WHAT IS SOCIAL LEARNING ?

• Learning is the foundation of who we are (becoming). It is socialbecause our human nature is social, not just because (or when) we interact with others or use certain tools. (E. Wenger)

• Social Learning is not just a technical fix; it’s a set of behaviours and attitudes towards learning. It aims at empowering practitioners to form learning partnerships in order to create value and enhance performance, for themselves (personal) and for the organisation (collective).

• Social Learning can also be defined as “collaborative learning” or

“informal learning”

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2Learning and Talent Development – CIPD 2013 Report

• Social Learning is not “Yet Another Communications Channel”

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Social Learning is not to replace traditional classroom training

• Social Learning is not something new

either…

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What is new though is the emergence of social

media platforms and new technologies enabling

the learning process and growing networks

in the context of globalised business, Web 2.0

and faster changing work environment.

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Top 100 Tools for Learning 2012(Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies)

http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/

70:20:10 Learning Model (Charles Jennings)

70% is learned on the job

20% is learned through others

10% is learned in courses

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(Jean Martin, Executive Director at CEB,

at The Economist Talent Management Summit – May 2013)

The 4 trends impacting HR in 2013 :

Trend 1 - Complexity: Widespread changes in the organizational environment have led to

fundamental changes in how work gets done.

Trend 2 - Breakthrough Performance: Dramatic improvements in talent performance and

management are needed to achieve business goals.

Trend 3 - Collaboration: Talent effectiveness is becoming strained by increasing

interdependence in the workplace.

Trend 4 - Business Alignment: Talent strategies must be fully integrated with business

strategies in order to succeed.

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From “Packaging” to “Scaffolding”

Fig. from “The Workplace Learning Revolution” – Jane Hart (May 2013)

HOW TO CREATE VALUE

• Value to whom ?

• Primary recipients of value in a community or a network are the participants themselves. If they do not get value, they will not participate and the community/network will fall apart

• Other stakeholders :

• Organisations/Teams in which members operate

• Facilitators, sponsors and managers

• Candidates and clients

– Perspective on short- and long-term value :

– Communities and networks gain value over time as learning resources. For instance, there can be short-term value in solving problems, but over time the approaches and solutions to these challenges becomes a cumulative resource for members facing new challenges, both individually and collectively.

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VALUE CREATION

& EXAMPLES OF BENEFITS

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Type of Value Learning Results Examples of benefits

Immediate Value Activities & Interactions =

“Reactions”

Number of people signed in and active on the platform

Useful chats on line / Good tips by a colleague

Responses to on-line activities : ie. opinion poll

Connecting to the right expert at the right time

Asking a question on the way to a client meeting

Passing a piece of information after meeting/seminar

Trainees who keep in regular touch after classroom training and

feedback/comment on their action plans

Potential Value Knowledge Capital (whose

value lies in it’s potential to

be realised) = “Learning”

New skills, new ideas, inspiration

Privileged and fast access to certain resources/networks

Market Intelligence & Monitoring

Content Curation / Links & References

Knowledge transfer from country to country

Applied Value Change in practices =

“Behaviours”

New synergy between teams/countries

Breaking down silos / know who’s who

Change in procedures / workflows

Direct or indirect re-use of best practices

Trying suggestions / innovation

Learn faster than competitors

Realised Value Performance Improvement =

“End Results”

Increased productivity / fees / leads

Improved customer satisfaction

Cultural integration and faster onboarding

Talent Management / Internal Mobility / Retention

Detect pools of excellence

Reframing Value Redefine Success Feedback culture

Trust & Collaboration

Reconsider criteria by which performance is defined

KEY SUCCESS FACTORS

People First : Don’t let technologies dictate - Focus on the business needs = What’s in it

for me? What will the users get by participating ?

Pull approach : Social media require different approach than emails or traditional

communications channels – be clear about why people should join and tease their motivation

(don’t force / push)

Embed in workflows : Identify existing simple day-to-day workflows and learning

journeys and focus on how social initiatives will improve work practices, for both consultants

and managers

Identification : Set up communities regarding of the centres of interests/expertise.

Participants needs to identify easily with the topic. But don’t restrict access.

Sponsoring : need for active sponsors – senior executives who are excited about the project

and who are visible on the platform and help motivate staff to take part

Time : ensure “High value for Time” for all those who invest themselves in the community

Tone of Voice : Keep it informal and don’t patronise

Pilot : start small and develop step by step

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LEADERSHIP & RESOURCES TO

CULTIVATE • Social platforms need investment in time and resources to become successful.

• Don’t expect them to grow organically from the start! It can take months to mature.

• Community design requires investigation and analyse of the target audience :

- Probe the audience group about expectations

- Find the ambassadors / early adopters

- Create a private group and give feeling of “exclusivity”

- Involve your ambassadors in the decisions to make (ie. process of content curation)

- Create relationships (ie. organise a live event on-line)

- Diversity : m/f, age, countries, level…

•Community managers :

- Need training

- Are good listeners

- Able to build trust

- Excellent communicators

- Have their role clearly defined in their job description

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Community

Managers

Ambassadors

and early

adopters

Community

IT IS ABOUT TRUST…

•A social enterprise network doesn’t mean we need to get rid of the past. However it means a certain mindset and needs to be demystified.

•A key word for that social learning to happen is Trust :

• Trust from the organisations towards employees

• Trust that comes from peer2peer control and the “wisdom of the crowd”

• Trust that comes from openness and transparency

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…AND “BECOMING EXPLICIT” •Instead of focusing on communicating in new ways, it’s important that collaboration and contribution is in line with the work people do every day.

•Narrating our work : impractical with most communications tools (ie. Emails, Intranet). Modern collaboration platforms combine rich content-handling with activity feeds that make it easy to skim large amounts of content quickly (ie. repost, share, favorite, like, upload, comment…)

•Observable work : Simply by using a collaboration platform to store material, we make employees and their work visible in real-time. Work (projects, documents, discussions) is now searchable in easier way and more discoverable.

•= “Working Out Loud” allows employees to make connections – finding people and content relevant to their work.

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BARRIERS & CLICHES•“IT Big Thing” : go for a secured Cloud solution that is Firewall friendly and accessible off-premises.

•Budget : there are free solutions out there but they come with limited features. Pricing for other

more sophisticated solutions depends on the number of accounts and level of customisation.

•Language : English (even poor) is “lingua franca” on social platforms. Google Translate and on-line

applications help reduce the gap (Yammer already offers real-time message translations in 23

languages) + social media generally don’t require long poetry and essays.

•Distraction : Better to have employees on an Enterprise Social Network than on Facebook or Twitter

where you don’t control. Also remember the days there was debate about opening access to

Internet to all employees… it was only a few years ago ! Do you imagine employees without Internet

access today ?

•Reputation and confidentiality : Guidelines should remained at minimum but legal requirements

are the same than off-line (code of conduct & ethics, privacy, competitions, anti-bullying, etc…).

Monitoring and escalation process need to be put in place behind the screen.

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