George Siemens began the day by challenging us to see the world as a set of trade-offs. What’s the optimal balance point?
Asking people to jot ideas on the white board, the line that divides presenter from audience began to blur. We’re all audience; we all presenters; it shifts back and forth. Few things are black or white; most are shades of gray. As George said, it’s nutty for only one person to do the talking among a group of 125 people. Group scribbling on the white board proved a catalyst to discussion. I think it’s like taking notes: you don’t have to re-read the notes to end up with stronger memories.
Next up Deb Schwartz (Altimeter Group) and Jerry Michalski (Sociate) talked about the challenges and opportunities we confront with enterprise 2.0. As with all of our presentations this week, you had to be there. Recordings or this and all the other sessions will be available by the end of the day. Here’s the chat stream from Deb and Jerry’s presentation.
Internet Time Alliance took the stage to reflect on the overall event and to field questions. We had a rollicking good time — and I think the audience was with us.
The six of us began by recounting why we came together to form Internet Time Alliance. I preach collaboration — but found myself working in isolation. I was already turning to others for help: Jane Hart for social learning and tools, Jon Husband for KM and competencies, Harold Jarche for open source and design, Charles Jennings for the major CLO’s view, and Clark Quinn for learning theory, m-learning, and serious games. We started Internet Time Alliance in order to learn from one another.
Audience questions guided what we talked about today. We had the requisite PowerPoints at the ready but we ended up showing them in random order as questions arose.
Next we brought our customers into the loop. Six heads are better than one; seven or eight are better than that. Our engagements often begin with an organization presenting a question. Could we point out pitfalls in a new plan? Which supplier would we trust? How would we roll out knowledge in their organization? We help refine the question and then hash out solutions and observations as a group. We come back with recommendations and models. This is our loss-leader proposition. For as little as $1000, we return with consensus advice from six of the leading thinkers in organizational learning. Here’s what we’ve been pondering lately.
My conclusion from this event is that not only is learning the work, it’s also the most important work.
Defense Acquisition University’s Chris Hardy told part of his organization’s incredible success story. Look at these volumes:
Chris also cautioned us against going off half-cocked:
You can learn more about the DAU story from Leading a Learning Revolution, a book by Chris and DAU Chief Executive Frank Anderson.
At one point, Chris showed a slide saying 20% of learning is formal; 80% is informal. He said he’d found no proof, only one person citing another. During his talk, I pulled together this page on the source of the 80 and the 20.
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I agree with the saying of Chris that 20% of learning is acquired my formal and 80% is acquired my informal. Like what I am now.Great experiences really adds.