In my previous post, I wrote about
why workplace learning is largely Learning 1.0. I wrote that organizations found it easier to focus on training rather than learning because training is measurable while we still struggle with measuring learning. There are also social pressures of not using Web 2.0 tools for learning in workplace while in educator’s world the social pressures force them to use the Web 2.0 tools. The post received generated an interesting discussion.
- Michele Martin commented that if only companies realized people who learn were high performers vs. people who want to be trained.
- Viplav Baxi in a follow up post provides his insights about what could possibly be structured construction and tracking models for teaching-learning in a Learning 2.0 world.
- Jane Hart urges organizations to measure performance rather than training or learning.
- Sarah Stewart asks how can we embed social networking in people's days and sell it to them as something that has value.
- Claire Thompson provides us with the example of Google offering 20% of their time to work on what they are passionate about.
- Bill shares his frustration with the IS departments and the extra paranoia about allowing access to anything that even might compromise integrity and safety of personal health information. He shares his attempt at using Sharepoint Portal within the firewall to work around fears of IS departments.
- Poonam Sharma concurs with the about societal pressures at workplace and talks about management impact on training.
- Dave Ferguson wonders if some of the "1.0" aspect of workplace learning isn't due simply to inertia, especially on the part of management. And organizations should be willing to seek out ways to expand the skills and the opportunities for its most important asset -- its employees.
- Jeff Cobb feels that one of the core issues is that corporate training often needs to demonstrate compliance of some sort or mastery of hard skills, and 1.0 approaches are simply more reliable and proven for this. He also feels there is little notion of a continuing "liberal" education in the corporate space.
Notwithstanding the use of Web 2.0 tools, I believe the core issue is that organizations’ focus on learning at workplace vs. training. I have seen that typically smaller teams with strong leaders have a better culture of learning. While the use of Web 2.0 tools is still limited (a combination of firewall issues, inertia, societal pressures are contributing factors of not using Web 2.0 tools), there are teams within our large organization that spend a lot of time “learning” together. I have found that these teams had passionate leaders who are keen on learning. Mid-level managers have a task on their hands for building the learning culture within their teams. Mid-level managers will find that they will be more successful by encouraging their teams to experiment and share their learning with others in the team.
Michele Martin has been writing a string of posts about why workplace learning is largely using authoring and presenting tools – more like “Learning 1.0” types of approaches, while the educators are using more Web 2.0 tools like Wikis, blogs etc. She refers to Jane Hart’s
Spring 2008 Top 100 Tools for Learning, a compilation of the top 10 tools identified by 155 elearning professionals, a list to which I also contributed. Jane and Michele make interesting observation about the differences between learning in corporate world and an educator’s world.
In the field of education, the onus of learning is on the learner. In workplace, the onus of training is on the organization and training department. If I don’t learn in university, it is my shortcoming. If I don’t learn in the workplace, it is the training department or functional head’s shortcoming.
In the corporate world, spending time on social networking sites is looked down upon (hmm... chatting with your friends?, wasting time trying to find a date, or using company resources to find a job are you...). IM, downloading/viewing videos on YouTube are considered a load on network bandwidth that can be done without. Podcasts are after all MP3 files that can’t be distinguished from music files, and MP3 downloads are restricted. In the educator’s world these tools help the teacher connect to many more students at the same time.
We still can’t measure the learning using Web 2.0 tools. The training department or functional head’s measure of success are the number of training days or number of elearning courses taken by employees. Productivity can be impacted in many ways and it is hard to measure the impact of learning on productivity. I am not sure how many training heads have productivity as a key performance measure of their role that they actually monitor. In the Educator’s world, there is no requirement to measure productivity. Learning is measured through exams.
I will also commit hara-kiri as a manager and say that there is actually lesser time available for using social networking tools and Web 2.0 tools for learning in corporate workplace. Using Web 2.0 tools and techniques requires some getting used to and requires more time. Somehow in the workplace, there just isn’t the time available required to truly realize the potential of Web 2.0 tools. So between gazillion transactions of workload, it isn’t easy to spend time on “learning”. Training is easier because it can be planned with time allocated to it. Educator’s world doesn’t seem to have the same time pressures of the corporate world.
There are also social pressures. Few of my colleagues/bosses wonder how I have so much time to blog and run a team blog, even though most of my posts are on the weekends, and running a team blog is something that a functional head should probably be doing. One my colleagues asked me, so what’s the point of all this blogging, wikis etc. Isn’t it easier to just ask someone in case you need help? And where is the time to read all the stuff... In the Educator’s world there are social pressures to use the tools. It is cool to be up to date with social networking and various other Web 2.0 tools. In corporate world you are expected to know all about them but not actually spend time on them.
With most companies struggling to find talent, struggling with attrition and shortened employment span of employees in a single organization, organizations are spending more on “training” and less on “learning”. Training is measurable; learning doesn’t quite seem to be so easily measureable. Can the organizations afford to take a chance that employees will “learn” on their own? Isn’t it easier that they just be “trained”? Sometimes I see the impact of this in employees not wanting to learn and just waiting to be trained.
While writing this post, I couldn’t help recall Geetha Krishnan’s post where he makes an interesting
comparison between education and training.
As a learning professional, I would like to see myself making a greater connect between learning and business needs, and between training and on the job productivity.
In my new role, I would like to build a better learning product that will really prepare fresh graduate for the IT industry and enable them to get a job. This will include not just technical skills, but communication skills and life skills.
I would also like to succeed in my collaborative learning environment experiment and in moving towards a culture of learning.
Michele asked if I was willing to share some tips for keeping my team engaged or things I am learning from starting up a team blog. She thought these would be helpful for people to get a feel of what things are like in the trenches. I have been sharing some of the progress in my own blog, but I felt this will be a good opportunity to consolidate learning from my experience.
To start with, let me share that it isn’t easy. A week or so back when I was exchanging emails with Michele, I was feeling good about the team blog. However last week there was not a single post on the blog and suddenly I wasn’t feeling as good. When I started the blog, I had mentally prepared myself for the 1% rule of Internet content creation. However one week of inactivity did sadden me. So if you are planning to start a team blog, my first tip would be that you stay motivated and not let a period of inactivity disappoint you.
When starting a team blog, identify the objectives and goals of the blog.
- What problem you are trying to solve and for whom?
- Who will be the content creators and who will be readers?
- What content is important for them?
The audience is the most important part of your team blog. A team blog is not your personal rant so it is critical that you identify what will draw an audience to read and to contribute.
At the outset, identify specific people who will contribute to the team blog with their posts. I initially identified the people who I felt could contribute. A few more were suggested by this group. When anyone accepted the invitation to be a contributing author to the blog, I sent them a welcome mail with a list of topics that they could write on. And I had a few posts when I launched the blog. This gives the authors a framework to start contributing.
Many of the authors had never blogged before so providing a framework was very useful. I also spoke personally to a many authors encouraging them to start blogging about their experiences. I told them that they could start by commenting on the posts if they were more comfortable than writing their own post.
I spent a fair amount of time initially adding widgets and features that the audience could relate to. Our blog roll included blogs from the team and other people from the industry that the audience recognized. These still get the most outgoing hits on the blog. I also added features that will keep the main page of the site updated without much intervention from me.
- A widget to display an RSS feed about industry news provided a window to what was happening in other companies.
- In my Google Reader, I shared the posts that I felt would be relevant to the team, and then provided an RSS feed as Recommended Articles on the blog. This keeps the content on the blog updated without actually changing the blog itself.
- I added a Recent Comments widget to display recent comments in various posts on the main page. This also helps keep site updated with new content on the main page without any my intervention.
- I added Ratings widget by Outbrain and encouraged the readers to rate the posts. I always feel readers are more likely to rate posts than comment on them. The ratings widget also allows you to display the most popular post on the blog.
I found that labels help in categorizing the content on the blog. While the authors can add labels when they post, I manage the labels to ensure that the number of labels remain usable.
I blatantly find opportunities to promote the team blog. I send out personal email updates about new posts and features on eCube. I have added a link to the eCube blog on the employee portal within the firewall. This has added more traffic to the blog.
I also had/have a few features that didn’t quite attract the collaboration I was expecting. The Flickr group to add common pictures seemed like a cool thing but didn’t find many takers. I have also added a free chat/guest book widget from
Shoutmix but I haven’t had comments from anyone other than me and one more team member. It didn’t quite have the impact that I was hoping it would, though I still think it is a cool widget. I have also started an
eCube group on Facebook. In spite of a link on the blog, I don’t yet have any members from the team that eCube was aimed at. I don’t know yet how I will actually use it. Perhaps if there are enough members, I could use it to send them updates about events.
Future plans for the eCube team blog? Well, I am looking at rotating responsibility for managing the team blog, perhaps holding virtual and physical events around the eCube banner, more widgets, more polls, more ponder questions. However as I get sucked into a new job role, it seems like a distant dream. Which is why finding someone from the team to run the blog and related events would be good. And going back to constantly motivating myself...
Notwithstanding the use of Web 2.0 tools, I believe the core issue is that organizations’ focus on learning at workplace vs. training. I have seen that typically smaller teams with strong leaders have a better culture of learning. While the use of Web 2.0 tools is still limited (a combination of firewall issues, inertia, societal pressures are contributing factors of not using Web 2.0 tools), there are teams within our large organization that spend a lot of time “learning” together. I have found that these teams had passionate leaders who are keen on learning. Mid-level managers have a task on their hands for building the learning culture within their teams. Mid-level managers will find that they will be more successful by encouraging their teams to experiment and share their learning with others in the team.
