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Back in October 2010 Morten Hansen asked the  question Who should be your Chief Collaboration Officer on the HBR Blog network.  The rationale for his post was …

“Increasingly, companies are embracing collaboration as part of their strategy to grow, by cross-selling products to existing customers and innovating through the recombination of existing technologies. But this won’t work unless employees work effectively across silos — across sales offices, business units, sales, product development, and marketing.

In most companies today, senior executives are still responsible for their unit — sales, marketing, HR, division A, division B. Yes, they are told to be team players and work with their peers. But that is often not enough. You need someone to look after the whole, by taking a holistic view of what is needed to get employees to work across silos”.

Morten thought that a current C-level executive should assume the mantle, and in his post mentioned five possible candidates: The current CIO, HR head, COO, CFO or Head of Strategy. He did think there might be other candidates  such as Chief Technology Officers in high-tech companies, but he also felt some senior executives were less suited for the job: head of sales, head of countries, and business unit heads, as they tended to be too focused on their primary role.

More recently Jacob Morgan asked the question,  Do organizations need a Chief Collaboration Officer? His rationale for such a role was

“More organizations are starting to deploy new collaborative tools and strategies as a core part of their business evolution to connect and engage employees.  It’s becoming increasingly difficult (especially at large companies) to oversee these initiatives as typically there isn’t a role devoted to collaboration.  Usually collaboration falls on the shoulders of employees (such as the CIO) with an existing full plate of things that need to get done. So is it about time for organizations to create the role of the CCO (Chief Collaboration Officer)?”

He also outlined the role he thought the CCO would have:

“I envision that this person, prior to deployment, would be in charge of efforts such as developing use cases, evaluating vendors, developing a strategy and road map, evaluating risks, and building a team (not having the CCO do this on his own).  After deployment this person would focus on integration, training programs, adoption strategies and the like.  The long term responsibility of the CCO would be scaling the program, fostering a collaborative culture, continually evaluating the program and adoption levels, and integrating collaboration within the overall business strategy of the company.  If you ask anyone from a large (or even mid-size) company that has been spending their time on collaboration they will tell you that it’s a full time job with new challenges and tasks just like any other.  Again the CCO needs to be someone that understands collaboration from not just a technology standpoint but from a business and people standpoint. .

But I think there is more to it than that. In my recent post I mentioned that as businesses become social businesses, collaboration and community skills are becoming the new workplace skills.  This of course adds a new dimension to the role of CCO – how to foster that collaborative culture by encouraging and supporting these new skills.

So  this does seem to be an area where a CLO/Head of L&D might be a good candidate for the role of CCO as s/he would bring something extra to the table – the ability help to identify what “good” collaboration behaviour might look like within their organisation, and to help to build an effective collaboration culture.

So, I asked Jacob,  why he hadn’t mention the possibility of the CLO taking on this new role, and he replied

“I didn’t mention the CLO but I certainly should have.  There are many roles which could assume the collaboration responsibilities which is why I wanted to avoid being prescriptive and instead chose to offer several scenarios. I think every organization is different when it comes to collaboration and I certainly see how the CLO could be the best person to run collaboration.  In fact at TELUS one of the key people responsible for collaboration is a senior director of learning.”

So when might the CLO be the best person to become the CCO within an  organisation? Well, I believe s/he will be the right person if s/he has (at least) the following credentials:

• S/he will need to have a good understanding of the business, business processes and business strategy – not just learning theory
• S/he will need to appreciate that organizational learning involves more than just training people and that collaborative (or social) learning is a fundamental and natural part of doing social business.
• S/he will need a good knowledge of social and collaborative tools, and recognise that the primary collaboration platform in the organisation will be the one that underpins the work, ie some form of social intranet – but not a learning platform or system.
• S/he will need to to believe that fostering a collaborative culture needs to be achieved by “modeling behaviours”  - rather than training and testing competencies in order for workers to obtain their “collaboration license” before they are allowed on the network. As I said in my recent post, although training will undoubtedly play some part in helping people understand the functionality of the technology, developing collaborative skills will require an ongoing, adaptive, organic “modeling” process – not a one-off training event.

It is true that for many CLOs to become a CCO will require a fundamental shift in the way that they view their jobs – and they may well not be interested in a role that is much broader than their current one. But I do know that there are already a growing number of CLOs who are thinking quite differently about their role in the organisation – and have the business and technology backgrounds that would make them ideal candidates for the role of CCO. What is more, by assuming the role of CCO, this will be a good way for them to impact the business far more than they currently can do

However, as Jacob says, every organization is different when it comes to collaboration, so who do you think should be your first Chief Collaboration Officer? Please leave your thoughts below.

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I’ve been working with a number of organisations recently as they’ve been making the move “into social”, and one thing was clear, that “helping” their people with this didn’t require old-school training.  Of course, helping them how to use the technology could be partly approached in this way – but even that wasn’t quite the same. And Maria Ogneva agrees in her blog post, This is not your parents’ software training, when she talks about how organisations should approach Yammer “training”.

But as for the new social and collaboration skills that workers require, well you simply can’t train people to be social! What was required was getting down and dirty and helping people understand what it actually meant to work collaboratively in the new social workplace, and the value that this would bring to them.  My Internet Time Alliance colleague, Harold Jarche,  refers to this as modelling, not shaping.

It also involved helping teams understand what it actually meant to set up and sustain a project group or community of practice; and again it wasn’t simply about using the technology, but included offering tips and techniques to encourage and value participation of the members, as well as keep the group or community alive. In other words, when supporting groups with this, it was not about telling them how to do it, but showing them how to do it – modelling, not shaping.

Yesterday, I read an article that offered some lessons for a big rollout of social and collaborative tools for Virgin Media, and their experience was the same.

“One size doesn’t fit all “We couldn’t just deliver a simple technical training course and people would naturally adopt the technology all at the same rate. We had to create a unique and individual set of adoption processes that included everything from one-to-one training to self-help with videos through how-to communities. One of the big successes during the pilot, which I was hoping for but surprised me nonetheless, was the amount of people who started to self-help and help others.”

Helping people to work collaboratively and become a valued member of a community takes skill; and just like the use of social media it’s not something you talk about –  it’s something you have to do yourself.  Are you ready to help “model” these new behaviours in your organisation?

“A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.” (Wikipedia)

I’ve been preparing some extended notes for some presentations about The Social Learning Revolution – in particular how social media is impacting all our working and learning lives, and what this means for the Learning & Development department.   I’ve been looking at the following:

How we have traditionally understood “learning” in the workplace and how we really learn in the workplace

• How we are using social media in the workplace and how the Training Department is responding

How social businesses are emerging and how we can really support social learning in the social business

What new services will be  needed in the social business to support social learning  and the new role of the workplace learning professional.

If you would like to read my extended notes together with thumbnail images of the slides I will be using, you can find them here: The Social Learning Revolution 

1 - Through the 70-20-10 looking glass, Charles Jennings, ITA, 29 December 2012

“In this article I want to turn to the ‘how’ of change and transformation in organisational learning and look at one specific approach that many organisations are finding useful to help them adapt to meet changing requirements and demands – the 70:20:10 framework. As with the first article, I’m going to call on some insights from Mr Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) for some help. Who Stole The Tarts? … Informal learning and social learning are no doubt stealing the tarts. But there is no point attempting to introduce new informal and workplace learning approaches without a clear plan and a framework.”

2 - A company of one in an architecture of cooperation, Stowe Boyd, 1 January 2012

“This transition from collaborative work to cooperative work will require a systemic relaxation of work norms, management preconceptions, and individual motivations, and especially the primacy of collaboration. Cooperation is about the freedom to not collaborate, as well, to avoid the overhead involved when people have to hammer out agreements about a shared collective vision intended to persist for some strategic length of time.”

3 - 10 enterprise social networking obstacles, the brainyard, Information Week 3 January 2012

“Given how successful Facebook and other social experiences are on the consumer Web, why wouldn’t every organization flock to this vision of agile, spontaneous, transparent, and people-centered corporate collaboration? Sadly, there are a few reasons … Profusion of tools. The explosion of social software tools is a source of great innovation, but also a lot of confusion. Organizations can easily wind up with several enterprise social networks used by different teams or departments, or for different purposes, along with social applications for purposes such as project management or employee recognition, each coming with their own user profiles and activity steams and notions of how connections are formed. A fragmented social environment–one that promises a global view of people and activity but in fact does not–might be worse than none at all.”

4 - Social enterprise can develop stronger ties between management and employees, HR Magazine, 17 January 2012

“Social collaboration capabilities such as blogs and communities enable employees to share expertise and collaborate, and creates an informal network that helps propel the organization’s innovation agenda, and can far more effectively leverage the collective skills of the entire organization. In fact, social enterprise can be used to engage with prospective employees even before they are part of the organisation, through social networking sites.”

5 - The agile learning train is leaving the station, Jay Cross, Unmanagement, 18 January 2012

“A sustainable workscape must provide the means and motivation for corporate citizens to learn what they need: the know-how, know-who, and know-what to get things done and get better at doing them. This takes more than access to social networking tools, blogs, and wikis. Self-organization helps, but L&D professionals need to supplement social systems with scaffolding that focuses on learning. Without that, many organizations will descend into an aimless world of social noise and meaningless chit-chat.”

6 - Modeling, not shaping, Harold Jarche, 19 January 2012

“In social networks we can learn from each other; modelling behaviours, telling stories, and sharing what we know. This may not be highly efficient, but it it can be very effective. You will know you’re in a real community of practice if it changes your practices.”

7 - 5 social business truths, Social Business, 21 January 2012

“Knowledge and ideas want to be free: When you learn something new, ever feel the urge to share it? When you know something that can help, don’t you want to answer a question? When you have an idea, isn’t it great to bounce off others? From a behavioral and technological perspective, we want knowledge and ideas to be free. Why lock ‘em down?”

8 - Sharing failure, Clark Quinn, 26 January 2012

“Many years ago now, at the event that led to Conner’s & Clawson’s Creating a Learning Culture, one small company shared their approach: they ring a bell not when the mistake is made, but when the lesson’s learned.  They’re celebrating – and, importantly,  sharing – the learning from the event.  This is a beautiful idea, and a powerful opportunity to use social media when the message goes beyond a proximal group.”

9 - Unleashing the power of social media within your organisation, January 2012

“To better understand the value of social media in the workplace, APCO Worldwide and Gagen MacDonald recently surveyed 1,000 U.S. employees, and built a model that quantifies the factors that characterize effective programs and the impact those programs have on the bottom line ” (INFOGRAPHIC)

10 - Boosting productivity with workforce collaboration, Tieto Future Office, 31 January 2012

“Most organizations have created digital work environment to optimize personal productivity and teamwork, but doing so they have neglected the fact that information work is becoming increasingly interdependent and collaborative, relying on collaboration in networks across locations and organizations and stretching far beyond teams.”

First of all, the Introduction to social learning in the workplace programme begins on 20 February. I want to build a small group of participants with a common interest so that we can have some good discussions around this topic. There are a few places left, so let me know if you would like to join this one. Details are on the page (link above).

Secondly, on 22 February, I have my first In Conversation with .. webinar, with Jane Bozarth. This is going to be fun. It won’t be the normal presentational-style webinar, but a dialogue where I talk to Jane about her job, her books, and her thoughts about the use of social media in the workplace. Joining instructions once again are on the In conversation with Jane Bozarth webinar page, and how you can also information on how to leave your questions for Jane.

I am lining up a number of great guests for this series of webinars; and you can find out who’s coming up on the Webinars page.

During January I also added a few more interest groups to the list including: Google applications for Learning, Social Learning Theory, Meet the ITA Team  and Community Leadership. You can view the full list of interest groups here.

I’ve also enabled the site-wide Activity stream so you can get a better view of all the public activity.  You can use this to post directly into the groups of which you are a member (and these are listed in the pull-down menu), so that other  group members are notified of it.  Note, if you post into your Profile – it will only be visible in the Activity stream and in your profile.

Updates in the group and site-wide Activity stream are also now editable within 10 minutes of posting – so if you realise you made a typo, you can now easily correct it.

And just a reminder, that both members and non-members can keep up to date with general news about the Social Learning Centre by subscribing to the RSS feed.

If you haven’t yet come across The New Social Learning book (by Marcia Conner and Tony Bingham), this is a must-read. Marcia explains:

“At its most basic level, social learning can result in people becoming more informed, gaining a wider perspective, and being able to make better decisions by engaging with others. It acknowledges that learning happens with and through other people, as a matter of participating in a community, not just by acquiring knowledge.”

One of my favourite articles about social learning was also written by Marcia Conner – together with Steve LeBlanc, Where social learning thrives, and they state:

“Social learning is not just the technology of social media, although it makes use of it. It is not merely the ability to express yourself in a group of opt-in friends. Social learning combines social media tools with a shift in the corporate culture, a shift that encourages ongoing knowledge transfer and connects people in ways that make learning a joy.”

Harold Jarche in a blog post, Social Learning, complexity and the enterprise, (that originated as a white paper), looks at why social learning is  important for today’s enterprise.  It is chock-full of explanation and detail, but here are a couple of snippets”:

“A collective, social learning approach … takes the perspective that learning and work happen as groups and how the group is connected (the network) is more important than any individual node within it.”

“Social learning is how groups work and share knowledge to become better practitioners.”

“Knowledge workers get things done by conversing with peers, customers and partners, as they solve the problems of the day. Learning from these social interactions is a key to business innovation.”

And what does all this mean for L&D, Jay Cross makes it clear, in No more business as usual

“Continuous improvement and delighting customers require a culture of pervasive learning. We’re not talking classes and workshops here. Creating a new order of business requires learning ecologies — what we’ve been calling Workscapes — that make it simple and enjoyable for people to learn what they need to get the job done. Companies that fail to learn will wither and die.

As all business becomes social business, L&D professionals face a momentous choice. They can remain Chief Training Officers and instructors who get novices up to speed, deliver events required by compliance, and run in-house schools. These folks will be increasingly out of step with the times.

Or they can become business leaders who shape learning cultures, social networks, collaborative practices, information flows, federated content management, just-in-time performance support, customer feedback mechanisms, and structures for continuous improvement.”

Want to find out more? Come and visit the Social Learning Centre.

“Paddy stopped cutting the hedge as the big car drew up beside him and an English visitor enquired, 

“Could you tell me the way to Balbriggan, Please?”

Paddy wiped his brow. 

“Certainly, sor. If you take the first road to the left? no still that wouldn’t do? drive on for about four miles then turn left at the crossroads? no that wouldn’t do either.”

Paddy scratched his head thoughtfully.

“You know, sor, if I was going to Balbriggan I wouldn’t start from here at all.”

The similarity is that although I’ve seen many suggestions as to how people can “implement social learning” in terms of how social media can be used in e-learning or face-to-face training, or how updating to the latest Social Learning Management System will do the trick, this isn’t actually going to get them to Social Learning, it’ll only take them as far as Social Training.

To get to Social Learning, you have to start from a different place (and a different mindset) than Training – with its inherent need to try organise and manage everything everyone “learns” in the organisation.

Rather, it means going into the workplace, and then asking a different question: How can I encourage, enable, support, enhance and enrich the social learning that is already taking place there, since it is one of the key ways that people find out how to do their jobs – or do them better.

In other words it  requires a different approach than social training. Supporting social learning is just part of offering a  wider package of workplace performance services that I’ve talked about before. Furthermore, it will also involve the use of social business tools and systems – rather than specific training tools and learning systems – since true social learning is an integral part of working, not separate from it.

So if your destination is really social learning (and not just social training), then make sure you ask the right questions, to get the right directions, and ultimately end at the right destination.

Each day there will be an “activity” that consists of an introduction to the topic with links to additional reading (if desired), an individual or group activity, and a group discussion question to encourage the exchange of thoughts, ideas, experiences and resources of participants.

Here are three upcoming programmes. Follow the links to find out more about them, their agenda as well as how to join up – currently there is a special launch price available.

20 February – 2 March 10 days (weekdays only)
An introduction to social learning in the workplace
How social media is impacting the way that we work and learn in the workplace, and how L&D can support learning more widely in their organisations.

12-23 March 10 days (weekdays only
How to create and sustain an online community
Guidance on how to set up and maintain an online community

16-27 April 10 days (weekdays only)
Using social media in a formal learning programme
Ideas for how to use social media in a formal learning programme - classroom based and/or online.

More programmes to come.