stickylearning

Why do we label learning?

OK, this is a post written as I'm thinking. I was just reading comments from my post on Autonomous/Formal/Informal Learning and thought I'd put some of my thoughts down in a post as they come! Let's see how it goes?

My thinking is this - formal/informal/autonomous/individual - they are all labels, descriptive in their own way. Part of the problem though is that they may all mean slightly different things to different people. And, if you are speaking to an employer and are extolling the benefits of informal learning - one, they want/need a definition - two, they want to know how it works - and three, it just seems to add to the other 'boxes' of 'types' of learning that exist.

As I said I'm writing on the fly, what I mean is this (quick break to make a diagram).

OK, on the right is a crude picture representing the current arrangement. A small box of formal learning and a larger box of informal learning exists within the circle that represents all activity within a workplace. 

Most businesses, it is probably fair to say, focus on the red formal box. The business may then be introduced to the concept and benefits of informal learning, another box is introduced.

Whilst the box sizes may not be accurate, my point is that putting learning into boxes, no matter what size, colour or name still creates a separation - learning/business operations.

And here's my point, maybe to change the perception of business away from learning as an event, or as a function separate to business activity we, (that is, learning professionals, L&D consultants, ID's, whatever we call ourselves) should drop all labels and only speak of learning. 

Let's just say that when anyone is at work, they are learning, it should look more like this diagram.

Basically, if you are at work, you are learning. Sometimes you might need to go to an organised activity but most of the time you're just getting better at doing your job.

The move from diagram one to two is really about behavioural and cultural change. Once a business has made this shift all learning modes are available to be combined to meet any operational need.

You need to change HOW people think. Learning doesn't happen in boxes, learning is what we do ALL the time. 

So, there is my post on the fly. I'll probably read it tomorrow and not be entirely happy, but I reckon the guts of it is OK. The key change is to see that learning is integrated within the very nature of what all workers do whilst at work, it isn't formal or informal, it isn't an added extra or something separate, it is learning. And...(you mightn't like this!)....perhaps one good place to demonstrate this is by NOT having a separate learning department. 

Exploring the learning landscape

In my previous post I asked the question, 'Is Autonomous Learning the same as Informal Learning?' I'd been reading Daniel Pink's new book Drive and my mind had turned to thinking about autonomy, learning and motivation. The post itself was a fair reflection of this thought, but not the end. Over the last week I've kept being drawn back to questions about, and relationships between, informal/formal/autonomous learning.

This led me to doodle a new thought:

In my post on autonomous learning I had looked mainly at who was in control of the learning, in fact I defined Autonomous Learning as: "you are in control of what you learn, where you learn and with whom you do the learning". Generally however, the difference between formal vs informal learning is defined in terms of how structured the learning is, for example, whether a set curriculum exists.

Now look again at my doodle. I've now combined both these variables, on the vertical axis is control and on the horizontal axis is structure. I think it leads to a range of interesting conclusions and applications for amplifying the impact of informal learning within businesses. I'll start however by clarifying what I mean by structure and control.

Structure

When I think of learning in structured settings I see learning that includes:

• assessable outcomes
• detailed curriculum
• defined learning outcomes
• formalised learning materials
• set order of 'learning'

On the other end of the scale, learning with no structure includes none of these characteristics.

Of course, the horizontal axis of structure is a continuum, so that all levels of structure in learning may exist.

Control

In terms of control, at one end of the scale I saw a place where decisions about what someone learnt were made entirely by someone other than the learner, I called this extrinsic control. At it's extreme, it's a situation where decisions regarding learning participation lies in someone else's hands, indeed participation in learning may be 'compulsory'. For example you are told that you will be completing the company's Leadership Programme. Extrinsic control may also be less transparent, for example it may be, 'if you do this....then I'll give you this." It may even include rewards for achieving business KPI's, for example, "if you can figure out a way of increasing sales by 10% you get $$$$!"

In this last case the 'how' of reaching the target is up to you, but your motivation is tied to the $$$ - control still sits with another person. So, in this case, the structure is loose but control exists.

If one end of the control scale is extrinsic, then the other must be intrinsic control. I see this as a place where decisions about what is learnt, how you learn, when you learn, why you learn, where you learn and with whom you learn sit entirely with the learner.

Again, the vertical axis of control is a continuum, so that all levels of control in learning may exist.

The Learning Landscape

When you put all this together you get an interesting result, you are able to map all types of learning across the landscape, from structured, company specific workshops on the one hand through to autonomous exploration and play - and everything in between.

I've mapped out a whole range of different learning scenarios in the diagram below. In each case I've placed items according to how I assessed the structure and control of each item in a typical (fictitious) business, of course in your own situation you may decide that there is more/less control/structure in your own workplace and the items may be placed somewhat differently. It doesn't matter, what does matter is that you are now able to map all learning in your business onto this landscape.

I've numbered 5 examples to discuss further - let's look at what these show.

1. University/College courses selected by the learner. These are courses strong on curriculum and set outcomes, in many senses this is 'formal' learning, but the choice to undertake the learning is sitting with the learner. They are paying, doing the learning in their own time for their own reasons. The business the learner works for has no control over what happens but they may end up being a beneficiary! The benefits for the learner will vary upon their motivation for undertaking the learning, the business however will gain the windfall of new knowledge and insights.

2. Company newsletters. The information contained within newsletters in controlled by the business, the structure is generally fairly freeform. People do learn from information contained in newsletters but the learning is quite informal.

3. Internal social networks. There is generally some structure underlying social sites within businesses, rules of engagement, layout, use and so forth. Participation in social sites is however generally up to the individual so control is low.

4. Compulsory eLearning courses/workshops within your business. We could safely say that this area represents the traditional concept of formal learning.

5. Reading blogs. Generally pretty unstructured learning and in most instances the decision to read blogs is up to the individual.

(You can see that I've added many other examples as well. Can you think of any other type of learning activity that I haven't placed? If so have a go at adding it. I can't imagine any type of learning that won't fit within this learning landscape.)

What is the use of all this?

Try this activity. Print out a blank copy of the Learning Checklist and the Learning Landscape . Use the checklist to rate the control/structure of each item then map your results onto the blank Learning Landscape. (I've been finding it easiest to do this stage all on a whiteboard, though it would also work well as a team activity if you used post-it notes to help you move things around depending upon team input)

Once you've done this you will have created your business's current learning landscape. What does it look like, any surprises? Here are some of my guesses as to what you may have found!

A. Your team find ways of learning that you were not aware of!

B. There are some gaps, let's call them deserts on your learning landscape.

C. The activity has got you thinking......'what if I could help change deserts to rainforests?' Imagine if my team were learning across this full landscape!

You will also be left with many questions!

Where to from here?

I've realised that this topic is too big for a single blog post and there are many areas I'd like to keep thinking on!

So, over the next week or so I will continue to explore this model. I've already got a series of topics in mind to run with including:

• Challenges created by the learning landscape
• Benefits for businesses of intrinsically motivated learning
  
• Control and motivation - carrots and sticks
  
• Where are we now...where would we like to be?- designing a learning landscape to deliver results
  
• There is no map
  
• You're the learner - build your own learning landscape
  
• Way-showers and learning

I hope they get you thinking!

PresentationZen Design - Review

Garr Reynolds' new book, PresentationZen Design, is his follow-up to his first book, PresentationZen of 2008. His first book was in many ways a summary of Garr's presentation style, looking at presentation preparation, design and delivery. I suppose it is no surprise that his second book expands on one key area from his first book, slide design - I say it is no surprise because it is Garr's design style that most defines him. If you already have his first book, this new book is really chapters 5, 6 & 7 expanded, however don't take this as a negative, what Garr has done here is to write a whole book about slide design.So what should you expect from a book that's subtitled, 'Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations'?

Design Matters

The title of the first chapter gives you a good idea of the focus of the book - Design Matters. As most people who create slides for learning and presentations are not trained designers, Garr takes us on a journey through his design thinking, drawing heavily on the Zen design traditions of his adopted home, Japan.

It is clear that design matters a lot to Garr....

and quoting the designer Donald Norman,

I mean if it was all about content, why have live presentations and workshops? You may as well just send out pages of text and let people read it themselves! Slide design is Garr's passion, and to be honest, thank heavens it is, because his approach to presentation slide design may just save us all from having to sit through another slideshow chock-a-block full of bullets, complicated charts, corny clipart and flying text!

So what does PresentationZen Design teach us that will improve the design of our slides. The book is divided into three key sections:

  

Components

In this section the book covers the often ignored importance of Typefaces, particularly the choice of type and it's placement on the slide. Next Garr looks at Communicating with Colour. In addition to looking at some expected terms related to colour and it's use, for example hue, value, saturation, colour combinations, emotional connections and colour choices, Garr brings in aspects from the Zen aesthetic through a lesson in Sumi-e. In Using Images and Video to Tell Stories we enter the area that in many ways defines the PresentationZen style, the use of full screen images to complement and strengthen the spoken and written message - I particularly liked this area! Area covered here again include some technical aspects of image creation and editing as well as reviewing 10 things to avoid when using images. Finally in the component section Garr looks at how best to Simplify Data, how charts can communicate and indeed miscommunicate key messages, I know from experience that many presentations use charts that are barely readable, with far too much data, if all presentations followed the advice given here there would be less sleepy and bored learners and audience members!

Principles

So many slides used in presentations and workshops are full of text, bullet points, charts, and data. 

The first part of this section looks at Seeing and Using Space, beginning with a lesson in the Japanese art of flower design, Ikebana. Garr looks at the importance of white space, symmetrical/asymmetrical balance, Gestalt theory and the importance of 'less is more'. 

The use of focal points in slide design is illustrated through the Japanese room design feature known as a Tokonoma, in essence this part of the book, Creating Purpose and Focus, is about how to ensure the audience's eyes move see what you want them to see. Too often there is too much clutter on slides overloading the brains ability to focus on what is important, indeed once overloaded it is likely that no information will be retained, so less is actually more. 

Finally the section looks at Achieving Harmony in your slide design. Here Garr looks at the 'rule of thirds' and grids in general when aligning aspects of our slides and working to connect the various elements to create balance and harmony. Garr must adore his food, because he loves a Bento Box, I've seen photos of his lunches uploaded via Twitter on more than one occasion! There is a point however, Garr sees harmony in a Bento Box, a balance of flavours, colours, sizes - doesn't food always taste better when it looks good!

Here's an example from my lunch yesterday!

The Journey

Finally Garr provides pages of examples of great Slide Samples that illustrate the principles outlined throughout the book. It is always good to see examples, as just as the book reminds us, visual messages trump the written word. 

The book concludes with a chapter on Continuous Improvement, a good way to end, reminding readers that improving your slide design is a journey not a destination, that through continually learning from the lessons that are all around you - Billboards, Advertising, TV, brochures, package design - your slide design will continue to improve.

Finally I really liked how the book was scattered with 'guest appearances' from Nancy Duarte, David Rose, Maureen C. Stone, John McWade and Scott Kelby. They add further information and another perspective to the book.

The Conclusion

If you want to design slides that engage your learners/audience this book is the one, it must be on your book shelf!. If you live near me, that is Australia, the book is rather hard to find, (I got my copy via Amazon, click here to get to Amazon), but that's no real drama at least you won't have to drive around looking for it, it's only a few clicks away!

Online social networks, learning and viral expansion loops

It's just about Christmas time and now is the time of end of year catch ups and Christmas parties. The most common question at these is, 'so what have you been up to lately?" I respond, 'well I'm becoming more and more interested in the use of social media and microblogging for learning', I then get puzzled looks that say, "too much time on your hands", "what is he talking about?" and they nod politely! Some go as far as to put words to their thoughts with "isn't that sort of thing just for bored celebrities?"

Well, maybe that's what bored celebrities do, who knows? For me though I see a real role for social media as a platform for business learning.

Social media - fad or forever?

I suppose I'm attracted to new ideas and approaches, I like to bring together ideas from different spaces, I like to innovate. I did however miss the first wave of social media on the net, there are many who have written blogs for 5-10 years and are a great deal more connected than I am and are across everything web2.0. So, whilst I may be a little late, I keep being reminded that there are many, many people who are a whole lot less aware of blogs, social networks, wikis, microblogging and so on than I am.

Social media - a platform for learning

This year I have become more and more interested in the use of online social networks as a platform for business learning and knowledge management. Credit where credit is due, a great deal of this increase in awareness has come through my use of Twitter (especially #lrnchat) and through a number of online social networks, such as Seth Godin's Triiibes, LearnTrends, Problogger and LinkedIn groups. As I've used each of these I've been struck by how easily this format (social sites) could be used as a platform for business learning. In fact I've written a number of posts through the year that now track the development of my thoughts on this. (Permission Learning, Fish are the last to recognise water,  Breaking the learning drought, Informal learning - it's not new)

Where are we at?

At this point in time the successful use of social networks within business is rare and the use of social networks as a platform for learning is even more rare. Why is this so?

I see there being two key challenges to overcome:

1. The first issue is that businesses are generally uncomfortable about introducing online social spaces into their workplaces. I have previously written a post addressing this point, so I won't go into detail on this again here, however it seems to have a lot to do with a 'fear' of losing 'control' of conversations.
2. Secondly, if (when) businesses do introduce social media into their workplaces, the next challenge is to encourage employees to want to use it. In my post, "Permission Learning" I looked at one angle on encouraging uptake and usage of informal learning such as social media.

The remainder of this post will be looking at one another approach to improving the adoption rates of social networks. This approach is known as 'viral expansion loops' and is a way of conceptualising how organisations can implement and build user acceptance of social networks within their businesses.

 

Adoption of social sites
The image above is familiar to anyone involved in marketing, it describes how readily a new product is adopted by people over time. Without spending too much time on this, one issue with new technologies and especially social media is that there is quite a lot of hype when the product is first launched. The Innovators talk about it and spruik its benefits, however too often it stops there and never reaches a tipping point where it's use becomes commonplace, it's use never becomes commonplace and therefore it dies a slow (or sometimes quick) death. The aim therefore must be to make sure that the use of your social site moves beyond the Innovators and Early adopters through to the majority of your employees and perhaps eventually to the laggards.

Viral Expansion Loops

I first heard of this term whilst reading Mitch Joel's excellent book, Six Pixels of Separation, I'll explain the term with a story. One day Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook, no doubt on the first day there were only a handful of users. It looked good, but with only a few users there were only so many connections you could make. Each of these early adopters saw that if they got all their friends to join, the platform would be a great way for them to keep up with what their friends and families were doing. So these people promoted the site, more people joined. These new people saw that the site would be better if all their friends joined and from there Facebook grew and grew.The key here is that it isn't just 'word of mouth' marketing at play, users saw that their experience would be improved by having more people connected. There were clear benefits in helping to expand the loop. Facebook would never have worked if users hadn't brought in their existing networks of family and friends. It succeeded because of Viral Expansion Loops.

Building a successful social (learning) site

Now I won't go into any technical details here. Businesses are able to adopt a range of systems and platforms for social sites, you can get sites fully customised for your business or you can use existing social platforms. The way I see it, there are two important parts to a successful social platform:

• Design and
• Content

Design

Again, I won't use this post to look at everything! From a design perspective I have previously looked at putting design into learning design, and this makes sense in regards to designing a social site as well. It would also be worthwhile to consider broader graphic design concepts as well to help ensure usability and overall simplicity. I reckon Garr Reynolds' PresentationZen, site and book, are a great way of looking at the visual side of design! And I'd really recommend pre-ordering his upcoming new design book! However, whilst design is important, it isn't everything! You need compelling content if your social site is to be spread virally through your business!

Content

When all else is said and done, employees will use a site if it gives them something that they need or want. Now the question is, "but what content do they need/want?"
The short answer here is that users within a business will want content that:

• will help them do their jobs more effectively and
• lead to greater personal/business success.

That's pretty broad isn't it! (but true)

A Case Study

I'll use a multi-store medium retail store business as an example, I'll rename it (imaginatively?) "A Retailer". This business had a creative owner (we'll call him Bob) who saw the potential of a social site to improve business communication and to share great ideas around stories. He didn't really see this as 'learning' at this stage, he just thought that it seemed to make sense. He began by using the Ning platform, set it up and sent out details to his team. He didn't just build it in the hope that 'they would come'. He had already got 4 of his best store managers 'on-board', they kick-started the site by using the discussion board to ask and answer questions.
This was a retail business so some of their discussions were around:

• setting up for the mid-season catalogue (pictures were included)
• how to reduce unnecessary markdowns
• recruitment tips
• handling difficult customers

These are all important points for retailers, every retailer could use tips on these points! Each of the 4 initial users began to talk about the site with other managers, spruiking how it had helped them. Soon there were a dozen users (the retail chain had 50 stores). Use of the site grew weekly, within 6 months all store managers were signed up and in many ways the site was replacing many other communication channels (eg email). A range of key business indicators were all positive, sales were above budget, staff turnover was reduced and overall morale really seemed more positive. It was at this point that one manager said that she'd learnt more through the new site that from many training sessions she'd been to. Now Bob saw the real benefit of the site, it meant that the best ideas from his team were shared, anyone could come up with a great idea and over time the site was becoming a resource for all types of knowledge.

What is the key?

Use of the Bob's site grew through a viral expansion loop because of it's:

• Design concept - it was easy to navigate through and use
• Content - it met users needs, providing a forum to ask questions and source solutions

Most importantly however it worked because it was social. Users had pictures and profiles, they all had similar problems to solve and worked in similar environments, they were talking with people just like themselves. The site really helped to bring the team of managers within the business closer together, sharing their expertise and looking out for each other.

Where to?

At the end of the day, learning is as learning does. Social sites mightn't look like learning, however if people learn through using them then let's not complicate things, they are a learning tool. I've really only scratched the surface in this post, as social sites become more and more embedded within a business's culture and users become more familiar with the platform and technology, users begin to create their own compelling content for the site, content that moves beyond write only into read/write and the use of multimedia such as audio and visual media. As the use of such sites grows, they will be seen as an essential component of business communication. My view is that they will also be seen as a key platform for knowledge sharing, innovation and business learning!

Anchors and Twists - making learning stick

It should come as no surprise to readers of my blog that I'm a fan of the book Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath - I mean where did I come up with my blog's name!?

Today I was sent a link to a video from a friend in Texas (thank's Sue!) The video features Dan Heath speaking on the subject of 'Selling your Innovation". Unfortunately I'm unable to embed the video in my blog (well I could if I illegally copied it....) however just below is the link to the video. It's quite short, after watching it come back and read what I've got to say about it!

Video link: Dan Heath - "Made to Stick-Selling your Innovation"

Now, as I watched the video I was thinking, "this is similar to how learners process new ideas". Dan's key pont in the video is the importance of using an anchor and a twist.

Anchor = existing knowledge

Twist = old knowledge with a new angle.

This screenshot illustrates an example used in the video. When cars were first invented Dan Heath asks, 'how would you have described what a car was to a person who had never seen a car?' As it turns out the description that stuck was 'a horseless carriage'. Everyone already knew what a carriage was, so this became the Anchor, next a twist was added, Horseless, now people could visualise what a car might be. 

Mirror neurons

Anchor and twist, is a good analogy for how we learn and taps into recent research on a concept known as 'Mirror Neurons' (see an earlier post on this blog) In particular look at the later sections of the post looking at 'Mirror Neurons' and 'How can mirror neurons assist learning'.

Anchors, Twists and Learning

You may understand now why I like the concepts of anchor and twist. The anchor activates the mirror neuron, retrieving existing knowledge. The twist then uses existing context to build a new idea in our mind. I suppose I'm using the idea of 'anchor and twist' as I'm writing this blog post. My anchor is the video and it's take on selling innovation, my twist is to replace the term innovation with learning.

Remember anchor and twist when your designing your next learning program or writing a presentation!

Why do I write a blog?

I've been blogging for a year now, time flies! But with one year down my mind has turned to the question I'd imagine many bloggers ask themselves "Why do I write a blog?"

I've written on books I've read, webinars, design thinking, presentation skills, twitter, informal learning, personal learning spaces and more. Am I an expert on all these areas - the answer is simple, no, I am not! 

So what value is there in blogging? 

Putting fingers to keyboard and then publishing your thoughts isn't always the easiest thing to do, you do make yourself vulnerable. Some things you write may be good, some very good, some (possibly) 'utter tosh'! Everyone sees things differently!

The benefits I get from blogging

1. It encourages me to read more books and blogs
2. I need to think more about ideas when I blog about them
3. I interact with others and share ideas
4. It makes me question ideas, my own and others'
5. I think more
6. I think about things in new ways
7. I learn more
8. I become more thoughtful
9. I leave some ideas behind and take on new ones
10. I hope I get other people thinking as well!

A few months ago I saw this video (you may have seen it before) featuring Seth Godin and Tom Peters. I think this sums up why blogging is important.

For those who have read a number of my posts over the year I hope you have found ideas that have made you think differently. Many of my posts in the last year have been around the influence of design thinking on how we design successful learning. From this came my interest in Informal Learning. These two topics have been the most important things I have taken away from the last 12 months and I can only see these forming the basis for further posts into the next year!

Learning styles and fixed ideas

Where am I coming from?

Over the last few months I've read a number of blog posts about learning styles (see references at end of post). So, do learning styles indicators measure what they say they do? (for what it matters, I'm in the 'no they don't' camp) However, this post isn't so much about whether or not they do measure actual learning styles, rather I'm more interested in why people believe so strongly that learning styles indicators do in fact provide a measure of how an individual learns best.

Let's put aside our opinions for a moment!

Just for the sake of it, put aside your personal view for a moment and join me. Say to yourself, "There is no evidence that learning styles indicators actually work". Believe with me that the weight of scientific evidence is strongly behind your point of view. Now imagine that you meet another learning professional and the conversation happens to move on to learning styles. You mention that there is no evidence that learning styles indicators actually work. The person you are speaking to turns towards you with a look of questioning shock, basically they think you are mad! They say, "What do you mean? I use them all the time and they really do work!"

So we explain ourselves

You explain to your friend that you have just finished reading some papers (here and here) by a bloke named Frank Coffield and they have convinced you that what you had wondered about was true, learning styles questionnaires do not provide any indication of a learner's learning style. You suggest that they have a look and see what they think.

A week later

You meet your friend again, the first thing they say is, " I read a paper by that Coffield bloke and, 'what a load of rubbish.......'" You ask, "why?" They reply, "what a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo, I bet he's never worked a day of his life in a real classroom, what would he know........!"

Now, let's forget about learning styles for a moment

This post isn't really about learning styles. It is more about why people hang on to ideas that evidence indicates are not true. This is really the very essence of education and learning, as isn't all learning a matter of processing new ideas to replace older less well-formed ideas. It's what my 4 year old boy is doing all the time (and he's very happy and ready to throw away his 3 year old ideas for the more up to date 4 year old version). But adults are not always so ready to accommodate the new.

Back to how I started on this train of thought

Late one night a couple of weeks ago I read a series of tweets from Martin Shovel and Marion Chapsal. It began with a blog post about "The Dangers of Co-opting Scientific Explanation", (great article with some good reading in the comments as well), from there I slept on my thoughts, waking in the morning to read another excellent blog post by Simon Bostock on learning styles, "Learning Styles: fable-ous and tragic", now my mind was really working.

Where my mind went next

The beauty of the iPhone is that when you think you'd like to find out something, you can anywhere any-time. My reading late the night before had got my mind thinking of Plato's cave allegory (it's true, eating muesli, thinking Plato!) So, I looked it up on my iPhone in Wikipedia. Somewhere in my head I had thought that the belief that learning styles indicators worked was in a way similar to Plato's cave story explaining how people form ideas and beliefs through limited experienced. From wikipedia is this explanation of the cave allegory, a fictional discussion between Plato's teacher Socrates and his student Glaucon:

"Socrates begins by describing a scenario in which what people take to be real would in fact be an illusion. He asks Glaucon to imagine a cave inhabited by prisoners who have been chained and held immobile since childhood: not only are their arms and legs held in place, but their heads are also fixed, compelled to gaze at a wall in front of them. Behind the prisoners is an enormous fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway, along which people walk carrying things on their heads 'including figures of men and animals made of wood, stone and other materials'. The prisoners can only watch the shadows cast by the men, not knowing they are shadows. There are also echoes off the wall from the noise produced from the walkway.

Socrates asks if it is not reasonable that the prisoners would take the shadows to be real things and the echoes to be real sounds, not just the reflections of reality, since they are all they had ever seen or heard. Wouldn't they praise as clever whoever could best guess which shadow would come next, as someone who understood the nature of the world? And wouldn't the whole of their society depend on the shadows on the wall?"

I read this and thought - "yep, that fits what I was thinking!"

It does fit! When learning professionals 'use' learning styles indicators in learning environments they 'see' a result - they link this result to learning styles, so they say, "it must be true!" But really all they are seeing are Plato's shadows. If learning professionals could only  'move outside the cave' they might see that what they thought to be true was not. 

The allegory continues to describe how a prisoner leaving the cave eventually comes to see that their earlier view of reality was false and the allegory also deals with how this person's new view on reality would be received by those who remained in the cave (a hint - not well!)

Back to Learning Styles again

So, why are so called 'Learning Professionals' so caught up with a debate about whether or not learning styles indicators work to show how individuals prefer to learn? Every day we deal with learners who are tied to ideas that we have been tasked to 'develop' (ie change!), isn't all instructional and learning design about moving prisoners from the cave? The problem is though that we all want to understand reality so much that we convince ourselves that what we believe is reality. This in turn becomes even more strongly embedded when we share our 'reality' with others who also see things as we do, we now have a shared belief. "We must be right", they tell themselves, "look at all these people who agree with me!"

Just another fallacy?

At its core, isn't the learning styles indicators debate just another case of false ideas, another set of shadows? I admit here I am no philosophic scholar, however I recently some interesting thoughts on the philosophy of fallacies. All around us are fallacies that some people believe strongly in! Once it was a flat Earth, later it was 'peace in our time' and today they continue. 

It keeps us in work!

I suppose it will always be true, there will always be more to learn, there will always be new caves to leave. Our task as learning professionals is to make the transition from cave to sunlight simpler for our learners. We also need to remember that we learning professionals have caves of our own to leave.

So....finally!

Two weeks after I began thinking I've put my fingers to the keyboard to write this post! It does deal with many points but I hope you can all see where I'm coming from. It can really all be boiled down to one thought, "we live and learn".

Other recent reading

CreativityWorks: The Dangers of Co-opting Scientific Explanations

Bunchberry & Fern: Learning Styles: fable-ous and tragic

TeachingExpertise: A Teaching Elixir or best-fit pedagogy? Do learning styles matter?

Designing successful learning - walking 'a fine line'

Designing a way forward

Designing - the first word of this post's title and the overall focus of this post! Over the last couple of months I've read and re-read Hartmut Esslingers book, 'a fine line'. It's rare that I re-read a book straight after reading it, however my mind was drawn back again and again to the book. Upon each re-visit I left the book ever more certain that the design lessons contained within it were essential for successful learning design.

My recent post, Scared of first, finished with ten reasons why businesses are not fully embracing new learning technologies and approaches. In this post I was constructing my low point, how things are, but with a optimistic eye forwards to where I thought learning design may be heading. Perhaps it was this in mind that I read 'a fine line', the point being however, I am more certain now than ever before that the discipline and approaches of design thinking hold the key to businesses embracing changes in learning strategies and design.

a fine line

Hartmut Esslinger is the founder of the design company, frog design, and the design force behind Apple, Sony and many other businesses. In a fine line, he provides stories and examples to illustrate his design approach (these alone are almost worth reading the book for). When he began his business his goal for frog design was...'to redefine design as a strategic profession, and to continually promote its relevance to industry and business.' - For learning designers today this works beautifully!

I particularly like how he wanted 'all designers (including himself) to be masters of their own destiny, not just hired hands brought in to put a shiny new face on the same, tired old ideas' - it's almost like he is a learning designer today! Indeed as Hartmut puts it, 'innovation is a matter of life or death', successful businesses must innovate in order to stay in business. Our task as learning designers is to help businesses see that learning is more than an expense, in fact it is the key that has the potential to unlock innovation and provide a business with strategic reserves and competitive advantages.

The Design Process

Perhaps the book's gem begins on page 57! Here Hartmut outlines his innovation process - any learning designer could pick this up and just about use it as is when working with clients! The process is made up of three steps, very briefly (you should read the book!) they are:

Step 1: Groundwork - research the goals and challenges facing the business. Understand (learning) design's role in achieving these. It is also important to be selective, choose the right team, partners, clients and projects!

Step 2: Creative collaboration - this is where innovation begins and is a combination of brainstorming, ideation, projection and management. The inclusion of management in this step may appear counterintuitive however it is essential that there is a planning focus in place, it's where the rubber hits the road!

Step 3: Marketing - I have written previously about the links between marketing and learning design (here and here). Hartmut explains this step 'where minds meet money'! Money rules in business so it is essential that the design process prove its benefits and look to optimise (learning) design's role in business.

Finally Hartmut looks at the role of the community and social networks in enhancing and improving design outcomes. Whilst not focussing upon learning, there are clear lessons for learning and learning design in here (perhaps the topic for a future post?)

I could continue outlining innumerable points from the book, however the book is worth buying and reading! 

Breaking the learning drought

In the city I live in, Melbourne, Australia, we have been in drought for most of the last decade. Water storages had recently fallen to just over 25% full. A few weeks ago however it rained and rained and rained, not drought ending rain, but the best anyone could remember in ages.

Each day in the local papers are updates on the state of the city's water storages, the updates show how many megalitres the storages have gone up or down from the previous day. During the recent rainy period the first couple of days showed no increase in water levels, but after a few days of rain water levels started going up and then kept going up for the next two weeks. In fact they kept going up for a week after the rain had stopped.

What has this got to do with learning?

Perhaps my brain works differently to others! However as I watched this happening each day I thought of learning!

My thoughts went a bit like this........just as the dam levels don't immediate respond to rain, employee behaviour or business results don't immediately change after learning either......just as there is a lag between rain and water storage, there is also a lag between learning input and behaviour/results output.

In the case of formal learning events it is possible to still see the connection between learning and results. But, for informal learning methods, such as corporate wikis, social networks, employee directed learning and so forth, the link between learning and results is harder to see.

I suppose what I'm saying is this, if there are obvious results from learning events it is possible that a learning drought has been broken. The link between learning and results becomes obvious in feast or famine scenarios.

Avoid learning droughts!

The aim should be to establish a slow and steady drip-feed of learning (best achieved by strengthening informal learning channels), it is always best to avoid a drought.

'Scared of first' - why business is resisting new learning.

The past

I'd like to take you back to where I was 5 years ago. My role was working for Australia's then largest retailer, ColesMyer. I managed a team of facilitators whose role was to deliver face-to-face workshops to staff, from entry level, through to senior management. Face-to-face learning was the dominant delivery method with some elearning to deliver generally fact-based knowledge, for example, induction, food safety, OHS and so forth. Other than the elearning component it was really a case of, 'training' = workshops. If I had been working within many other medium to large businesses at that point in time the picture would have been pretty much the same!

Since then what has changed?

Today

I now work independently and have worked with large and smaller businesses over the last 5 years. What do I see today? I see that its still a case of, 'training' = workshops, and face-to-face at that! Over the last 4-5 years I have seen and heard so much about new technologies, elearning, informal learning and so forth. I keep hearing that people are sick of 'death by powerpoint'. BUT I see businesses introducing 'click, click, click' 'powerpoint-style' elearning and believing that this means that their learning is 'modern'.

I design learning strategies for businesses. I often have a difficult time when encouraging businesses to try different/new approaches to learning.

So, why do many businesses not embrace learning approaches that would provide their businesses with real competitive advantages? 

10 Reasons

1. Successful businesses build systems and processes for doing things. The informal/social technologies appear to live outside established systems and therefore scare them.
2. It's easy to measure attendance at workshops and list who completed an elearning module, but how do you measure the results of informal learning?
3. Why change what 'seems' to work?! Businesses like certainty and they see new learning approaches as 'risky/uncertain'.
4. It can be difficult to 'sell' the benefits of new learning technologies when it can be hard to measure results.
5. Businesses may either lack the technology/expertise to implement newer learning approaches OR they are scared of it.
6. They ask, "Are our competitors doing it?" If you answer, "No" this is seen as validation for maintaining the status quo. They are 'scared of being first.' Rather than seeing an opportunity to get a jump on their competitors, they are innovation phobic.
7. 'Training departments' are for managing/administrating programs rather than being responsible for organisational learning, innovation and growth.
8. Many businesses see learning as information transfer,therefore Powerpoint slides full of bullets and text are seen as an efficient and 'snazzy' way of transferring knowledge.
9. Social media is seen as a 'fad'.
10. Informal learning means losing control.

Look, there is a long way to go! OK, it's possibly not as bad as I've made it sound, but it's important to remember where we are now. I'm looking for the 'tipping point', however it just looks a fair way off from where I'm standing. How about you?