Nuts and Bolts: Inviting Interaction

I speak at a lot of conferences,with most presentations lately based on Social Media for Trainers. Conferenceparticipants often ask about the specifics of choosing and managing particulartools, but it seems sometimes they are missing the point.

The crux of using social media inany endeavor, as Gina Schreckhas said, is, “Social media invites and allows interaction from others. How areyou inviting that interaction?“ The popularity of social media tools means thatsooner, rather than later, those of us in the field will need to examine whatthis means for us. Among other things, as noted by Taleo’s Tom Stone, use ofsocial media tools is an excellent means of making learning more transparent.As he says, “It’s captured, searchable, and has much greater reach beyond thetwo people talking in the hallway.”

We know a great deal of workplacelearning is informal; but without the tools to make it more evident, managementmay not be aware of informal learning in the workplace at all. But at the sametime, this activity will require a quantum leap for many of us in L&D, usedto developing and delivering and vetting and tracking content. What are some wayswe can invite interaction and develop something more akin to a partnership withour learners?

Watch for “teachable moments”

In the past, those of us in L&Dwould go ask the SME (subject matter expert) to show us how to, say, assemblethe widget. Then we would invest a lot of time, using expensive equipment, to makea training video on widget assembly. But the world of video production haschanged, with most of us now having digital video cameras on our phones, and most of us being comfortablewith amateur-level video, thanks to sites like YouTube.

So why should L&D have to makethe widget video? Film the exemplary performer or technical expert (or have herfilm herself), and put it on the company’s YouTube or other video channel. TheCheesecake Factory restaurant chain has done this with great success in aninitiative called “Video Café”as a way of showcasing good performers and practices. The short videos covereverything from customer service to food preparation. They make them available tostaff via internal channels, and they incorporate some into more formaltraining materials.

Google’s Julia Bulkowski offersanother example: When a star salesperson gets a big sale, ask them to take afew minutes to sync audio over the presentation they used to close the deal.Have them mention critical success moments, objections, and responses, andembed that session into a wiki, intranet, e-mail, Google doc, Slideshare, orenterprise social network.

Try setting up some “learntogether” sessions. Last spring, members of Insync Training’s Facebookcommunity realized that the popularity of handheld devices was bringing in anew age of apps for conducting virtual classroom sessions via smartphone andtablet. Organizers invited group members to an online “rodeo” to test out the appswith the explicit caveat: “There will be no instruction, and we cannottroubleshoot. We’re learning, too.” Thirty people came, on their own time andof their own volition, to participate in something pretty much guaranteed to befrustrating. But learn we did. See https://realworkplacelearning.com/2011/07/16/this-is-how-we-learn-the-insync-app-rodeo/.

Help learners become more aware of learning

So much learning is informal andunconscious; often learners don’t think of it as “learning something” but as“solving a problem.” Research from Allen Tough tells us that the typical (inthe research, middle-class) adult engages in five self-directed learningprojects a year, investing an average of 100 hours in each. The problem is,most adults don’t think of themselves as embarking on self-directed learningprojects. They think of it as figuring out how to build a deck, or how to win atWorld of Warcraft, or how to get the best deal on a new car. They choose theirown methods, from Googling, to practicing, to asking Joe the coworker, toattending workshops at the local hardware store.

In inviting interactions aboutlearning, it’s useful to help workers recognize when they are learning. Doing workerstatus reports or callouts in meetings? Add the item, “What did you learn thisweek?“ Encourage management to make this part of conversations, open meetings,and open classes. Incorporate it into the performance review process: “Learningx helped me perform y.” Articulating it surfaces it.

Become a Partner

• Go where they are. Workers are already talking to each other, online and elsewhere. Watch for communities that alreadyexist, and gently join those. Too often L&D wants to set up new, separatesilos that compete with communities already in existence.
• Listen. Pay attention to what employees are talking about. No one on the planet, except maybe HR, cares about your “sexual harassment policy forum.”
• Offer a space for “user reviews” on the L&D department’s site.
• Ask leaders to share the best advice they ever received, ask call center staff to offer their tips for handling challenging interactions, offer a space for “user reviews” on the workplace training catalog.
• Invite new hires to contribute to an ever-evolving “FAQs for New Hires” wiki.
• Structure questions and conversations to encourage use of a public discussion area instead of burying conversation in one-to-one e-mail.
• Host a “Work-Life Balance Blog” populated with content from invited workers.

In The eLearning Guild’s recent Social Media for Learning Report, afinding was that many organizations experiencing success with social media forlearning were doing it via the use of “ambassadors” from within theorganization – those people likely to write or otherwise contribute toendeavors. So: Who is talking, what do they want to talk about, and how canL&D support and facilitate that without overcontrolling or killing it?

Really, the best way to invite interaction?

 Participate!

Want More?

Allen Tough’s site is https://www.allentough.com/and three of the early books are now available there for free download.

Tough, Allen.1971. The adult’slearning projects: A fresh approach to theory and practice in adult learning. Toronto: OISE.

 Tough, Allen.1982. Intentionalchanges: A fresh approach to helping people change. Chicago:Follett.

The Cheesecake Factory Video Café showcase is at https://www.workforce.com/article/20110620/NEWS02/306209997. Accessing article requires setup of free account.

See Jane Hart’s SocialLearning Handbook at https://c4lpt.co.uk/social-learning-handbook/.

And: Join me for more conversation at https://www.facebook.com/SoMe4Trainersand at Learning Solutions 2012 on Monday, March 19, for a full daypreconference session, “A Manager’s Guide to Social Media for Learning.”