Sep
8
Written by:
Chris Osborn
9/8/2011 9:17 AM
Are you confused about social learning tools? If you are, don’t worry. The messages in the market and in current writing are more than a little confusing. The messages are downright confounding. “It’s not the tools.” Or – “It’s the tools.” Well – which is it? It can’t be both, right?
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Or, just maybe, both sides of the current thinking on social learning are onto something.
Let’s start with a high level overview of the benefits a great social learning tool can deliver – assuming the tool is used effectively.
1. Knowledge Management. The most valuable asset your organization owns is the knowledge of your employees. Capturing that knowledge in a platform that is searchable is a critically important step in effective knowledge management.
2. Productivity. When employees gain access to knowledge shared across organizational silos such as teams, departments, locations, etc., they will spend less time searching for important data or information. Research suggests that employees who are connected to fellow employees generate an average of $83,000 more per year, and organizations spend an average of 10% to TOTAL payroll costs on useless searches.
3. Engagement. Engaged employees translate directly into greater profits. Employee engagement is generally driven by several factors. Two of the most important are the quality of working relationships with fellow employees and effective internal communications. Social learning tools – when effectively used – promote better employee relationships and make communications virtually instant.
With these broad benefits in mind, here are three suggestions for making effective use of social learning tools.
1. Leadership activity. Social learning tools are generally designed along the same model as social media tools - they deliver user generated, to all participants in real time. Like any other social media or social network, there will be early adopters and there will be watchers. If your social learning tool is going to be a success, you need to make sure you have your organizations leaders – both recognized by title and those “leaders” outside the management structure every organization has – to adopt the tool early and to use the tool regularly. Otherwise, your employees might not ever see the tool as important and useful. It’s your organization’s culture, as driven by leadership, where the “It’s not the tool” school of thought applies most clearly.
2. Reward engagement. Employees generally need some type of recognition. If a social learning initiative is important, and you are using a social learning tool, recognize the contributions of your participants.
3. Focus on business oriented content. Social learning, as the term suggests, is about being social. We learn a lot from each other through everyday interactions and observations. So don’t try and force the “social” out of your social learning. What you should do instead is to seed the conversations and interactions with business oriented content. Some great ways to get really helpful conversations started is to share success stories. For instance, have a sales professional post the story about a recent piece of new business. Tell about the sales process, the message, the client/customer problem your organization solved, etc. This type of content has the benefit of sharing really helpful information and recognizing the accomplishment of a successful colleague. The school of thought around “It’s the tool” makes the most sense when you view your social learning tool as a critical vehicle for sharing important business oriented information and knowledge.
How do I know these suggestions work? Simple – personal and professional experience. BizLibrary is very close to an exciting announcement in the social learning market. I invite you to stay tuned.