There have been millions of words written and spoken about ‘informal’ and social learning over the past few years.
In fact, if a Martian had just arrived on Earth and strayed into a meeting of Learning and Development professionals or into a learning conference, or even picked up a professional journal, he would logically assume that these were the only ways humans learned. Read more →
More recently at the Internet Time Alliance, we’ve been focusing not on training and learning but on ideas around “working smarter.” Jay Cross, one of my colleagues in the Internet Time Alliance, is well known for his early work and books on informal learning. Jay describes working smarter as being the key to sustainability and continuous improvement, and to productivity. Working smarter requires learning in new ways. Read more →
The amount of time, effort and money wasted on formal ILT training prior to rollout or upgrade of enterprise platforms (particularly ERM and CRM) and other new software systems is really quite amazing. Read more →
Two weeks ago I ran a webinar under this title for Citrix.
At the start I posed the question “when you think about one great learning experience you’ve had, can you remember where it occurred? Was it in a classroom or workshop, or did it occur while you were completing the task?” Read more →
Very few of us would argue with the proposition that a lot of organisational learning and development activity is sub-optimal to the extent that it provides little value to participants and their organisations. Read more →
“we tell ourselves stories in order to live” ~ Haruki Murakami
Jerome Bruner (1915- ) is one of the greatest educational psychologists the world has ever produced. He has spent his long lifetime studying learning and the human mind. Still active and in post as a Research Professor at New York University in his 95th year, Bruner has long realised the value of conversations and story-telling as vital learning tools. His research has led him to point out that ‘our world is others’ and that we need to always take this into account in our approach to learning and development. Read more →
Charles Jennings argues that the adage ‘access to knowledge is power’ is more fitting in today’s information-swamped world.
“In 2009, more data will be generated by individuals than in the entire history of mankind through 2008. Information overload is more serious than ever.” Read more →
For training to be effective, managers need to be actively involved in the process. Some years ago, Mary Broad and her colleagues found that of all the actions and activities taking place before, during and after a formal training intervention, the manager’s input before and after training constituted two of the three most important factors influencing improved performance. The third factor was the trainer’s actions before the event, which also involves close coordination with managers. Read more →
UK politicians have been in the spotlight over the past few weeks with their creative use of the parliamentary allowance scheme. “Flipping” was one common way that some found to maximise their allowance income. This involved declaring one of their homes – either in their constituency or in London closer to the House of Commons – as their main residence, then claiming all manner of expenses against their second home. Then they’d “flip” and claim expenses on the other house. This was a really neat, if totally immoral and possibly illegal, way to spend taxpayers’ money. Now they’re being found out and punished. Read more →
