Learning in the Social Workplace

Big change vs Little change in workplace learning

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the fact that the L&D function needs to change, and a lot has been written about what the future of workplace learning should look like. I should know because I’ve written about it too!

I’ve also observed in the last few years how some organizations with enlightened learning leaders, who have intuitively recognized the need for change, have been able to flip a switch and move from old traditional training models to newer approaches to learning. By that I don’t mean just moving from classroom to online courses, but adopting new approaches that value individual informal learning as well as knowledge sharing in teams as key elements of organizational learning. Whereas some of these so-called “early adopters” have often been described as taking “a leap of faith” in their actions, their organizations are clearly benefitting from these flexilble, new learning practices in a times of organisational upheaval.

However, I’ve also encountered many L&D professionals who don’t feel they are in a position to make such changes themselves. They cite various reasons why this is the case, and most of them are due to the fact that (they believe) that they work in organizations that are still firmly fixated on old models of how people learn, with managers (and/or clients) who see little value in other ways of learning, and where they feel they need overwhelming evidence that deviation from these traditional practices will be successful.

I am frequently questioned therefore about how they can start the process of change inside their organizations – without causing big waves of dissension – and my answer is to say that they need to change their company culture one step at a time, one conversation at time. In other words:

to start small – and not try to change everything overnight – select small changes that will make a big difference
to pick the right battles – and not bang their head against a brick wall with managers and teams who are totally resistant to change
to describe their activities as “pilots” – and specify that the objectives are to find out how effecctive a new/different approach is for the organisaiton. That way whatever the outcome, the project is successful!

So what are the small changes that will make a big difference? That’ll be the topic of my next post.

Modern Learning Skills for the Networked Age (Workshop)

Public online workshop runs: 5 May – 6 June 2014

About the Workshop

The Networked Age demands a new set of learning skills and tools.

In this fast moving age, it is no longer just about acquiring existing knowledge and skills in formal courses but acquiring set of modern learning skills that includes “learning the new” – constantly discovering new ideas, new thinking, new resources in your industry or profession.

Why are these modern learning skills important?

For individuals

The half life of a piece of knowledge is 5 years. A college degree will likely be out of date long before the loan is paid off.
There is no such thing as a job for life – only a life of jobs. It is estimated that current students will have more than 10 jobs by the time they are 38. 47% of jobs are likely to be automated in the next 20 years.
It’ll be up to every knowledge worker to remain marketable and acquire new knowledege and skills – in order to keep their job or find a new job.

For organisations:

Today’s workplace requires that successful employees keep pace and continually learn new procedures, strategies and technologies to stay abreast of developments in their fields. In turn, hiring managers will select employees based on those who have well developed continuous learning skills.
Organizations need fresh thinking and fresh ideas. It can’t just be left to one or two people in the organisation to keep the others up to date; it needs everyone to feed into their teams what they are discovering, to ensure the organisation itself learns continuously.
By encouraging and supporting the new skills and tools for people to “learn the new”, organisations will demonstrate an interest in their employees and in this way retain the talent.

For education

It is no longer about filling students’ heads with stuff, but preparing them for the new world of work by helping them acquire the skills and toolset to “learn the new”.
Although many students are already online and using online services and networks, but they will need guidance and support on the new professional learning skills they will require to find jobs and retain them.

Workshop Agenda

Each week of this 5-week online workshop focuses on a different set of skills and tools (as shown in the diagram on the right and explained briefly below)

Week 1: Growing your professional learning network - A knowledge networker knows a lot of people, so in this first week we look at how to grow your network of colleagues and connections (on diferent social networks and community platforms) as well as review the value that they are bringing you.

Week 2: Building your professional resource base - A knowledgeable networker makes use of a lot of information resources, so in the second week we look at where to discover and search for resources, as well as how to receive a constant drip feed of new ideas and resources from the Web of relevance to you.

Week 3: Knowledge mining (Extracting Learning), Curation & Storage - A knowledgeable networker applies a range of new skills to deal with the immense amount of information s/he encounters. In third week we look at how to filter out the “signal from the noise”, evaluate the resources you find, and “join the dots” between random pieces of information in order to extract the learning. We will also look at the range of tools you might use to organise and store what you find – either temporarily or long term, privately or publically.

Week 4: Recording and evidencing learning, Building your professional brand - A knowledgeable networker records what s/he has learned not only as a personal (reflective) activity but also as a way of evidencing his/her learning. In the fourth week we will look at the tools you can use to do this, as well as how to build you personal/professional brand in order to market and promote yourself to prospective employers.

Week 5: Learning out Loud (Sharing the New) - A knowledgeable networker shares what s/he learns with the appropriate people in the appropriate network. In this final week we will look at how to add value to what you share and how to avoid over-sharing.

How the workshop runs

Acquiring these new skills takes time and practice; it’s about making small incremental changes to the way that you learn. So each week a set of resource pages will be made available which contain advice and guidance, tips and tools, readings, activities and conversation items. You are invited to make use of these resources in the best way and at the best time that suits you – nothing is compulsory – and share your thoughts and experiences with the group. (Please note, there are no synchronous activities.)

The Workshop will be facilitated by Jane Hart, who will be available to answer any questions you might have.

This workshop is suitable for

Anyone who wants to acquire or refine these modern learning skills for themselves, or for educators and workplace learning professionlas to consider how to help others (students, employees) to do so too.

To book a place on this Workshop

The introductory price for this 5-week workshop is £79. (For group registration, contact jane.hart@c4lpt.co.uk

For a personal place on the Workshop, click on the Buy Now button below, and you will be taken to a page at the PayPal site to pay.

You can pay in two ways:
- By credit card: select Don’t have a PayPal account in the right-hand column, and complete the form with your credit card details. You can also print a receipt here too. Note: our merchant name is Tesserae Ltd, and this is the name that will appear on your credit card statement.
- By PayPal: enter your PayPal details in the box shown.
Click Return to Tesserae Ltd to return to this site.
You will then receive an email from us to complete your registration.
If you do not receive the email within 24 hours, please contact jane.hart@c4lpt.co.uk

MOOCs, Flipped Classrooms – the last gasp of old corporate training?

It’s a hardhitting headline – and one that I copied from a recent post I found on THE Journal – Personalized Learning, Flipped Classrooms, Video Watching: Last Gasps of the Old Education,

In that article, the authors argue that “personalized instruction, flipped classrooms, video watching, etc., etc. are the last gasps of the old, “education as acquiring stuff” model; they are attempts at putting a patina of new on an old, outmoded, broken and ultimately ineffective educational model.”

Like many, they believe that “‘education as acquiring stuff” model is broken, and that the hordes of job hunters are the proof that education is not preparing students for the economic realities of the global marketplace” .

They believe that “social learning, inquiry learning, just-in-time learning, and learning-by-doing, will become the dominant pedagogies. The focus must be on process, must be on skills such as the 4Cs (Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Creativity). Why? Because the kids today need to be prepared to move from job to job — to jobs that haven’t been invented yet.”

So how does this apply to corporate training, well many of us have also argued that the “training as acquiring stuff” model is broken – and that MOOCs and Flipped Classrooms are just adding a new layer onto the old outdated model. Whereas it is social learning (aka knowledge sharing in networks, communities and workgroups), on demand learning and continuous personal learning that need to become the dominant learning activities in the workplace.

And for this to happen there needs to be a focus on the process of learning and in particular the acquisition of new learning skills for individuals to continuously “learn the new”.

This is important because to retain the talent in any organisation, helping people to develop themselves – in the way that best suits them – in order stay on top of their game will be essential. Not doing so, will mean they will only seek jobs elsewhere. How many organisations can afford to lose their best people?