It is just like it sounds – one question each day about parenting.  The kickoff question is tomorrow – Wednesday the 24th.  If you are parent, I encourage you to follow and share.

This idea came a long time ago, before I had even heard about Twitter, actually.  We, as parents, have just about all the answers.  We have been through a TON of situations in varying forms.  When parents get together they often talk about the challenges.  And obviously there isn’t a manual we are given when we become parents.  So why not create it by the people who do it?

It this not true social learning?

So let’s get together, ask questions, give advice, wisdom and resources and help each other be better parents.  This is a passion of mine that I don’t get to act upon as often as I would like.  Because – hey – if I can have some positive influence on you, and then you on your children and then my children happen to interact with your children (or even marry one of your children), they will all be all the better for it.  Besides that, we can all help each other out.

Parenting is the most difficult, demanding, heart wrenching work – yet also the most rewarding, joyful work I have ever done.  Social learning is a piece of cake compared to this.

So join the @parentsQOTD and let’s band together before our children band together against us! (j/k)

Used by permission of Linday Hagblom, Elle photography.

All rights reserved

To keep on top of it, I always have the topic in the back of my mind.  When I see a post, or have a quick thought, I start a draft post and compile everything there.  Then on Thursday or Friday I edit and publish.  Simple, but it helps me write a good post, while my mind noodles over it for the week.  It helps me focus on a good topic and come to some good, usable conclusions.  Just as blogging & learning should be!

This weeks topic: Adoption – What are the best ways to increase adoption? What have you done that has worked well?

Are you up to the challenge?

Why?  My main reason – which may not seem like much on the outset – is that SP is document focused and social media is people focused.  After that explanation I can hear the question, “So what?  If they do the same thing is there any difference?”  First of all, they don’t do the same thing.  They may look like it, but they don’t.

photo credit: withoutgas2

In a few weeks I am leading 14 Boy Scouts, 14-17 years old and 12 leaders and parents on a bicycle trip from Cannon Beach on the north coast of Oregon to Florence, a central coastal town.  Some boys have road bikes.  Others are making due with mountain bikes equipped with slick tires, not the knobby ones.  These bikes were made for mountain biking, not for road biking.  Making adjustments will help.  But through the last year’s practice runs there is a definate difference between those who’s bikes are make for the trek and those who’s bikes are not.  They are slower.  These boys expend more energy to get the same distance.  They drag everyone behind.  They have to stop for more breaks.  They are not as aerodynamic (and with a headwind on the Oregon coast that makes a BIG difference). If the bikes have shocks… well, that is a killer.

In the same way, both SharePoint and social media might be said to make similar journeys – they are both vehicles.  But for different landscapes and different purposes.  Even with the changes SP says they will make in 2010, it still will not have the right focus.

Besides, how do you act and think and feel and interact when you are working on a document.  Now, how do you act and think and feel and interact when you are working with a person.  The PEOPLE are the ones that create the documents.  Why focus on the documents with limited knowledge when you can focus on the people unlimited & timely knowledge?  It is a different mindset which makes you interact with the people and content differently.

Here are a couple resources that talk about the difference between the two.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=280

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Software&articleId=9134641&taxonomyId=18&pageNumber=1

photo credit: Max Z

As has been the case so many times in the past, I talked today with a company which has made THE decision.  You see, in the past if someone needed a wiki, they gave it to them.  If they needed some other internal social technology, they would help out but there wasn’t a strategy.  So many companies dabble in this pre-area, trying to figure out if (and how) internal social media is useful.  Then, when it becomes apparent that it is and that many people want it, they need a strategy – it is a natural evolution.  This is the point this company is at right now.

It is time to jump in with both feet.  But where do you start?  If you have thousands of employees, how do you determine who should use what and in what capacity?

Implementation:

As was mentioned in this meeting, start with the low hanging fruit.  Where are you SURE it will work?  Let them go for it.  From there it will spread – they become your advocates, your case/success studies to the rest of the organization.

Culture:

This is the most difficult part of the whole thing.  Why? Because cultures are made up of people.  People are varied and they can change at any time.  The software is easy because it is there.  It only gets an update every few months at the most and usually it is on a schedule.  People, and groups of people, can change at any time and as frequently as they want.  For this reason, stick to the basics.  Think of this as a change management / performance improvement project, not a social learning project.  Use the same principles to guide you.  Even if you assess the needs of your audience, this does not guarantee that they will use the better solution.  Think ‘habit.’

Some departments will run out of the gate, some will barely crawl, some will reject.  You will need to have a plan for all levels.  Remember this is social media / learning.  Don’t be afraid to be traditionally social and go and talk to them personally.  It may take more time at the beginning, but it goes a LONG way.

Adoption:

Make it easy and natural.  See my series on adoption. Show the benefits.  Evangelize it.  Sell it.

Processes:

Replace, replace replace.  Find what is broken and fix it using social media.  If you don’t replace a process or a mode of communication or some other task, it becomes extra.  Everyone is so busy that anything extra will be put on the back burner and forgotten. If they want to add on extra, let them make that decision when they fully understand the value.  Until then, as Tim O’Reilly said at DevLearn 09, ‘force it’ (with caution).

Use it:

Most of all, if you are not deep into it yourself, it will be VERY difficult to have the type of conversations you will need to have for a favorable outcome.  This is because the objections (and here) they offer will be tough to explain.

Usage:

How will they use it? Why?  Should we let them?  How transparent should be we – and when and with whom?  All good questions which lead to more questions.  What is your system of governance and moderation?  What does ‘acceptable use’ look like?

To really go into this subject would be quite lengthy (thus the disparate subjects) – I apologize for the quick overview.  But if you are at the tipping point this should give you some things to think about.

WARNING:

<rant>

When was it ever NOT the learner’s accountability to learn?  When did someone (or something) take that over?  My answer?  NEVER.

photo credit: That Erum Kid.

CASE IN POINT: Schools – public or private, it doesn’t matter.  Who is accountable to make sure that the child learns?  It is the parent.  (Technically, it is at first and then it slowly switches to the child as they gain more maturity, but that is another post in and of itself.)  Most parents automatically hand over the responsibility to learn to the schools.  Yet the accountability never changes – it stays with the parent.  But in transfering the responsibility to the schools, they feel they have transfered the accountability as well.  Then, when their child does not get the education they think they deserve, or the school ‘does them wrong,’ the parents blame the school for their child’s lack of education

Over time, the schools have taken on this fake sense of accountability.

I call this the “Subsumption of Accountability.”  This is when the accountability to do something (in this case, learn) is placed incorrectly on the wrong person or group.  Or when that person or group incorrectly takes on the characteristics of accountability from someone.  They don’t actually take FULL accountability, but it seems as if they do.  But in the end, who suffers when accountability fails?  Not the person who has subsumed it, but the person to which it rightfully belongs.

</rant>

Did you follow that?  I have a book I have started to write on that because it is one of my passions.  So I may have totally lost some people because I glazed over a topic that goes WAY deeper, but I hope it makes sense.

Back to the original question – how does social learning change the accountability for the learner to learn?  It doesn’t.  It may change the responsibility in that they don’t assign it out to the company and instead take it themselves, but it does not change the accountability.

And this is the point we need to drive home.  Sometimes an organization subsumes the learner’s accountability to learn, weakening the learner’s accountability, drive and passion and full responsibility.   So what do we do?  Give it back.  Stop taking it.  Allow the learner to take charge and understand that THEY are in charge of their learning.  Fully.

Learning in Relation to Business Goals

As I see it, eLearning is a subset of Training is a subset of Learning is a subset of Performance Improvement is a means to the end: Accomplishing goals – in this case business goals, but more often personal goals.

There are many ways to learn.  Training is one way.  Whether that be eLearning or ILT (instructor led training).  Other ways? Social learning (of course), job aids, experential discovery, mentoring and a thousand other subtle ways.

This graphic was used in the Overcoming Top 10 Objections To Social Learning webinar (with Dave Wilkins) to explain how to ovecome the objection, “What does social learning have to do with training?”  I go into more of an explanation there, but this is the crux of it all.

(This post is part of the Social Learning Question of the day’s Blog Project.  For more posts about the difference between the two, use the link to see the Twitter conversations.)

Although this may sound strange at first, Twitter really is more like Wikipedia than, say, Facebook (). Twitter is not so much about connecting with your friends, it’s about broadcasting information.

What? It is about broadcasting information?  Dave Wilkins must have been referencing this post yesterday when we were recording our latest podcast.  To me, the “What are you doing?” is lame.  Sure, every now and then tweet what you are doing.  Fine.  But if that is all you do, buh-bye.  Give me something useful.

Broadcasting information?  That is not how I use it.  Most of my usage is around conversations.  My tweets….

(Thinking in real time) … Wait a minute.  I guess I do – broadcast links, broadcast useful bits of information and appreciate it when others do the same.  But I connect at the same time.  I have conversations with others and collaborate, not just broadcast info.

Twitter, then, takes characteristics from both.  It is to broadcast info, but then at the same time it is used to connect, have conversations and collaborate (like @slqotd is used).  So, no, it won’t follow the curve of regular social networks.  But if we assume that Twitter is only a broadcast medium (only because it does do that) then we are selling the benefits short.

Thanks for joining me in my journey of thought.

When I talk to either one person or a large hall of people about what I do, I get so excited!  The possibilities for them are HUGE!  Most people, because they don’t understand all this, do not realize the impact and savings of time, money and other resources that they would see.  And when they finally take the plunge it is wonderful to see their eyes light up and get just as excited as I am.  It is even better when they experience, first hand, the effects and become a hero in their organizations.  Maybe that is what I do – I create heros.  Hmmm.  I need to think about that more!

Selling myself, however, has never been my strongest attribute.  I just want to get in, do a great job and show them how to make some real gains.  My ‘proof in the pudding’ is my work, not a hyped up sense of self.  BUT, I do realize that to be able to be a part of those projects I have to so some selling.  So I have taken a stab at defining myself in a more generic way.  I have decided to do it as a post instead of in a doc that I horde myself.  Feel free to make any comments.

Where is my focus?

Primary focus: Using social media and social networking for performance improvement and customer communication.

Secondary Focus: Using social media for marketing; creating performance improvement solutions including learning environments and curriculum; creating and delivering the training (standup, eLearning, etc.).

What does the Primary Focus look like?

• Education on how social media / networking can drastically increase performance improvement and customer communications through keynotes, conference sessions, workshops, webinars, trainings, writings
• Setting strategy – Working with key stakeholders to identify
  • Goals / objectives
  • Resources
  • Culture which will help or hinder project
  • Roles & responsibilities
  • Skills and abilities of employees
  • Current vs. future processes / procedures
  • Timelines, milestones, tasks and measurements of success
• Implementation
  • Managing the project
  • Creating the environment culturally
  • Creating the environment technically
  • Educating all involved on all levels
  • Marketing (internally & externally)
• Ongoing management and support

How have businesses benefited from this?

• Increase in
  • sales
  • time to ‘onboard’ a new employee
  • innovation and idea creation
  • the customer ‘working’ for the company for free
  • finding and exploiting new and untapped markets and industry potential
  • finding necessary information
  • finding the experts in a given subject
  • communication with and between employees
  • communication with customers
  • finding answers to questions
  • brining out and storing the knowledge and wisdom of employees and customers
  • working and more efficient processes
  • focus on direction for employees and customers
  • customers supporting themselves and each other
  • customer feedback
  • effectiveness of training
• Decrease in
  • customer support instances and time/instance
  • number of meetings and meeting time
  • number of emails
  • redundant tasks (duplication of efforts)

Current Side Projects

• Director of the Social Learning Special Interest Group for ASTD’s Cascadia chapter
• Co-Host of the  Social Learning Strategies and Trends Podcast (iTunes link)
• Creator & co-administrator of the Social Learning Question of the Day on Twitter (@slqotd)
• Finishing a master’s of Instructional & Performance Technology from Boise State Universtiy with a thesis on using social media / networking as an EPSS (Electronic Performance Support System)

I am pretty blessed to work with some pretty smart people.  Those in the industries of social media, search engine optimization and marketing (SEO / SEM), Learning and eLearning  and hardware & software.

So, that is who I am – my self reflection.

This question first came up when Dave Wilkins and I were doing our last podcast.  We were talking about how we learn all the time, but those in the learning profession ignore that piece and focus on creating elearning, for example.  So the original question was: SL happens all the time – now what?

FIRST, we have to recognize that it happens.  Too often we ignore that it exists.  Or maybe, even worse, that we feel that we can’t do anything about it, so it isn’t even on our radar.

It is time.  Our job is to enable learning, enable performance improvement.  Yet if we ignore the most fundemental, basic ways that we learn, we are doing a disservice to those very people we claim to support.

During #lrnchat on Twitter last night, there was some discussion on learning and training: @marciamarcia: We still seem to be neglecting any mention of helping people learn how to learn or liberate their self-direction. #lrnchat.  Are we helping others to learn what they need/want to learn, or are we forcing learning that they don’t want?  Sure, they may need some of the latter, but what about all that they REALLY want to know?

But, truely, it happens ALL THE TIME.  Learning is ALL AROUND US.  How do we help others with that?  It isn’t by creating a course on it.

I think of homeschooling my own kids.  There are things they NEED to learn. But what about those things they are really interested in?  We point them to the resources.  We make learning available.  We hook them up with the books, sites, people and other resources.  We don’t try to give it to them in nice, neat little packages.  That is like saying, “Oh, you are running and need to breathe heavily?  Here let me give you this breath.  And this one.  And this one.”  Instead it is, “Here is all the oxygen you need.  Oh, and here is some more I found.  Breath away.”

(Another favorite tweeet of mine was from @ hjarche: if I had to develop a lot of learning “stuff” last people I would hire would ID’s (sorry) – artists, writers would come 1st #lrnchat.)