There’s a plaque in the exhibition hall that has a fantastic paraphrase of some of MLK’s words. It uses Rip Van Winkle as an example of sleeping through a revolution. Obviously it is referring to the far more signifiant issue of political and human rights revolution, but I thought in a small way, it is relevant to the technical “revolution” impacting the learning world, especially around social media and user generated content.

One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of the status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. But today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change. 

In our domain of organizational training, learning, knowledge management, etc….I am thinking of the points made by many in the blogosphere that there are a lot of managers, execs, learning professionals, etc, who are clinging to the need to control knowledge, prescribe and define training needs, push out what they think workers/learners need, and so on. I am thinking of the  instructional designers and trainers who remain wary of learners posting their own content, even within enterprise social media platform.

Again, nothing comparable to what MLK was referring to, but are we not in a paradigm shift in our field? Just pick up books like Here Comes Everybody, the Power of Pull, and the Wisdom of Crowds. Things are rapidly changing.  And do we not have our own protectors of the status quo?

My question for us then is, are we sleeping through it? 

The eternal flame burns before the crypt at the King Center on the the 25th anniversary of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday. JOHN SPINK, JSPINK@AJC.COM

In the manufacturing enviornment, instead of one work cell creating a part and pushing it down the line, where it stacks up the next work cell to use as needed, the workers only make what is needed by those downstream, at the time it is needed. So when a part is about to be needed, communcation is sent upstream that effectively says “we are about to need more parts”, and the upstream cell responds accordingly.  The pull approach reduces inventory and other forms of waste.

Much like the lean manufacturing facility, workplace learning is evolving to a pull model, at least in part.  Instead of relying on formal training that is “pushed” to us whether we need it or not, we are learning to “pull” what we need at the time we need it.

In the old model, you had a learner (the end user or customer) at the end of the process, taking whatever course or material that was sent his way by an expert or leadership.

In the new model, the learner is at the center, informally learning with other learners most of the time.  When the learner has a specific learning need, she does her own research on the company intranet or the Web. Or she reaches out directly to other folks, which could be  face-to-face with colleagues at the office, or online via various forms of social media.

I’m not the first to say this, but companies need to get a grip on that now. Despite the lip service given to “social learning” and media trends, most learning professionals and managers in most organizations are still attached to the “we know what learners need and when they need it”‘ mentality. And heck, that’s not even getting into nutty concepts like learners/employees creating their own content.

Companies need to create the conditions that empower informal learning. And, to borrow from a Lean manufacturing concept, a feedback system (kanban) needs to be created that tells the learning mangers that a formal course is needed. On the Lean shop floor, when something has gone wrong and the immediate workers can’t solve the problem, there are clever ways to alert managers, who respond with problem-solving help.

In the training/learning world, if informal learning or rapid course development can’t give what is needed, then something more formal can be created. This is true ‘just in time’ learning. Because it is delivered in response to user demand, managers can be more confident that it is actually going to useful.

If you walked into the room right now, you’d be welcomed by a strong, sweet scent of espresso (I’m on my second cappuccino of the morning, you see). And, if you walked into the room right now, I would, of course, offer you one. If you accepted, you’d notice that this cappuccino is fuller in taste, and the foam thicker and sweeter than what you might be used to at the local Starbucks.

As you pulled it away from your lips, you might say, “Wow, that’s really good.” And we might start a conversation of how I learned the proper style while in Tuscany last year, and how I came to choose the semi-manual espresso machine. And when we stepped out on the balcony, we’d see our breath in the air as we continued talking, and the warm cups would feel good against our fingers. From there we’d talk about travels and food, ideas and dreams, friends and loved ones, what’s going on with work, and what’s annoying us about corporate pressure.

And then we might be silent. We’d hear noise from the street below: dogs, cars, people waiting at the bus stop. We’d be together in this silence, enjoying a warm drink together, nothing pressing to say or do. And it would be a good morning, indeed.

So what’s the point? Exactly. That’s the point. What annoys the hell out of me with connecting with social media is how limiting a connection it is. And what saddens me is how, more and more, this is what we are calling connection.

One blogger recently wrote, “...social networking sites can be far more than tools: they can be the space where life is experienced.” Even learning professionals wax poetic about the virtues of social media. There’s a line in The New Social learning where Tony Bingham and Marcia Connor write that (sharing several times a day through social media) is “like the Zen concept of mindfulness (p 44).” Having participated in mindfulness workshops and silent retreats, I can hardly disagree more. In a mindfulness retreat you might eat one almond at a time, tasting and feeling each bite. Online, we tend to shove five or six almonds down our throat as we type, hardly tasting them at all.

Don’t get me wrong. Social media tools have their purpose, and I enjoy many of their benefits. But in a world where our companies ask more and more of our time, despite technical efficiency; where pedestrians are getting hit by cars as they walk into a street, too absorbed in their “smart” phone to see or hear the approaching car; and where some people spend more time interacting with a computer screen than talking face-to-face (just observe a fairly typical scene at any local coffee house), something needs to give before it’s too late.

As a society, I think we’re getting dangerously out of balance. Your computer will not make you a nice warm coffee drink. And if it did, it certainly wouldn’t share a personal story with it, or offer sympathy when needed. “Reality” shows on TV are not reality. Texting is a pale, weak form of communicating. “Virtual” is just that. Connecting online is fine, but let’s not let it take the place of seeing our breath in the air as we share a warm drink and warmer conversation with a real-life human.

My friend’s metrics seem complex to my data-challenged brain. But I’m thinking something similar could relatively easily be created in a rapid e-learning tool. Collaborate with him and his team to gather and understand statistics (e.g. around no-buy walkouts, time of day, etc)that could impact awareness of lost opportunities, etc. And then create an animated tutorial that breaks it down visually and simply.

Any thoughts? Would love to see any other examples of good use of data visualization in e-learning or other training pieces.

To me, that is the essence of social media. It is an incredibly powerful vehicle for connecting with others, and in ways unimaginable just a decade ago.

Whether you’re blogging, participating in online forums, connecting through tools like Yammer, or Tweeting your way to 2.0 bliss, social media has changed how we connect…and the possibilities that arise through those connections.

Stephen received some time-saving, efficiency increasing ideas about dealing with with email. I have gotten great ideas and feedback on my (not so great!) design ideas by reaching beyond through social media.

Based on such personal experience, and reams of external evidence, Stephen, I, and probably you, too, inevitably ask:  Why isn’t my team/org/group using these tools?

I preach the social gospel at least once a week in some water-cooler way: “you should share that on X (our internal platform)”, or, “why don’t you post it on X, and let people edit it, add to it, etc there?”

I always get push-back. Don’t have time, don’t trust, not ready to share the idea, blah blah blah.

I don’t know how to confront that, at least not effectively. But I will continue my crusade internally, and connecting externally in any way I can.

You see, social media doesn’t care about whether they are used inside or outside the company firewall. They exist only as vehicles for connecting. Where, and when, and with whom, is our choice. I’m all about keeping that choice as wide open as possible.