I’m constantly asked by Learning & Development professionals where they can learn more about social learning.

First of all I guess we need to be quite clear what we mean by  the term “social learning:

• that it is not just something that just happens when people study together but is also something that happens continuously in the flow of work as people work together; and
• that it doesn’t require social tools for it to happen, although they can make it a more powerful experience, but that the presence of social tools doesn’t necessarily mean people will learn socially.

In other words we need to differentiate between learning about social tools, and learning about the use of social tools (both public and private, internal and external) to enable, enhance and support social learning – both for formal learning as well as an integral part of collaborative working.

So with that out of the way I think that Professional Development covers 3 main areas – which I briefly explain below.

1 – Understanding  the Social Web and the new skills required to use social media and networks effectively for one’s own personal and professional learning and development.

Understanding social media is not just about learning how to use the tools themselves, it’s about understanding the whole ethos of the Social Web, as well as developing a new set of personal skills to thrive there. It’s also about building a Personal Learning Network of colleagues and other contacts that bring you value – both personally and professionally.

How can YOU learn about this.?

• By doing it yourself - that’s how most of us have learned about social media and networks, just by being immersed in the Social Web and what it has to offer. So jump in and try things out – there are no rules and you’ll learn all about it, just by being there!
• If you need some guidance: Then take a social media course, or even better get yourself a personal social media coach who will help you in the way you need it – but make sure it covers the key elements mentioned above. For example:
  • The Connected Worker site offers individual and small group coaching as well as workshops for larger groups in Personal Knowledge Management. This approach will ensure you develop the new skills alongside a understanding of the use of social tools.

Remember too that although this is a good starting point, this will NOT provide you with all the skills you need to enable and support social learning in your organisation.

2 – Understanding  social learning pedagogy to enable and support successful formal social learning experiences 

Formal social learning is not just about using social media tools in a training environment nor about adding them onto an online course, it is about scaffolding a learning experience that encourages and supports a deeper social learning experience, and one where individuals can also make use of (public and private) social tools in the ways that work best for them. (See my previous post, 5 principles for successful formal social learning experiences, for more on this).

How can YOU learn about this?

• By doing it yourself: Participate in a “true” formal online social learning experience yourself – and learn from it, For example:
  • Take a connectivist-style MOOC or participate in an online social workshop at the Social Learning Centre.
• If you need some guidance: Find someone who can help  you understand the social learning pedagogy involved; and if you take a “course” or “workshop” make sure it is one that uses the very same pedagogical approach. For example,
  • The Social Learning Centre runs online social workshops on organising a formal online social learning experience.

3 – Understanding how to support the continuous social learning and performance improvement of teams and individuals in the workplace

Yet again it’s not about the tools themselves. As people are already learning from one another as they work together, social and collaboration tools can play a part here to enhance this natural social learning. So it’s about helping teams use (probably primarily enterprise) social technologies to work (and learn) purposefully and productively together

How can YOU learn about this?

• By doing it yourself: Use some social tools with your own team and help to build and support the knowledge sharing and collaborative practices of your team. Doing so you will develop your own understanding of the new social workplace skills that are required.
• If you need some guidance: Find an organization that can ideally work with your whole team to understand their specific needs as well as  ”model” the new collaborative skills involved. (“You can’t train people to be social; only show them what it is like to be social”)
  • The Connected Worker site offers a variety of coaching, mentoring and workshop services in collaborative working and learning skills and approaches. It also helps to build the new leadership skills required for managers in the connected workplace.
• If you are looking for accreditation by a professional body in this area: The Learning & Performance Institute has just launched its Diploma in Workplace Learning & Collaboration, which offers a series of online social workshops certified by successul submission of a portfolio of work-based evidence. This is aimed at helping L&D professionals understand and apply these new skills in their organisation. Here’s a brief overview video.

As part of the Learning & Performance Institute’s Webinar programme:

Date: Wednesday 8th May 2013
Starts: 3.00pm (UK BST)
Finishes: 4.00pm (UK BST)
Presenter: Harold Jarche & Jane Hart

In the digitally connected enterprise everyone will need a new set of personal and social workplace skills, including:

• Personal knowledge management skills - in order to make sense of, and learn from, the constant stream of information that they encounter from social channels both inside and outside the organisation.
• Collaboration skills – in order to share knowledge with others and and learn cooperatively in teams, communities of practice, and social networks.

There will also be a need for:

• Community management skills – in order to build and sustain communities of practice, as well as how to build an enterprise community.
• Connected leadership skills - so that managers can lead their teams effectively in the new connected workplace.

In this webinar, Harold Jarche and Jane Hart will discuss these new skills, and how L&D can build and support them in their organisations.

They will also talk about the new Certificate and Diploma programme to be offered through the Learning & Performance Institute, so that learning professionals can become certified in this new area of connected work.

Register here

In my previous post I showed that an analysis of how Knowledge Workers like to learn at work suggests that L&D departments should consider working more closely with people managers to support the continuous learning and performance improvement of their people – both in teams and individually.

But of course this isn’t the only reason why they need to do this; continuous organizational learning is a key business imperative – as the University of Guelph points out

“continuous learning is increasingly important to the success of the organization because of changing economic conditions. Given the current business environment, organizations must be able to learn continuously in order to deal with these changes and, in the end, to survive.”

The University of Guelph also outlines the difference between continuous individual and group learning:

“At the individual level, continuous learning is about expanding your ability to learn by regularly upgrading your skills and increasing your knowledge. Continuous learning in the workplace involves viewing your experiences as potential learning and reexamining assumptions, values, methods, policies, and practices.  … At the group level, continuous learning is reflected, for example, by a team transforming itself in response to changing conditions.”

Source: Josh Bersin, 2012

Josh Bersin also talks about the need for a Continuous Learning Model, pointing out

“Today, if your company is not continuously developing new skills and learning from your customers, the market, and your own teams – you will fall behind.”

Of course, this is nothing new. Many organisations have aspired to a “continuous learning culture” for a long time now, although in practice, at best this has meant a series of training events, rather than a continuous flow of learning.

However, we can now approach the concept of “continuous learning” very differently, and this is due to the proliferation and widespread use of social technologies. The Social Web has changed the way that individuals learn from a constant stream of knowledge and information. And, in a similar way now, enterprise social tools are changing how team members can learn from one another inside their organisation. And what’s more, they can do that as they carry out their daily work – not as a separate activity nor on a separate “learning platform” – in order to continuously improve their performance. One might even refer to this as constant learning rather than continuous learning. [I have posted about this in Supporting self-managed team learning in the organisation.]

Although some might believe that supporting individual (professional) continuous learning will only result in workers up-skilling themselves and leaving the company, actually not supporting these activities is more likely to have this effect. But more importantly, for a team or group to “transform itself in changing conditions” it absolutely depends upon individual members feeding new thinking, ideas, resources into the team. [I have talked before about the importance of individual entrepreneurial learning (as John Seely Brown refers to it) or "learning the new" as I often call it.]

It is for this reason, supporting the continuous – or constant learning – of individuals and teams is becoming a vital new area of work for a L&D department. However, to do it effectively requires 5 significant changes to the current activities and thinking of L&D.

1. From “order takers” to business partners - It means working in closer partnership with team managers – not just doing what they ask for (eg create me a course, run a webinar for me) – but working together as full partners to support team and individual needs in the best and most appropriate ways.
2. From “packaging” content-based solutions to “scaffolding” frameworks for learning to take place  - It means not trying to organise and manage “learning” by packaging it all up in the traditional training way, but rather enabling the framework/infrastructure/conditions for learning and performance improvement to take place. (I wrote about this in The changing role of L&D: from “packaging” to “scaffolding” plus “social capability building”)
3. From a focus on  learning to a focus on performance - It’s remembering that it’s not JUST about the learning – rather that learning and collaboration are means to an end, not the end goal – which is improved performance. So the focus will be not on tracking “learning” or “social activity”, but on tracking performance changes. (It’s also worth pointing out that most managers won’t have the time or inclination to trawl through activity data to try to identify  the patterns of high performing individuals. And even if they did, this wouldn’t be immediately transferable to others, since there are many other factors that influence high performance which won’t have been tracked. Rather, identifying influencers in a team or organisation can best be achieved through value network analysis.)
4. From teaching “old skills” to modelling “new skills” - Although some will, through constant use of  the Social Web, have acquired a new set of personal and social skills, others will need support and help to thrive in this new environment. They will need help to develop their own Personal Knowledge Management approaches, as well as how to work and learn collaboratively in their teams in the Connected Workplace. Team leaders will also need help to manage and support a connected work team, and community managers will need help to build and sustain communities of practice (See Connected Worker Workshops)
5. From course designers/trainers to performance, collaboration and professional learning specialists – This new area of work will also demand new L&D roles and skills. It is clear from the above that existing course design and training skills will not be appropriate; and it won’t require a hands-on approach to facilitation that is to be found in formal learning communities. Rather it will need specialists in performance, collaboration and professional learning, who can provide upfront advice and support, and then step back onto the sidelines and offer help and guidance where and when required. (See New jobs and roles within L&D)

Harold Jarche and I have been working for some time now with organisational L&D departments to help them with this new area of work. As it is becoming of increasing interest, we are now about to embark on a new Certificate and Diploma programme to be offered through the Learning & Performance Institute, so that learning professionals can become certified in this new area of connected work. Find out more in the LPI webinar that takes place on Wednesday 8 May.

[The main body of this post is an excerpt from from my upcoming book, The Workplace Learning Revolution, where you can read more about the new model of L&D and how to support new ways of learning at work.]