Don't take it from the top
You'll only breed resistance if you try to impose social and collaborative learning on an unwilling workforce.
Now that ‘social learning’ is becoming a hot topic, organisations are beginning to consider how they can implement or operationalise it. However, social media is a very different beast from traditional enterprise tools, particularly because it is mainly being used at the grass roots level rather than being implemented by the organisation. Social tools are not only changing the way we think about learning but also how we apply them. So what is the best way to implement social
learning?
The traditional way is top-down. Someone decides on the tools/platforms to use, which are bought, installed and set up for employees to use. They then have to get the employees to use the tools, perhaps even train them to how to do so.
Those who looking to implement social learning in this way, will probably be asking questions like:
- How will we get people to use social tools?
- How will we get people to collaborate and share?
- How will we ensure what they share is accurate?
- When are they going to have time in their work day to collaborate and share with their colleagues?
- What platform will allow us to track every piece of social activity that takes place?
Top down won’t work
But this system of compulsion and control is unlikely to work well with social and collaborative working, first because those that are already do so will resist attempts to force them to use other social tools or platforms that can track and control what they are already doing. This may push their activities even further underground. And secondly, those that have yet to experience, understand and feel comfortable with social media will not want to be forced to share and collaborate before they are ready.
It is likely that organisations that take a top-down approach to implementing social learning will say it has failed and that it is not effective.
It would be better to use a bottom-up approach, which is more about supporting those who already share and collaborate, and encouraging others to experience the benefits of social working and learning. It is also about recognising that social learning works best when people have a real purpose or interest in doing so, rather than because they are being told to.
A different approach
So smart organisations are asking very different questions about implementing collaborative and social approaches to working and learning:
- How can we support those who are already working and learning collaboratively?
- How can we build on what is already happening?
- How can we encourage those who are not already working and learning collaboratively to do so?
- How can we provide services to individuals and teams to help them address their learning and performance problems using collaborative approaches?
In organisations who adopt this approach, social learning and collaborative working becomes an organic process. And as more and more people recognise the value of it, they will become involved, participate, share and collaborate. It is these organisations who will be more likely to report job and business productivity improvements, increased customer satisfaction and an improved bottom line.
Some fundamental principles underpin a supportive bottom-up approach to social learning:
L&D doesn’t ‘own’ social learning
When Marcia Conner, author of The New Social Learning, was asked recently whether social learning should be led by cross-division teams or be ‘owned’ by a specific division/groups, she replied: “The idea that any group or cross-division team can own social learning is like asking one department to be responsible for organisational health. The only people who can own social learning are the individuals who themselves are learning each day, from one another, based on their work and in the flow of work.”
Autonomy is a powerful motivator
In his latest book, Drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us, Dan Pink explains how autonomy (along with mastery and purpose) is a powerful motivator. He shows that the secret to high performance and satisfaction at work is the deeply human need to direct our own lives. He states: “The opposite of autonomy is control. And since they sit at different poles of the behavioural compass, they point us to different destinations. Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement.”
Better results come from ‘getting out the way’
Encouraging learner/worker autonomy is something that scares many organisations; and it certainly requires a culture of trust. Andy McAfee, a principal research scientist at the Center for Digital Business in the MIT Sloan School of Management, who coined the phrase ‘Enterprise 2.0’, wrote on the subject in an article for Fortune Magazine. He said: “If you want a good outcome, back off on process and get out of the way of people. Let them come together and interact as they wish, and harvest the good stuff that emerges.”
So implementing social learning is not just about adding social media to the blended learning mix, but about encouraging autonomous, self-directed workers and learners. Although some will be comfortable and competent to address their own business and performance problems in this way, others will need help to acquire new information skills, as well as how to use social media effectively and responsibly for their own needs as well as for team and group working. The aim is to help individuals and teams become self-sufficient so that they can address their own learning and performance problems, as Timothy Clark and Clark Gottfredson say in their article, Agile Learning: Thriving in the New Normal: “As competitive environments increase in speed, complexity and volatility, organisations and individuals are compelled toward a dynamic learning mindset. Dynamic learning is defined as rapid, adaptive, collaborative and self-directed learning at the moment of need."
Jane Hart is an independent social learning consultant, and founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies .