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S I L I C O N V A L L E YHow

S O C I A L L E A R N I N G

I N S P I R E DA N E R A O F

by Jason Corse l lo

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that Silicon Valley has become the epicenter of transformational ideas. Rich in forward-thinking

talent and new, life-changing technologies, the Valley is known for spawning such modern-

day behemoths as Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter. These companies don’t just produce

game-changing technologies; they are also the breeding grounds of new and improved work

practices.

Steve Jobs made Levi’s jeans part of the modern workplace uniform back in the 1990s.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg then gave the jeans-and-hoodie combination a name among

Wall Street folks in three-piece suits as he rang the NASDAQ bell, in 2012. Over the years,

things not only became more relaxed when it came to what Valley folks were wearing to work,

but also how they were training new hires and championing workplace culture.

As the valley continues to grow and multiply its efforts in places such as, Silicon Beach (Los

Angeles), Silicon Alley (New York) and Silicon Prairie (Chicago), companies aren’t just adopting

new technologies to compete with the west coast hub, they are applying its entrepreneurial

spirit to business practices and management. One of the trickle-down effects of this has been

to rethink the way people learn on the job.

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INFORMAL LEARNING 2.0

Back in 2003, Jay Cross, a noted e-learning

expert, published a report indicating 80 percent

of learning at organizations happens informally

— like the off-the-cuff, all-night hacks Facebook

engineers often participate in, or Twitter’s open-

source engineering exchange. The social media

boom has only accelerated this peer-to-peer

learning trend. Sharing knowledge online with

friends and colleagues is now a social norm —

one that successful companies are trying to

harness.

“Informal learning is effective because it is

personal. The individual calls the shots. The

learner is responsible,” Cross writes. “How is it

different from formal learning, which is imposed

by someone else. How many learners believe

the subject matter of classes and workshops is

‘the right stuff?’ How many feel the corporation

really has their best interests at heart? Given

today’s job mobility, workers who delegate

responsibility for learning to their employers will

become perpetual novices.”

Though Cross introduced this idea over a decade

ago, businesses have been slow to adapt. Here are

three key strategies that can help HR managers

get started with social learning practices without

killing the budget:

CREATING A SOCIAL WORK ENVIRONMENT

Though the New Yorker cited a number of

reasons why productivity lacks in open office

environments in a recent post, “The Open

Office Trap,” it neglected to mention that as

social beings, we learn better in these types of

ecosystems.

Spontaneous situations lead to critical learning, as

stated in Thomas Allen’s book “The Organization

and Architecture of Innovation.” With an open

office, vice presidents sit next to interns. The

office hierarchy washes away, and everyone has

a chance to learn and teach on the same plane.

“In an organization that relies on creative

solutions to problems, communication for

inspiration is absolutely critical,” Allen writes. “It is

usually spontaneous and often occurs between

people who work in different organizational

units, on different projects, while drawing from

different disciplines. These communicators are

people who, under normal circumstances, would

have little to do with each other and perhaps not

interact at all.”

How can businesses foster such interaction

behind closed doors? There are many ways to

create a hybrid type of office that isn’t a free-

for-all of distractions. Peers must learn from one

another. More access leads to more learning

opportunities and more production.

BRINGING WORK TO LIFE

The work-life balance myth is long gone. With

more mobile workers than ever before, accessing

work outside of the 9-to-5 has become not only

a norm, but also an expectation. In order to

harness this as a positive, the workplace must

become more life focused and that starts with

social.

In his book, “Communities of Practice: Learning,

Meaning, and Identity,” author Etienne Wegner

introduces four premises that are essential to all

learning. The most important point to this four-

part system — the first step as it were — is that

we must acknowledge that we are social beings

and that this truth is “a central aspect of learning.”

Our need for social interaction has, no doubt,

been heightened and intensified with the

explosion of social media. Our penchant for all

things Twitter, Facebook and Instagram can be

applied to work — if integrated in the right way.

Enterprise versions of these consumer staples

are starting to emerge and for good reason. The

familiarity of these user interfaces can integrate

quickly into a workplace and also make the

exchange of information more fun for employees.

While Forrester research reports that just 12

percent of workers currently have enterprise

social network software available to them, the

market is growing fast. According to IDC, the

enterprise social software market will jump 42

percent through 2015, with worldwide spending

set to reach $4.5 billion in 2016.

“The primary business case for enterprise social

networks is to tap into corporate knowledge,”

author Paul Gillin explained recently in Tech

Target. “The idea is there is all this expertise that

you probably don’t know about because it’s not

relevant to your job. You’d [typically] never find

these pockets of expertise because there’s no

reason or no person to expose them.”

THE SOCIAL MEDIA BOOM HAS ONLY ACCELERATED THIS PEER-TO-PEER LEARNING TREND.

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PROVIDING AVAILABLE RESOURCES

Open-source learning can’t happen without

managers committing to some changes

themselves. Social learning consultant Bill

Cushard suggests organizations make the

following distinctions when making the shift.

Participation vs. Reification: “Social

learning depends on two critical

ingredients: conversation and available

resources,” says Cushard. As such,

companies must produce actual physical

resources with which employees can

participate. This could be a new social

technology or a special leadership group

of employees that hold monthly training

sessions and roundtable discussions with

members of the organization. What’s

more, companies should be sure these

resources aren’t the end-all-be-all. Leaving

the door open for new tools and learning

practices will maintain a sense of creativity

and keep employees engaged.

Designed vs. Emergent: Here is where

the structure needs to get tossed

aside. Social learning must be able to

“run free,” Cushard suggests: “In other

words, you can design social learning,

but participants must have the power

to decide where to take things, and

management should avoid the impulse

to control that.”

Identification vs. Negotiability: Social

learning is a choice. Psychologically,

not many people like to be told what

to do (and what not to do). By offering

the choice of engagement, employees

feel empowered to choose how

much they participate in the learning

program. You will find, though, that as

the organization grows closer together

through meaningful interactions, most

employees will welcome the chance to

learn from their peers.

Local vs. Global: If your organization is

based in multiple locations (or you have

some mobile workers, which, let’s face it, is

probably the case), be sure to distinguish

the training between the group as a whole

and these separate, smaller groups. What

works for the office in Los Angeles may not

be the process that the office in Boston

wants to implement. As these pockets

differ, it’s also important to implement

leaders that can sync on the differences

and similarities between the separate

groups to be sure the organization is still

speaking the same language.

THE VALLEY TRACK

Your employees are your human capital —

invest in them. Google certainly spends a lot

of money feeding (offering three gourmet

meals a day to its 37,000 employees

in Mountain View) and exercising its

employees (with yoga pretty much on call),

but it also spends time allowing them to

learn from one another.

According to a recent Fast Company article,

2,000 Googlers volunteered to teach

classes in 2013 — about 15 percent of the

company’s overall class offerings. Classes

range in topics, from mindfulness practices

to innovation workshops. The point is: they

are involved and invested. The work-life

balance employees used to seek is removed

from the equation, as people continue to

be stimulated at and through work.

By putting support structures in place,

employees can adopt a culture of social

learning that will not only be forward-

thinking, but will also help with overall

employee retention and overall company

dedication.

Jason Corsello is vice president of corporate strategy and marketing for Cornerstone OnDemand. Email Jason.

Open Environment: An open place where employees can work together is important to cultivating a culture of conversation and learning, but the philosophical transparency of an office is more important than a literal open environment. This openness will encourage all workers — from associate to CEO — to feel comfortable sharing ideas.

Make Everyone a Leader: Some people gravitate toward leadership roles more than others, but giving everyone a chance to lead will build trust throughout the company. Everyone is good at something — allow them to find that skill and provide resources through which they can teach the skill to their colleagues. Empowerment goes a long way.

Harness Soft Skills: Focus on day-to-day tasks, but don’t forget that things like empathy and communication are skills that can be taught, too. These soft skills are often surpassed when training, but are essential to a company’s overall success. Pinpoint the people that excel at these soft skills and empower them to convey these skills to others.

Loosen the Reigns: Social learning should never be a check-the-box type of activity. Yes, you can use a loose outline for how you want to introduce this type of learning to the organization, but don’t wear blinders here. The more you let the learning happen through organic experience, the more meaningful and lasting the lessons will be.

Don’t Just Say — Do: All of this sounds good on paper, but action is a key component. If that means selecting a task force of employees to start the learning process or setting hard deadlines for certain goals to be accomplished, be sure to take action around the learning — once the ball gets rolling the momentum will only increase.

FIVE KEY AREAS WHEN SHIFTING TO SOCIAL LEARNING