This document discusses social learning strategies and models. It begins with an introduction of the author, David Wilkins, who has over 15 years of experience in learning and is a national speaker. The rest of the document discusses the evolution of learning models from a top-down, formal structure to a more collaborative and emergent structure. It provides examples of how social learning has been implemented at companies like Cisco and Ace Hardware and discusses how learning interventions can incorporate different paradigms like formal, collaborative and emergent approaches. The document advocates that leaders think about whether their initiatives are more dependent on codified processes or emergent ideas and tailor their learning strategies accordingly.

1. Social Learning Strategies, Models, and Roles David Wilkins Executive Director of Product Marketing at Learn.com October 7th, 2009

3. More than 15 years in the learning space

4. Author of 10+ published articles

5. Visionary behind Firefly and Knowledge ExchangeEmail: david.wilkins@learn.com Twitter: @dwilkinsnh Facebook, AIM, LinkedIn: dwilkinsnh Blog: http://dwilkinsnh.wordpress.com

6. Show of hands How many of you have professional contacts outside the company? Outside the country? How many of you work on a virtual team where at least one member of your team (including yourself) works in a different office, division, or country? How many of you work on teams where decision-making isn’t just top-down, but also bottoms-up and peer-to-peer? How many of you rely on Google or other search mechanism to find information to do your jobs every day? How many of you still rely on MS documents to share info? How many of you still deliver training predominantly through instructor-led training and courses?

7. My networks (images of kids, Dad etc…, Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, Jay Cross)

8. Networks – some market data and stats

9. My social media – blog, Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, SlideShare, delicious, Flickr, YouTube

10. Social Media - stats

11. My story

12. What’s going on here? 1 : 1 1 : Many Many : Many Model Time 1900’s  1900’s 2000 

13. A New Model? Inverse Pyramid 10 Many : Many One : Many Jay Cross and Harold Jarche

14. Typing your learning needs The Social Enterprise Blog

15. Emergent Initiatives To what extent will your business or initiative be dependent on the creation of new ideas, new processes, new products, or new services to drive key performance indicators? How much of your team’s intellectual effort will be expended in solving novel challenges or problems? How much of your team’s intellectual effort will be spent creating new solutions to existing problems or new problems? What percentage of your team’s best practices will need to be based on principles and theory (as opposed to concrete steps and rote processes)? What percentage of your best practices will emerge “from the trenches”? To what extent will you need to rely on knowledge sharing among diverse groups either within or outside the company walls to drive key performance indicators? When you think about a core contributor on your team, how much of his or her expertise is a result of superior synthesis, invention, or sense-making sorts of skills? For the majority of your core initiatives, how important is a diversity of perspective or expertise in achieving your project goals or key performance indicators? In terms of succession planning and talent identification, what percentage of your existing “experts” and leaders were identified because of the admiration and esteem of peers? How often do coordination and issue resolution happen through the ad hoc assembly of networked teams or individuals (versus through formal hierarchies)? 12

16. Codified Initiatives 13 To what extent will your business or initiative dependent on the efficient execution of known best practices or processes to drive key performance indicators? How much of your team’s intellectual effort will be spent training on known best practices and processes? How much of your team’s intellectual effort will be expended in ensuring adherence to known best practices or processes? What percentage of your team’s best practices will need to be based on established steps and rote processes? What percentage of your best practices will emerge “from on high” – SME’s, senior leaders, compliance officers etc…? To what extent will you rely on efficient execution of homogenous, geographically co-located teams to drive key performance indicators? When you think about a core contributor on your team, how much of his or her value is a result of the correct application of accepted processes, rules, or physically repetitive actions? For the majority of your core initiatives, how important are a shared perspective and acceptance of authority in driving key performance indicators? In terms of succession planning and talent identification, what percentage of your existing “experts” and leaders were identified through longevity, established metrics, or manager opinion? How often does coordination and issue resolution happen through existing teams and formal hierarchies?

17. Collaborative Initiatives 14 To what extent will your business or initiative be dependent on collaboration to drive key performance indicators? (10%, 20% etc…) How much of your team’s execution is dependent on specialized knowledge? How much of your team’s execution is dependent on the sharing and coordination of distributed expertise? How much of your team’s intellectual effort will be expended in collaborating to develop known best practices or processes? What percentage your best practices and domain expertise are known in “pockets” organized by geography, shared interest, or network affiliations? What percentage of your best practices will emerge “from group consensus”? To what extent is your team organized around common job roles and functions? (Retail or early childhood education would be 90% or more - identical job roles in multiple physical locations.) What percentage of the problems faced by your team members are likely faced by other team members in identical job roles? When you think about a core contributor on your team, how much of his or her value and influence is a result socially recognized expertise? To what extent are key performance indicators driven by socially-validated domain knowledge?

18. Reality? Learning paradigms are blended 15 Leadership  Collaborative, Formal, & Emergent Software training  Formal & Emergent Certification and Compliance training  Formal On-boarding  Formal, Collaborative & Emergent Customer “training” and “support”  Formal? Emergent? Collaborative? Innovation  Emergent & Collaborative

19. How does this map to various interventions? *When enabled for all employees **When written by SME’s and official experts

20. 17 Problem Results Background 500% ROI in under 6 months Weekly and daily use of the system Documentation of common issues at marginal cost Documentation of specialized knowledge at marginal cost Culture of sharing All 4400 Ace stores are independently owned and operated by local entrepreneurs, hard-working, passionate business owners who are involved with and, many times, reside in the communities where their stores are. There's a good chance you'll see your local Ace store owner at the grocery store or Little League game. Geographically dispersed expertise Specialized products and product knowledge across a huge inventory Common roles, common needs but no way to capture knowledge Constant change and new info sometimes daily Independent owners A Collaborative Example

21. 18 Problem Results Background iZone generated 400 ideas and 10,000 contributions iZone led to the identification of $3 billion in market opportunities iPrize awarded last October to German grad student leading an international team Cisco plans to invest $10+ billion in the winning idea “We just did three billion-dollar market opportunities without my knowing about it." – John ChambersCisco Systems Two Initiatives iZone Internally-facing innovation initiative iPrize Externally-facing innovation initiative Driving innovation to develop new markets and new products In 2004, Cisco’s Emerging Technologies Group was charged with building $1B business opportunities from scratch An Emergent and Blended Example

22. One example: software rollout Blog Posts Twitter Video Advertorials Brown Bags Contests Ask an Expert … Courses Simulations Blogs Surveys Assessments Links Games … Simulations Games Courses ILT VILT Curriculum Assessment Certification … Discussion Ratings Reviews Ask an Expert FAQ Blogs Comments CoP Chat Microblogging … Idea sharing Discussions Wikis Blogs Comments Brown Bags … Blogs FAQ’s Discussions Email (Gasp!) Microblogging … Simulations Games Courses ILT VILT Curriculum Assessment Certification … Corp Comm Instructor-ledWBT training New Best Practices Instructor-ledVirtual ClassroomWBT Go Live Pre-work DiscussionRatingsReviews Corp CommUpdatesNew informationFAQ’s Formal Social Formal

23. Are you the pipe or the plumber? 20

24. What do these things have in common? 21

25. What happened? 22 = The Big Switch – Nicholas Carr

26. What’s happening? 23 =

27. What’s next? 24 =

28. What do these companies have in common? 25

29. Guidepost #1 – News Media 26

30. Guidepost #2 -- Encyclopedias 27

31. Guidepost #3 – Cisco, P&G, Eli Lily, Starbucks, Dell 28

32. Thank you David Wilkins http://dwilkinsnh.wordpress.com dwilkinsnh on Twitter, Facebook etc…