Social Media Tools: Icing on Your Learning Cake!
Look inside any publications or
resources of workplace learning & performance and chances are that you’ll
be surprised to see social media featuring with almost unprecedented
regularity. Questions that might crop up in a learning professional’s mind
could sound like-
Is it yet another fad? Is the trend
sustainable? Are we going for a overkill?
And possibly, some more like these!
Speak to people in the fraternity
and possibly you find the opinions divided. But no one seems to disagree on one
thing- Social media’s compelling trend has already set in the workplace and one
can ignore it at one’s peril!
Still few companies encourage their
employees to go active on social media and harness its power for organizational
effectiveness. Majority of them, in fact, hold a cynical outlook towards such
platforms. Generational gaps make things even more distinct- Baby boomers
downplay social media and its power to transform workplace whereas Gen Y employees
will go to the extent of snubbing off companies as prospective employers who
hold unfavorable social media policies at workplaces!
I was pleasantly surprised hearing
one of the hiring managers narrating this interview process wherein she was
literally quizzed by one of the interviewees asking about her company’s social
media practices when she offered the candidate to ask any questions if he had
at the end of the interview. This is just an example and a precursor of things
to follow in coming years at workplace.
The question that needs to be asked
of learning and performance professional is - ‘How do you usher in Social media
in workplace learning with least disruption and resistance?’
Before I try to answer the
question, let me provide a perspective on social media. Social media is a broad
term that encompasses wikis, blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, twitter, Pinterest of
the world. They are the creation of web2.0 technologies. Despite their apparent
omnipresence, an article from T+D magazine cites ‘So far, only a minority of
firms are actual “power users” of Web 2.0 technologies for the purpose of
enhancing learning. Just 9 percent of learning professionals surveyed said Web
2.0 technologies play a major role in the learning function in their company.’
So it’s evident that when it comes to formal learning plans most of the L&D
professionals would rather fight sigh of these platforms.
Think
of company intranet and Sharepoint sites- if there were any studies conducted
to establish how motivated employees are visiting and taking formal classes,
participating on discussion boards, posting comments and seeking work-related
solutions, I am sure results would be far from encouraging for those running
such LMSs.
·
Learning through such platform is perceived to
be too formal and rigid in format- Andragogically not very encouraging.
·
They appear to be intruding into learners space
·
They’re uni-directional in the sense that
content flows in one direction- from company repository towards learners.
Little scope for collaboration in learning!
Now let’s attempt to see how social
media platforms such as micro-blogs, twitter etc. overcome the above
challenges. By the very nature of being informal learning platforms they are
received more openly by the learners if positioned in a right manner and with due
seriousness accorded by executives.
Why so? One need not split hairs to
see the logic-
§ Once
given right thrust, these media are informal and less time consuming- they are
‘non-intrusive’ as one executive summarized them
§ Learners
have the freedom to collaborate on any given topic- in a sense, co-create the
whole learning experience. One gets a sense of being creator and contributor
§ Learners
are motivated to learn from peers’ experience and offer their own solutions to
people who need them
What kind of
learning is most suitable to such informal tools?
While formal and
structured learning would continue to be delivered through various traditional
modes- class-rooms, e-learning or blended, these social media will play out
synergy in terms of reinforcement tools thereby enhancing learning
sustainability. They add learning effectiveness of such formal tools. The
challenge for learning professionals is to strategically integrate such
informal tools into their mainstream training.
A critical
success factor here would be buy-in from executives and functional leaders. The
seriousness will be top-down and initial success will largely depend on how
committed are your executives and leaders in driving such learning
collaboration. Many executives have natural penchant for such new technologies
and avenues while even bigger population of theirs will have love-hate
relationship with social media. The key is to know their disposition towards
social platforms and try to work around it instead of rushing in with such
tools blindly.
Culture and
beliefs do change albeit slowly.
Go on and read the following real-life
experience of a mind-shift. Names and identities have been changed to keep anonymity.
An initiative to bring about a mind-shift in coaching & mentoring
using micro-blogs: A case study
MedDevice is a 163 years old
medical equipment and devices company with global operations. Traditionally,
the company had been a pioneer of several medical equipments and enjoys
tremendous equity among medical fraternity. Recently, it has entered into
Indian market and has strategic commitments to grow the market which
contributes miniscule to its global sales. The start-up in India has a team of
65 sales consultants with 12 people managers. Keeping up with its strategic
vision, they have hired professionals from various established competitors and
the team brings in diverse background experiences and practices. Managers have
different experiences when it comes to people management and practices in
coaching & mentoring people. In order to achieve strategic objectives both
on business and people front, the country leader realizes the importance of
bringing a uniform people coaching and mentoring culture within the unit.
After a thorough consultation with
business leaders and identifying the training needs, a two-day formal course on
Coaching is developed in house and delivered by its L&D function to all
people managers.
The course comes with a pre-work
survey, pre-read and pre-work materials. The workshop got local and global
praise and recognition for being meticulously designed and effectively
delivered.
The head of L&D of MedDevices,
however, is far from being contended. His work has just begun. Sustaining
initial excitement and learning of participants is the litmus test. After all,
it’s similar to bring about cultural changes, shifting established mindset of
leaders and creating a self-sustaining drive for coaching and mentoring. He
contemplates Social learning tools such as micro-blogging and discussion boards.
After initial thoughts, he zeroes in on existing BlackBerry technology that
every manager has access to. Using BlackBerry messenger, he creates a platform
titled ‘Confluence: The convergence of ideas’. To initiate, he started with a
particular discussion query pertaining to Coaching & Mentoring over
Confluence to which participants are expected to express their thoughts and
comments. Gradually but steadily, all participants are drawn into this
micro-blogging activity and the momentum builds up. Six months later, there is
a definite shift in the mindset of all people leaders with their coaching
roles. The qualitative improvement of all people managers in their interactions
with team members is all there to see. This innovative effort was also
recognized through a best practices entry in a training award category of a
reputed magazine.
