Sims Learning Connections

I challenged myself to sit down with ‘pen’ and come up with a top-twenty things to do on behalf of increasing informal learning aligned with company strategy and goals. A self-imposed “can’t get out of chair until at least 20 items” exercise.

This is intended to guide some of my own efforts in my day-job and also potentially provide a table of contents for future posts (all yet to be written.) Another potential future exercise: the top-ten (or more) to NOT do.

In no particular order other than how they came to me:

1. Make collaboration easy. Employ the usual technology suspects such as discussionboards, wiki, web-conferencing solutions, IM, VOIP, etc. Facilitate physical meet-ups through architectural design and orchestrated face-to-face events. Support and encourage communities of practice and other community constructs. Identify and address roadblocks via organizational network analysis and other means.
2. Teach critical thinking and “web / learning 2.0″ skills
3. Help employees discover and refine their own personal learning environment
4. Include desired learning behaviors in talent and performance management frameworks, programs and systems
5. Improve content findability. Obsessive attention to enterprise federated search, cross-linking, social tagging, content reuse strategies, etc.
6. Provide electronic performance support
7. Improve people findability. Both expertise location applications and other means.
8. Make outside connections easy. Funding for information and research services, conference attendance, guest speakers at company events, etc. A liberal blog policy and encouragement to blog
9. For every new piece of formal learning, explore complementary informal learning opportunities — explicitly driving this exploration through process
10. For every new piece of formal learning, answer: What can we do to increase the likelihood and depth of immediate practice in a safe environment; ideally where failure is not only expected, but created
11. Through talent and performance management and other programs, provide guidance relative to where learning is called for
12. Create time and space for reflection via flexible working hours and location and architectural design
13. Culturally institutionalize After Action Reviews
14. Provide incentives for teaching (both to internal and external audiences)
15. Make contribution expected
16. Make feedback expected
17. Make the LMS maximally “informal learning friendly.” Suggest informal opportunities, support registering accomplishment, etc.
18. Support and encourage non-traditional delivery methods such as podcasting
19. Require personal learning plans
20. Bring in the power of storytelling
21. Virally move towards more visual, less text (thought of as I mentally recalled my 3 February post related to icons)
22. Encourage and support coaching. Considering what a “learning coach” might look like.
23. Market and advocate on behalf of informal learning opportunities
24. Make it easy to share and recommend sources (including via tag clouds, subscription lists, etc.)
25. Make it easy to declare and share successful informal learning strategies

Whew, done.

As I scanned back through I see a few that aren’t very actionable in their current form. Another exercise for another day to especially drill-down on those.

P.S. Trivia for the URL observant: I started this with the subject line and thought nearly two weeks ago, but only now have gotten to my own challenge.