CorpU Weekly Digest: Social Learning (2012-July-30)

Topics: Social Learning

Here are this past week's headlines in social learning: 

• Measuring Informal Learning ; 
• Books: The Pivot Point: Success in Organizational Change ;  
• Webinars ; 
• Conferences

 Measuring Informal Learning
This chapter from Saul Carliner's Informal Learning Basics offers a brief introduction to the challenges of defining and measuring the impact of an informal learning program in an organization. As most social scientists would quickly affirm, measuring any type of pull-based, user-driven activity presents interesting challenges, and with informal learning, these are basically identifying what workers have learned, identifying how workers have learned, and recognizing acquired competencies. Carliner covers the basics well in this chapter, such as self-assessments, process/showcase portfolios, coaching interviews, employee education records, skills assessments, certifications, as well as the traditional "measuring learning by weight" metrics of number of uses, number of unique users, extent of use (a.k.a., stickiness). He also offers some pretty handy basic questions, such as 

1. What did workers learn informally?
2. How do workers learn informally?
3. How can workers receive recognition for their informal learning?
4. What is the extent of participation in various informal learning activities?
5. What is the extent of satisfaction with various resources used for informal learning?
6. In what ways does the organization benefit from informal learning by workers?
7. Which informal learning efforts that the organization formally supports are providing tangible benefits to the organization?
8. How can organizations better support informal learning efforts?

The chapter offers a pretty good overview for people getting up to speed, presenting some cogent and succinct models and frameworks to evaluate informal learning (see figure 1) 

Figure 1. Evaluation approaches to show what workers learned, how they learned, and what competencies they've acquired (showing both individual and organizational measurement approaches)

Read Chapter 8 from Carliner's book Informal Learning Basics. 

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 The Business of Learning: New Major Products, Mergers, Acquisitions, and Partnerships

No major news in mergers, acquisitions, or product releases.

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 Books To Read

One of the lesser discussed points about change management is that the source of the problem is not so much the new, but the threat of the loss of the old. Resistance to change is often grudgingly accepted as an unavoidable challenge for organizations striving to remain competitive in the global marketplace. It's a bit of a surprise, though, that the popular change methodologies recognize, address, or even mention the true origin of resistance. How can your organization avoid the 70% organizational change failure rate that has plagued change initiatives for more than 15 years? Is there an organizational change tool that will predictably and measurably improve the overall success rate? Drs. Victoria and James Grady offer some insight in their book, The Pivot Point: Success in Organizational Change (to be released August 1, 2012). Building on her doctoral dissertation model, called the Organizational Loss of Effectiveness (LOE) Index — which describes loss of stability inherent within organizations during the implementation of change initiatives and the tendency of employees, often subconsciously, to disrupt their organization's attempts to introduce a change. The Pivot Point provides an explanation, not an excuse, for an organizational change failure rate which has continued to hover near 70% for 15 + year. It then highlights the steps to measure, track, and proactively intervene to maximize change success so that practitioners can enhance, not replace, existing methodologies currently implemented by change agents and consultants. Buy Now 

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 Webinars 

Gamify Your Training: Use Gamification to Increase Employee Engagement and Improve Feedback
Date: Thursday, August 2, 2012, 1pm ET
Presenter: Greg Greunke, President, Tuzooni & Greunke Register now

Sales Force Training: A Paradigm Shift - Learn from Fortune 500 Market Leaders
Date: August 09, 2012, 12noon ET
Presenter: CommLab Register now

Gen Y Sales Force Training: What Works and What Doesn't
Date: August 23, 2012, 12noon ET
Presenter: CommLab Register now

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 Conferences

Attracting, Developing and Retaining World-Class Talent
Date August 6-7, 2012
Location: San Francisco, CA, US Register now

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