Interesante comentario de ReadWrite acerca del report de Forrester acerca del uso de SW social por parte de trabajadores de la información en USA (Nov, 2011)
The social learning revolution has only just begun. Corporations that understand the value of knowledge sharing, teamwork, informal learning and joint problem solving are investing heavily in collaboration technology and are reaping the early rewards.
Why is social learning important for today’s enterprise?
All organizational value is created by teams and networks.
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
Wirearchies inherently require trust, and trusted relationships are powerful allies in getting things done in organizations
Communications without trust are just noise
Think and act at a macro level (what to do) and leave the micro (how to do it) to each worker or team
there are five types of learning that should be supported by the organization
Implementing social learning
ASL – Accidental & Serendipitous Learning: from Stocks to Flow
Learning is conversation and online conversations are an essential component of online learning
Online communication can be divided into Stocks (information that is archived and organized for reference and retrieval) and Flows (timely and engaging conversations between people, including voice or written communications). Blogs allow flow and micro-blogs, like Twitter, enable great flow due to the constraint of 140 characters
Stock on the Internet is everywhere and the challenge is to make sense of it through flows of conversation. It is no longer enough to have the book, manual or information, but one must be able to use it in changing contexts
Because of this connectivity, the Web is an environment more suited to just-in-time learning than the outdated course model
We are working and learning in networks and the only thing a network can do is share
PDL – Personal Directed Learning: from Clockwork & Predictable to Complexity & Surprising
the orientation of learning is shifting from past (efficiency, best practice) to future (creative response, innovation)
Work competencies will still need to be developed through practice and appropriate feedback (what training does well) but that practice will have to be directly relevant to the individual or group (group training is an area of immense potential growth)
Developing emergent practices, a necessity when there are no best practices in our changing work environments, requires constant personal directed learning.
In complex environments it no longer works to sit back and see what will happen. By the time we realize what’s happening, it will be too late to take action.
GDL – Group Directed Learning: from Worker Centric to Team Centric
the real work in organizations is done by groups
Organizing our own learning is necessary for creative work.
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.
IOL – Intra-Organizational Learning: from Subject Matter Experts to Subject Matter Networks
Subject Matter Networks as a new way of finding organizational knowledge. Instead of looking for subject matter experts from which to design training, we should extend knowledge gathering to the entire network of subject-matter expertise.
Good networks make for effective organizations.
Networked communities are better structures in dealing with complexity,
can help facilitate fast feedback loops without hierarchical intervention
Collaborative groups are better at making decisions and getting things done.
the emerging knowledge-intensive and creative workplace has these attributes
FSL – Formal Structured Learning: from Curriculum to Competency
There remains a need for training in the networked workplace but it must move away from a content delivery approach.
With work and learning merging in the network, groups need to find ways that support each member’s learning, while engaged in tasks and projects
Think of it as social ADDIE (analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation) for the complex workplace.
Our workplaces are becoming interconnected
Reaction times and feedback loops have to get faster and more effective
We need to know who to ask for advice right now but that requires a level of trust and trusted relationships take time to nurture
Therefore, we need to share more of our work experiences in order to grow those trusted networks
Knowledge workers today need to connect with others to co-solve problems. Sharing tacit knowledge through conversations is an essential component of knowledge work. Social media enable adaptation, and the development of emergent practices, through conversations.
This is social learning and it is critical for networked organizational effectiveness
The manner in which we prepare people for work is based on the Taylorist perspective that there is only one way to do a job and that the person doing the work needs to conform to job requirements
Individual training for job preparation requires a stable work environment, a luxury no one has any more.
owever, when you look at the modern organization, it is moving to a model of constant change
A collective, social learning approach, on the other hand, takes the perspective that learning and work happen as groups and how the group is connected (the network) is more important than any individual node within it.
Horizontal networking often creates dissonance in the vertical enterpriseThe vertical structure of knowledge did not foresee the coming of horizontal networking tools now shaping today’s workplace.
Today, there's a lot of chatter about bottom-up versus top-down, the collective wisdom of the organizational crowd, and various related themes. However, there’s also ongoing dissonance or competition between the methods behind structured and defined organizational forms and activity and the growing world of hyperlinked flows in which knowledge and meaning are built layer by layer, exchange by exchange (all those hyperlinked interactions that increasingly make up what we call "knowledge work") as enabled by social computing.
At the heart of the issue is the way work is designed and an organization develops its structure
A primary tool in designing work and structure is job evaluation
(and derivatives like accountability mapping and redundancy analysis). And I don’t mean job evaluation as in assessing job performance – I mean the function that assigns jobs to levels and pay grades based on job “weight” with respect to skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions (the legal criteria for assessing pay equity). I believe that these tools and their underlying assumptions are used to create the skeletal architecture of organizations, the pyramid we all know.
job evaluation (or work measurement in the professional jargon) relies very heavily on the assumption that knowledge is hierarchically structured and, as well, put to use.
who has more of the knowledge —on paper—is she or he who deserves to be "higher up" in the organization.
"Horizontal networking often creates dissonance in the vertical enterprise. The vertical structure of knowledge did not foresee the coming of horizontal networking tools now shaping today's workplace."
As companies grow they invariably increase in complexity, and as things get more complex they become more difficult to control.
As you triple the number of employees, their productivity drops by half (Chart here)
This “3/2 law” of employee productivity,
Surely we can do better?
The secret, I think, lies in
understanding the nature of large, complex systems, and letting go of some of our traditional notions of how companies function.
I believe that many of these companies are collapsing under their own weight
It’s designed to be controlled by a driver or operator
It needs to be maintained, and when it breaks down, you fix it.
works in the same way for the life
Eventually, things change, or the machine wears out, and you need to build or buy a new machine.
A car is a perfect example of machine design
And we tend to design companies the way we design machines:
The problem with this kind of thinking is that the nature of a machine is to remain static, while the nature of a company is to grow
What happens if we think of it less like a machine and more like an organism? Or even better, what if we compared the company with other large, complex human systems, like, for example, the city?
if we stop thinking of it as a machine and start thinking of it as a complex, growing system?
Cities are large, complex, systems, but we don’t really try to control them.
if we start to look at companies as complex systems instead of machines, we can start to design and manage them for productivity instead of continuously hovering on the edge of collapse.
Cities aren't just complex and difficult to control. They are also more productive than their corporate counterparts
The Living Company
Shell studied 40 large, long-lived companies, some of which were still surviving after 400+ years.
these companies had a lot in common with large cities
tolerated
Ecosystems:
decentralized
Active listening
The boundaries of the company were less clearly delineated
local groups had more autonomy over their decisions
very active in partnerships and joint ventures
Everyone in the company understood the company’s values
to keep that culture strong
Long-lived companies had their eyes and ears focused on the world around them and were constantly seeking opportunities
were connected by a strong, shared culture.
watching and listening) and metafilter (information leading to decisive action).
we instinctively and intuitively understand that companies are not made of cogs, levers and gears
For top management, it would be wonderful if
In the end, they are made out of people
You have to put your strategy into people if you want to get results.
And today, thanks to social technologies
today, thanks to social technologies
we finally have the tools to manage companies like the complex organisms they are
we finally have the tools to manage companies like the complex organisms they are
Social Business Design
It’s design for complexity, for productivity, and for longevity. It’s not design by division but design by connection.
the connected company
we must focus on the company as a complex ecosystem
a new discipline
a set of connections and potential connections, a decentralized organism that has eyes and ears everywhere that people touch the company, whether they are employees, partners, customers or suppliers.
but some basic rules are already emerging
Social Business Design
These emerging rules have less in common with traditional business design, and more in common with urban design and city planning.
design for emergence
It’s not about design for control so much as
You can’t control a complex system, but you can manage its growth, and there are a lot of things you can do that will position it for success. Here are a few of those emerging practices that signal excellence in design by connection
Understand the culture
you need to understand the culture (or cultures) that are already there, so you can look for ways to enhance and strengthen that shared identity.
Start small
As you initiate social programs, think of them as if you are designing a city street.
The last thing you want is a whole bunch of large, urban areas with no people in them
A successful street is filled with people.
The smaller the space is initially, the faster it will fill up with people.
So start small
A good way to start is with an organization-wide project or initiative
Spaces need owners.
Again, think of the city street: every business or building has an owner.
make sure that every online space you create has someone positioned to take care of it, to keep it safe and clean.
Every person needs a place
every person needs a place to live; somewhere they can put their stuff
make sure that every single person has a place where they can put, and see, their stuff: their projects, the links they want to get back to, the documents they have created, their role, qualifications, expertise and so on.
A good city street offers opportunities that are unanticipated but serendipitous
Jumping-off points
Every time someone visits an online space, there’s a chance to offer them something new.
Design by connection is not a top-down activity so much as bottom-up
Watch, listen, adjust and adapt
Complex systems just don’t work that way
Think about how city streets evolve: one small step at a time.
Pay attention to the culture, and watch how people react to the tools you provide.
The typical company has a very short life, from 15 to 50 years. But cities – and some companies – live much longer lifespans: from hundreds to thousands of years. Wouldn’t you like that for your company? I know I would
Excelente post en el que de una manera muy clara muestra la necesidad de una nueva mentalidad acompañada de un nuevo diseño (como un organismo) para las ORGs. Excelentes también las figuras, su diseño.
Dónde emerge el aprendizaje social (cultura corporativa de 'servicio-curiosidad-calidad humana' + social media tools).
"To benefit from social learning, build a culture that makes learning fun, productive and commonplace, a culture where learning is part of everyday work."
"Social learning is not just the technology of social media, although it makes use of it. It is not merely the ability to express yourself in a group of opt-in friends. Social learning combines social media tools with a shift in the corporate culture, a shift that encourages ongoing knowledge transfer and connects people in ways that make learning a joy."
"Social learning thrives in a culture of service and wonder. It is inspired by leaders, enabled by technology and ignited by opportunities that have only recently unfolded."
Searching for a lawyer can be a daunting prospect, especially for individual clients, who are often under stress or duress when seeking legal assistance. The best way to calm those feelings of fear and overwhelm is to meet the prospective lawyer in person. Web video makes this possible on a grand scale, enabling you to easily add that face-to-face element to your site.
Through video, lawyers can now speak directly to their audiences and showcase their personalities and areas of expertise. It’s an ideal icebreaker and an efficient means of generating the interest and trust needed to compel potential clients to make an appointment.
here are 10 tips to help you get the most out of your online video marketing efforts
1. Make sure your video is professionally done.
2. Embed your video on the front page of your site
3. Submit your video to as many outlets as possible
4. Link back to your site.
5. Put potential clients’ search terms in the title.
6. Make your tags and descriptions search engine-friendly, too.
Even the mainstream training field is realizing that reduced layers of bureaucracy mean decision-making gets pushed down the organization chart. This
is the message of the AMA in the promotional video – Critical Thinking: Not just a C-suite skill. However, wirearchy takes this one important step further by advocating a two-way flow of power and authority. In both cases, the need for critical thinking is evident.
A personal knowledge management process can help to develop critical thinking skills, where sense-making includes observing, studying, challenging (especially one’s assumptions), and evaluating. Developing these skills takes practice, appropriate feedback and an environment that supports critical thinking.
Several web tools can be used to develop critical thinking skills; the foundation of PKM:
Wirearchy as the organizational framework, coupled with active personal knowledge management processes, is a step in that direction
how important an open source framework is as we move more of our computing to the cloud
issues on how Ning treats its customers, users and their data.
While Ning may be free, it is not open source, and the company can make changes at will, just like Facebook, Google or Twitter may do.
I advise my clients that they should consider how important their data is to them before using software as a service (SaaS). Can the data be easily exported? With social bookmarks, it is easy to export and import OPML files from one platform to another. It is also simple to export from WordPress.com SaaS to your own open source hosted version
With Ning, Facebook and many others, there is no such export function
So what is the alternative to Ning?
For large enterprise projects I have used Drupal as a community management platform and it works well, though it requires solid technical support.
Elgg, an open source social networking platform that attracted me because of its unique underlying mode
The key differentiator of Elgg is that the individual is the centre of all the action
This is real user control
The Elgg platform has matured in the past six years and has a strong community and a solid product (v. 1.7).
One major advantage of Elgg will be the ability to take your data and have it hosted elsewhere.
Supporting communities like Elgg and Drupal means that we can have more control over our use of web technologies. As business and education move to the web and the cloud, open-source platforms will help to ensure that some corporate board doesn’t decide our future for us.
En paralelo debe existir perfil 'eAprendiz' y responsables que lo promuevan en la ORG, para llegar al aprendizaje en el puesto de trabajo. El eAprendiz asume claramente el 'mindset' asociado a 'workflow learning', quien lo debe asumir, pues, es la dirección )directivos y ORGs 2.0). eAprendiz,
change from focusing exclusively on centrally diirecting and managing
formal learning (aka training) in a LMS to
supporting and enabling a collaborative approach to learning and working
across the enterprise.
The difference between Stages 1-4 and Stage 5 is actually NOT just about a
change in tools but a change in mindset.
the key mindset changes that will move organisations
recognising that
working=learning; learning=working
understanding that informal
learning needs to be
enabled, supported and encouraged - but not designed or managed
"letting go", so that there is a
move from learner control to learner autonomy
realising that autonomous,
independent and inter-dependent, self-directed
learners are essential in an agile organisation
we, at ITA, believe that in this fast-changing, complex world, this is
the place that organisations need to be.
Asumimos que tenemos necesidades de INFO relativas a una larga cola de permanentemente cambiante y virtualmente ilimitada cantidad de INFO . La parte izqda. de la fig. hace referencia a la INFO que necesitamos en las tradicionales actividades transaccionales o procedimentales, y las transformacionales. Se trata de una INFO predecible, de uso frecuente y reutilizable. Situación que nos permite definir, diseñar y producir el tipo y estructura de INFO, así como la INFO requerida antes de que la actividad sea llevada a cabo.
Long Tail power graph
In the left end of the power graph we have
for transformational and transactional activities
This information does not change very often and thus can be quite easily reused
for commonly performed activities
the information needs are predictable
This allows us to define, design and produce the type and structure of the information as well as the actual information before the next time the information need arises (the activity is performed).
Cuando hablamos de Kwork es otra cosa. La iNFO requerida para activiodades de Kwork, probablemente la encontraremos en la larga cola (parte plana de la figura). Allí se encuentran recursos de INFO usados con muy poca frecuenciaa o incluso que nunca hemos usado con antelación. La INFO que necesitamos varaia de una situación a otra, de un instante a otro (siempre bajo contexto). La INFO varía, así como el tipo y estructura de lso recursos de INFO (hiperfragmentación de la INFO y el K). Ello hace que virtualmente sea imposible definir una INFO reusable con antelación a ser necesitada.
La impredictibilidad de la naturaleza del Kwork es la razón por la que necesitamos dar a los K workers acceso a tooda la INFO que existe y que puede ser relevante. Puesto que no sabemos qué puede ser relevante hasta que surja la necesidad ('just in time'), no podemos depositar INFO relevanteen una pila o repositorio. Necesitamos también, proporcionarles con las herramientas adecuadas (proceso PKM) a los K workers.
Nuevo Ecosistema de INFO Organizacional (p.e. modelo ECCO Suricata), distinto a los SSII tradicionales orientados exclusivamente a INFO y a recolilar toda la INFO por adelantado.
the information needed for a knowledge work activity is likely to be found in the long tail
used infrequently or maybe even once
impossible to define a reusable information resource in advance before it is needed
The unpredictable nature of knowledge work
is why we need to give knowledge workers access to all information that exists and that might be relevant
We also need to provide them with tools
to serve the knowledge workers’ information needs
Traditional intranets are not designed for knowledge work
changing role of intranets in knowledge-intensive businesses
These intranets need to provide flexible access to both information and people
Modelo Suricata- Ecosistema Complejo de Conocimiento Organizacional (ECCO)
The intranet needs to be turned into an “information broker platform” where information is freely and easily created, aggregated, shared, found and discovered at minimal effort.
Necesidad de rediseñar la intranet tradicional en las ORGs intensivas en INFO y K: la intranet debe transformarse en una plataforma 'broker' de INFO, donde la INFO es libre y fácilmente creada, agregada, localizada y descuberta con el menor esfuerzo, pero sobre todo debe faciltar la COMPARTICIÓN y COLABORACIÓN. Sin embargo, la mayoría de las intranetstratan de ayudar a las personas que llevan a cabo actividades predefinibles y repetitivas (plataformas 'push'), pero son totalmente disfuncionales para el K work. No es una coincidencia, pues, que las intranets jueguen un papel marginal en el trabajo diario. La INFO que los Kworkers necesitan no puede conocerse por adelantado y por lo tanto atendida por la intranet tradicional. Será crítico que los K workers tenga acceso a toda la INFO disponible, qde modo que cubra las necesidades de INFO altamente variables, extensivas e impredecibles de los K workers.
Such an intranet gives everybody access to all information which is available and make room for virtually infinite amounts of information.
However, most of today’s intranets primarily consist of
They aim to serve people who perform predefined and repeatable tasks
push platforms
but they are quite dysfunctional for knowledge work
intranet plays a marginal role in their daily work
It’s not a coincidence that
The information that knowledge workers need can often not be anticipated and served by a push-based intranet
It is also critical that they have access to ALL information that is available
intranet that needs to serve the highly varying, extensive and unpredictable information needs of knowledge workers.
To conclude
push-based production model
assumes that all information resources on the intranet must be produced in advance
Knowledge workers need a social intranet
social intranet
paradigm change
is not just about adding a layer of social collaboration tools
Los K workers necesitan una intranet SOCIAL (cambio de paradigma). No se trata de simplemente añadir una capa de herramientas de colaboración social; se trata de una plataforma que combina la pòtencia de l modelo 'push' con la del 'pull' para suminstrar a cualquiera que participe y contribuya con una 'empresa expandida' con la INFO, K y conecxiones que ellos necesitan para tomar las decisiones correctas y actuar para alcanzar plenamente sus objetivos. Debe equipar a cada Kworker con las herramientas que le permitan participar, contribuir, descubrir, conectar, crear (APRENDER), para compartir y coolaborar 'entre iguales'.
La intranet social es una plataforma 'pull' con mecanismos para atraer de manera automática INFO y PERSONAS relevantes a cada cuál, que permitan superar la 'sobreabundancia de INFO' , mediante los oprtunos 'RADARES' y 'FILTROS', así como herramientas para la 'CURACIÓN de CONTENIDOS' alrededor de 'tópicos' concretos.
La intranet social, también debe contemplar la adquisicion de INFO y PERSONAS relevantes mediante 'SERENDIPIA' (por casualidad).
Necesitamos implícita y explícitamente compartir lo que hacemos y conocemos con otras personas en nuestras redes, con personas que compartan nuestros intereses.
"La larga cola de iNFO soporta el núcleo del actual modelo de negocio intensivo en K: el trabajo del conocimiento ( K work).
it is a platform that combines the powers of push with the powers of pull to supply anyone who participates and contributes within an extended enterprise with the information, knowledge and connections they need to make the right decisions and act to fulfill their objectives
It equips everyone with the tools that allows them to participate, contribute, attract, discover, find and connect with each other to exchange information and knowledge and/or collaborate
enabling employee-to-employee information exchange.
A social intranet must necessarily be designed for information abundance.
"more is more" paradigm
the social intranet is a pull platform with mechanisms for automatically attracting relevant information and people to you
sensation commonly called information overload
the problem is not the amount of information but rather that the filters
We need to get the filters in place
The social intranet also has an important part to play when it comes to supporting serendipity
We must have ways that “automagically” attract useful information and connections to us
We just need to implicitly and explicitly share what do and know to other people in our networks, to people who share our interests, or to people who happen to pass us by at any other kind of cross-road.
push-based production mode
the long tail of information supports the core of a knowledge-intensive modern business: the knowledge work.
ORGs cada vez mas intensivas en K.
Kwork relativo a actividades tácitas(p.e. resolución de problemas, investigación y trabajo creativo, interacción y comunicación con otras personas, etc). Por naturaleza, es menos predecible y repetible que el tradicional trabajo industrial. Las entradas y salidas (INFO/K) siempre bajo contexto, y cambiantes. Kwork menos estructurado y la estructura del Kwork emerge tal como se desenvuelve el trabajo.
En un entorno intensivo en K, muy dificil o casi imñposible anticipar por adelantado que INFO vamos a necesitar. No podemos saber qué INFO va a ser relevante en el momento que la requiramos. Necesitamos poder acceder de manera inmediata a cualquiera que pueda poseer el K e INFO que necesitamos, pero el cuál -k- es dificil de captuirar e intercambiar (K tácito).