Mobilising Informal and Social Learning in the Workplace

Mobilising Informal &Social Learning in the Workplace

Neil Ballantyne

The agenda

Learning

Informal & social learning

The workplace context

Barriers and enablers

Social media

Practical action planning

The Chatham House Rule

"When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity

nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed".

Link to Wikipedia article

“Companies die because their managers focus on the economic activity of producing

goods and services and forget that their organisations' true nature is that of a

community of humans.”

(de Geus, 1997, p3)

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LEARNINGSession 1

Human Memory

Sensory memory

Working memory

Long term

memory

Explicit memory

Declarative

memory

Episodic memory

Semantic memory

Implicit memory

Procedural

memory

Human Memory

Sensory memory

< 1 second

Working memory

< 1 minute

Long term

memoryLifetime

Explicit memory

Conscious

Declarative

memoryEvents & Facts

Episodic memory

Events & experiences

Semantic memoryFacts & concepts

Implicit memory

Unconscious

Procedural

memorySkills & tasks

INFORMAL & SOCIAL LEARNING

Session 2

Defining informal learning

“Informal learning is the unscheduled, impromptu way people learn to do their

jobs.”

(Cross, 2007, p.15)

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Defining informal learning

“…research on informal learning has suggested that informal learning is integrated with work and

daily routines, often begins with an internal or external jolt or triggering event, is often haphazard and not highly conscious, is an inductive process

of reflection and action, and is linked to the learning of others.”

(Ellinger, 2005, p. 392)Link to article

Defining informal learning

“Characteristics of the informal end of the continuum of formality include implicit, unintended,

opportunistic and unstructured learning and the absence of a teacher. In the middle come activities

like mentoring, while coaching is rather more formal in most settings.”

(Eraut, 2004, p. 250)Link to article

Informal

learning

LIVE in the

workflow

REFLECTING on

the past

PREPARING

for the future

THE WORKPLACE CONTEXTSession 3

Thinking

DoingCommunicatingC

HA

NG

ING

CO

ND

ITIO

NS

DEV

ELO

PIN

G S

ITU

ATIO

NS

INITIATIONReceiving new information

Reading the situationClarifying the brief

ENDINGProducts, Decisions, Records

Reporting to OthersLearning by Performer

Learning by Others Eraut (2004, p. 258)Link to article

Sensing ListeningTime

Imag

e c

redit

| F

lickr

N

ati

onal In

stit

ute

of

Healt

h

Learning in the workflow

Image credit | Flickr Ross Beckley

Learning in the workflow

Image credit | Flickr Tuomas Puukko

Learning in the workflow

Instant/Reflex Rapid/Intuitive Deliberative/Analytic

Reading the situation Pattern recognition Rapid interpretation Review involving discussions and/or analysis

Decision making Instant response Intuitive Deliberative with some analysis or discussion

Overt activity Routinized action Routines punctuated by rapid decision

Planned actions with periodic progress review

Metacognitive Situational awareness Implicit monitoring; short, reactive reflections

Conscious monitoring of thought and activity; self-management; evaluation

(Eraut, 2011)Link to chapter

BARRIERS & ENABLERSSession 4

Barriers & Enablers

• Feedback, evaluation, coaching & reflection• Organizational culture• Management support• Communication, interaction, cooperation &

participation• Physical spaces, structures & processes• Workload allocation, scheduling and work patterns• Job design• Access to information

Rapid research

• Your task is to agree on five key actions to facilitate informal learning in the workplace. To do this you will need to:– Discuss in your group your experiences of

barriers and enablers of informal learning.– Discover the views of other groups.– Reconvene to summarize and arrive at the

five key actions.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

1. Group A discusses and lists barriers & enablers.

2. Two group members stay in Group Ato share your ideas with Group F. Others move to Group B to gather ideas.

3. Continue till you have visited all groups.Then return to Group A, discuss findings,agree and list five key actions to facilitate informal learning in the workplace.

Rapid Research Process

SOCIAL MEDIASession 5

Towards Maturity: Learner Voice Survey 2014

• 88% of staff agree they like to learn at their own pace• 86% say working in collaboration with other team

members is essential or very useful• 70% say Google and the web are essential or very

useful tools• 51% access learning and support resources from their

mobile device “at the point when they need them the most

Link to survey

Towards Maturity: Learner Voice Survey 2014

• 65% are motivated by using technologies that allow them to network and learn with others

• They are four times more likely to go to YouTube for learning than their in-house social network

• YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ are more popular for learning than Twitter and Facebook

Link to survey

The conversation prism Brian Solis

Types of social media

Kaplan & Haenlein (2012)

Blogs and microblogs (e.g. Twitter)

Collaborative projects (e.g. Wikis)

Social networks (e.g. Facebook)

Content communities (e.g. Youtube)

Virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life)

Virtual game worlds (e.g. World of Warcraft)

Link to article

Functions of social media

Identity: the extent to which users reveal themselves.

Conversations: the extent to which users communicate with each other.

Sharing: the extent to which users exchange, distribute and receive content.

Presence: the extent to which users know if others are available.

Relationships: the extent to which users relate to each other.

Reputation: the extent to which users know the social standing of others.

Groups: the extent to which users form groups or communities.

Kietzmann et al (2011) Link to article

Internal use of social media

• The ‘Dare2Share’ project delivers British telecom total efficiency savings of at least £8 million per year.

Crowdsourcing

Step 1

Each group identifies a workplace informal learning problem in the form of “How could social media help…?”

Step 2

Write the problem at the top of a whiteboard.

Step 3

Everyone writes one solution for each problem on a post-it note.

Step 4

For each problem (apart from your own) read all of the solutions (apart from your own) and allocate votes to those solutions you think seem best (you can allocate 10 votes across the proposed solutions for each problem).