Michelle Ockers presented on her experience enabling social learning within Coca-Cola Amatil's supply chain organization. She initially focused on formal training programs but realized more opportunities existed for informal learning. Her team developed a new strategy emphasizing continuous workplace learning and social learning. Key initiatives include developing communities of practice, supplementing formal programs with social elements, and using tools to better enable sharing and collaboration across sites. Ockers worked to model social behaviors but found direct efforts did not drive changes. A new project is formulating a social learning strategy for engineering teams after analyzing current collaboration practices.

1. Michelle Ockers
Technical Capability Manager,
Supply Chain, Coca-Cola Amatil
70:20:10 Sneaking In
the Social
Presentation given at Learning@Work Conference
Sydney, 28 October 2014
@michelleockers michelleockers www.michelleockers.com
#learnatwork

2. 70:20:10 Sneaking In
Enabling the Social
Michelle Ockers
Technical Capability Manager,
Supply Chain, Coca-Cola Amatil
@michelleockers michelleockers www.michelleockers.com
#learnatwork
I’ve traded my sneakers for
safety shoes and moved from
experimenting with social
learning to a strategy of
enabling it.

3. Enabling social learning is important because the
nature of work is changing. Refer to Harold Jarche’s
blog and publication ‘seeking perpetual beta’ for content
on how industrial work structures are changing to
networked structures. Whatever can be automated will
be, leaving complex work and problem-solving,
customised tasks to be done by people. This requires
learning agility – simultaneous working and learning.

4. How to add value as an L&D Practitioner in an age
of knowledge sharing and collaboration ???

5. 1.Redefine your role
2.Get it into your business strategy
3.It’s mostly about relationships &
behaviours

6. The business context in which I
seek to add value as a learning
practitioner is upply Chain in a
FMCG business.

7. Our competitive environment is
shifting and getting tougher. The
size of our workforce is reducing.

8. I lead an internal Technical Academy
which was established in 2012. Our
initial focus was to create structured
learning programs for core technical
skills, which we did using a 702010
framework.

9. Used with approval from 702010 Forum
www.702010forum.com
In late 2013 we joined the online 702010
forum. I realised that we had not really
grasped the scope of 702010 and were
missing many opportunities to support
workplace learning.
In March 2014 I commenced the Social
Learning Practitioner Program to develop my
online social learning skills. This enabled me to
experience the power of building a Personal
Learning Network (PLN) and sharing
knowledge, learning in real-time as I worked.

10. My Capability team had a challenge
to continue adding value in a shifting
organisational context. I felt that
social learning approaches had the
potential to help shape a response.
By early 2014 our business strategy
was formally updated. It shifted from
a period of capital investment to
focus on efficiency, restructuring, and
realising the benefits of our
investments.

11. Opportunity: Supply Chain Technical Academy
Current State Future State
KPI
Measure Target
Capability level by function/skill 100% of target
Financial Value TBA
National Replication Yes
Waste: Waiting, Not Tapping
Potential, Excess Processing
Independent, inconsistent
approach to technical
capability development at
State level.
Tendency for new capability
to degrade over time.
National approach to capability
management, supported by Supply
Chain Technical Academy.
Academy to provide national
technical learning and assessment
materials, and certification
programs.
We had achieved the Capability strategy set in 2012 to
implement a national approach to capability management and
provide national technical learning and assessment materials
and certification programs. It was time to update our strategy.

12. “You’re
still here!”
YouTube – 70:20:10 by Charles Jennings & Fuse
“70:20:10 – I thought we made
that up!”
During consultation on our Capability strategy and the role of the Technical
Academy we reflected on what we had achieved, did a SWOT analysis, an
discussed what needed to change. We also used it as an opportunity to
educate our stakeholders about 702010, using a short YouTube video –
70:20:10 by Charles Jennings & Fuse.
“What have
we
achieved?”

13. Our refreshed Capability
strategy consisted of five
elements. The key change to
our strategy was the addition
of Continuous Workplace
Learning as an element. This
encompasses all aspects of
learning outside of formal
training, and includes social
learning. Of course, all of the
other strategy elements will
contribute to supporting social
learning.

14. We developed a three year road map of key
initiatives for implementation of the strategy.

15. A number of these initiatives are
critical to enable social learning. In
particular:
(1) Mindset and skills of our L&D
practitioners.
(2) Development of Communities of
Practice.
(3) Supplementing formal ‘evidence
based capability’ programs with
social learning.
(4) Using tools and technology more
effectively to enable social
learning.

16. “How will
you stay
in touch?”
Examples of some of our attempts to support social learning during 2013.
We asked our experienced operators who were
trained as workplace trainers how they would
connect across geographically dispersed sites.
They were comfortable using the phone or email
(although some of them didn’t have email
accounts), but not SharePoint, our Enterprise
Social Network. We tried arranging
teleconferences, but logistics were too difficult.
We also ‘structured’ a Community of Practice for our
Systems SMEs, which we again tried to run via
teleconference and email. The focus rapidly became
status updates rather than knowledge sharing.
Basically we were doing what we knew, perpetuating existing practices and
behaviours, but expecting a different outcome. It didn’t work……

17. In April 2014 our organisation upgraded from SharePoint
2010 to SharePoint 2013. IT also asked business units to
move shared files from file servers to SharePoint. I saw
this as an opportunity to enable and encourage use of our
ESN , with a particular view of people using it more
effectively to connect, share and collaborate. I
volunteered to coordinate the upgrade activity for Supply
Chain and started looking at our existing SharePoint
landscape. Supply Chain had over 160 SharePoint sites
– a ratio of more than 1 site for every 10 permanent
employees. By default (as there had been no
governance), we had replicated our organisational
structure, down to team level, on SharePoint. Nothing
and no-one was easy to find, connect with, and share
outside of your own team. With the upgrade to
SharePoint 2013 we have closed down inactive sites and
been progressively consolidating into a series of national
sites. We are also putting a business unit governance
framework in place.

18. By mid 2014 I’d personally experienced the benefits of building a professional network online (external to
my organisation) and Working Out Loud. I started to Work Out Loud on SharePoint, and encouraged
members of our Capability Community to join me. The take up was mixed. Of 10 people in the group three
have taken to it sporadically, but not made it a habit. The others remain uncertain and hesitant.

19. “What’s
the
point?”
“How much context
should I give?”
“What will people
think of me?”
“When would I do
this?”
“I’m too busy – it’s
just another task.”
Here are some of the concerns raised when I asked the group for their thoughts and feelings about
Working Out Loud. Contrary to my (naïve) optimistic hope, role modelling and talking about online
social learning were not going to generate changed behaviours. I was still playing around,
experimenting, trying to ‘sneak’ in the social.

20. Engineering
knowledge sharing
Analysis & Consulting Phase Consolidation
& Review
Strategy &
Implementation
for Approval
By September I realised it was time to get serious about social
learning. With senior management support I engaged Helen
Blunden from Activate Learning Solutions to help us to develop a
strategy for enabling social learning across our Engineering and
Maintenance teams – which we linked to a key initiative in our
business strategy. Helen and I literally put on our safety shoes and
visited production sites to look at the work environment, how people
work, their networks and collaboration practices.
We found that
•Team members collaborate effectively at a local level
•Some have strong internal networks that they use 1:1
•Some have strong external networks that they use 1:1
•Where people are connected they do share and collaborate
•There is a willingness to share and collaborate more broadly, but a
lack of understanding of how to to this.
In October 2014 (date of this presentation) we were formulating a strategy which will include guided social
learning to enable connecting, sharing and collaboration across organisational boundaries.

21. I’m learning to:
1. ‘Own’ the space - redefine my role
& develop my & my team’s
capability
2. Be strategic in my approach
• Govern, but don’t control
• Invest the time and resource
3. Manage change - it’s mostly about
relationships and behaviours

22. Here are some online courses and
resources to consider if you want to get
started with updating your online social
skills, build your Personal Learning
Network and increase the value that L&D
brings to your organisation:
•Social Learning Practitioner Program
•Personal Knowledge Management (PKM)
in 40 Days
•Social Media for Active Learning MOOC
•702010 forum

23. 70:20:10 Sneaking In
Enabling the Social
Michelle Ockers
Technical Capability Manager,
Supply Chain, Coca-Cola Amatil
@michelleockers michelleockers www.michelleockers.com
#learnatwork