Including social and informal learning in your digital technology strategy is now a common theme - but how can you go from the ideas to action - and success? This presentation discusses the latest approaches adopted by forward-thinking organisations, together with practical tips and suggestions on how to plan, execute and sustain informal learning initiatives. This presentation was first delivered at the eLearning Network's conference "Beyond 'click next'…digital learning solutions come of age" event on Wednesday, 11th November 2015. Brightwave sponsored the event and contributed to the programme.

1. brightwavegroup.com
The art of letting go
Supporting informal and social learning

2. Who we are
Meg Green
tessello Learning Consultant
Alex Reeve
Blended Learning Consultant

3. Letting go to
drive performance

4. 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?

5. On-the-job performance
mismatch?

6. Employee
disengagement

7. Disparate
workforce

8. Certification requires
on the job application and proof

9. Rapidly changing
business priorities

10. Pockets of key
business knowledge

11. What’s the answer?

12. The new blend
Blended digital playlists Collaborative assignments
Social platforms Performance objectives

13. What are the benefits?

14. 1. Competitive advantage

15. Innovate or die…

16. 2. Personalised
and on-demand

17. 3. Follow your ‘career idols’

18. 4. Solve organisational
challenges collaboratively

19. 5. Communities
of practice

20. 6. Rate and review
learning materials

21. 7. Attract
and retain
the best people

22. 8. Deliver more-for-less

23. The benefits
1. Competitive advantage
2. Personalised and on-demand
3. Follow your ‘career idols’
4. Collaborative problem-solving
5. Communities of practice
6. Rate and review learning materials
7. Attract and retain the best talent
8. Deliver more-for-less

24. How do you
make it work?

25. From ‘command and control’
to…

26. …curation and co-creation.

27. Senior leader buy-in

28. Audience and objectives

29. “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

30. “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

31. If you build it, will they come?

32. Multi-channel promotion

33. Identify social
learning ‘heroes’

34. Get the
conversation
started…

35. The first on
the dance floor…

36. Curate and create viral content

37. Gamify and incentivise

38. Encourage,
trust... and let go!

39. How do you make it work?
o Cultural shift: Curation and Co-creation
o Senior leader buy-in
o Define the audience and objectives
o Multi-channel promotion
o Social learning ‘heroes’ and community
managers
o Viral content
o Gamify and incentivise
o Encourage, trust and let go!

40. What does this look
like in practice?

41. Connecting
activists

42. Looking to:
o Connect dispersed UNISON activists
o Create a community of practice
o Increase flow of knowledge
o Connect activists with UNISON staff

43. Collaboration platform

44. 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 Hirst
Strategic Organising Planner

45. User-generated expertise

46. What they’ve done well
o Pilot, promote, grow
o Visible community managers
o Incentivise and encourage
o Shared ownership
o Continuous curation and recognition

49. o BioAge training for member assessors
o Highly physical and technical certification
o The nature of the test requires complete accuracy
and consistency
o Looking for cost and efficiency savings without
reducing collaboration
o Want to preserve the integrity of brand – work better
together
o Looking for longer-term social and informal value
BioAge training

50. 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

51. o Promote existing
community concepts
o Space for trainers to
discuss their training
process
Engaging community

52. What they’re doing well
o Clear pilot use case for digital informal learning
o Firm clear objectives and business value for early ROI
o Used informal assignments to help support formal
knowledge retention
o Growing the community platform with additional pilot
initiatives

53. Advice from a Community
Manager/Analyst

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

55. 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)

56. “Run a pilot”

57. “Be generous with the
timeframes for ROI”
o But consider ROI early
o Don’t promise community ROI in the early stages
o It takes time for a community to develop and
become effective
o Become a data analyst

58. “Never assume”
o Talk to your community
o Don’t formalise something that should be organic
o React to the behaviours you see, not the ones you
would like to see or not see

59. …and see your
benchmarks change
Don’t be afraid
to let go…

60. Thank you
Brightwavegroup.com

61. Jay Cross – Spending Paradox

62. What can we take-away?
o Align to clear business need
o Work with your existing culture
o Assign community managers
o Pilot and promote!
o Recognise your contributors
o Consider smaller, specific ROI opportunities to get
you started