CorpU Weekly Digest: Social Learning (2012-Mar-12)

Topics: Social Learning

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

• (1) Why should your organization consider pursuing an informal social approach of knowledge sharing? ;  
• The Business of Learning: Cornerstone OnDemand acquires Sonar, another acquisition in the Talent Management & Learning Management System space ; 
• Books: Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy and Developing Mental Toughness: Improving Performance, Wellbeing and Positive Behavior in Others ; 
• Webinars ; 
• Conferences

 Why should your organization consider pursuing an informal social approach of knowledge sharing?
Microsoft's Michael Kada examines the benefits of moving from a formal learning and knowledge sharing approach to an informal, employee-driven, social model inside organizations. According to him, Microsoft experienced enormous cost savings, or avoidance of costs, by shifting to an informal employee-empowered learning and knowledge sharing approach. He noted that not every classroom training can be substituted; high-production cost videos do have their place inside a company. However, when you start going through your training and communications requirements, you can identify many areas where a cost saving video podcast can occur:

• Knowledge sharing by key people such as executives, members of product groups, managers, and campaign owners to provide updates on strategy, business insights, new products, and initiatives.
• Substitution for top-down, trainer-led, onsite training and readiness content with a relatively short shelf life or time-sensitive content.
• Substitution for certain types of onsite, in-person conferences and events, which take place at different locations or are time-sensitive and can be better accomplished by virtual conferencing.
• Do-it-yourself, peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, in which employees share knowledge in a non-hierarchical environment 

Read "The ROI of social learning in the enterprise"

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

Cornerstone OnDemand announced the acquisition of Sonar, a cloud-based talent management solution provider serving small businesses globally and headquartered in New Zealand. The acquisition will combine two of the talent management industry's most innovative providers and allows Cornerstone to strengthen its ability to serve clients of all sizes. Additionally, Cornerstone expects that the acquisition will accelerate the company's momentum in the small business (SMB) market. Sonar6 will bring more than 375 global clients to Cornerstone. The recent consolidation in the talent management space has disrupted the market over the past few months (such as Salesforce.com acquiring Rypple, SAP acquiring SuccessFactors & Plateau; Saba acquiring Comartis; Oracle acquiring Taleo & Learn.com ; and SumTotal acquiring GeoLearning). Read press release.

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 Books To Read

Continuous improvement, understanding complex systems, and promoting innovation are all part of the landscape of learning challenges today's companies face, and it's been a topic that Harvard Business School Prof. Amy Edmondson has published a good deal on. In her forthcoming book, to be published on April 3, Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy, Prof. Edmondson takes her analysis of organizational effectiveness a level deeper by showing that organizations thrive, or fail to thrive, based on how well the small groups within those organizations work. In most organizations, the work that produces value for customers is carried out by teams, and increasingly, by flexible team-like entities. The pace of change and the fluidity of most work structures means that it's not really about creating effective teams anymore, but instead about leading effective teaming as a process. Teaming shows that organizations learn when the flexible, fluid collaborations they encompass are able to learn. The problem is teams, and other dynamic groups, don't learn naturally. Edmondson outlines the factors that prevent them from doing so, such as interpersonal fear, irrational beliefs about failure, groupthink, problematic power dynamics, and information hoarding. With Teaming, leaders can shape these factors by encouraging reflection, creating psychological safety, and overcoming defensive interpersonal dynamics that inhibit the sharing of ideas. Buy now

Mental toughness is measured by how effectively individuals respond to stress, pressure and challenge, and it is increasingly becoming for some organizations a critical capability for certain roles. The challenge has historically been that identifying and developing this capability has been elusive. In the forthcoming book Developing Mental Toughness: Improving Performance, Wellbeing and Positive Behavior in Others, to be published on March 28, 2012, Prof. Peter Clough, Head of Psychology at Hull University, and Doug Strycharczyk, owner and Managing Director for AQR Ltd. an assessment organization, address this gap. The book covers the concept of mental toughness and traces its development from sports psychology into organizational development, health and education. This book covers the key skills and techniques required to recognize, use and develop mental toughness in others including evaluation, ROI and improving attention spans. Buy now

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 Webinars 

Global Competency within a Leadership Framework
Date: Monday, April 2, 2012 at 11:00am - 12:00 noon EDT
Presenter: Jo Danehl, Director, Account Management (Cartus) and Diane Mullen, Senior Training Consultant (Cartus) Register now

Making E-Learning Stick  
Date: Tuesday, April 10, 2012, 1:00 PM EDT 
Presenter: Carole Robin, Stanford Graduate School of Business Register now

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 Conferences

Enterprise Learning! Summit 2012
Date: March 20-21, 2012
Location: Alexandria, VA, United States Register now

Trends and Trendsetters in HR Shared Services
Date: March 28, 2012
Location: New York, NY, US Register now

The Six Disciplines of Learning Transfer: Presented by ASTD in Partnership with Fort Hill Company
Date: April 4-5, 2012
Location: Atlanta, GA, United States Register now 

Talent Management Summit
Date April 10-12, 2012
Location: São Paulo, Brazil Register now

Assessing & Developing High Potentials
Date: April 16-17, 2012
Location: Washington DC, US Register now

OnBoarding Talent
Date: April 16-18, 2012
Location: Sydney, Australia Register now

Learning TECH 2012
Date: April 23 - 25, 2012
Location: Chicago, IL, USA Register now 

Delivering the Strategic Role of HR
Date: May 2, 2012 
Location: New Zealand Register now

1st Annual People Effectiveness @ Work Conference
Date: May 8, 2012
Location: South Africa Register now

Corporate University Xchange's Global Leadership Congress
Date:  May 15-17, 2012
Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA Register now 

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