We had a wide ranging discussion of how learning will change and evolve from a traditional function to one that is more integrated into the fabric of every employee’s life. Key themes that emerged include:

1. The team from Sun Microsystems kicked off the event with a major theme we discussed for the rest of our day and half. The trend, dubbed, “Learning 2.0″ is moving corporate learning from structured programs to collaborative learning experiences. This means top-down push learning is being replaced by self service “pull” learning with an overall goal of taking our General Motors production model for designing and delivering learning and shifting this to a Google-like search model.

Sun is determined to push its LMS system (currently the heart of its learning system) to the periphery of a new, strategic (and open source) tool that will allow flexible, web-enabled learning from anywhere, including mobile devices, and will encourage employees to contribute to course content creation.

2. Learning is becoming more social, informal, continuous and embedded in our daily activities. While the term “social learning” has gained a cult status, the ability to collectively create and collectively understand is becoming a mandatory skill for employees at all levels. In fact, credit Suisse shared their online virtual communities of practice model which connects employees to others in the organization based on their skills and knowledge sets. It makes it easy to find expertise, to “know what Credit Suisse knows.”
3. Learning is becoming more mobile. Millennials view the Internet as something that comes to them not something they go to. With over 2 billion mobile devices in use, mobiles have now eclipsed PC’s in the marketplace. We should remember that as we consider delivery options for current and new programs. At Sun Microsystems, technical training is being delivered globally to field engineers on their iPhones, seems like this model will continue to gain traction in the coming months.
4. Finally, after many demo’s of new tools, programs, games for learning and metaphorical learning experiences, we closed with the need for learning professionals to:
   • Focus less on how technology is changing learning and more on how the learners, especially the 80 million Millennials, are bringing new expectations and demands to the workforce. These include being able to use the same applications they have grown up with, such as Instant Messaging, Mobile web conferencing, BlackBerries and video-sharing on-the-job.
   • Be open to new needs and expectations of four generations in the workforce.
   • Understand and share how to make change happen in an organization. It’s not easy but there are lessons in how to improve your odds of success with implementing innovations in corporate learning.

if you are interested in learning more about the Learning Innovation Network, send me an email at jeanne@newlearningplaybook.com We are looking for more learning departments operating “on the edge.”

[tags]Millennials, Sun Microsystems, Google, BlackBerry, Web 2.0, Learning Innovation Network [/tags]

We had a wide ranging discussion of how learning will change and evolve from a traditional function to one that is more integrated into the fabric of every employee’s life. Key themes that emerged include:

1. The team from Sun Microsystems kicked off the event with a major theme we discussed for the rest of our day and half. The trend, dubbed, “Learning 2.0″ is moving corporate learning from structured programs to collaborative learning experiences. This means top-down push learning is being replaced by self service “pull” learning with an overall goal of taking our General Motors production model for designing and delivering learning and shifting this to a Google-like search model.

Sun is determined to push its LMS system (currently the heart of its learning system) to the periphery of a new, strategic (and open source) tool that will allow flexible, web-enabled learning from anywhere, including mobile devices, and will encourage employees to contribute to course content creation.

2. Learning is becoming more social, informal, continuous and embedded in our daily activities. While the term “social learning” has gained a cult status, the ability to collectively create and collectively understand is becoming a mandatory skill for employees at all levels. In fact, credit Suisse shared their online virtual communities of practice model which connects employees to others in the organization based on their skills and knowledge sets. It makes it easy to find expertise, to “know what Credit Suisse knows.”
3. Learning is becoming more mobile. Millennials view the Internet as something that comes to them not something they go to. With over 2 billion mobile devices in use, mobiles have now eclipsed PC’s in the marketplace. We should remember that as we consider delivery options for current and new programs. At Sun Microsystems, technical training is being delivered globally to field engineers on their iPhones, seems like this model will continue to gain traction in the coming months.
4. Finally, after many demo’s of new tools, programs, games for learning and metaphorical learning experiences, we closed with the need for learning professionals to:
   • Focus less on how technology is changing learning and more on how the learners, especially the 80 million Millennials, are bringing new expectations and demands to the workforce. These include being able to use the same applications they have grown up with, such as Instant Messaging, Mobile web conferencing, BlackBerries and video-sharing on-the-job.
   • Be open to new needs and expectations of four generations in the workforce.
   • Understand and share how to make change happen in an organization. It’s not easy but there are lessons in how to improve your odds of success with implementing innovations in corporate learning.

if you are interested in learning more about the Learning Innovation Network, send me an email at jeanne@newlearningplaybook.com We are looking for more learning departments operating “on the edge.”

• What strategy should the learning and human resource department have with regard to blogging?
• What guidelines should be in place for how your employees blog, i.e. what topics to stay away from and how to use blogging as a way to build stronger bonds with your customers?

Often I hear comments like, “my leadership is afraid of blogging,” or “we have strict rules allowing a small number of senior people to blog and our department is not included in this small number of senior executives.”

It seems to me there are some larger questions you should be addressing like:

• Does your CEO know what a blog is?
• Should your CEO have a blog?
• Has your CEO blog been reviewed in the blogosphere?
• Do your top three competitor CEO’s have blogs?
• Are these competitor CEO blogs a corporate communications tool or does the CEO really post about significant issues?

Interesting questions to ponder as more companies begin experimenting with social media to develop trust, improve communications and increase vehicles for employee development.

To find out about what your competitor CEO’s are doing in terms of blogging, I recommend you go to TheNewPR CEOBlogsList Wiki.

To date, 58 of the Fortune 500 companies have blogs. But in most cases, the blogs are company blogs, many maintained by corporate communications departments (like Clorox, which has one that answers questions about stains), rather than CEO’s penning their own blogs.

But there are notable exceptions and two CEO’s come to mind that regularly post to their blogs. One is Jonathan Schwartz CEO of Sun Microsystems who posts on a regular basis about his interactions with customers around the world. The other is Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and CEO of HDNet.

As you continue to research what strategy to adopt and to create a set of guidelines with regard company blogging, I recommend consulting a survey recently conducted by content security company,
Clearswift.

The survey was conducted among 939 corporate decision-makers on matters related to corporate blogging, wiki’s and participation in online networks/forums and other aspects of the so-called Web 2.0. Some highlights from the survey found:

• 20 percent of IT and business decision-makers don’t have a policy governing appropriate use of the Internet, including social media sites
• 39 percent of IT and business decision-makers consider social media to be relevant to today’s corporate environment, while 36 percent do not see social media as relevant to their businesses
• 13 percent of organizations are not aware of social media and have no policy on it

So before your begin to develop a policy for your Human Resources and/or Corporate Learning department regarding blogging, wiki’s and other social media, first find out what your company policy is regarding the usage of social media at work. For Human Resource and Corporate Learning professionals, I find the Sun blog policy to be highly informative.

Finally, let’s continue a dialogue on CEO’s as Bloggers:

• Should more CEO’s be bloggers?
• Should this be part of their job in next 5 years?
• Should CEO bloggers participate as part of a corporate communications strategy or use blogging to begin a “real” dialogue with customers?
• And how can Human Resource and Corporate Learning departments “experiment” in their own departments about innovative ways to leverage social media at work while maintaining security standards?

[tags]CEO, talent management, social media, Sun Microsystems, HDTV, Human Resources[/tags]

]]> http://2020workplace.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=121 8 http://2020workplace.com/blog/?p=22 http://2020workplace.com/blog/?p=22#comments Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:54:53 +0000 Jeanne Meister http://0319bfa.netsolhost.com/WordPress/?p=22 There is so much talk lately about how your learning organization or human resource organization should utilize blogging. Questions abound like:
• What strategy should the learning and human resource department have with regard to blogging?
• What guidelines should be in place for how your employees blog, i.e. what topics to stay away from and how to use blogging as a way to build stronger bonds with your customers?

Often I hear comments like, “my leadership is afraid of blogging,” or “we have strict rules allowing a small number of senior people to blog and our department is not included in this small number of senior executives.”

It seems to me there are some larger questions you should be addressing like:

• Does your CEO know what a blog is?
• Should your CEO have a blog?
• Has your CEO blog been reviewed in the blogosphere?
• Do your top three competitor CEO’s have blogs?
• Are these competitor CEO blogs a corporate communications tool or does the CEO really post about significant issues?

Interesting questions to ponder as more companies begin experimenting with social media to develop trust, improve communications and increase vehicles for employee development.

To find out about what your competitor CEO’s are doing in terms of blogging, I recommend you go to TheNewPR CEOBlogsList Wiki.

To date, 58 of the Fortune 500 companies have blogs. But in most cases, the blogs are company blogs, many maintained by corporate communications departments (like Clorox, which has one that answers questions about stains), rather than CEO’s penning their own blogs.

But there are notable exceptions and two CEO’s come to mind that regularly post to their blogs. One is Jonathan Schwartz CEO of Sun Microsystems who posts on a regular basis about his interactions with customers around the world. The other is Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and CEO of HDNet.

As you continue to research what strategy to adopt and to create a set of guidelines with regard company blogging, I recommend consulting a survey recently conducted by content security company,
Clearswift.

The survey was conducted among 939 corporate decision-makers on matters related to corporate blogging, wiki’s and participation in online networks/forums and other aspects of the so-called Web 2.0. Some highlights from the survey found:

• 20 percent of IT and business decision-makers don’t have a policy governing appropriate use of the Internet, including social media sites
• 39 percent of IT and business decision-makers consider social media to be relevant to today’s corporate environment, while 36 percent do not see social media as relevant to their businesses
• 13 percent of organizations are not aware of social media and have no policy on it

So before your begin to develop a policy for your Human Resources and/or Corporate Learning department regarding blogging, wiki’s and other social media, first find out what your company policy is regarding the usage of social media at work. For Human Resource and Corporate Learning professionals, I find the Sun blog policy to be highly informative.

Finally, let’s continue a dialogue on CEO’s as Bloggers:

• Should more CEO’s be bloggers?
• Should this be part of their job in next 5 years?
• Should CEO bloggers participate as part of a corporate communications strategy or use blogging to begin a “real” dialogue with customers?
• And how can Human Resource and Corporate Learning departments “experiment” in their own departments about innovative ways to leverage social media at work while maintaining security standards?
]]> http://2020workplace.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=22 0 http://2020workplace.com/blog/?p=87 http://2020workplace.com/blog/?p=87#comments Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:02:23 +0000 Jeanne Meister http://newlearningplaybook.com/blog/2008/01/11/learn-20-for-net-generation/ Welcome to New Learning Playbook—a blog tracking innovations and trends in learning among corporations, universities and government agencies. The blog features case studies, interviews, links to resources in the field and more.

The first series of posts will focus on how learning is being redefined for the Net Generation, those individuals born between 1980 and 1994 who are especially adept at collaborating and socializing online. How will corporate learning evolve to provide Net Geners with the experiences to which they are accustomed?

Sun Microsystems had to address this issue. While the average age of a SUN employee is 42 years old (I was surprised by this. Are you?) 100% of Sun new hires are Net Geners, accustomed to a fast-paced life of constant, immediate communication, including frequent posts to Facebook and exponentially more text messages than emails. These Net Geners are demanding to be in charge of their digital lives both on the job and in the “classroom.”

Charles Beckham, Chief Technology Officer for Sun Learning Services, the learning arm of Sun Microsystems (which provides learning to Sun employees, customers and channel partners), discusses in the video above how his company has revamped learning. The journey to redefine learning has included adding a social networking capability behind Sun’s firewall, as well as the creation of a multi-player game for Sun new hires which requires them to learn about Sun’s vision, values, industry, competitors and strategy in order to win the game.

As you view the video think about your own new hire program and how well prepared your organization is to attract, motivate and retain Net Geners.

]]> http://2020workplace.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=87 1