As a result, I’ve been having a number of excellent conversations with people who have been thinking about the future of learning and development.

• The traditional design methodologies of ADDIE and ISD need re-envisioning in the post-Facebook age.
• The tempo needed for learning and development departments has accelerated.
• The mindsets and skills needed within training departments need to be reconstituted.

In short, organizations need to rethink the relationship and network structures within their organization.

The article itself provides a nice framing platform for some of these conversations, and I’ll be diving more deeply into these topics over the next few weeks.

For example, World of Warcraft’s raid-culture can be viewed through the lens of team-based learning where individuals must master separate skills and learn to collaborate effectively in real-time to achieve objectives. To achieve these results, they use peer-to-peer communications (headsets), real-time data monitoring, and after-action performance analyses. Most employers would love employees who take such personal responsibility for learning and their own performance improvement.

Basically, the digital native generation will redefine how workplace learning will occur. Rather than sit passively to wait and learn, they’re going to reach-out in real-time to peers, look for information online, and get smarter by learning from errors in simulation environments. Workplace learning will be changing rapidly over the next decade, and this is a chance to look at the road ahead.

The article made the print version of the magazine, but here’s the digital link to the article, “When the Bird Tweets, Does Anyone Learn?” Also, the CLO homepage currently features it as its headline article with a awesome splash illustration. So, I’m very grateful to CLO for such wonderful positioning.

Let me know what you think of the article, and please feel free to pass it along to others who might be interested in the topic.

Two researchers, Roberto Fernandez and Emilio Castilla, focused on this question and studied the value of referral bonuses in the workplace. They hypothesized that companies that offer referral bonuses apply the principles of social capital to recruiting and hiring. They’re asking employees to leverage their network to reduce the high costs of recruiting and selections.

They examined two years worth of referrals at a call-center. Employees who recommended a candidate were paid $10 dollars for the referral. If the candidate received a job offer and lasted for at least 30 days on the job, the referring employee would receive an additional $250 dollars.

Fenandez and Castilla hypothesized that they would see financial impact in three areas:

• A richer selections pool–it will take fewere interviews to find hireable candidates
• Better matches–referral new-hires would have lower turnover than traditional new-hires
• Social enrichment–the social bond between referrer and referee would transfer to some degree to the company and lowering turnover

The two researchers found evidence for the richer selection pool and the social enrichment hypotheses.

• Total costs to select and hire non-referrals per hire: $1,394.37
• Total costs to select and hire referrals per hire: $977.95
• Savings: $416.43 per hire
• Referral payment: $260 to referring employee
• ROI for company: 66%

If managed properly, the social enrichment metric could yield $1,496 in savings per employee (due to reduced turnover).

Fernandez, Roberto M. and Castilla, Emilio J. “How Much is that Network Worth? Social Capital in Employee Referral Networks.” in Social Capital: Theory and Research. Lin, Burt, and Cook eds. Transactions: New Brunswick, NJ, 2007. 85-104.

“When you’re ten years old, you can only go as far as your bike will take you. Anything further than two miles may as well be two-thousand miles.”

Some of us are completely comfortable jumping on a plane for a business meeting. Myself, I’ve done that twice in the past two weeks–to Las Vegas and Green Bay, WI. Next week, I’ll be in San Jose, and the week after that, I will be heading to Toronto.

When I step onto an airplane it becomes my quiet office. It’s a place where I get work done and catch up on reading. My phone is off. Plane flights can be so very productive.

Yet, at the same time, I almost always have to travel to meet my clients. They’re scattered around the world. I can’t just meet them for lunch. So, I see them less often. That impacts our relationships.

How do you view distance and travel? What does distance prevent you from doing that you would like to do?

1. A person’s decision to quit smoking is significantly influenced by their network–not only the people they know but also 2nd and 3rd degree connections that they don’t know.
2. A single person quitting creates ripples–increasing the chance that someone two steps removed will quit by almost one third.
3. Surprisingly, entire groups of smokers within a network quit essentially at the same time.

I’m going to extrapolate well-beyond smoking here. Let’s say you’re a leader (exec or manager) who needs to implement change within an organization. Maybe you’re launching a new process or implementing a new system.

An organization’s social networks cuts across departments, roles, and levels. It also includes outside relationships (vendors, professional colleagues, friends, etc.) These social networks create influence that will either accelerate or limit behavior change.

1. If you are going to implement change, then you must actively foster connections between people who have already experienced success (say in the pilot) and the general population who will be asked to change.
2. If people resist change, don’t marginalize them to the periphery. They’ll build an “outsider” mindset and stick with other late-adopters. Instead, actively connect them to people who went through the change and found success. Weave them back into the group.
3. When you isolate people, you make it harder for them to embrace change.

Obviously, there are some people who will never adopt change (even when it’s in their best interest). See David Maister’s recent book Strategy and the Fat Smoker where he discusses the difficulty of persuading people to change “before the heart attack comes.”

We know what to do, we know why we should do it, and we know how to do it. Yet most businesses and individuals don’t do what’s good for them . . . . [the interesting question becomes] why don’t we do it?”

If you’re going to lead change within your organization, be sure to consider the power embedded within social networks within your organization. They can either accelerate or limit change. Also, take a look at books such as Dr. Robert Cialdini’s classic Influence: Science and Practice as well as David Maister’s work Strategy and the Fat Smoker.

]]> http://aha-moments.com/2008/05/the-power-of-social-networks/feed/ 0 http://aha-moments.com/2008/04/global-relationships-get-into-their-space/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=global-relationships-get-into-their-space http://aha-moments.com/2008/04/global-relationships-get-into-their-space/#comments Sun, 06 Apr 2008 05:51:37 +0000 Bill Sherman http://aha-moments.com/staging/2008/04/06/global-relationships-get-into-their-space/ When you’re tring to build a new relationship with someone, it’s tempting to talk about yourself and topics you’re comfortable. That’s especially true when you’re meeting face-to-face with someone for meals or coffee in town.

However, if you’re trying to build a connection with someone in another state or across the world, you actually have an advantage because of the asyncrhonous nature of e-mail. You can use the downtime to get out of your comfort zone and into the other person’s comfort zone. Here’s an example.

We’re currently proposing a solution to a company that records land titles for counties within the U.S. I know a little about this topic. I have purchased real-estate, and I consulted for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage several years ago. Yet, I wouldn’t say I’m an expert in the topic.

On Friday, I used Google to search for interesting articles on land title. I found an article (published two days before) in Scientific American that described how Aztecs recorded land titles. The article was pretty interesting, and it was also current. So, I reached out to our prospect and said, “hey, I spotted this article in Scientific American, and I thought you might be interested.”

Within two hours, he replied back enthusiastically, and shared some of the history of land-title in Texas. It wasn’t just a short note, it was a three-paragraph story showed me a little-known corner of the world. He was excited to share his knowledge with me, because I’d shown him something interesting about his world.

I found a way to be relevant to him. I got out of my own comfort zone and moved into his world. He reciprocated by sharing part of his knowledge with me.

E-mail allows you the precious opportunity to research and sound smart before you reach out to someone. Not everyone will respond enthusiastically when you step into their world, but they often recognize you’re making an effort to connect. The best folks will reciprocate, and you’ll have developed your relationship a little bit further!

A global company may locate 1/2 of a team in rural Wisconsin and the other half just outside of London. One of my colleagues lives in rural Texas (1.5 hours west of Austin). He spent this week staying up late and getting up early to be on conference calls with a prospect in Johannesburg, South Africa.

It used to be that the big companies were the multinationals. Now, we are all increasingly multinationals ourselves.

]]> http://aha-moments.com/2008/04/the-new-multinationals/feed/ 0 http://aha-moments.com/2008/03/the-virtual-connection-scrapbook/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-virtual-connection-scrapbook http://aha-moments.com/2008/03/the-virtual-connection-scrapbook/#comments Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:48:24 +0000 Bill Sherman http://aha-moments.com/staging/2008/03/23/the-virtual-connection-scrapbook/ On Friday, I received a handwritten note from Molly. She was our company’s first client, and she’s also become a good friend. Her company is located in rural Georgia, close to the Alabama state-line.

Sometimes our conversations are about work, while other times, we’re swapping notes on places to visit or restaurants to try. We’ve actually never met face-to-face (although I hope that we will have an opportunity to do so this year).

One of the things that I appreciate about Molly is that she pays attention to the details. The stationary was a crisp, heavy paper with an embossed monogram. Her words flowed confidently across the page.

I was excited to receive a note from her, and as I’d read it, I realized she’d spent time writing to say “thank you” for some of the things I’d done over the past few months. She brought a smile to my face and a great ending to my week.

When you’re working virtually, it’s important to find ways to connect with people and humanize that “voice on the phone” or the “words in the e-mail.” One of the things that I’ve done is begin a scrapbook. I keep notes and letters from clients and colleagues. I’ve also started taking pictures of people when I do get to meet up them. So, my virtual workplace scrabook includes photos, letters, and a few momentos from restaurants and other places. It has become a record of my workplace life, and keeps me connected to my colleagues–even though we’re sometimes a continent or more away from each other.

Today, I hosted a professional roundtable event for twelve people from six global companies. The participants live across the United States. They’d never met each other before, and they weren’t part of mutual network. We had an amazing first session that left the participants hungry for more meetings.

These connections occurred because my network isn’t just a local network. I’ve invested time building these relationships and have worked alongside many of them for years. When I invited them to the roundtable, they accepted the invitation based on their trust in me. I was able to make valuable connections across companies without leaving my home.

Too often, most people rely on their most proximate geographic connections–workplace colleagues, family members, neighbors, fellow churchgoers, etc.

When you work in a virtual workplace doesn’t have that luxury.? Your network’s strength isn’t the people immediately around you, it’s the people around the world. If your relationship map is a doughnut, then leverage those strengths to reach out even further.

I live in St. Louis. I’ve skimmed my inbox and cell-phone log. Today I connected with clients, prospects, and colleagues in the following locations:

• Pittsburgh
• Milwaukee (x3)
• San Jose (x3)
• Los Angeles
• Dallas
• New York City
• Las Vegas (x2)
• Phoenix
• Springfield, IL
• Chicago
• Las Vegas (x2)
• Bangalore (x2)
• Regina, Saskatchewan

I interacted with two of our employees here in St. Louis, but those two contacts are outweighed 10:1 by virtual relationships. My interactions today represent the virtual relationship doughnut. Most of my contacts and touchpoints were outside of my home city. Few of my contacts were face-to-face contacts. When your workdays include a preponderance of virtual relationships, it’s important to schedule times to expand your network within your hometown.