How do we define social learning?

Is it a collaborative approach? Enhanced feature sets to engage learners? Strategy tied to learning initiatives from a business standpoint?

Or is it a way to ensure that our employees and our customers see the value of  learning and its benefits?

Benefits of Social Learning

• Gives power and provides engagement to your learners, they seek this out
• Eliminates passive training, now you can find out what your employees are thinking, responding and inquiring about
• Opens up an experience that can show the real impact of learning
• Does away with instructor led training that is often non-engaging, lacks interactivity and hopes that everyone asks questions and is involved (rarely the case)
• Enables people regardless of location, division, department to be part of something rather than nothing
• Offers opportunities to link to job roles, skills, leadership development using tools not available before

Two types of Social Learning & Benefits

Social Q/A

• End users ask questions, Subject matter experts respond, end users add comments
• Unique Value Proposition- establish mentoring program, one learner to one SME (via department, division, region, etc.)

Gain?

• Eliminates on the job training – which has been shown ineffective in the long term
• Identifies topics that could be used for future training

Scribd & Slideshare

• Employees or Trainers can upload presentations and share them with other learners
• Training department or employees can create, upload, read, print or share documents, audio/video files, presentations, spreadsheets, etc.

Unique Value Proposition

• Training Departments can provide quick reference materials, cards, video clips or presentations, audio, etc. to employees/customers and identify how many times they have been viewed, printed & shared – reduces cost to department for unnecessary future training or courses, reduces cost to department (eliminates printing/shipping), opens up global experience – which can be tied to native language (for example you have employees outside your home country)

Gain

• Localized learning
• Higher engagement
• Eliminates waste
• Identifies topics to train & topics to re-train (via blended learning or e-learning)

Bottom Line

Social Learning offers your learners, new opportunities, provides you as a training executive with future topics without the need of constant gap analysis, reduces costs in the short term and long term and identifies what your trainees need and want.

To gain a new perspective on social learning, please make sure to attend the exclusive event of the year, the Global Leadership Congress, May 9-11, 2011 in Philadelphia.  A roundtable on this topic and its strategy from a training and department angle will be presented. To learn more about the roundtable including the agenda, click Social Learning at GLC.

Recent results from our 10^th Annual Learning Excellence and Innovation Benchmark Study (10^th Annual study) show that expert companies that use a consistent performance consulting methodology enjoy more leadership support for organizational learning than those that do not. In CorpU’s research brief, CorpU 10th Annual Research-Performance Consulting Building Relationships, we explore the data behind this statement and pose a possible reason – performance consulting provides a structured way to ensure the right people are being asked the right questions regularly, thus increasing leaders’ support and alignment of learning with the business. However, it doesn’t answer the question of which comes first – the use of performance consulting practices to engage leaders in a conversation, thus increasing alignment, or a strong foundation of alignment with and support from senior leaders that already exists, thus enabling the use of performance consulting practices?

This question follows the pattern of one of the oldest questions in history, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” You could argue that either is the case. The same kind of argument applies here. One could say that performance consulting, especially the increased communication that occurs through its use, definitively increases leader support. However, it can also be argued that performance consulting will not be accepted as a methodology, and neither will non-training solutions, without an already well-laid foundation of trust.

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Measurement is one of the more difficult aspects of learning. And, although tools exist to measure the impact of particular programs and courses, up to now there has been no way to measure the perception of the learning organization within a company. CorpU’s Learning Brand (LB) survey was created to fill that gap. The LB survey queries stakeholders about the elements of brand (promise, marketing and experience) and also about the actions they take that indicate the strength of the commitment to the learning organization. In addition, there are two questions that ask about the likelihood that someone would recommend the learning organization to others:

• How likely is it that you would recommend the learning organization to others within your company?
• How likely is it that you would recommend that a friend or acquaintance apply for a job at your company because of the programs offered by the learning organization?

I believe that these questions are two of the most powerful questions in the study, and that they tell a learning organization a lot about the strength of its brand. Read more »

Within the last two weeks, I’ve had 3 interesting experiences related to immersive learning simulations. While Second Life was all the rage about 2 years ago, it’s rare to hear people talking about it much these days. However, three people have convinced me that simulations and immersive learning experiences continue to gain traction as increasingly more valuable and more effective methods for driving performance improvement.

First, I met Jessica Trybus, Founder & CEO of Etcetera Edutainment. Jessica studied under Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University professor who died from cancer and famously recorded his Last Lecture. I had not known that Randy’s focus as a computer science professor was on human-computer interaction.

Safety Training in 3D

One feature of Randy’s work at CMU was synthetic interview technology that allows people to interact with video. One example I’m familiar with is a 3D video replica of Abraham Lincoln at the Civil War museum in Harrisburg, PA. Visitors can really feel as though they’re talking with Honest Abe himself as the technology is programmed to answer more than 200 questions.

When Jessica met Randy after having worked at Disney’s Pixar, she was amazed by CMU’s new technologies and enrolled in a Master’s Degree program there. Upon graduation, she founded Etcetera Edutainment to build immersive learning programs. She demonstrated her safety training programs for me to show how learners become aware of the dangers, including death, from missing a step in a procedure or forgetting to check equipment carefully.

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Dr. Patti P. Phillips is president of the ROI Institute, Inc., the leading source of ROI competency building, implementation support, networking, and research. She is also chair and CEO of The Chelsea Group, Inc., an international consulting organization supporting organizations and their efforts to build accountability into their training, human resources, and performance improvement programs with a primary focus on building accountability in public sector organizations. She helps organizations implement the ROI methodology in countries around the world.   She has conducted ROI impact studies on programs such as leadership development, sales, new-hire orientation, human performance improvement, K-12 educator development, educators’ National Board Certification mentoring, and faculty fellowship.   She teaches others to implement the ROI methodology through the ROI certification process, as a facilitator for ASTD’s ROI and Measuring and Evaluating Learning Workshops, and as adjunct professor for graduate-level evaluation courses. She speaks on the topic of ROI at conferences such as ASTD’s International Conference and Exposition and ISPI’s International Conference.    Her academic accomplishments include a Ph.D. in International Development and a master’s degree in Public and Private Management. She is certified in ROI evaluation and has earned the designation of Certified Performance Technologist.

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Dr. Patti P. Phillips is president of the ROI Institute, Inc., the leading source of ROI competency building, implementation support, networking, and research. She is also chair and CEO of The Chelsea Group, Inc., an international consulting organization supporting organizations and their efforts to build accountability into their training, human resources, and performance improvement programs with a primary focus on building accountability in public sector organizations. She helps organizations implement the ROI methodology in countries around the world.   She has conducted ROI impact studies on programs such as leadership development, sales, new-hire orientation, human performance improvement, K-12 educator development, educators’ National Board Certification mentoring, and faculty fellowship.   She teaches others to implement the ROI methodology through the ROI certification process, as a facilitator for ASTD’s ROI and Measuring and Evaluating Learning Workshops, and as adjunct professor for graduate-level evaluation courses. She speaks on the topic of ROI at conferences such as ASTD’s International Conference and Exposition and ISPI’s International Conference.    Her academic accomplishments include a Ph.D. in International Development and a master’s degree in Public and Private Management. She is certified in ROI evaluation and has earned the designation of Certified Performance Technologist.

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Each year, I look forward to the two CLO Symposiums because I hear from thought leaders, benefit from an in-depth focus on a timely issue or development facing our profession and reconnect with my favorite colleagues.   Presented by Norm Kamikow and the MediaTek publishing team (publishers of Chief Learning Officer, Talent Management and Diversity Executive magazines), this Spring’s event promises to be another such rich experience although it will be hard to top last fall’s sold-out gathering.   To be held April 12-14 at the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Boca Raton, Florida, the theme of this symposium is “The Networked Organization: Leading Learning in the New Economy.”

The highlights of the symposium include:
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Stephen M. Paskoff, President and CEO of Atlanta-based Employment Learning Innovations, Inc. (ELI^®), is the founding Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Compliance Training and Communication Committee.   Prior to establishing ELI^® in 1986, Steve was a trial attorney with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a partner in a management law firm. He is a graduate of Hamilton College and the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Law and a member of the Pennsylvania and Georgia bars.   He is the author of the book, Teaching Big Shots to Behave and Other Human Resource Challenges, and is a member of the Editorial Board of Workforce Management magazine.  A frequent speaker at international conferences (including being named the highest-ranked speaker at SHRM’s conference), Stephen is a recognized expert in helping companies not only create respectful workplaces but also build ethical leaders.  He has appeared on ABC’s 20/20, CNBC, Fox News and in print in such publications as Fortune, Forbes, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and USA Today as well as numerous HR profession publications.  You might find his blog http://www.eliinc.com/insights/blog.cfm on related topics of interest or choose to follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ELI_Training. Read more »

Stephen M. Paskoff, President and CEO of Atlanta-based Employment Learning Innovations, Inc. (ELI®), is the founding Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Compliance Training and Communication Committee.   Prior to establishing ELI® in 1986, Steve was a trial attorney with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a partner in a management law firm. He is a graduate of Hamilton College and the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Law and a member of the Pennsylvania and Georgia bars.   He is the author of the book, Teaching Big Shots to Behave and Other Human Resource Challenges, and is a member of the Editorial Board of Workforce Management magazine.  A frequent speaker at international conferences (including being named the highest-ranked speaker at SHRM’s conference), Stephen is a recognized expert in helping companies not only create respectful workplaces but also build ethical leaders.  He has appeared on ABC’s 20/20, CNBC, Fox News and in print in such publications as Fortune, Forbes, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and USA Today as well as numerous HR profession publications.  You might find his blog http://www.eliinc.com/insights/blog.cfm on related topics of interest or choose to follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ELI_Training.

As one of more than 5000 certified ELI instructors, I have witnessed first-hand the power of the their award-winning, flagship program, Civil Treatment for Managers® where I used the program at several companies as part of core management development programs.   What I found so effective was the interactive, practical approach to helping new managers and supervisors understand the importance of the new role they were now assuming and the impact that their actions (or inactions) have in creating the kind of workplaces that attract, energize and retain talent. Companion programs offer respectful workplace support for employees (using a global model for non-US groups) as well as supporting ethics training and leadership development.  In my mind, there is a causal relationship between ethical leadership, respectful workplaces, engaged employees and business performance. Read more »

RLR: You’ve often seen what the future holds long before the rest of us even start to formulate the question. So what does the future hold for the learning profession?

AR: This has been going on for more than a decade. I get emails out of the blue seeking my view of the future. Would I be so kind as to answer a question: What is the future of learning? Sometimes it is this one: How about the future of technology for learning? Or this: What of the future of leader development? Who are these curious people? Who flatters me by seeking my opinions? I wish I could say it was Arne Duncan, President Obama’s Secretary of Education. Or Tony Bingham, CEO of ASTD. But no…..it is students. Their professors want them to reflect on the future. They, on their own or sometimes nudged by the faculty, are reaching out for a little help on the task. Often, they are in a hurry. One fellow structured my contribution, “I don’t want a long response. Something short and sweet would be best. How about twenty words or less on the future of the field?” Beyond his annoying entitlement, I was intrigued by the task. Could I crystallize my vision for the future? Could I be pithy about it? What would those twenty words be?

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