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By Dan Pontefract, 06/09/2010 5:58 PM

Have you ever read the book Power of 2 by Wagner and Muller?

In summary, whether personally or professionally, we should seek out partners that fill in specific elements, due mostly to the fact we (the human race) will both overestimate our weaknesses and underestimate our strengths.

“Your strengths are stronger and your weaknesses weaker than you realize. You need help. You are also precisely the help someone else needs.”

Marcia Conner has now teamed up with the Altimeter Group. What a pair. What a match. What a testament to how learnerprise is actually coming to fruition.

How you ask?

Marcia (twitter @marciamarcia) is someone I have looked up to for many years. I’ve always viewed myself as a bit of a learning renegade, pushing the envelope of the old establishment, but Marcia has always been one step ahead of me.

Back in 2004, she defined a formal/informal/intentional/unexpected diagram (see here) that was years ahead of its time. Even today, the old training establishment is coming to grips with this piece of prescient thinking. In particular, however, was the ‘unexpected’ side of the quadrant which had to deal with many of the concepts we refer to today in the Web and Enterprise 2.0 spaces.

Marcia gets it. I may call it ‘learnerprise’, but in essence she is the original definition of this thinking.

Which brings me to the Altimeter Group. I read today that Marcia is joining this team … which if you think about it, makes an inordinate amount of sense. Altimeter Group, through the guidance of Charlene Li, have built up a brilliant practice over the past two years providing “thought leadership, research, and advisory on digital strategies, with a core focus on how companies can leverage disruptive technologies.”

A natural evolution or extension was to enhance its reach by adding Marcia to the mix.

Marcia brings her background in Enterprise 2.0, collaborative culture, and of course all-things Learning 2.0 to the table … clearly, this is an example of the Power of 2.

More info via Altimeter Group here.

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By Dan Pontefract, 05/08/2010 10:10 AM

I find myself in the center of an intellectual tempest.

The traditional ‘learning’ folks are trying to sort out how to revolutionize the industry by augmenting their formal learning strategies to incorporate social media, social learning, social networking and the like. It’s a good thing to witness, but slow as molasses in some circles.

The Human Resources and Organizational Development folks are mulling over their competencies, values, leadership development programs, amongst other elements trying to embed flatter, more connected ways of working. Also good to see, but at times I see these folks in other companies plodding along without involvement of the Learning side of the house, or the technology outfits.

The technology groups (be it IT, Systems Analysts, ERP groups, etc.) are busy trying to synchronize existing investments with new instances of 2.0 collaboration technologies and platforms. They often do so without synchronizing their efforts with the Learning function(s) or the HR/OD groups.

And finally, corporate communications, marketing and even perhaps splinter social media teams are all either contemplating or incorporating social media, social networking and/or social learning concepts into their workflows.

Do you notice something here?

As I’ve written about previously, I believe that an organization needs not only an internal 2.0 Adoption Council, they need a cross-functional team (the Enterprise 2.0 Org Structure) to help ensure all the various pieces of a 2.0 world seamlessly come together, mitigating any confusion for the employee, partner, or customer.

But to get this going, I believe we need to introduce, recognize and accept the New Holy Culture Trinity for the Organization. That is, an updated leadership framework, coupled with the integration of Learning 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 concepts will help drive or augment a 2.0 connected ‘culture of collaboration’.

Together, united, in unison.

Actions:

• Update your existing “Leadership Framework”
  • Every organization has their mission statement, their values, their competencies, their leadership programs — each of these could potentially be ‘updated’ to incorporate a flatter, more connected way of operating as individuals, in teams, and as an organization. (think Tom Malone -–Future of Work)
• Implement “Learning 2.0”
  • Whether you have an internal corporate university, a decentralized learning structure, or a completely outsourced model, your model should be adapted to be formal, informal and social. Whether it’s old school or not, the ‘learning department’ plays a significant role for the organization, and if adapting to a 2.0 culture, it needs to grow up. (a little more info about Learning 2.0 here)
• Enlist “Enterprise 2.0″ Technologies
  • Not in isolation, but as part of the puzzle, Enterprise 2.0 technologies such as wikis, blogs, video system, rankings, ratings, comments, discussion forums, profiles, networks, micro-blogs, content sharing, site sharing, etc. can all become an integral part of the new culture, if mapped in accordance with the updated leadership framework and Learning 2.0 concepts.

I’ve written about Learnerprise in the past (the combination of Learning 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0) so think of the Holy Culture Trinity as a more thoughtful way of ensuring organizational success, keeping all three concepts in mind.

UPDATE: looks as though Ross Dawson is thinking similarly with “What Enterprise 2.0 means for the CIO and IT department“.

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By Dan Pontefract, 04/25/2010 10:00 AM

Learnerprise is the combination of Enterprise 2.0 and Learning 2.0 concepts.

The use of emergent social software platforms as well as formal and informal competence exchange processes, between companies, partners and employees, to improve both productivity and business results.

We’re all in charge of our careers, whether we’re employed by an organization, or employed by ourselves, so I occasionally visit bookmarked employment sites to review potential roles.

Some of those searches involve Chief Learning Officer titles and at this point in time, I still believe some change is needed to augment the new intent of the 2010 CLO.

To me, the CLO needs to be renamed. No longer should the term learning be the only adjective used to describe this new 2.0 function; it needs to be representative of Learnerprise, and in doing so, the title should reflect all things related to collaboration:

• Enterprise 2.0
• Social Learning
• Collaboration Technologies
• Flat-based culture innovation

Thus, the title could (and should) morph to become the CCLO – Chief Collaboration and Learning Officer – where duties and experience are reflective of a formal, informal and social learning AND collaboration cause. Inherent in the activities is driving a connected workforce, ultimately delivering on a more productive and engaged ‘culture of collaboration’ organization.

No disrespect intended with the following job descriptions, but review them and ask yourself if the CLO job description outlined showcases this type of visionary thinking:

• US Treasury
• TD Bank University
• Fifth Third Bank
• Health Care Example

Mike Petersell recently posed a great question on the CLO Media site entitled “Who should Lead Social Media Integration in Workforce Collaboration?” Of course I’m completely biased and believe it should be the newly titled CCLO because it is this individual (and corresponding virtual team) that should have the following traits:

• Deep partnership with IT/CIO office
• Thorough knowledge of both learning AND social collaboration technologies
• Responsibility for a connected culture (of collaboration)
• Duty to ensure the organization is ‘smart’ and more ‘efficient’
• Visionary of the new Learning 2.0/Learnerprise mantra (formal-informal-social)

The CCLO, (and corresponding virtual team) therefore, needs to become the key cog in the wheel of organizational cultural change. This cultural change is predicated on the CCLO being able to fluently speak both Enterprise 2.0 and Learning 2.0 seamlessly.

As a previous CEO of mine used to say, “Be Fearless”.