the art of letting go: supporting informal and social learning

brightwavegroup.com

The art of letting goSupporting informal and social learning

Who we are

Meg Greentessello Learning Consultant

Alex ReeveBlended Learning Consultant

Letting go to drive performance

A quick question:

Who currently includes informal and social as part of their digital learning strategy?

Who is planning or looking to include this in the future?

On-the-job performance mismatch?

Employee disengagement

Disparate workforce

Certification requires on the job application and proof

Rapidly changing business priorities

Pockets of keybusiness knowledge

What’s the answer?

The new blend

Blended digital playlists Collaborative assignments

Social platforms Performance objectives

What are the benefits?

1. Competitive advantage

Innovate or die…

2. Personalisedand on-demand

3. Follow your ‘career idols’

4. Solve organisational challenges collaboratively

5. Communities of practice

6. Rate and review learning materials

7. Attract and retain the best people

8. Deliver more-for-less

The benefits1. Competitive advantage2. Personalised and on-demand3. Follow your ‘career idols’4. Collaborative problem-solving5. Communities of practice6. Rate and review learning materials7. Attract and retain the best talent8. Deliver more-for-less

How do you make it work?

From ‘command and control’ to…

…curation and co-creation.

Senior leader buy-in

Audience and objectives

“Social platforms are becoming more and more popular these days and for me, one of the key pieces of advice around launching a social/collaborative platform would be to know your audience and understand their needs. There is no point in having a social platform just because you feel it’s the right thing to do and everyone else is doing it.”Ronnie Steenson, Tesco Bank

Ground the hypeDon’t just jump…

“Know your audience and understand their needs. There is no point in having a social platform just because you feel it’s the right thing to do and everyone else is doing it.”- Ronnie Steenson, Tesco Bank

“Ensure you understand the need – what gaps are you trying to fill?... Knowing this will help you focus in the right areas.”

- PayPal

Ensure business impact

If you build it, will they come?

Multi-channel promotion

Identify social learning ‘heroes’

Get the conversation started…

The first on the dance floor…

Curate and create viral content

Gamify and incentivise

Encourage, trust... and let go!

How do you make it work?o Cultural shift: Curation and Co-creationo Senior leader buy-ino Define the audience and objectiveso Multi-channel promotiono Social learning ‘heroes’ and community

managerso Viral contento Gamify and incentiviseo Encourage, trust and let go!

What does this look like in practice?

Connecting activists

Looking to:

o Connect dispersed UNISON activistso Create a community of practiceo Increase flow of knowledgeo Connect activists with UNISON staff

Collaboration platform

The face of the SPACE

“I think the biggest thing that helped us in the beginning was the slow staged start. As we are a national organisation, this gave us time to get used to the Space and grow it in a more organic way, ironing out issues as they arose.”

“We found that there is activity on the SPACE at the weekends and evenings which was a learning issue for us. Even though we knew before we started that this might be the case we couldn’t have imagined the ‘out of hours’ uptake.”

Best advice

Lesson learned

Engage for success“We made a few short films designed to help and encourage the new users. The leader board has been very popular with a monthly goody bag prize for the leader board winner.

We now have 1300 active users.”

Monica HirstStrategic Organising Planner

User-generated expertise

What they’ve done well

o Pilot, promote, growo Visible community managerso Incentivise and encourageo Shared ownership o Continuous curation and recognition

o BioAge training for member assessorso Highly physical and technical certification o The nature of the test requires complete

accuracy and consistencyo Looking for cost and efficiency savings without

reducing collaborationo Want to preserve the integrity of brand – work

better together o Looking for longer-term social and informal value

BioAge training

o Blended pathway: videos, personal practice sessions and reduced f2f workshop

o Practice in-club with peers and post online for feedback

o Leaners video their practice sessions for eventual virtual sign-off by master trainer

the new blend

o Promote existing community concepts

o Space for trainers to discuss their training process

Engaging community

What they’re doing well

o Clear pilot use case for digital informal learningo Firm clear objectives and business value for early

ROIo Used informal assignments to help support formal

knowledge retentiono Growing the community platform with additional

pilot initiatives

Advice from a Community Manager/Analyst

“Community management is a thing and every successful online community should have one.”

o Never underestimate the role – or the need for it

o Consistent communication is key

o Reward great contributions

o Maintain relevance

o Ask open questions (and don’t always expect a response)

“Run a pilot”

“Be generous with the timeframes for ROI”

o But consider ROI earlyo Don’t promise community ROI in the early

stageso It takes time for a community to develop and

become effectiveo Become a data analyst

“Never assume”o Talk to your communityo Don’t formalise something that should be

organico React to the behaviours you see, not the ones

you would like to see or not see

…and see your benchmarks change

Don’t be afraid to let go…

Thank you

Brightwavegroup.com

Jay Cross – Spending Paradox

What can we take-away?

o Align to clear business needo Work with your existing culture o Assign community managers o Pilot and promote!o Recognise your contributorso Consider smaller, specific ROI opportunities to

get you started