my 4th class I wasn't the quickest and I wasn't the most technically sound but I didn't feel sick, and I didn't stop. Additionally my form has improved as she isn't assisting me as much anymore in adjusting my position.  I am gaining mastery!

Purpose: I'm getting older. Each year I run, I seem to get a whole new injury (calf, foot, achilles, etc). A diverse exercise class like this serves to improve many supporting muscles, thus making my running more efficient and less damaging. I exercise in order to run better, longer. My purpose is clear.

The elements are present to maintain my motivation; control, growing success, and a goal.

The structure of the classes surely meets the 3 points above but now that I know this, can't I just do this all on my own?  No.  The one element not included here is that which ties them all together - Social, which in my opinion is critical.  Don't confuse this with just being around other people who share a common goal and some rah-rah. Social is being human and all the "real" that comes with it. Trish and her instructors connect with those in class; sincerely. Its nothing they do intentionally, they just show their humanity by sharing their stories, making mistakes, they laugh at themselves, they're open and transparent. Sure they know more than any in there about exercise but they listen, inquire and want to improve. It's a connected experience.

As I reflect on this seemingly unconscious motivational approach I wonder how well we (learning professionals) do the same in our efforts to help people improve work performance?  

• When formal course development is warranted are we involving the learners in the process?

• Are we designing to "their" goals as well as that of the organization?

• Is instruction encouraging and helping them see even incremental success? 

• Is failure treated as a part of the learning process?

• Are we offering alternatives to the traditional course model? Blended, performance support, coaching, mentoring, networking.

What about in the use of internal collaborative tools? 

• Are certain behaviors being demanded or do people have the time and space to experiment and learn? 

• Do they have a voice to express their concerns, fears, needs? 

• Are business results noted and shared or are we caught up in counting likes and shares, uploads and views?  

• Is the purpose clear? Is the tool helping them solve a problem specific to them?

• Is Be Human a key component to adoption and use

You'll know motivation is there when people fumble through the "exercise" of learning (or connecting), when they struggle, when they're slow to start but keep coming back. You'll know to keep encouraging and stay the course... they're hooked.





Speaking of exercise I'd be remiss if I didn't share that I run for charity.  Any donation amount (really, any!) will go a long way for me to help fellow Central New Yorkers and the Upstate Medical Foundation.  Check out my donation site and please spread the word and or give what you can.  Thank you!

Overcoming the Learning Professional's Lizard Brain

Executive: We need a course on blah, blah, blah.

Learning Professional: ...Right. OK, who is the audience? What is the objective?

Really? Back up. What the heck just happened? 

There's a good chance their Lizard Brain kicked in, that's what happened.  If you're not familiar with the Lizard Brain, also known as Reptilian Brains, Primitive Brain, Old Brain and a slew of others, you can read up on the details here. However if I just remind you of these little words - "fight or flight",  you probably know I'm talking about the Amygdala and this scenario makes some sense.

Simply put this inner area of our brain activates In stressful situations, when our survival instinct kicks in and we take on the stress or retreat to fight another day.

For millions of years we had fight or flight encoded in our brains. Our gut reaction to survive today is not that different than it was 150,000 years ago on the Savanna. However today, rather than flee a tiger to survive, we can take retreat from our knowledge about how most problems don't require training to resolve. In the face of an authority's demand, the corporate tiger, our encoded lizard brain can take over to better ensure we can pay the mortgage. 

Couple this with our years of schooling and systematic indoctrination and we have a deeply encoded brain telling us learning really happens in formal settings. I wrote similarly about this in the post: Cognitive Dissonance and the Denial of Social and Informal Learning and again as I compared our conflicts to the theory of Learned Helplessness. Both of these however focus on the issue from the point of view of leaders, executives and stakeholders; those outside of L&D. But the Lizard Brain is something we need to contend with as learning professionals. Just like the growth of the logical mind countered instinct and help advance humanity, this action must happen for learning professionals to truly help their organizations.

How can we detach then from the reptilian response system and succeed in using logic when faced with the requests?  Here are a few of my approaches.

Before the request arrives: (as you know it inevitably will)

Most of the work happens here!

1. Support - The shift away from Lizard brain responses takes some augmentation. We can't remember everything especially in the heat of the moment! Quick reference materials and prompts help you better articulate your message. I have tapped the grid in Is it a Training Problem? from Jane Bozarth's and the Expertise by Learning Mode graphic by Clark Quinn of The Internet Time Alliance more times than I can count. These simple tools are great to reference or re-purpose on a napkin to help people really see the issue. They also aid in helping you be clear and not get caught up in jargon. 

I also find Evernote indispensable. When in the conversation I have my own tips and notes handy to reference and level set with. Plus, demonstrating your own ability to quickly find information at that very moment is a powerful statement in demonstrating management of your own knowledge and the power of performance support.

2. Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) - Now is the reason why you have been doing all this work! Your ability to tap into that of which you have collected, created and curated is a key ally to fend off the training first, training always request. Learn more about it through Harold Jarche and his work and writing on the topic

3. Networks - turn towards the others you (hopefully) have nurtured as your community. This is often called a Personal Learning Network (PLN). This trusted community is there to help you surface information or validate your thinking.

When the request arrives:

Pause - Most important, make a commitment not to immediately commit. A pause to invite reflection is your greatest opportunity to let the logical brain kick in and get warmed up. This is the time to engage your network, PKM, and tools

The Lizard is not your friend. What are you doing to keep it at bay?

Check out this solid read on the impact of the Lizard Brain from Seth Godin- Seth's Blog: Quieting the Lizard Brain 

Cynefin Supported Campaigns vs. Courses

Businesses seek markets. Without these opportunities no service or product matters no matter how effective or unique.  I feel that today employees ultimately control access to these markets and this is no more true than in working in government contracts.  

In my space a major barrier to opportunity can be Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) and in government contracts it can happen like a bursting brain aneurysm; sudden, barely detectable and often deadly.

In simple terms, if an employee or contractor violates the rules and has access or exposure to non-public information; an unfair advantage regarding future work, their organization can be "OCI'd" out of  future related work.

For example:

An employee of the contracting organization is in a client (government) meeting. The agenda is clear but as meeting sometimes go, a stakeholder expands the conversation into other areas i.e future development, pricing models, etc. The employee should not be privy to this information and frankly may not even know its significance.  Too late.  Later on, meeting minutes show the conversation and attendees, and the organization is not allowed to bid on a related project; in effect losing a multi-million dollar opportunity.

There are just too many roles and too many situations where an organization is in jeopardy. Furthermore employees walk a fine line with clients in this space.  If one hesitates in assisting on a project for fear of OCI, they could be deemed difficult.  It's a rare but precarious situation that no employee or organization wants to be in.

Complicated & Complex

Cynefin Sense-Making Framework

When seen through the lens of Dave Snowden's Cynefin the sense-making framework OCI straddles the complicated and complex. One can be "oriented" to the dangers and provided some (but not all) examples of when and where these risks can happen - making the issue complicated. However, one can often only see the right course of action in retrospect, thus making it more complex in nature.

Knowledge and proper action must then permeate the culture of an organization. It must be on the forefront of peoples minds but not consume them and it can't simply be treated as a problem that training alone can solve. The solution lies in raising organizational awareness.  And although it is a performance issue, it is not something that should or can be solely owned by T&D. This needs to be a company-wide effort.

A multifaceted approach involving formal, informal, and of course social learning is key as it's mostly about tacit knowledge sharing. Explicit, although having merit, is black and white and unfortunately OCI is many shades of gray.

Campaign vs. Course

Craig Taylor tuned me into the concept of a campaign as he explored it himself on a considerably grander scale.  An apparent influence for him was in the article Think "Campaign" not "Course" by Lars Hyland (Tip 16) From the eLearning Network:

"...Shorter, sharper, more varied learning experiences deliberately spread over a longer elapsed time period, demonstrably improve learning effectiveness. There are more opportunities for reinforcement of key knowledge, more prompts to practice skills in the field and the ability to adapt to the pace and personal needs of each individual. At long last our efforts can be focused on providing learning support interwoven into life and work, rather than artificially abstracted."

With this concept in mind the approach then is more to immerse people in OCI awareness. To begin, Cynefin not only serves to help identify the "habitat" of OCI but it can also serve as a performance support model for a communication procedure; Sense the potential situation, Analyze the severity, Respond according to organizational procedure.

The initial part of the campaign grounds people in a common understanding of OCI, and the response procedures identified in the job aid. For this a short scenario-based elearning module can serve to show the value of the communication procedure and practical application of the job aid in a scenario. Additionally, to improve access to a job aid (post completion), a QR code can be used within to allow the learner to place the support tool on their mobile device and be easily accessible in a potential OCI situation.

Next, leverage traditional communication channels such as an organization's periodical. L&D can partner with them to maintain a long running series of compelling examples, statistics, factoids and industry news regarding OCI. A series of "insider" podcast bring a human face (voice) to the issue through interviews with internal experts and possible "victims" of OCI which will be made available for employees to pull; HR to promote at new hire orientation, and managers to leverage when needed. The use of a social media platform is fertile ground for sharing industry news, and war stories. And finally email, the default communication platform of the moment, can easily serve to launch short scenario-based "quizzes" to reinforce understanding and application of the procedure.

The approach is really one of an all hands on deck. People should not to be subjected to repeated formal (out of workflow) interventions but rather be surrounded by relevant information, expertise, conversation and resources to help them navigate a complex and potentially costly issue.

The Mind of a Performance Specialist

I've written before that in this new era of learning that believing is seeing.  The more we connect, read, reflect and engage in practices that challenge our paradigms how, where and when learning takes place the more we see things from a different perspective... even everyday things.

Take for example my attendance at a recent running race.  A group of onlookers noticed that some runners were getting tripped up as they crested a small incline in the final turn in the race. The culprit was a small berm near the end of the 5K route. It was inconspicuous but damaging to many as the elevated road was just high enough to catch an exhausted runner's foot and cause them to stumble. This stumble could simply be a small glitch that throws the runner off for a few seconds or could have led to severe foot or knee damage that could have ended their race or even careers a mere 100 yards from the finish. Either way performance was being negatively impacted for many.

One onlooker (we'll equate him to a Training Professional) took immediate action to weave his way through the runners and stand on the curb near the berm. Once there he pointing the hazard out to each passing runner, shouting instructions [sage on the stage] to the bewildered, inattentive, and tired athletes to go around the relatively unnoticeable spot in the pavement [knowledge dump]. Many ignored this intrusion due to their focused state and the fact that having someone shouting anything other than cheers was just plain incomprehensible in the heat of the moment [contextually abnormal]. Although well intentioned, the effort to improve performance was an intervention that was labor intensive for the onlooker, caused more of a distraction at a critical point in performance, and in effect had very little impact as still many runners clipped the berm resulting in stumbles. The runners who did safely avoided the hazard really only did so by watching their peers fail and quickly make an adjustment [social learning].

After several minutes, and the passing of numerous runners, another onlooker  (We'll equate him to a Performance Specialist) grabbed a nearby traffic cone, being used to mark the race route, and placed it upon the berm [performance aid].  The runners approaching saw the cone well in advance, made slight adjustments in their paths and finished the race without a damaging spill.

Our Performance Specialist  was pragmatic, respected the workflow, the context, and the "workers" themselves. He drew upon familiar resources and used significant less energy than the Training Professional to have a greater impact on performance. 

The shift to Performance Specialist  is less about acquiring a new set of skills then about embracing a new mindset.  

If you answered No...

I was asked recently to help build the case for Social Media use in our organization (social business). Of course I have been making the case by living it personally and for some time with the use of collaborative tools for new hires and various projects. But alas this has been quite a skunks-works effort, so rather than flying under the radar I have a unique opportunity to make social media use more strategic.

Like many, I set out on my task to surface research and case studies. I located similar business model reports and articles and I tapped my PLN for assistance. As I began fleshing it all out I realized my undertaking was looking more like a sales pitch - sure to be seen that way too and likely to be met with instant skepticism; as what salesman isn't' instantly met with hesitancy... I started to view each slide in the presentation as a nail in a coffin. 

So rather than be armed with a series of answers to unknown questions I have decided to flip the approach and come with questions that require answers. No presentation filled with stats and examples, I am simplifying the effort. When the call comes, I'll be ready with this:

• Do you believe that average employees can generate creative solutions to business problems?
• Do you agree that bad practices are being conducted daily by unknowing staff?
• Do you believe employees often struggle to get the information they need, when they need it?
• Do you think that people who are part of a community are happier?
• Do you think happier workers are more engaged?
• Do you believe engaged employees are less likely to leave?
• Do you think training employees is expensive?
• Do you believe there are other ways to learn besides training?
• Do you agree that people and not just resources hold the answers to common problems?

If you answered no to any if these questions then let's discuss. If not, then let's get to work!

Launching SoMe for Learning? - Think L before M

Are you struggling to get Social Media for learning started in your organization?  You might just be going about it all in the wrong order. In the effort to establish a social media empowered workforce, just remember as in the alphabet “L before M” as in “Learning” before "Media". As my friend and colleague Jane Bozarth has said numerous times – we’ve been learning well before social media for ooooh about 5,000 years! So how come when presented with technology we seem to have forgotten this?

I know it’s hard. Technology changes almost hourly, information comes at us at light speed, knowledge can no longer be seen as within people but between them. The world is being transformed at the speed of the Internet. However, don’t despair this simple order- L before M is undeniable. Like Gravity or Murphy’s Law, the order of the alphabet is pretty much a given (However if you recall, efforts have been made as recent as the ‘70s to change this to the decibet).

I’ve written before about Working within the System to Change It where I propose that rather than a full on attack of training only solutions for performance improvement (where you will typically find resistance from both a well entrenched Training Department and quite possible from key executives who may be suffering from a form of Learned Helplessness) you focus on the fundamental elements of networked learning sans the technology first to build your case. Remembering to put Learning before Media may be your best approach to getting the tools you ultimately want to maximum performance in your organization.

It’s working for me thus far as my initial efforts have reaped some big rewards: 1. I was able to launch an official small-scale Yammer pilot 2. I now head up an internal social media subcommittee and 3. I have been asked to build and present the business case for social media use in our organization.

So what elements am I referring to? The basic elements within all social media: collaboration, sharing and community. That’s really it.  Note that these are also the fundamentals of learning socially too, no technology required. Just visualize what Jane said about how long we have been learning socially –picture the scene about 5000 years ago of a cave painting in progress; a small group of hominids huddled around a fire, painting, contributing, problem solving and leaving a record for others to review, apply, and/or edit then or in the future… collaboration …sharing…community.

So stop pushing the Media for now. Put Learning first and look closely at your organization’s current efforts to improve performance. Find those opportunities to rework them into a platform for social learning or create new ones. In the past I leveraged a Thiagi frame game to be a large scale collaborative problem solving effort with meaningful, impactful results. Yes it was mostly formal in its structure but definitely not training, because training was not the answer.

Today I am once again promoting a social learning initiative by transforming an upcoming training event.  In the past, one full day of our quarterly management meeting has been tagged as a training event. Within the currently defined parameters (space and time) a non-tech social learning platform for learning is in the works. So rather than a blanket training approach, a self-selecting learning conference will be hosted.

Our 60+ member management team will register for and attend several 45 minute concurrent sessions over a period of 5 hours. Each is to be focused on identified business needs with 15 minutes of reflection time between. The sessions will be hosted by field experts (their peers who happen to be regularly exceeding in key metric areas) sharing their keys to success and innovative approaches. Outstanding performance is typically recognized with a certificate, monetary reward and a round of applause but that leaves the attendees wondering “what did they ACTUALLY do to get that recognition?”

What’s the role of L&D then if we are not going to train? We will serve as consultants and organizers not designers and deliverers. Our IDs will help the presenters establish goals, outline their speaking agenda and help craft exercises. And our trainers will serve as coaches offering tips and demonstrating effective techniques in delivery, flow, and transitions.

This approach reinforces the principles of social learning; sharing knowledge and improving performance. It also serves to truly engage our employees; giving exceptional employees an opportunity to share and be recognized by their peers and leaders.

Finally the approach helps lay the foundation for change:

• making it easier to introduce social media for learning as a means to expand and extend the social learning that was witnessed first-hand.
• employees seen not as only appliers of knowledge and skill but providers of it;
• L&D professionals are not just trainers and designers but performance specialist;
• Organizational learning not as a result of top down, formal training but learning as a result of community, collaboration and sharing.

Virtual Worlds: "Being There"

Recently I attended a Gronstedt Group’s Virtual Worlds workshop which was held over 2 days (3 hour sessions each day). I “beamed” into Avaya’s Web.alive virtual world where about 18 of us appeared. I must say, since the last time I used Virtual Worlds (VW) in 2009 (Second Life) this however seemed much easier; easy to create an Avatar and intuitive keyboard short-cuts to animate my vehicle.

So why do it?  Frankly for two reasons, the first is that I saw an opportunity to extend our current training initiatives to our remote workforce. Yep, although the hosts would tell you that VW can support 70, 20, and 10, I just don’t see folks donning their avatar while in the work flow to meet at a virtual water cooler to catch up on Q3 results or hockey scores. To me it’s all about making the “10” better (see @bbetts post The Ubiquity of Informal Learning) or if not better, making it more accessible for certain practice exercises that are critical for our business – interfacing with our customers. The second reason was it was led by Anders and Co. I have been exposed to the Gronstedt group before. I have attended a few of Anders' conference presentations and frankly find that he is extremely experienced, passionate and knowledgeable. If I was ever going to dip my toes in VW, it would be with these guys.

I found the exercises relevant and the hosts more than knowledgeable and helpful however I never completely got immersed as I honestly couldn't get beyond the creepy looking cartoon I and others appeared as. My avatar had a "face" yet it was hardly expressive, my body gestures were limited to waving, clapping and the very inhuman ability to jump 4-5x my own height. Dianne Rees writes very well about avatars in learning in her post On eLearning, Avatars, and the “Uncanny Valley". In it she shares that basically when non-human technology (avatars, robots, etc) try but fall just slightly short of being "human" we real people reject the technological simulations as its ever so slight variation makes it hard for us to connect with. According to Dianne's summary, you might be better off with less human looking avatars (Think R2D2).

Despite this drawback I’m more confident now that this environment can help recreate our sales environments (close to actual context). I can see our SMEs stepping into the roles of our customers and various new employees or ones seeking a refresher of content appearing in fishbowl type activities for short bursts. I was impressed by the ability to use real world technology (notepads, search engines..etc) in the VW and saw instantly the possibility of using the same for our workforce (financing applications, manipulative, charts, etc).

Because our extended training needs are really soft-skill based, I found something very interesting happen; throughout the experience the attendees displayed proximal courtesies. For example, if an avatar stepped in front of mine during a presentation they would say "excuse me" and move out of the way. In another situation an avatar ran up to speak to me and when they noticed that they were literally nose-to-nose with me they took several steps back before engaging me. And once someone appeared to run into me and although my avatar would be un-phased they kindly said “sorry.”  Sounds goofy, right? Maybe, but for me it was a critical piece. The ability to "see" the human-being behind the cartoon-ish exterior equates to the empathy and sympathy our employees must display to truly be successful in their jobs of connecting.There may be something to this and its impact on long-term learning. A colleague of mine, Steve Covello @apescience, brought to my attention the Media Naturalness Theory. According to the Wikipedia article:

The theory builds on human evolution ideas and has been proposed as an alternative to media richness theory. Media naturalness theory argues that since our Stone Age hominid ancestors have communicated primarily face-to-face, evolutionary pressures have led to the development of a brain that is consequently designed for that form of communication^. Other forms of communication are too recent and unlikely to have posed evolutionary pressures that could have shaped our brain in their direction. Using communication media that suppress key elements found in face-to-face communication, as many electronic communication media do, thus ends up posing cognitive obstacles to communication.

As this simple graph (below) shows the further you move away from the F2F medium either by reducing elements found in F2F or adding more communicative features beyond that of F2F the result is a reduction in effectiveness of the medium.  Fair as to say, a Virtual World can be created to be very rich in communicative elements and the research would reinforce that one should take a more minimalist approach (i.e. cut the bells and whistles). 

Figure 1. Face-to-face medium naturalness

One could argue then that social media may actually fall a little short as a tool for learning. Not to say it isn't valuable but they often do lack in the F2F element. However, given their ease and convenience, these tools definitely increases their utility compared to a virtual world or live classroom. As for VW, in light of the Uncanny Valley studies, Avatars will need to be able to be better at expression to be more effective or might that be a detriment? Hmmm, I guess one must now find compromise with Media Naturalness Theory and the Uncanny Valley for this environment to be most effective.

Beyond the avatars themselves it is important that one gets a sense of being there. In The Role of Presence in the Online Environment from the book Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching: How to "Be There" by Rosemary M. Lehman and Simone C.O. Conceicao (again brought to my attention by Steve Covello), the authors discuss the importance and impact of social, emotional, psychological, and environmental factors in an online environment. Ideally, in any learning experience, we want the technology to fade away as the learner becomes immersed.  The author notes "when a course is designed with presence in mind, the experience comes alive and the learning process is driven by the dynamic interplay between thought, emotion, and behavior." Very true for online learning (VW or otherwise) but also for the still dominant classroom. Good instructors, good design make the content so engaging the tools, the environment, simply become invisible.
 

A few other notable observations from my time in a VW:

• English spoken here – verbal communication is critically important. Yes there is text chat available in this environment but with so much to interact with, leaving your Avatar idol while you hammer out a sentence is just not “normal” (see Uncanny Valley)
• Self-organization - It was interesting how people continued to gravitate towards the same groups between activities, etc. All due to the connections being made. As much as I appeared like a serial killer I still found people of similar minds (learning function, not murder)
• Keep it Simple – there is much you can do in a virtual world. From you avatar’s ability to run and leap, to building huge whiteboards as large as highway billboards and Google search displays over 20’ high. Some technology worked, others didn't, some things looked quite real…but honestly it didn't matter. Focus on the content.

What I saw though as the greatest strength of VW was in our last exercise.  We were asked to collaborate on our VW elevator pitch or how would we "sell the idea" to executives. Definitely an activity that could be accomplished in the real world; usually with pen, paper and a peer. But only here could we have actually entered a virtual elevator, manuver its potentially crowded space and get a feel for what it might be like to really try and convince an executive in the journey between floors!

All-in-all an interesting experience. I feel it has potential but definitely the focus is on extending the “10” of the 70-20-10.  With regard to Presence and concerns over the Uncanny Valley and Media Naturalness - its effectiveness as a training tool all comes down to well thought out instructional/environmental design and careful considerations with communicative elements.