Reflections on #lrnchat: Our Own Learning & Development- Past, Present, Future

Each week that I am able to participate in #lrnchat discussion I post a summary of the discussion to my blog. I do this both for my personal development as well as sharing with the Learning and Development Profession at large. This summary is based on my own interpretations of the chat; others who participated may have differing opinions or interpretations of the discussion. I welcome those that do to add your ideas to the comments.

The topic of this week's #lrnchat session was "Our Own Learning & Development: Past, Present, & Future".  The topic and questions were suggested by @craigtaylor74 & @mattiaskareld.

As this week #lrnchat fell on the American holiday of Thanksgiving, participation was lighter than usual and consisted of only the earlier session.
I always find looking at the questions that are used to loosely guide the chat as a nice way to see the overall theme of the chat. Here are the discussion questions that were presented to the group:

Q1) What’s the single biggest piece of “learning” for you over the last 12 months?
Q2) How different is it to the piece of “learning” from the previous 12 months?
Q3) In the next 12 months do you intend to consolidate your “learning” in this area, or move in a new direction?
Q4) How do we maintain a development momentum for ourselves?

 

Key Learning Points

As we approach the end of another year, it is natural to reflect on the experiences of the past 12 months.  This week's #lrnchat did just that, as the discussion reflected not just on this year’s learning, but also comparing this year’s learnings to what we learned the previous year and what we expect to learn in the future.

The discussion began with a reflection on what our key learning was this year.  Not surprisingly, incorporating and emphasis on using Social Media and Informal Learning dominated the discussion.  This is, in many ways, the future of learning and development.  Incorporating these into your personal tool set and your organization’s performance strategy are critical. 

The discussion then moved towards comparing this learning to the key leaning of the previous 12 months.  Again the themes of Social Media and Informal Learning were present, but there was a key difference between the two time periods.  In the previous year, learning about these things had a feeling of ‘preparing for the future’; learning of the same topics this year had much more urgency, almost as though workplace learning professionals were unaware that the ‘future’ had arrived and were now trying to avoid falling behind the curve.

I think this is an excellent representation of how quickly technology and learning can intersect. Social media and informal learning will only increase this trend.  When you place the control of learning into the learner’s hands, they will determine what has value and its usage will naturally evolve.

The discussion then moved towards the future, wondering if we would continue to focus our learning on what we have in the past, or if we would move towards a new direction.  This was one of those rare #lrnchat moments where there was consensus amongst all.  People may have had different ways of saying it, but ultimately all agreed that what we choose to focus on in our learning is a dynamic target that is always on the move based on changes in individual and organizational need.  

The discussion concluded with sharing of ideas regarding how learning professionals can maintain momentum for their own development.  There were a number of great ideas shared here, many of which can be described as remaining connected to the passion and drive that you feel about the profession.  I think that, especially in corporate environments, it’s very easy to get caught up in the politics and stagnancy of ‘the way things are done’.  I think in an ideal world, developing yourself is completely in sync with the organizational goals. In reality though, it’s often not in complete sync. 

I think it’s critical that learning professionals and professionals in general, always remember to check the direction of both their personal and organizational compasses.  If they are not in relative sync more often than not, performance and satisfaction will suffer.

One of the reasons I enjoy reviewing the transcript of #lrnchat in addition to participating live is that often the common threads that run through most of the discussion become more apparent when reviewing the entire stream.  That was what happened this week for me.  In all the sharing of top learning, there was a theme.  In almost all of the cases, the top learning involved seeing value in something you did not see value in before.  It reminds me much of my early experience with Twitter.  I knew it was there and basically how it worked, but it wasn’t until I saw it’s value that the light bulb went off.

For me the most thought provoking tweet came in the form of the last of the four moderated questions: How do we maintain a development momentum for ourselves?

I have often coached members of my team on the importance of continued development, so the idea of maintaining focus on your own development is part of my DNA.  What struck me about that question was the addition of the word momentum. 

I can develop myself many different ways.  A class here, a book there… it all adds to my development of skills and knowledge.  What momentum implies is increased force and speed, and more importantly, a sense of building and direction.

I think that’s a critical piece of the development paradigm.  Participating in Development activities is good.  Choosing a direction and then setting a strategic development plan to get there is better.

It inspires me to re-ask myself the #lrnchat questions from this discussion, with a few important alterations:

It’s December 31^st, 2011, and I’m reflecting on an amazing year of development.

·         Q1) How have I grown in the past 12 months?  What – specifically – is different?

·         Q2) What were the critical learnings that contributed to my development?

·         Q3) What would I need to do to make 2012 even better?

With those questions answered, I have the framework for my 2011 development plan.  Now all I need to do is fill in the gaps.

Reflections of #lrnchat: 21st Century Skills, Literacies, & Fluencies

Each week that I am able to participate in #lrnchat discussion I post a summary of the discussion to my blog. I do this both for my personal development as well as sharing with the Learning and Development Profession at large. This summary is based on my own interpretations of the chat; others who participated may have differing opinions or interpretations of the discussion. I welcome those that do to add your ideas to the comments.

The topic of this week's #lrnchat session was "21st Century Skills, Literacies, & Fluencies".

I always find looking at the questions that are used to loosely guide the chat as a nice way to see the overall theme of the chat. Here are the five discussion questions that were presented to the group:

Q1) What are 21st century literacy/skills/fluencies?

Q2) What do our learners need to develop? How can we support them?

Q3) What do WE need to develop? How can we do it?

Q4) How can we support both newbies and experienced learners on this journey?

Key Learning Points

Today's #lrnchat discussion focused on what the new literacy, skills, and fluencies that are needed in 21st century learning, and what sort of support learners and learning professionals will need to develop those skill sets.

The discussion started by identifying what those literacy, skills, and fluencies are.    There were a great number of ideas shared.  When reviewing the discussion, two major themes seemed constant. The first theme was the concept of self-motivation and self-direction.  This makes sense, as it brings the world or organizational knowledge and skills in line with the overall collaborative environment being created by the ever-engaging world of Social Media.  People don't need to be told to log on to Facebook and update their profiles or review their wall - they choose to.  Organizational knowledge may be behind the curve in many cases, but it's still going in the same direction.  If you need information, don't expect someone to hand it to you.  Chances are, the information is already out there.  If you need it, go get it.

That leads to the next common theme. There is a great deal of information available, and it is growing exponentially.  When you have a search engine like Google that opens you knowledge base to almost anything, the need to filter the deluge of information becomes critical. There's an old expression: it's like finding a needle in a haystack.  That expression implies a fruitless effort, because the task may be impossible.  I think we have already reached a point where that expression is becoming obsolete.  In the 21st century, filtering through the hay to quickly find the needle isn't just possible, it's a critical skill to remain competitive.

From there the discussion moved to what learners need to develop, and how learning professionals can best support them.  The theme of self-direction was the common thread that was present in most responses.  Learners will need to take control of their own learning, which is a major shift considering most adults have had learning pushed to them since their childhood.  Flipping that coin is a concept that many have never considered.  In addition, self-direction is less about 'How?' and more about 'Why?'; it's about being motivated to be self-directed.  So how do we support such a shift?

The simple answer is this: If you want learners to start shifting to a 'Pull' learning culture, stop pushing.  It echoes comments I've made to my daughter in reference to her younger brother: "Sweetie, don't keep doing XYZ for your brother; if you do, he'll never be able to do it for himself".

Of course, in a corporate world, the answers are never that simple.  Shifting from 'Push' to 'Pull' isn't a light switch located in the Learning and Development office; it's a part of the organizational culture.  It's really the foundation to how an organization, consciously or unconsciously, structures their knowledge management strategy. 

Cultural change is hard, and it takes time.  In some organizations, Senior Management may see the value and support a strategic shift.  In other organizations, the benefits may need to be shown more tangibly first. On the plus side, if Facebook, Twitter, and other Social Media environments have shown us anything, it's that if you build an environment that people feel self-motivated to engage in, they will.  That's the support mechanism learning professionals need to tap.

The discussion then moved towards what Learning Professionals need to develop to support this shift.  The answer to this question was actually much easier than may have been initially considered.  Ultimately, when it comes to the shift to 21st Century learning, we are all 'learners'.  As learning professionals, it is critical that we practice what we preach, and set the example for other learners to follow. From this perspective, it becomes less about 'Learners and Instructors' and more accurately 'Learners helping one another'.

How do we do that?  I think it starts with the stop: If you want learners to start pulling, stop pushing. The problem with that statement is that it doesn't truly show the difficulty that many learning professionals have with the concept.  I the absence of 'Pull', many learning professionals will fill the void with 'Push'.

This problem of engagement has always existed; it's just the technology that's changed.  It echoes quite possibly the most challenging ILT skill I have coached trainers on in the past: allowing for uncomfortable silence. 

Whether it be a in-person or virtual classroom, conference presentation, or some other live setting, We've all been in an environment where we ask the attendees a question... and no one answers.  You often have this happen early in the session, and it's a critical moment.  Do you allow for the uncomfortable silence and wait for someone to respond, or do you release them from the uncomfortable moment by filling the silence yourself?

Hopefully, you choose the former and allow for the silence.  Otherwise, you set the expectation of "I'll answer the questions for you", and no one will feel compelled to participate going forward.

That same challenge exists in a cultural shift to 'Pull', only on a larger scale.  Employee are used to being spoon-fed the information they are told they need.  If the spoon suddenly disappeared, eventually the hunger for knowledge would insure self-directed action regarding learning.  Within learning active programs, we can support this culture by shifting from a 'spoon-feed' approach to more of a 'scavenger hunt' environment.

For me the tweet that best summed up the discussions came from @LearnNuggets: Goes back to Pull rather than Push. We provide the relevant content and tools to access it, and let learners discover.

I think this is an excellent summary, as it provides a relevant answer to all of the questions.  The concept of 'Pull versus Push' encompasses many of the new skills and literacy described in the chat.  The tweet also describes the roles of both learners and learning professionals in this new paradigm.  Learning professionals need to provide the open framework in which the learners can safely explore and discover. 

Most importantly, learning professionals, and the organizations they serve, need to have the patience and focus to give learners time to adpat to this new learning environment, and not give in to the temptation to pull the rug out from under it by reverting to 'Push'.

Why Waste Time Learning, When Ignorance is Instantaneous?

As a learning professional, I very much enjoy encountering non-learning resources that spark a thought or idea related to the Learning Profession.  Earlier today I posted a quote on Twitter from a Calvin & Hobbes comic strip I had read, shown below:

The quote I included in my tweet was from Hobbes in the last panel: “Why waste time learning when ignorance is instantaneous?" 

This strip echoes the challenge that learning professionals have been dealing with for years: What is the value, or more specifically, business value, or learning?  That’s a very difficult question to answer, as what defines ‘value’ is often based on the perspective of the stakeholders.  It is further complicated by the fact that the stakeholders group includes not only those providing resources (commonly referred to as ‘paying’) for the learning, but also, as demonstrated in the strip, the learners themselves.  As learning professionals, we sometimes find ourselves trapped in a debate of the benefits of learning.  Sometimes the best answer to a question isn’t an answer at all; it’s asking a better question. 

For me, that’s the message of this comic strip.  Often the question isn’t as simple as “What’s the business value of a learning and performance program?”  Sometimes, a better way to get to the answer is by asking “What’s the business risk of NOT conducting a learning and performance program?”

On a related note, @simbeckhampson pointed out the duality of the relevance of the comic strip I referenced. Not only is it relevant to the learning profession, but today is actually also the 25^th anniversary of first Calvin and Hobbes strip.

So let me close by saying “Happy Birthday Calvin & Hobbes! I look forward to your wit and wisdom (courtesy of Bill Watterson) inspiring my learning for many more years to come.”

Reflections on #lrnchat: Using a Conference Backchannel for Attendees and Non-Attendees

Each week that I am able to participate in #lrnchat discussion I post a summary of the discussion to my blog. I do this both for my personal development as well as sharing with the Learning and Development Profession at large. This summary is based on my own interpretations of the chat; others who participated may have differing opinions or interpretations of the discussion. I welcome those that do to add your ideas to the comments.

The topic of this week's #lrnchat session was "Using a Conference Backchannel for Attendees and Non-Attendees."

I always find looking at the questions that are used to loosely guide the chat as a nice way to see the overall theme of the chat. Here are the five discussion questions that were presented to the group:

Q1) As a conference ATTENDEE what is good/easy about using the conference backchannel?
Q2) As a conference NON-ATTENDEE what is good/easy about using the conference backchannel?
Q3) What can conference tweeters do to improve their tweets for the non-attendee backchannel followers?
Q4) What gets you to start following a conference backchannel?
Q5) How can we bridge the non/attendee gap even better?

Key Learning Points

The backchannel was a hot topic this week, mainly due to the recent DevLearn conference held in San Francisco the previous week.  There was a very strong backchannel generated from the conference, resulting in enhanced learning for conference attendees as well as those that were unable to attend DevLearn in person.  This week's #lrnchat explored backchannels, including how they create value, and how the community can increase the value a backchannel generates.

The discussion started by exploring what is good or easy about backchannels, both from the perspective of a conference attendee and a non-attendee.
Participating in the backchannel when you are in attendance can provide a number of great benefits.Many people have started using the backchannel as their tool for taking notes.  This works very well, as you get the benefit of not only your notes, but the notes of the entire backchannel community. That idea - community - was a common thread in the attendee backchannel discussion. 
When you participate in a backchannel as an attendee, you are adding to not only your own learning, but to the learning of the entire conference community. In addition, you enhance your networking, as you often encounter individuals on the backchannel that you may want to connect with face-to-face while at the conference.

For non-attendees, one of the major benefits is the ability to participate in some of the conference learning at no cost.  There are always caps to budgets, especially these days, so finding learning opportunities with minimal cost is essential.  The backchannel is an excellent resource in that regard.

The backchannel is also provides non-attendees with an excellent resource for deciding which conferences they may attend in the future.  If you see conference value in a backchannel, there's a very good chance it would be valuable to attend in-person in the future, should that be an option.

One of the greatest benefits of the backchannel applies to both attendees and non-attendees: Building your Personal Learning Network, or PLN.  Any time you are interested in a conference, there is a high likelihood that you share some sort of a connection with every other potential attendee.  I'd be hard pressed to find a better resource for building your PLN than the backchannel. Every backchannel tweet has the potential to be 'followed' and added to your learning resources.

From there the discussion moved on to what conference tweeters can do to improve their tweets for the non-attendee backchannel.  There were a number of great suggestions here, including:

• Including links to deeper content, such as pictures, websites, and blogs
• Regularly check your 'Mentions' to see if someone from the backchannel has sent you a question, and if so, reply accordingly
• As a presenter, you can auto-schedule tweets of main points so that they come out at the appropriate time during your presentation
• Using the generally accepted hashtag on your tweets, and the session hashtag for concurrent sessions

The discussion then moved towards what gets people to follow a conference hashtag in the first place.  As an attendee of the conference, it's usually a good idea to follow and interact with the conference hashtag as far in advance of the conference starting as possible.  Of course, this implies a generally accepted hashtag for the conference exists in advance,  I look at the DevLearn conference as an example of a strong backchannel that was in place weeks before the conference.  Not only did it build buzz and excitement for the conference, but it set the stage and built a foundation for many of the connections that were made among the participants.

For non-attendees, there were two major themes for following a conference hashtag.  The first is somewhat obvious; You follow a hashtag for a conference you would like to attend but are unable to in person.  The second reason is somewhat less obvious, and possible more valuable.  When you see a tweet from a respected follow that includes a hashtag you are not familiar with, search that hashtag.  Often, you will discover a valuable conference backchannel that you did not even know existed.  Even better, you will likely encounter new people to follow and add to your personal learning network.

The session concluded with a discussion on what we can due to further bridge the gap between live and backchannel conference attendees.  I always like questions like this in #lrnchat, as it almost serves as a brainstorming session for your Personal Learning Network.

There were a number of good ideas shared, including:

• Have conference organizers foster the backchannel in advance, which could be as easy as publicizing a hashtag for the conference
• Have someone assigned the task of being the 'voice' of the backchannel, monitoring the feed and bringing the backchannel feedback into live sessions
• Setting up a schedule backchannel chat where people can interact live - similar to what #lrnchat does

This was an excellent session that I think shared a great number of ideas that can help improve the quality and value of backchannel communities at future conferences.  I look forward to putting many of the tips shared into practice myself.

There are always at least a couple of tweets that resonate well with the topic and seem to really strike a chord. As always, you can find the full transcripts at http://lrnchat.com/.  Here are a few that stuck out to me from today's sessions:

On what is good or easy about the Conference Backchannel for ATTENDEES:
@hamtra: Finding like minded attendees, finding out what is happening in other sessions
@cellodav: Lets me know what others are thinking as we’re listening to the same thing
@kylemackie: Backchannel connects people, builds community, crowdsources knowledge
@trchandler:  RT @KoreenOlbrish: the backchannel lets me take real-time notes <-- and tap into everyone's notes as well
@jaycross:  It's great watching us create understanding and knowledge around our professional areas 140 characters at a time.

On what is good or easy about the Conference Backchannel for NON-ATTENDEES:
@learninganorak: That sense of inclusion when you couldn’t make it to the event
@CraigTaylor74: Great for picking up useful links & for making new contacts
@innerquest: It removes the financial and geographical barriers to participation and learning
@KoreenOlbrish:  Backchannels as a nonattendee give me insight as to where i need to be the NEXT year

On what conference tweeters can do to improve their tweets for the non-attendee backchannel:
@c4lpt: As a conf presenter I auto-tweet my presentation (key points, questions etc) to try and engage non-attendees
@joshcav: I think it’s great when there’s photos/video/audio attached to the tweets
@jzurovchak: Definitely include session hashtags and even room numbers and times (in case attendees want to switch sessions…)
@mrch0mp3rs: Engage constructively with other participants. Be the voice of the virtual attendees, asking questions out loud they can’t ask.

On what gets you to start following a conference backchannel:
@sguditus: When members of my PLN use a hashtag, along with a catchy reason, in 140 characters or less!
@learninganorak: When I’m following someone who RTs something that catches my imagination
@StephanieDaul: Conference Organizers being part of the channel
@minutebio: The pre-conference back channel can psych me up to follow during conference

On how we can better bridge the Non/Attendee gap:
@cellodav: Designate someone to ask Qs on behalf of non-attendees and someone to post the answers
@Dave_Ferguson: Conf folks could propose, even publish session-related hashtags — ideally short ones. DL10 good. ABCDconference2010, bad.
@KristinTho: Teach conf planners & attendees to include articles, photos, videos, blogs etc, not just quotes and reactions
@nickfloro: Setup scheduled conversations (ie #lrnchat) where they can chat, exchange, learn, ask questions and request info
@kelly_smith01:  Provide reviews/blogs on sessions include names, sources, links, publications through SoMe and #lrnchat

For me the most thought provoking tweet came not as an answer to one of the five guided questions, but from an exchange I had with @moehlert in which he said "Let's be clear about the value of a conference".  That concept of value was a key theme of the chat.

There are three key stakeholders in a conference backchannel.  In the #lrnchat discussion we really only touched on two of them: Attendees and Non-Attendees.  We looked at what defines 'value' for both, and how they can meet in the middle to make a better experience for all.  But what about that third stakeholder - The conference organizers?

The conference organizers are in a great position to foster a strong backchannel for their event.  It's important to remember though, that their key metric for a successful event is paid attendance.  The backchannel is an excellent resource that can add to an overall experience for attendees, but it can also be a leech to live attendance.  It may never replace face-to-face, but as technology continues to evolve, the learning gap between attendees and backchannel will continue to shrink.

Think about this.  I have no doubt that the next phone I purchase will give me the ability to post the following link to the backchannel:
Great session being led by John Smith on protecting intellectual property.  Click here to watch the live feed from my cell...

That sort of option would no doubt affect attendance.  I think in order for backchannels to continue to evolve as a learning resource, conference organizers must be actively engaged to ensure that their is balanced value for all.