DEAR FRIEND - HELP PLEASE! WHAT DO I DO?

This post is all about one person’s (me) timeline of transformation from an e-mail dinosaur to something else…..  

It is about a journey, my testimony, but also something else very fundamental. It is about the need to help people into the socially networked wirearchy of collaboration that is so rapidly becoming our workplace – and our way of life.  That special something is the need to have someone at hand to help when problems occur and panic and confusion threatens progress, someone who will inject new ideas and provide the encouragement that energises and gives the confidence to take the next step. 

2 years ago, 62 years old, I was very happy using e-mail as my communication platform. I used Skype for social purposes – mostly on poor lines to speak to my wife while away for extended periods in places where phones are expensive. I had a LinkedIn address but never used the platform. 

18 months ago I started to use Skype for business conferencing on a global basis – audio, not chat and certainly no video because bandwidth restrictions at my client prevented it.  E-Mail remained the tool of choice – in fact the only tool if I am really honest. I was beginning on a crash course of using and learning about the potential of webinars – I had asked a question via the chat box and I had even dared to take part in the participant chat on one of them.  But that was a scary experience! 

Just over a year ago this week I started (very cautiously) to explore Twitter, I had just set up a blog but had not used it – and was anxious about doing so. I had a gMail address and a Google account. 

What a difference a year makes! The year since has taught me so much about the incredible power of some of the many platforms and applications that we now have at our disposal. I will now explore, evaluate, and either incorporate or discard with a degree of confidence – although I remain somewhat challenged in getting going with a new one when I make that decision. 

NIC’s STORY 

Here’s how it began just about 15 months ago…… 

My great friend and colleague, Robert Kydd, had become fascinated by the discoveries I was making in researching global best learning practice for the major client where he works.  I was busy exploring the enabling and supporting possibilities of social learning – he recognised the need for, and was into understanding the platforms and their potential use. I was persuaded to open my gMail address and Google account.  He even managed to get me to use GoogleTalk a couple of times.  My journey towards multiple platforms had begun - but I was without direction. 

Looking back I lacked a skill that I believe will be seen to be essential for knowledge workers and workplace collaborators in the years to come. – that of carefully assessing one’s communication needs and matching to them the host of available solutions to provide an effective and efficient toolkit for one’s work. That skill has had to be developed very quickly indeed.

Robert suggested having a blog of my own to document my discoveries. Whoa! That’s a step too far.  Robert was in a far away place and we could only “talk” electronically except at quarterly meetings where he did his best to help. But he was speaking a language and urging me to do things for which I was not ready. Not Robert’s fault – he took me a giant step down the road and we were on our parallel journeys together. 

Baffled by the technology, nervous of disclosure and security issues, not understanding much of the “tech speak” language surrounding apps and the SoMe, but hugely excited by the potential of it all, I was disempowered and frustrated.  

(This next bit sounds really kitch!) 

Then into my life, via a brilliant webinar she did for the Learning and Skills Group (www.learningandskillsgroup.com ) , came Jane Hart!  

Her exposition of the value of Ning, Elgg and other platforms I had never heard of lit my fuse – I began to see a way forward – but I was like someone with no arms and no legs – I had no idea what to do next and lacked the courage to take the next step forward from the point I had reached with Robert’s help.  I researched Jane – and became awed both by her reputation and the sheer scale of her knowledge base, all made so accessible in her website and on her blog (http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/ ). When I found that Jane’s home base is only an hour’s travel from mine, light dawned – I could do what all Boomers do – set up a meeting!  

Looking back, coffee in the cloister restaurant of an English cathedral seems a bit of a quaint way to have kick-started my journey. Jane inspired me with the total common sense of the empowerment of social learning through the SoMe. It had to be the way forward – but she gave me a problem.  “You will not understand until you have involved yourself and tried it out”  

Me on Twitter?  You have to be joking! 

Two months later I knew Jane was right – I had done nothing to engage, but was even more convinced.  This was the moment to take the next step – but how?  “Get involved” my heart said – “be cautious” my head screamed – “I don’t know how”, my senses complained.  I know – boomer response – call Jane and ask for help! To my surprise she suggested we meet so she could help!  Little did I know…… 

That was it – a morning chatting, a bottle of wine – and then I was being gently but firmly installed with a Twitter account and a blog and a whole afternoon when I had to practice – EXTREME stress!  (Sounds foolish in retrospect but it was very real at the time) 

What has followed since has been incredible – my new found friend and mentor has had to be very patient! The following is a light hearted précis of a little of it…… 

"Come on now!  You do it this way - no not like that! Duh! I'll spell out the steps for you - do them one by one (Yes, dear friend). Can't you follow simple instructions?  Clearly not - let's try again - I'll write it out for you this time in easy words . That's better - your next lesson will be how to get into Twitter yourself - let's see if you need another lesson on how to sign in.....OK - got that bit - now try typing a message...... Good - now - oh no don't do that - you have told the whole world you think I am wonderful, I'm sure you intended that only for me!  (Some time later - when I have proved I can reliably - more or less - get into and use some of the media) Go to the xxxxx site and write a response – put down what you really believe...... Now you are in s*** - everyone is after you - but never mind - remember that if you don't narrow it everyone will see your tweets - too late - but I'm sure you will manage the consequences……  BTW - you could blog it as well - then all the rude comments will come straight back to you - well done - can I re-post it on my page please?”  

So it went on, coaching that was firm but light-hearted and always supportive……and a year later…… progress has been made …… 

“That conversation on Skype chat has been very interesting - when you’ve gathered your thoughts, if you post a blog, make sure you Tweet it and it will then get re-tweeted. (Yes, Jane) Make sure your Twitter address is prominent on your blog (Yes - mentor) You can put that stuff on SlideShare (Yes coach – if you show me how – NB revert 2 paragraphs!). Why don’t you do a webinar?  And you could write a book?  And conference speaking to share what is in your blogs about communities……..” (Now this is getting ridiculous – but my confidence is up and I am able to move forward) 

And Robert, who started this journey with me?  We are walking together. Now challenging one another to explore along our different lines, sharing the outcomes and supporting one another in influencing the situations around us.. 

Life has changed. 

That's coaching in action - if you are up for it - enjoy the ride!  

JANE’S STORY 

That will follow – because it has been a time when she and I have learned, shared and worked together.  The relationship has become a friendship – built on trust, shared experience and a common vision for networked Smart Working.  I will leave her to respond in due course 

But before I post my story, I must go back to the person who did so much to start me on the road.  This is  

ROBERT’S STORY 

“Analysing what has happened to Nic, I realise that there are three necessary components 

·         The Platforms themselves

·         A realisation of the process of using the platforms to engage with the potential community

·         The content and the passion to share it and learn from others 

As we began to understand how the platforms could be used, we engaged with existing communities and discovered the benefits that were emerging in the communities lives.  We gathered confidence and skill in interacting in this new environment to see those benefits at first hand. 

Nic realised that his experience and insight could add benefit.  He therefore went to the communities to share that insight and with an openness to learn from others. I saw the value of the community grow in a synergistic way as a result of Nic’s participation. At a personal level Nic’s having moved beyond simply networking into exploration of the SoMe for networking provided the light at the end of the tunnel – showing me that my efforts were not likely to be in vain. 

Now motivated, I used my own involvement in communities to which Nic had invited me such as the Social learning Community (http://bit.ly/gRSHN9 ) to frame the initiation and development of a Yammer community in my company which now numbers over 4000 

So what do we learn from all this? 

There has been humour, frustration, and elation when I got it right and have been able to access the power of it all. My experience illustrates a huge lesson for us all in our involvement in online communities and in social learning .We all need to know that there is someone, a real, warm, caring, intelligent human being who is prepared to invest in supporting one’s stumbling efforts. If, for whatever reason we are unskilled with the tools, they will be a block to our learning.  Comfortable with them, that immense and incredible new world of learning opens up like the views from the mountains as we walk and enjoy.  

I am immensely privileged to have two people support me so closely in my journey – and I know there are a host of others walking the same path, all of us seeking for each other’s success. Is that not what social learning is all about?

When we recognise the nature of the journey, we understand ourselves so much more. Then we are able to help others at whatever stage they are on their own journeys – and our own learning truly begins.  As we interact through the communities to which we belong, we do well to remember that, unseen, all of us are facing our own challenges and need each other’s support. It is in giving that we receive! 

I am still clumsy with the software and need a lot of help – but I have learned to “speak” in this new world – liberated to share my thoughts and to get feedback and insight from people who read them – even Jane seems to gain from them sometimes!  

Thank you Robert and Jane and all of you who read and comment on my small contributions – this new world is a great place in which to be and one in which every day is a learning adventure.  

Oh – and Ollie, your story needs to be told too…….

If you’re not Part of the Solution - an Introvert’s Perspective on the Shift to Social Working Practices

Following my posts about the behaviours needed to create and maintain effective Learning Communities and Communities of Practice, this post from Steve Gardener gives an illuminating perspective on the battle that introverts constantly fight to be able to contribute to communities in the fullest way.  Thanks Steve for your insight and honesty.

 

Posted on 21 Jul, 2011 by Stephen Gardener
As Henry J. Tillman said, “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate”. Geeky chemistry humour aside, there is an analogy to be had here. For any system, there always seems to be some fallout. A group that gets left by the wayside. If our goal is to set up a system or environment for learning or working together, some will cope very well, and others will get left behind. This is not due to their lack of intelligence, talent or ability, but simply because we all have our strengths and weaknesses, and particular systems will tend to favour certain strengths, and under-appreciate others.
Introversion is one of those strengths that tends to get forgotten about. My post here today is about this group, the one to which I feel I belong.To have a tendency towards introversion is almost a given for a software developer. But I have recently moved from my pleasantly lonely (I prefer the Norwegian word ‘ensom’ here, having less negative connotations, being more of an actively chosen state than the English word ‘lonely’) chair in front of my computer, into the very social world of business. My wife Ollie, coming from a Learning and Development strategy background, has always thrived working with others. When we started our own business last year, I was the programmer, but necessity has meant my moving more and more into the business and people side of things.

Noddlepod and the new social learning

We decided to build a tool to encourage the informal side of learning in learning networks. With the help and advice of many people in the industry, it evolved into Noddlepod, a tool for parallel working and learning. The idea comes from the fact that people rarely work or learn in isolation, but tend to be part of a bigger picture. That bigger picture might be a specific process that you and others are working through - it might be the class you are taking at university, or the training programme you are working through at work. It could be a project your team is working on, or even your department in relation to others. Innovation, discovery and learning tend to arise at the intersection between different disciplines, interests and ideas. Parallel working brings these different disciplines, interests and ideas together.
The more I have worked on developing our application, the more I have come to learn about and understand the ideas behind employee/student engagement and the advantages of more social and informal approaches to work and learning. Much of what we promote focuses on the idea that ‘the network is the future’. Traditional hierarchical approaches to learning and working just aren’t suited to many of today's businesses and universities. Information changes too quickly. Hierarchies slow down the decision making process, and by only allowing a small number of individuals the final say, they also greatly restrict the outcomes.
If people can be brought together in their work and learning, seemingly unrelated areas of expertise could trigger an explosion of learning and discovery. It works equally well looking at it from the other angle - the varied backgrounds and points of view of the individuals in the network make it much more likely that problems are spotted before they become issues.
So how does this shift to more social work practices affect someone like me, who is much more comfortable and productive working quietly alone? Am I to be the precipitate of the new system that I am working so hard to promote?
I see three issues that might cause some people difficulties (and not only the introverted among us).

• Communication - how we can encourage the quieter amongst us to work comfortably and to contribute in a more social environment?
• There are differences between formal and informal approaches, and people have a preference towards one or the other.
• In order to fully benefit from this approach, we all have to be more comfortable sharing unfinished ideas.

Encouraging communication

Encouraging communication, is possibly the easiest to solve. I find am better at communication when I have time to formulate what I want to say. The current trend towards online communication is perfect for this - forums, blogs and other social media allow the more introverted among us to ‘lurk’, getting a feel for the network and the people in it before contributing. In addition, they give the individual time to consider how they might want to word their contribution. Chances are there will still be a strong extrovert bias, but the playing field is definitely levelled. Of course, our ‘precipitates’ now are those that are not comfortable with computers, those who would rather just pick up the phone or chat face to face. How we might balance the technical and the human approach to communication will have to be discussed in another post. Let’s stick with the introverts for now.

Formal vs. Informal

The idea behind more informal approaches to work and learning is to encourage a more relaxed environment where people feel more able to contribute, resulting from the tempering of bureaucracy and a shift from rigid, hierarchical leadership structures to a flatter, more democratic approach. Informal approaches often involve removing structure and putting more of a focus on social interaction. This can cause minor panic attacks for the more retiring of us! Many introverts struggle with open-ended social activities. However, we don’t need to, and in fact we should strive not to abandon all structure in our quest for the informal.
It’s all about balance - too much structure restricts, but not enough leaves people floating aimlessly, with no direction. We need clarity around our roles and our tasks, and we need to understand where we fit in to the overall scheme of things. But we also need freedom - freedom to step outside of and away from our roles and tasks. We need opportunities to interact with others sharing those same freedoms.
This balance suits the introvert well. Working with others can provide a welcome opportunity for social interaction that might not come very often, or very easily, to the introvert. Doing so in a relaxed and positive environment, with enough structure that people are not feeling uncomfortable or directionless, but at the same time encouraging social exchange, I suspect would suit most people well, not just the introverted.

Making a fool of yourself

To get the most benefits from social learning in a network, the participants need to be comfortable sharing unfinished ideas and making mistakes in front of each other. I think this is the biggest hurdle, and not just for the quieter among us.
As Ollie discussed in a recent post, most of us seem to be genetically programmed to try to avoid making fools of ourselves in public. But while I’m sure genetics are involved, culture also plays a big part in this. Of course, we all want to make a good impression and only show our good side, and many of us are afraid of being ridiculed or put down for saying something daft. So how do we encourage people to share not only their polished, finished end product, but also the process they went through, the mistakes they made and the dead ends they came to? (see Ollie’s post for more about why we should be encouraging this).
It’s all about culture. Others need to be seen to be able to voice their opinions and thoughts without repercussions. Encourage those that are comfortable to do so to contribute and share thoughts and ideas, regardless of the state of completion, or the correctness of their contribution. It doesn’t matter if it’s only a handful of people initially. The more people see others openly exploring and experimenting, and (perhaps more importantly) the more people see the community responding positively to those contributions, the more likely they are to contribute themselves. It is bound to take some time, but then most worthwhile things do.

Introverts and the new social workplace

I was worried when I started writing this post that it would be all too easy to come to the conclusion that this is simply the way of the world - that it is the people who thrive in social situations, people who are unintimidated by others who will dominate, when even the most intelligent and mindful, introverted individual struggles to make themselves heard above the often loudly spoken opinions of the extrovert.
However, at least in the field of parallel working and learning, this certainly doesn’t have to be the case. We can appreciate diversity in all its forms, actively listening to what everyone has to contribute, even if (maybe especially if) they don’t seem to have anything to contribute. It seems we all have an inate need to understand and to be understood. The hard part is actually trying to understand other people and what our ideas might mean for them, when they are probably living in very different mental worlds to our own.
New opportunities for communication mean that the more introverted among us have a fresh opportunity to contribute and be heard, and hopefully to be listened to. With understanding and a bit of planning by the people responsible for our networks, as well as caring attitudes from those within them, we can produce richer, more productive and more representative communities.

Being Careful and Caring with our Learning Communities

“Is everyone loving Google+ or are you still limping along like me?” @ChelleRobertson – 19 July on Twitter 

I’ve found myself getting personally involved in the “Is G+ a good development?” discussion. I made some comments on Twitter and received a deluge of responses, some of which were very much less than helpful in leading me towards either exploration or involvement in what may in the end turn out to be “a new social backbone” (Edd Dumbill http://oreil.ly/oCCTS5 ). Others were supportive and empathetic. 

The spectrum of responses has caused me to think about some issues we face as promoters of technology supported learning – and especially that which we know to be so richly enhanced by the social media.  Even Clive Shephard, in his flawed refutation of the fact that traditional L&D will diminish as the true power of the SoMe in enhancing social learning becomes apparent (http://www.epic.co.uk/elearningdebate/ ), acknowledges that the playing field of learning has now changed.  That change brings with it a challenge that is uncomfortable for the enthusiastic pioneers (evangelists) for new tools and technologies. 

Francine Hardaway says

. “The best use of social media for business isn’t really marketing, it’s learning.” (blog.tweetsmarter.com ) 

In the same post Dave Larson goes on to assert that “People new to social media, and Twitter in particular, have trouble conceptualizing what it is and how to best use it” 

He is picking up a specific of an issue that requires some exploration.  We need to put ourselves in the position of the individual who, as Performance Support professionals, (having made the transition ourselves from L&D), we are seeking to assist.  Most have grown up with a view of learning as a face to face classroom based activity. More and more have not – they have been educated using to some extent a variety of technology based methods.  They have a firm concept that learning is something that is provided to them, mostly from a top-down corporate model. 

With our bright, shiny, new toys, we convince them that there is a more effective way to learn (many of them knew that already) and we introduce them to the wonders of e-learning.  Having struggled their way to a level of comfort with operating the plethora of techniques we love so much, we now tell them that, actually, their best learning will come from social collaboration and networking – enabled through the various platforms of the SoMe. In many cases it won’t be the ones they use at home – Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter etc – because these are frowned upon as “trivial” by the organisational powers that be.  Instead they are “respectable” lookalikes such as LinkedIn or Yammer. 

We provide lots of help to people to get them to see and be comfortable with Tweets, Streams, Threads, Walls and the rest and we help them to use them to learn from peers and anyone else they can access through the ever-increasing range of devices – PC/laptop, Windows/Mac, mobiles (on one OS or another), tablets, using apps, clients, service providers and the like.  Then we tell them about the cloud and how that is going to revolutionise again the way they will do their work and learn from everyone in whose circle (I deliberately use a small “c”)  they happen to find themselves.   

Small wonder that we get glassy eyed looks of confusion, despair and disbelief about what we are doing.  

Jane Hart, in her great new post (http://c4lpt.co.uk/handbook/state.html ) says 

“L&D will need to "practise what they preach", and for those who are resistant to change in the organisation, show the value of new approaches in their own professional practice.” 

We preach making learning easy and accessible to people. If, in our enthusiasm we confuse, scare and deter people then we will have found another route to send L&D into oblivion. Changing what only recently was scary but has now become familiar may be a fast route backwards. 

Our embracing of new things, which laudably characterises many people who are working for the transformation of learning, must not spill over into headlong evangelism that destroys the very trust in the function that is being so carefully built as learning moves from being an overhead to a key business activity. 

We need to take our people with us at the speed they can go – it’s an old maxim that things move at the speed of the slowest component – so true as we seek to foster organisation and culture change to enable learning to make the business impact we know it can. Our reaction to peoples understanding, acceptance of concepts and appetite to change will be a major determinant in whether they move forward or become the resisters we so much want them not to be. Support is everything, criticism will slow things down and create negative reactions. 

“We don’t all have to keep changing ships every time a new platform or application comes along, It's OK for us to investigate new tools, but we shouldn’t make others feel bad if they don’t want to get involved or make changes.  If the new arrival adds value then of course use and promote it - but don’t make others feel like they are not keeping up!” (Jane Hart) 

“There’s too much going on to join in with everything and so I have to pick and mix what I will respond to based upon my own interests and preferences” (Steve Batchelder – Confessions of a Lurker http://bit.ly/oS7coj ) 

We have two aspects to our work in Performance Support as L&D professionals. The first is to help others and our employing organisations exploit the individual and collective potential that exists.  The second is to research and evaluate our rapidly changing discipline so that we bring the best to bear to improve outcomes and to encourage people to enter the social learning world.  We must carefully balance those roles.  

So, just a caution – rushing headlong into new platforms that are as yet unproven and ill-defined in their effect may damage achievement of the goal we so passionately desire. 

When choosing or purchasing a social learning platform to support collaborative learning – keep it simple!!!  

Michael Rose (http://bit.ly/rrV6tS) put this rather nicely 

"The tools and platforms that you choose should be fast enough, and easy enough to use that people will embrace the technology and start using it. Creating content, uploading content, sharing content, making it searchable, adding assessments and comments, viewing reports and bundling content together should all be easy to do.”

Community - an important component of performance support

The growing understanding that L&D's prime role in the second decade of the century is as a highly specialised and potent performance support function makes it important for us to undertsand how that support happens.  Don Taylor has written quite brillinatly about this in the Training Zone (http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/topic/strategy/four-things-ld-must-do-stay-relevant-part-4-performance-support/160973).  However is there something missing?  What is the factor that will power the move of L&D into its true role in the business? Allison Rossett writes about the convergence of learning and work at http://edweb.sdsu.edu/Courses/ED795A/key1/Rossett_Schafer_aboutPST.pdf

Improving performance always means implementing change, and with change always comes risk, insecurity and some degree of resistance.  The means to overcoming the inevitable lack of confidence, hesitancy, and unwillingness to take initiative that ensue is well documented as helping people find a new and comfortable place to be, supporting them with answers to questions, providing information, enabling new skills, encouraging experimentation, allowing failure and other points on a check-list.  It is only when people begin to regain confidence that performance will improve and individuals will reach out for new and challenging targets.

So what is the role of community in performance support?

• A place where people are able to find comfort - whether out of common need, fear, or interest, or whether out of a sense of adventure, or even an understanding of the need to carry the whole along and thus help one another
• A place to retreat to and share feelings, needs, anxieties and to ask questions of others experience,
• A place into which to adventure to express ideas, share and validate insights
• A place where those who "can" help others with knowledge, experience and affirmation
• A place of discovery, where energy is gained to push and cross boundaries

And how is this relevant to our technology enabled learning world, powered by the Social Media and full of new and sophisticated tools?

• Our quest for performance support in our connected world of wierarchies means that almst anywhere we look (for help, experience, ideas, experience) we interface with and join (even if only sign up and gain access!) to networks.  In many cases these are groupings of people who don't know one another and who only come together out of common context or content. 
• In joining networks we become unconsciously part of communities - in which we readily empathise with others we find there, where we are able to explore ideas dispassionately and maybe even to disagree vehemently
• In our quest for that essential comfort zone we experience another kind of discomfort in joining an unfamiliar technology, new and anonymous people, an unwritten code of practice about the rules of the community.

I could continue, the point is that in seeking to position L&D as a performnce support lever in our enterprises we need also to recognise that the media we are now so proudly using to fuel that leverage is one that requires as much attention to its human aspects as any other process we use in doing our work.  Our networks are actually living and evolving communities which if developed with good human vlaues in mind become powerful and treasured palces for seeking improvement.  If not they will sooner or later fall into disuse - and rescuing something virtual will always be a difficult task. People turn away when they see no benefit.