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A nice everyday practice to use: check-ins and check-outs

he portrait drawing exercise

And finally…

All organizational value is created by teams and networks.

Learning really spreads through social networks. Social networks are the primary conduit for effective organizational performance. Blocking, or circumventing, social networks slows learning, reduces effectiveness and may in the end kill the organization.

Social learning is how groups work and share knowledge to become better practitioners. Organizations should focus on enabling practitioners to produce results by supporting learning through social networks. The rest is just window dressing. Over a century ago, Charles Darwin helped us understand the importance of adaptation and the concept that those who survive are the ones who most accurately perceive their environment and successfully adapt to it. Cooperating in networks can increase our ability to perceive what is happening.

Wirearchies inherently require trust, and trusted relationships are powerful allies in getting things done in organizations.

Three of these (IOL, GDL, PDF) require self-direction, and that is the essence of social learning: becoming self-directed learners and workers, all within a two-way flow of power and authority.

rom Stocks to Flow

Knowledge: the capacity for effective action. “Know how” is the only aspect of knowledge that really matters in life. Practitioner: someone who is accountable for producing results. Learning may be an individual activity but if it remains within the individual it is of no value whatsoever to the organization. Acting on knowledge, as a practitioner (work performance) is all that matters. So why are organizations in the individual learning (training) business anyway? Individuals should be directing their own learning. Organizations should focus on results.

Because of this connectivity, the Web is an environment more suited to just-in-time learning than the outdated course model.

Organizing

our own learning is necessary for creative work.

Developing emergent practices, a necessity when there are no best practices in our changing work environments, requires constant personal directed learning.

Developing social learning practices, like keeping a work journal, may be an effort at first but later it’s just part of the work process. Bloggers have learned how powerful a learning medium they have only after blogging for an extended period.

we should extend knowledge gathering to the entire network of subject-matter expertise.

Building capabilities from serendipitous to personally-directed and then group-directed learning help to create strong networks for intra-organizational learning.

Our default action is to turn to our friends and trusted colleagues; those people with whom we’ve shared experiences. Therefore, we need to share more of our work experiences in order to grow those trusted networks. This is social learning and it is critical for networked organizational effectiveness.