connected learning Archive

It’s Time to Revolutionize Corporate Learning

May 13, 2013connected learning learning learning 2.06 Comments

I spend a lot of time thinking, writing, speaking and working in my own personal and professional venn diagram of: leadership development; social collaborative tools; and all things related to learning. One of those pillars — the learning space — is where I started my career. I owe much of what I have today in my professional life to the learning space, be it K-12, higher education or the corporate sector. But it’s the corporate learning sector in particular where I believe a new ‘learning arc’ must be developed. It must shift from Status Quo Ante (as was before) to Ad Meliora (toward better things). Two of my dear friends and colleagues — Marcia Conner and Kerry Brown — were thinking the same way and

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The Connected Culture

By Dan Pontefract

June 18, 2012collaboration connected learning engagement innovation leadership organization reciprocity1 Comment

If you haven’t noticed, I’m a big fan of trying to create simplicity from chaos. That stated, I am more comfortable when a part of (or the instigator of) chaos itself. As Churchill once said, “to improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” Perhaps my own personal leadership style is one that evokes equal parts chaos and order. Give your brain a dose of ‘mental Olympics’ and read former VISA CEO Dee Hock’s “Birth of the Chaordic Age”. The tweet version of Chaordic Theory, in essence, is a new organizational form Hock calls “simultaneously chaotic and orderly.” Chaordic is any self–organizing, adaptive, non-linear, complex system, whether physical, biological, or social, the behaviour of which exhibits characteristics of both order and chaos

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Future of Work: Add Open Leadership, Enterprise 2.0, Connected Learning and Mix

By Dan Pontefract

May 28, 2012connected learning Culture engagement enterprise 2.0 leadership5 Comments

Mark Fidelman recently published a piece on Forbes entitled, “Microsoft’s View of the Future Workplace is Brilliant, Here’s Why“. I’m not sure if Mark wrote the title or whether Forbes editors were in charge, but it really doesn’t do the post justice. The second half of the piece is where the true brilliance is … if you’re someone like me who is passionate, fascinated and somewhat dogged about the future of work, and how it is made up of open leadership, enterprise 2.0 and connected learning. Mark states: I can say with confidence that the workplace has to change dramatically in order to remain effective. From there, he outlines 10 key reasons why. You should have a read, it really is good stuff. From my

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Shouldn’t We Just Best Buy Corporate Learning

By Dan Pontefract

May 14, 2012connected learning education formal informal learning learning 2.0 social social learning7 Comments

Best Buy, a renown electronics retailer perhaps better known for its khaki pants and blue shirt dress code, could be viewed analagously with that of an evolved corporate learning structure. Imagine that you’re at one of their corporate stores. What do you see when you enter the store? There she/he is, the greeter: “Hello sir, how are you today?” As you pass the greeter in this vivid, brightly lit and humming environment there are a number of learning sherpas … the guides on the side not pestering you to buy something, rather, able and available when you require assistance. There are no commissions at Best Buy to make a sale. Employees are there, quite literally, to help you as necessary. Sure, it’s a formal environment with walls, electricity and so on, but it is

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