Feedback From Users Of Twitter As A Training Tool

Twitter, a social networking platform used for microblogging, is a free service that lets you send the briefest of messages (with a maximum of 140 characters) to everyone in your network. It marries the mass appeal of blogging with the speed and ease of text messaging.

There has been a growing interest in how to use these new forms of social media for learning & development. Driving this interest is the fact that Millennials, or those born after 1981, make up 22 percent of the workforce now and will grow to comprise 46 percent of the workforce by the year 2020.

This is the generation that is most likely to be using Twitter. According to comScore, Twitter had almost three million monthly users as of June of 2008, which is triple what it had last November. In addition, those figures probably undershot the mark because they don’t measure mobile activity, which is a large part of the Twittersphere, as can be seen in the graphic above.

So given this level of activity, are companies using Twitter to it’s fullest potential for learning & development? The chatter following my last post on the subject does reinforce the view that human resources and learning professionals are experimenting with Twitter as a training tool. This is of interest because of the usage among Millennials in particular, as well as the fact that Twitter is a free service being used by millions of people of all ages.

Below are some of the possible uses for Twitter as a training tool from the “wisdom of the crowds”:

• Reminders of upcoming training events and reminders of key learning content
• Pre-emptive help for learning a new process or procedure
• Links to new articles of interest
• Online performance support tools communicated in 140 character limits. Most felt this requirement of 140 characters was a “good thing” in pushing training directors to be succinct about follow-up tools.
• Seminar/classroom attendee communications sharing a relevant point of view
• Team communications allowing employees a real time archive to how the team is progressing and issues they are encountering. They can also set up and install the twhirl application at their workstations so they can monitor what is going on.
• New hire training where new hires are invited to webcasts or conference calls on relevant issues they are dealing with on the job.

Twitter has gone mainstream over the last year. At the end of 2008 summer session, a congressman from Texas, John Culberson (R-Texas), was told by House leadership to stop Twittering his constituents from the floor of the chamber. Next, you may be getting a tweet from your CEO asking how you will use Twitter in your department.

If you are on twitter, be sure to “follow” me at: http://twitter.com/jcmeister

Happy New Year to all!

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Twitter, Online Performance Tool, Heads of Human Resources

Twitter: Can We Use This As A Training Tool?

Twitter has made headlines in some amazing news stories; breaking the news of China’s earthquake and helping a student get out of jail when he was arrested in Egypt for nothing more than taking a photo. Both of these incidents speak to the growing popularity of Twitter, but you may have the same questions I do: what is Twitter, who uses it, and can be harnessed as a learning tool?

Twitter is a free social networking tool that keeps people connected with one another and with sources of information. Twitter users submit updates, called “tweets”, about what they are doing at the moment. Tthese updates cannot exceed 140 characters.

Now how many folks are using Twitter? Twitter traffic is currently at 1.2 million users per month. These users are mostly male, young, and profess to be heavy users, saying they go on Twitter at least 6-8 times per month. See the demographic breakdown of users below:

Now, can Twitter be used for learning & development and if so how?

Here are some ways for you to consider:

Provide real time learning nuggets to either current or prospective employees
When you look at the demographics of usage you see it is heavily weighted toward the 18-24 and 25-34 age ranges. These are the Millennials and Generation Xer’s that companies are interested in recruiting as next generation leaders. It seems there can be a host of applications for recruiting new hires as well as providing knowledge to follow-up a learning event.

Follow-up to asynchronous webcasts
Twitter is a great tool for communicating and asking questions on conference calls and other types of static asynchronous conferencing. The added benefit of this is that using Twitter to connect allows you to keep a record of all the questions and comments, in a manner similar to a blog post.

Reinforcement or reminder on learning a new process or procedure
In a saturated world of content where the shelf life of knowledge keeps growing shorter and shorter, we are always looking for ways to reinforce new content. Twitter can accomplish this because it allows you to see quick snippets of content.

However, it is also important to note that while real people write most tweets, some are using the service for blasting marketing messages. In the later case, I believe users quickly see through this and look for authentic content to help them be more successful on their job.

So how are you using Twitter? Is it a viable tool for learning and development? Share your thoughts with me.

Finally if you are on twitter, be sure to “follow” me at: http://twitter.com/jcmeister

Technorati Tags: social media best practices, web 2.0 enterprise 2.0, learning & development

Corporate Learning Focuses on Effectiveness & Efficiency Amid Job Losses

These days, hardly a week goes by without hearing about another company cutting jobs. The chart below shows just how pervasive the job losses have been just since September 15th 2008. It puts the transformation of human resources & learning into perspective:

I showed this chart to several colleagues who are Chief Learning Officers for professional service and financial service firms to gauge the impact on their functions in light of the current economic situation. We discussed how the learning function will evolve in the months ahead:

Three areas surfaced as keys to grappling with the current economic situation:

1. Targeting the top three initiatives HRD leaders can accomplish in 2009 assuming fewer human resources and corporate learning staff and budget decreases of up to 40%. This translates into having a razor sharp focus on a critical few initiatives that will deliver the highest impact to senior executives. Some include: more emphasis on creating “formal” on the job experiences to nurture informal learning, having an enterprise wide coaching and mentoring strategy in place to supplement whatever formal learning can be offered and preparing managers to “have difficult conversations with employees”.
2. Providing a range of “real time” online performance support tools to managers. Previously these tools have been created for jobs in such functions as customer call and operations. But now that formal learning may be reduced, more managers and newly appointed leaders will be looking for performance support tools as a way to assist in creating on-the-job improvements.
3. Examining how to leverage current content vendors to provide greater pre and post learning experiences—in other words exploring how to deepen some vendor relationships to provide learning interventions rather than just creating access to online content.

How are you adjusting your learning department to the new realities of driving greater effectiveness and efficiency into the learning function? Share your thoughts with me.

Technorati Tags: Chief Learning Officer, Performance Support Tools, Pre and Post Learning

Yale University Dean School Of Management Will Lead Apple University

My stepdaughter Deborah is a graduate of Yale’s School of Divinity and she called me yesterday in utter amazement. She could not believe what she was reading in Yale’s Alumni Magazine—that Dean Joel Podolny, the current Dean of Yale University’s School of Management, had been hired away to serve as the Dean for Apple’s own university program.

It turns out the allure of working at a company with an unmatched reputation for innovation and excellence was a strong enough draw to pull Dean Podolny from the halls of academia to re-invent learning for Apple. The scope of Apple University extends from Apple’s internal learning programs which are targeted to Apple employees, to a wider series of educational programs targeted to end users on the subjects of such basics as how to use Logic Pro and Final Cut Studio, to newer initiatives such as Apple Computer Camp for primary and high school students which is now offered at Apple’s retail locations.

While Apple University was launched in a more traditional fashion over ten years ago—I still remember visiting and interviewing them for one of my books on corporate universities—the vision now is much bigger and bolder than ever: to launch what Apple has called an “internal MBA program” as well to merge Apple University with Apple’s existing iTunes University, which serves up educational content to the public.

In conducting research for my new book, I am starting to see how many companies, regardless of their industry, are entering the “learning business” as a way to develop deeper bonds with their end users while taking a more proactive role in shaping the types of skills and competencies that are needed for success.

You might ask why these companies are continuing to enter the education business? Here are some thoughts:

1. What it means to be successful at work is changing and much of the new wave is focused on tapping tacit knowledge. Research conducted by Dr. Robert Kelley of Carnegie Mellon University queried workers with the question: “what percentage of the knowledge you need to do your job is stored in your mind? The answers have varied significantly over the last 20 plus years. In 1986, it was 75%, then in 1997 (the year the Internet began to take off in the business world) the answer was 15-20%. Now in 2008, it is 8-10%. Imagine how a Millennial manager will answer this question in 2012?
2. I just returned from two weeks in India and in that country, companies like Infosys are taking proactive roles to ensure leaders are teachers and the “business of Infosys is the curriculum.” Infosys wants to access tacit knowledge in topics such as techniques for achieving operational excellence and driving innovation—concepts that are career specific and need to be reapplied to new problems by emerging leaders. Hence, the focus and vision to create a robust cadre of “Leaders As Teachers” has taken hold at the company.
3. Lines are blurring between content developed for learning programs and those that are developed for marketing and communications targeting end users. Savvy Chief Learning Officers are starting to recognize this and are building alliances with CMOs to work on understanding what can be re-used and re-configured for a wide variety of new audiences starting with internal employees, but extending to customers, suppliers, dealers, end users and even primary and high school students considering careers in specific industries.

So good luck Dean Podolny! I am sure you will have great success re-imagining learning for millions of Apple fans like myself.

Interested in learning more about the research being undertaken for a new book. Send me an email at Jeanne@newlearningplaybook.com

Technorati Tags: Apple, Yale, Chief Learning Officer, Infosys, Carnegie Mellon University

Learning Innovations: Learning In The Next 5,000 Days

Our second meeting of the Learning Innovation Network was held at Merrill Lynch from October 21-22, 2008. The photo below shows our group getting ready for a series of break-out exercises describing learning in their organizations over the next 5,000 days—or in the year 2020. We wanted to start with a visionary exercise to explore just how different the world of learning in both corporations and universities may be in the days and years to come.

Three forward looking trends discussed by the group include the following:

1.) Learning will continue to be ubiquitous and mobile technologies will become a dominant delivery mode.

In the UK, there are now more mobile phones than people. For every 100 Britons there are 116.6 mobile phones. According to the GSM—Global System For Mobile Communications Association we will reach 4 billion mobile phone subscriptions by the end of 2008 and close to 20 billion by 2020. Think about this: how many of your colleagues do you see carrying two devices—one for work and one for fun. At our meeting, the Merrill Lynch team shared their successful implementation of MoBull: Go Learn, their mobile learning targeted to bankers on-the-go.

2.) Learning will be embedded into our everyday lives and will be boundaryless.

Knowledge management will give way to developing a social media strategy for sharing information and tacit knowledge. Venkatesh Rao on Enterprise 2.0 blog writes a great article on this subject. The bottom line of Rao’s thesis is one to consider as we think about re-imagining our learning departments. Rao believes that Knowledge Management is a dated concept conceived by Boomers (those born 1946 - 1962) just as they were moving into leadership positions. Social Media, on the other hand, is a Millenial/Gen Y (born after 1981) movement and because of the efficiencies inherent to it, will dominate how we share knowledge and best practices as we move into the future.

3.) Learning professionals—from chief learning officers to heads of talent management must focus first on being strategy driven, rather than customer driven.

We had a lively discussion at the Learning Innovation Network focused on how we are moving from being customer focused to being strategy focused. This is becoming an important distinction as learning professionals move toward delivering learning closely aligned to the strategies and business priorities of the organization and beyond “responding to individual customer needs. ” The goal in this is to transform learning into a strategic function which contributes significant business impact through the acquisition, development and retention of top talent.

Interested in learning more about the Learning Innovation Network? Send me an email at Jeanne@newlearningplaybook.com

Technorati Tags: Chief Learning Officer, Talent Management, Enterprise 2.0, Mobile Learning, Knowledge Management

Jet Blue University: A Case For Web 2.0 Experimentation

Murry Christensen, Director of Learning Technologies and Mike Barger, Chief Learning Officer, both at JetBlue University (JBU), the training arm for JetBlue, had a vision in 2007: to create a way for JetBlue’s dispersed faculty of 200 to come together online, share best practices, and contribute to the collective pool of knowledge at JetBlue. Christensen turned to blog-based collaboration software from Awareness Networks to achieve this.

A new report about Enterprise adoption of Web 2.0 technologies, by Awareness, Inc., shows that employers are increasingly allowing staff to use social media applications in working hours. Awareness puts the figure at 69 percent of businesses in 2008, up from 37 percent last year.

It’s the latest in a string of reports this year - from Awareness, Forrester and others - which provide data about the growth of web 2.0 in the enterprise. It’ll be a $4.6 Billion industry by 2013, according to Forrester.

The software selected provided a vehicle for JetBlue faculty to talk to one another, not just about process improvements in learning & development, but also to share photos from family vacations, weddings and birthdays. The thinking behind this choice was that as the faculty got to know one another better as individuals, they would more easily share lessons and best practices as professionals.

Discussion on the blog, which operates more like an online forum, has, in Christensen’s mind, done an excellent job of uniting the JBU faculty as a more cohesive team while also allowing for an easy exchange of knowledge.

Christensen blogs each week and usually tackles a provocative topic such as the one above entitled: Who Owns My Learning History? His goal in this is to engage the faculty in timely topics and have them suggest improvements. In this particular blog post, he suggests a solution: a smartcard to hold one’s learning transcript. In the past six months since inception, almost 50% of the JetBlue faculty members have been posting and commenting on the forum.

The goal I see in all of this is to create a community of practice first among learning & development professionals—to challenge them to be the Web 2.0 pioneers for the firm. As the JetBlue example illustrates, the process of getting to know one another better through the use of these technologies can smoothly segue into suggesting ways to use these tools to increase innovation and collaboration across enterprises.
Is your firm doing this? What lessons have you uncovered?

Technorati Tags: JetBlue, Awareness, Chief Learning Officer, Blogs

Four Generations @ Work

Amid all the economic news of recent weeks there was an interesting release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) telling us what we already know: Now is not the time to retire.

According to the BLS, more older workers are staying in their jobs longer or returning after retiring. And as a result, among workers who are 65 and older, 56 percent work full time compared to 44% 13 years ago. So much for the “brain drain” we all feared only a few years ago. See the chart above for more details on this.

With the current economic turmoil, and the vaporization of retirement savings, people will be in the workplace longer and we will have all four generations working together side by side. What does that do to the workplace? What does that do to the demands placed on the learning organization and the talent management organization?

These developments are particularly timely as New Learning Playbook is conducting a groundbreaking survey that examines the workplace of the future and the demands the four generations—Seniors, Baby Boomers, Generation X and the Millennial Generation–will place on employers. You are invited to participate in a global survey of workers from around the world. This survey only takes 10 minutes and you can have a voice into what this means as companies grapple with how to deal with four generations @ work. I am also conducting personal interviews on this topic and will share all results with our readers.

Please click here to participate in the survey.

I will be examining these results in terms of what they mean for recruiting, developing and motivating four generations of employees, as well as how to create a working environment conducive to all generations. In the meantime, if you have a personal story you want to share about how your organization is dealing with this issue, I would really like to hear from you. Send me an email.

Technorati Tags: four generations, brain drain, millennials, baby boomers, seniors, generation x

ROI Of CEO as Blogger

I quickly get a sense of what is resonating with my blog posts by the response in emails on the blog and calls to me personally.

Well, the CEO as a Blogger talked about how forward thinking CEO’s are blogging and the role HR and Learning senior executives must have to ensure the CEO as a Blogger is a success. Details are described in the post.

So when I watched NBC nightly news interview with Bill Marriott, the CEO of Marriott International, I was very interested as he described his process for blogging and then I was really amazed when he shared that his blog called Marriott on the Move has been responsible for over $4 million in incremental bookings to a Marriott property since the inception of Bill’s blog in January, 2007. There are now 60 CEO’s among the Fortune 500 who are blogging. Is your CEO one of those? IF not should he/she be?

The NBC story featured 2 CEO blogs, Marriott and Coca-Cola’s, as examples of how CEO’s are establishing these blogs to communicate openly and honestly with customers and key stakeholders.

But the story gets better because in the case of Bill Marriott, it turns out he either writes his blog posts in long hand, or dictates them and they are then transcribed and entered onto the blog. In Bill’s own blog he shares in detail how he partners with his communications specialist to create the blog which is posted on an Awareness platform and how he reads customer comments and stays in touch…

But here is a question for our Human Resources and Learning readers: If your CEO is blogging, are you involved in this along with your Head of communications? I see the lines blurring between enterprise learning initiatives and corporate communications initiatives, and all too often the HR and Learning executives are not being proactive enough to partner with other internal stakeholders. It should not be just the Head of Corporate Communications identifying and helping to launch new initiatives like the CEO as Chief Blogger. By being involved in these type of initiatives, you can:

1. learn first hand what your CEO is thinking
2. learn about what your customers want more of in terms of new products and services
3. be associated with a leading edge initiative that in the case of Marriott, has led to adding $4 million in new bookings.

Share your first hand experiences here for many to learn from…

Technorati Tags: CEO as Blogger, CLO, Marriott, Awareness

Google Launches Google Video For Business

Google is launching Google Video for business, a customized video platform aimed at businesses for internal use. Google is targeting Heads of training and HR and anyone that uses internal videos at the company. The product will be included in Google Apps Premier Edition for free, with 3 GB of storage per user account.

This is a “Zero billion dollar market today” Director of Product Management Matthew Glotzbach said in a briefing about the product. But we will change this and Google Video For Business will be easy to use.

These videos will basically have the same features and limitations as YouTube, including upload size and file type limits. Videos have access control, even if they are embedded outside of the intranet or Google Apps, and can be tagged and commented on just like YouTube. As the video below states, these videos are quick and easy to create and can be uploaded and shared in a number of ways: for training, to communicate end of quarter results, to showcase famous people who visit Google headquarters like Obama and Bloomberg and finally just for some laughs and fun during a stressful overworked the day.

So, what do you think as head of training or Human Resources at your firm? How will you use this? Will this replace your in-house video production crew? Will you use video more in video sharing sites to describe a new service or for quick updates?

Technorati Tags: Google, Human Resources, Video Sharing, HR

Will You Be Sending Learning Via Text Message?

I got my text message that Joe Biden will be the Democratic Vice President candidate at 3:00 am on Saturday, August 23rd. And YES I could not help but think about the now famous TV commercial about ensuring the next President of the USA is qualified enough to take “that” 3:00 am phone call in the White House.

So I started to think about how explosive the growth of text messaging has been whether you are a Millennial or trying to synch up with today’s Millennials. There’s no doubt about it: Millennials have abandoned email in favor of texting and instant messaging. So here are a few questions to ask yourself and your team members:

• How will the growing usage of texting impact our world of learning & development (especially in light of how Millennials are addicted to texting.
• Will CEO’s be sending updates to their teams via texting instead of emails?
• Will we be texting short updates of knowledge via a text?

Some quick research gives us a context for the explosive growth of text messaging:

According to Gartner the number of text messages sent to and from mobile phones will more than double over the next two years to 2.3 trillion messages sent by 2010. The number of messages transmitted over short message service (SMS) systems in 2005 was estimated at $936 billion, according to Gartner. Total revenues from text messaging is forecast to grow to $72.5 billion in 2010 from $39.5 million. In fact marketers across a number of industries such as hotels, travel,and food chains are gearing up for text message marketing. Rationale: they see how consumers are always “on-the-go,” and increasingly rely more heavily on their cell phones as their main communication device.

China tops the average number of text messages sent by text users. Chinese sent almost 430 billion text messages last year, approximately 1000 per cell phone user.

There are some interesting examples of companies who are leveraging texting into new hire programs — one case in point is Ernst & Young, a company that has been a magnet for Millennials.

E&Y regularly sends out messages from senior executives and welcome notes from the CEO to new hires via text. Will texting be the next mode of delivery for short bursts of learning?

Take the poll in the column to the right to see how many texts our readers are sending/receiving in a month.

Share how this will impact learning & development.

Technorati Tags: texting, gartner, smsing, corporate learning, millennials