A few days ago my Internet Time Alliance colleague, Harold Jarche, shared this article, written by Deb Lavoy, with me: Social Business Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does, Neither Does Enterprise 2.0. The first few paragraphs say it all!
“Social Business” is not about technology, or about “corporate culture.” It is a socio-political historical shift that is bigger, broader and much more fascinating.
A new perspective is changing how we think about society, politics, interpersonal relationships, science, government and business. New approaches are emerging. Learning and self-expression are exploding. Values are changing. Leadership is changing. The economy is changing. Change itself is changing — it is accelerating and becoming the norm.”
The changes we are seeing in Workplace Learning are of course just one part of the changes we are seeing in businesses as whole. Simply replace the word “business” in the quote above with the word “learning” and it still makes sense. So, for instance the first paragraph would now read:
“Social Learning ” is not about technology, or about “corporate culture”. It is a socio-political historical shift that is bigger, broader and much more fascinating.”
In other words those who think “social learning” is just about a new training trend, or about adding social media into the ”blend”, or that it is about acquiring the latest Social Learning Management System are missing the big picture.
Harold Jarche makes this point succinctly himself in Social Learning: the freedom to act and cooperate with others
“One current theme in the workplace and education circles is to “blend” social with the formal and structured. But social learning is not a bolted-on component of our formal educational and training programs. It is a sea change. It will disrupt institutions built upon the technology of the printing press – all communication enterprises, including education. Yes, we have always learned and worked socially, but we have never had the power of ridiculously easy group-forming or almost zero-cost duplication of our words and images.”
So to paraphrase the title of Deb Lavoy’s article – “Social Learning doesn’t mean what you think it does.”
So what is the “big picture”? Deb puts her finger on it in the third paragraph of her article:
“Business structures founded on command and control, automation and process are giving way to structures that are less hierarchical and more dynamic, designed to engage people’s hearts and minds to make a difference in the world. ”
This is, of course, a fundamental change in how businesses operate – and consequently means a fundamental change in how we need to view workplace learning. So in order to stay in tune with the new ways of working and learning, how does the L&D function need to change? The clue is in the paragraph above. It needs to move from a “Command and Control” approach to one that I call “Encourage and Engage”.
So what does this “Encourage and Engage” approach look like?
During the summer I wrote a series of postings highlighting 8 features how Smart Workers are working and learning today. For each of these features, I’ve now compared the “Command and Control” response with the new ”Encourage & Engage” response to highlight the different approaches. I’ve summarized them here below, but if you want more detail you can follow the links to the complete articles.
1 - The Smart Worker : recognises that she learns continuously as she does her job
| Command and Control | Encourage & Engage |
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2 - The Smart Worker wants immediate access to solutions to his performance problems
| Command and Control | Encourage & Engage |
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3 – The Smart Worker is happy to share what she knows
| Command and Control | Encourage & Engage |
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4 – The Smart Worker relies on a trusted network of friends and colleagues
| Command & Control | Encourage & Engage |
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5 – The Smart Worker learns best with and from others
| Command & Control | Encourage & Engage |
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6 – The Smart Worker keeps up to date with what is happening in his profession and industry
| Command & Control | Encourage & Engage |
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7 -The Smart Worker: constantly strives to improve her productivity
| Command and Control | Encourage & Engage |
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8 – The Smart Worker thrives on autonomy
| Command & Control | Encourage & Engage |
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Although a number of forward-thinking organisations have already shifted away from a command and control approach, it goes without saying that many others will resist making changes to long-held views of doing things. But if you and your organisation are ready to make the move, then one way to start is to work through each of these features, and build a Plan of Action (as I help organisations to do in my Workshop).
Clearly, one of the important questions that people have about this new approach to Workplace Learning, is how do you measure employee “learning” as well as L&D’s involvement? So I’ll talk about that in my next post.
UPDATE: Presentation slides available in the third posting.
Jane you are right on target. I happened to see this related article on Forbes.com over the weekend.
Social Power and the Coming Corporate Revolution
http://www.forbes.com/sites/techonomy/2011/09/07/social-power-and-the-coming-corporate-revolution/
Fascinating read, and yes it feels as if there is a big wave of social change in the midst, just as the past 30 years have seen a “flattening of the world”, it seems followed by a wave of “flattening of social hierarchy”.
I wonder how quickly larger organizations will embrace the “qualitative” approaches you’ve mentioned here and in the next post. I have my doubts. I do think it’s probably happening much faster in the education realm than in the business realm, especially in non-public settings where the clients have more direct input on the learning environment.
Excellent post. In reading through the 8 features, my organization (healthcare in the US) definitely falls more in the Command & Control group. How do you allow learners to be more autonomous with their learning when so much of it is regulated and required/tracked by various external and internal entities? If requirement x isn’t met by all nurses, then entity A levels some type of penalty against the hospital. And it may be a very important requirement that directly affects patient care. This is a hard beast to manage. On to Part 2 of your article.
David – I think the diagram in Pt 2 will answer your question. In some jobs there is more opportunity//room for autonomy than others – I think it is important to find that part and support autonomy there – at least the learners can feel there have some control over their own learning then (if they want it, that is!)
I think for (perhaps younger?) workers today, the C & C column is an oft encountered source of frustration, while the column on the right offers employees the autonomy and trust we so often crave in our work places. Tech. Natives grow up empowered to learn and publish what, when, and where they want to-therefore are less willing to “keep their heads down” and remain silent. Many will decide to work somewhere in which there is more autonomy and trust than the C & C column offers. However, for those of us stuck in a C & C environment-how to go about effecting change in a way that will not endanger one’s own position/security? Are these mutually exclusive (making change and maintaining security) in C & C organizations?
It’s not just young workers who want autonomy – and change is already happening whether organisations realise it like it/accept it or not! see http://c4lpt.co.uk/new-workplace-learning/new-workplace-learning-book/ They might fight it, but it wont change the facts.
It’s striking to me how much of that command and control logic (a logic of maximum performance) still dominates e-learning ID. We’re trying to incorporate agile methods in course design at SPSU, in part to allow for a more meaningful shift toward “encourage & engage” models of learning. http://bit.ly/opJDRd
[...] Social Learning doesn’t mean what you think it does!- Jane Hart, September 12, 2011 [...]
[...] Social Learning doesn’t mean what you think it does!- Jane Hart, September 12, 2011 [...]