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By Dan Pontefract, 03/22/2010 3:21 PM

Last year, I posted some thoughts on the evolution of the training vendor entitled “An Updated Business Model for Training Vendors“.

This is the bulleted form follow-up to that post.

Formal Learning Thoughts

• Instructor-led classes are not going away … but don’t make it your only value proposition, make it part of the arsenal
• How can you package up your ILT into small bite-sized ’snacks’ (as Martin King suggests)?
• What used to take 5 days to teach … can it be done differently, incorporating formal, informal and social learning means?
• eLearning is an important piece to the puzzle … but I don’t want to go to your fancy LMS to take it
• eLearning also shouldn’t be any longer than one hour these days
• Are you building formal simulations and beginning to utilize gaming? (I know Koreen Olbrish would want you to)
• How are you addressing virtual world or virtual ILT delivery?
• Is all of your formal learning taking too long to develop? If so, and you are spending too much time/money on the design and development costs … maybe you should think about shifting some of your talent to informal or social learning delivery models versus spending so much time, effort and money on the ‘perfect course’ (we don’t care anymore if it’s perfect)

Informal Learning Thoughts

• Your staff should be allowed to provide their expertise via informal learning approaches such as mentoring, coaching, live webcasts, recorded webinars, etc.
• Informal learning thrives when experts can repurpose their knowledge in, well … informal ways. Seek out a model that allows this to happen.
• Do you have an informal content plan? (ie. remember the days when we talked about ‘rapid development’ … well, now we need our content fast and fresh, and delivered in some informal vehicles, so how are you going to provide this?)
• Work together – why are training vendors so afraid to work together with one another. Form some partnerships, strategic alliances, whatever … it’s hard to find one shop that can do everything for a company, yet informal learning lends itelf so well to this model
• Books – for those companies that utilize Books 24×7 or Safari Books as their employee ‘bookshelf’ or ‘library’ … find a way in which to repurpose this informal learning investment into your strategy

Social Learning Thoughts

• Most of you aren’t there yet when it comes to a Social Learning model … but think of it as an extension of Informal Learning. (that should make Lance Dublin happy)
• You need to utilize the systems and tools of an organization that are already established or about to be, and free your people/staff up to extend the formal and informal learning opportunities via social media, social networking and social collaboration inside of the virtual private network of an organization itself
• NOTE: like the LMS … we don’t want/need to go to your social systems – please find a way to utilize ours
• Coach your people that are reticent to ’social learning’ that it’s not going away, it’s here to stay … and that they need to step up their ‘learning game’ (ie. branch out)

And finally, course-by-course bums in seats modelling is not going to cut it.

Think of it as electricity. When I need it, I turn it on … but it’s always there, reliable and able to transmit light, power, sound and experience with whatever I throw at it.

(and yes, I still hate the word training)

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By Dan Pontefract, 01/09/2010 1:43 PM

Previously I wrote about how Learning 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 thinking should align. I then defined Learnerprise as:

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

In the corporate world and thus corporate learning, I’m not making any predictions per se, but I would like it to be known that my sincere hope in 2010 is related to the rise of ‘Learnerprise’.

Far too many organizations remain polarized by the traditional training department (and their army of training vendors) as it relates to their formal only output versus the up and coming non-formal ways in which corporate citizens are beginning to learn inside and outside the organization itself. (with or without the blasted training department)

Rest assured that formal training has a place in the overall pie of learning investment and output, however, if an organization doesn’t recognize that the lines now blur between formal, informal and social learning & collaboration — via the concept of learnerprise — companies are going to continue misspending their investment and, frankly speaking, ticking off the workforce. (to the detriment of company growth as well)

Maybe we should just go back and call it blended learning, but I digress.

The 4 opportunities I ‘hope’ occur in 2010 are as follows:

• Champion Learnerprise
• Federate the LMS
• Rebrand the Department
• Training Vendors & Partners Need to ‘Get It’

2010, in my humble opinion, should be about the organization shifting the focus from the all-instructor-led and eLearning only intravenous drip of ‘training’, to one that supports learnerprise. Be it your mission to lead, champion, pioneer and instil both the systemic means in which employees learn, collaborate and exchange competence with one another … as well as the company-driven & sponsored programs & offerings that complement said action. I ‘hope’ you can combine them and then watch things flourish.

I also ‘hope’ that organizations see to it to begin federating their LMS into their social collaboration platform so the employee no longer thinks of the LMS as that place where I register for formal ILT and eLearning courses. (aka. Formal events) That’s nonsense. Make your LMS obsolete (or at least hide it in the background) and tie together the social, informal and formal means into your existing or soon to be launched social collaboration platform. Make that your one-stop shop starting place, not the LMS.

We don’t necessarily need to set fire to the training department per se, but I do ‘hope’ that attention is paid to rejig the roles, become less rogue, cooperate as the leader of all things learnerprise (formal, informal and social), liaise and partner with the CIO’s office, and ultimately rebrand yourself and your department as the quintessential leader in the 2.0 world of your organization.

And finally, I ‘hope’ that various training vendors and partners begin to get it, and view their services as integral to the success of a company. But only if they step up and a) understand the learnerprise concept and b) acknowledge that they can actually supplement the vision and thus the goals of the company by providing value that addresses the formal, informal and social needs.

And if you are in fact looking for predictions and not a measly ‘hope’ list, check out the following:

• The Internet Time Alliance has stated their predictions. (at least 4 of the 6 members have)
• Inge de Waard has some great points and opinions on 2010 as year of the learner/pedagogy.
• Of course eLearning Magazine has the usual army of industry pundits making their predictions as well.
• And finally, Tony Karrer is actively seeking your input & predictions as well. (should you care to post)

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By Dan Pontefract, 08/30/2009 4:56 PM

If you haven’t heard of Marshall McLuhan, well you’re simply missing out on one of Canada’s most innovative minds.

Derrick de Kerckhove, Director of the McLuhan Program of Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto since 1983 wrote McLuhan for Managers in 2003. Shamefully, I didn’t know about the book until this year, courtesy of Jon Husband.

In the book, Derrick (and co-author Mark Federman) introduce the Laws of Media through a tetrad:

• Extend (what does the artefact enhance or intensify or make possible or accelerate)
• Obsolesce (what is pushed aside by the new organ)
• Retrieve (what older, previously obsolesced ground is brought back and inheres in the new form)
• Reverse (what is the reversal potential of the new form)

Harold Jarche has written about the tetrads and applied it to commons-based peer production. I’m sure there are others out there as well.

As I unplugged for almost 4 weeks during the summer, I began mentally noodling what the tetrads may look like in terms of a Learning 2.0 philosophy. I define Learning 2.0 in a corporate learning setting as follows:

• Philosophy – shifting from training is an event, to learning is continuous, connected & collaborative. (simply put – moving from solely formal classroom and eLearning, to formal, informal and social learning concepts)
• Alignment – being less fixated on a centralized training function, and more on a federated (hub and spoke if you will) talent and collaboration holistic entity

Thoughts?