The Work, Connect and Learn Program was all about “Creating Possibilities” through connections. This logo was designed for the program and it showed the 3 fundamental guiding principles. It gave the program a focal point and the ‘why’ as well as create buzz and curiosity about the program. Thank you to Michelle Ockers www.michelleockers.com
It’s been over a few weeks since my last blog post and believe me, I’ve been thinking about it writing every day but simply couldn’t commit the time as my first priority was to deliver the guided social learning program, Work Connect and Learn Program with Coca Cola Amatil.
You may have read my other posts where I worked out loud through the strategy development and the design and development of the program. However if you missed them, here they are:
- A Way To Work, Connect and Learn in Your Job (my dream comes true to finally try my hand at developing a “cMOOC type” course – or a guided social learning experience by any other name with a client whose willing to give it a go so that it’s a learning experience for us both)
- The Work, Connect and Learn Program: The Strategy Phase (I approach all my work through a performance consultancy approach so it was necessary to undertake a analysis of the performance problem in the workplace before recommending a potential solution and delivery).
- How I Developed The Work, Connect and Learn Program (Decisions were made around what tools I was going to use to develop the program. At the outset, I wanted to develop the program using only the tools that were in the organisation – that is, Lync 2013 and SharePoint 2013 so that I could show how these tools can be personalised and customised to suit context. I had to role model and guide the social learning using the same tools that they had access to).
- First Reflections of a Guided Social Learning Program (I wanted to have a go with a couple of video reflections before and after the first module of the Program after such a huge build up of anxiety, anticipation and trepidation).
A few days ago, I ran the last webinar of Module 4: Learn How to Collaborate (Applying the Tools) and in a way, it was sad that I had finished the program but I’m thankful to have had this opportunity to be involved in such a transformative social learning program with the CCA engineers and maintenance teams. Here are three key reflections I vlogged which included the importance of learning teams to be aware of all the tools they have currently available within their organisation that can be used for learning; the need to maintain some level of professionalism on video; and how to encourage people to actively contribute in forums.
And here’s some more…
LESSON 1: Be Agile in Development
I had developed the all the modules from late November through to late January but I can’t stress the importance of revisiting your content before each module is delivered to ensure that it still meets the need.
Between module 3 and 4, we noted that there were not many people completing their pre- and post-webinar activities in the discussion forum and this concerned us. After discussions with managers, we identified that there was a requirement to have more ‘hands-on’ training at the work sites to show people how to undertake the tasks.
As a result, I changed Module 3 to include a discussion topic around a more pressing problem in their work sites (“What’s Your Top 5 Issues at Your Plant?”) to start conversations around something that is relevant to them and then integrated it into Module 4 which was focussed on how to go about finding information through effective search techniques using SharePoint 2013 and using their new social networking behaviours to link in and find expertise across CCA. The module also included discussions around their perceptions and expectations of social learning.
LESSON 2: Evaluate – Before, During and After the Program – and then After Again
Before the program was developed, we agreed to some key metrics to achieve that aligned to the business outcomes. Some of these, as an example were:
- Number of #Wins to translate back to business as savings or efficiencies (posts that are hashtagged as #wins which have improved a business process or solved a problem which serve as anecdotes and examples of value)
- Increase in number of cross-collaboration projects across sites
- Greater than 80% of the Maintenance & Engineering team have full Lync profiles and SharePoint Profiles with photos
- Decrease in emails and phone calls made to managers
- One new perspective/innovation identified by the Community that is nominated for an internal innovation award
We ran a pre-program evaluation survey to all participants and will run another one next week – one week post program. The survey will provide us data on the value of the program and it will specifically form the basis for the next phase of the program which is the Community Management.
We did not expect that a 5 week program would have all the team members across all sites using and applying the tools but anticipated it was only the start of their journey. It is now up to the community managers to maintain and sustain the community after the Work, Connect and Learn Program and I’ll be working with them through this.
LESSON 3: Video’s a Great Way to Introduce the Topics But Beware of What’s In the Background
I’ve always had a level of discomfort using video in learning – namely the discomfort is my face in the video. However, this Work, Connect and Learn program allowed me to be challenged in this aspect. I know that they could have been improved – that was part of my own learning journey.
For each pre-module introduction video, I tried something a bit different. I used my own web camera and uploaded the video file onto YouTube or I used the Video Manager in YouTube to record and create the annotations. Either way, this enabled me to learn more about YouTube, Video Manager and Play Lists (which was also timely as I delivered a webinar last week to Vocational Sector on Social Media for Educators where I could confidently present and demonstrate YouTube). For a bit of interest, every week, I strategically placed a can of Coke somewhere in the shot. I don’t know if anyone picked up on the moving can of Coca Cola… (that idea came from the Kevin Werbach who did something similar in his Gamification MOOC)
Of course, I did make my own ‘bloopers’ every now and again but I didn’t publish these in the final program – they were for my own viewing pleasure.
One example jumps to mind is that I recorded the introductory video in another room. One of the cats was sitting in the chair behind me and then got up, stretched and yawned, meanwhile the other cat was running around and knocked over a pot plant. I hadn’t heard any of these while recording as I was totally absorbed with the task at hand. On playback, I couldn’t help but laugh and I contemplated whether I should show this video. I decided against it. It’s a fine line between ‘showing your personality’ to people who haven’t met you in person or indeed, know about you through social media or networks.
LESSON 4: Community Facilitator in One Online Space, Lurker in Another
Michelle had set me up with SharePoint access and I actively contributed in the discussion forums as the online facilitator to ensure that the conversations kept going. However, in the wider community, through the CCA and Supply Chain news threads, I felt that this space was not ‘my space’.
At times, I participated in the discussion forums to IT so that I could be across potential solutions for technical issues we were experiencing in the forums but admittedly, I felt awkward participating in the wider news threads as I felt this was not my place to do so as an external consultant.
Once a week, to spur conversations back into the discussion forums, I did place images in the Supply Chain community hub that had been customised with messages for this week’s activities such as the one you see here. Part of me worried about the perception of my own personality that I was portraying with these but my reason was that images are more likely to be viewed and engaged with than just text.
Maybe I was over thinking this? I don’t know. It made me realise that over time, people who know me and/or my blog and who have been reading or connecting with me via social media have a relative understanding and acceptance of my personality, style and manner. However, this new group of people would not have been privy to that, I had to be mindful of this and curb that exuberance a bit.
In the next phase of the project (the Community Management), I will be an observer only supporting those who will be undertaking the management and the facilitation of this new Community of Practice.
LESSON 5:Schedule your Virus Updates to Occur At Other Times NOT During Your Webinar
In a couple of webinars, my screen froze. At the same time, my heart stopped. Luckily, I had a back up laptop also linked into the webinar and it was just a matter of switching computers. I later realised that my PC was doing its update during that time and had frozen the applications running. How could I have missed this?!
LESSON 6: Somewhere, somehow, someone will get the message – keep at it
I’d be lying if I said that this program didn’t keep me up at night. It wasn’t about the design, nor the delivery. It was something else. It was the age old question of MOTIVATION and CHANGE. It was trying to come up with the ‘WHY’. Why are some people motivated to learn and try something new and to others, it’s “take it or leave it?” How could we find the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) for people – and really, was it our responsibility? Where I was looking for tangible evidence (numbers of posts; increase in number of people contributing in forums), I was missing out was was happening on the ground as I ran the sessions from home. I wasn’t privy to the commentary, the anecdotes, the actions of what change I was effecting in their workplace across the sites. Admittedly, I wasn’t expecting 100% of the staff contributing in the forums but my aim was to show them how working like a network enabled them to share different perspectives and insights across the teams and in so doing, reduce business inefficiencies – and make their life easier.
Some people expressed that they had already seen the value of this program at a local level with the plants between Australia and New Zealand sharing information about work processes. Others had already started using Lync 2013 to connect with colleagues interstate. Amusingly one person mentioned that it was like “when email was introduced in our workplace. We didn’t want to use it but over time, we got used to it. And we’ll get used to this.”
I was also heartened to hear some of the feedback in the wrap up of the last module and these were some of the comments:
“We’ve seen so much come through on the discussion forum that a lot of the guys are going in to have a look and even though they may not be participating, they’re reading what’s being written.”
“We’ve already touched base with another site who have the information we need.”
“We all have got to make sure we don’t let it (the community) die, it’s up to us to keep the conversations going”
“I now see it as as forum to go in to solve problems”
So overall, it was a wonderful opportunity to be involved in this program with Michelle Ockers and her team at Coca Cola Amatil. We will be delivering our findings at the Australian Institute of Training and Development Conference in Sydney mid May and by then, we will have more information about how the community has been sustained.
I’m very surprised and sad to learn that performing cats are banned and ostracised on this site videos.
I think we are all perturbated by the videos we do. Cats, kids and younger people don’t. I’m myself trying to sound good in my English and I’m always unsatisfied with my voice. I’m just the only one who’s never hearing me. I imagine it is the same for you. I think we should do with it and overcome it. @ChristinKardos did the same on her set on @MovyStream and she did well. I will try myself to do one short video per week. I think that by appearing on the screen, time after time, we will eventually become accustomed to it and more natural. Being natural, trained we might eventually be better at it. We should ambition of even doing great.
I enjoyed myself your videos. I was captivated by your report of your work. I surely learned from your experience. I can tell you that you did well. I couldn’t see anything that refrained me from watching or being focused on the topic.
Of course, I would have lol seeing the cats and it would have disclosed some aspect of your personality. And then? As entrepreneurs, we know that our personality is part of what we sell and why people buy from us. They call it ‘experience’. I felt that the best is to live with it. Place a barrier of what will never be shared online and live with all the rest. We are social aren’t we?
Thanks Bruno, yes, our poor cats! No really, when I played back the video I rolled about laughing. It was the funniest thing I had seen for a while. I don’t know what got into the cat who was scratching at the pot plant for no apparent reason – meanwhile the other one was so utterly bored about what I was doing and all I could see was that massive jaw open and let out a yawn. It seemed to stretch forever. It simply wouldn’t do.
I heard somewhere that we don’t like our image portrayed back at us with video. When we look at ourselves in the mirror, we see a mirror image. On video, I swear, I seem to look different. Added to that, I can hear my nasally voice and I think, “gee! do I sound like that?”. Another thing is that my mind races a million miles an hour and I try to speak quickly which then catches me out – I keep repeating the same words and I have this strange ‘tic’ sound that I do with my tongue which is annoying. I look at myself in the video and I get annoyed!
I’m thinking audio podcasts are the way to go for mobility and they may be a lot easier. This way, I don’t have to look at myself and instead just try and have a conversation. Even that is hard too – I’m not much of a talker either. Don’t get me wrong, I like to chat like anyone but for podcasts around learning – they have to have some ‘point’ or ‘focus’. No one is going to listen to me ramble on about nothing in particular.
It’s a funny thing because people say to me that they’d like me to present or to undertake workshops and this frazzles me a bit. Not that I don’t appreciate it – I do – greatly – but it means that I take on the role of a ‘teacher’ or an ‘expert’ and that’s what I get uncomfortable about. I’m much more at ease when I’m learning together with my clients, discussing, debating, critiquing, analysing, asking questions and what ifs, and then coming up with a plan together – and together rolling it out and having some fun in the process. By formalising it through videos, podcasts etc – somehow, I can’t help but feel that I’m just presenting ONE solution out of so MANY. Of course, the cynic in me would say – “but this is how you earn your income – through the content that you create” – yes, I know but wouldn’t it be lovely if we were all just paid to learn, to experiment, to play…
Sorry didn’t tick to follow the replies and WordPress reader did a poor job. Definitely not an option.
It seems to me, as I discover the world of L&D, IDs and Learning, that there as many learning professionals types than there are individuals. I got it now you are not for formal learning. alas i think some formal learning helps to catchup quickly to a give level of Knowledge. A level from which your co-learners can have an educated opinion on the topic at stake.
As solo entrepreneur we have to do everything. What we like, what we don’t like, what we hate, what we disapprove, what breaks our values. Sometimes just to offer a whole experience, sometimes just because our opinions and values are plain wrong and should be reconsidered. Side benefit of recorded course is that they scale. Scaling is what pays for your own learning time, your experiments.
The deal is maybe to explain clearly that there will be a formal learning to get started but when discussions will start you are open to review some of the formal parts. IMHO that will be already very different from classic formal courses.
Thanks Bruno, yes you’re spot on. There are all sorts of people in the field of learning and development with different focus or key strengths. My background is ‘performance consultant’ and have been trained and qualified in this aspect but there was very little call for it when you’re attached in a L&D department. As a performance consultant, I go into the business and basically ask lots of questions to analyse where the root cause of the performance problem may be. In my experience, knowledge and skill gaps (which then call for a training solution) is a very small part of that – and which then requires further analysis to determine the type of solution. However, when you’re attached to a Learning and Development team, when you have clients saying what solution they want, “we want a course! we want an event! we want online learning!” trying to influence them to go back and determine the root cause for them thinking WHY they need that course is hard. Add to that, when you’re measured by how many courses you design and develop and every metric that measures your performance is based on delivery of learning solutions, you can see where I’m going with this. Simply there’s no ‘fit’ for performance consultants with current L&D teams (because it requires a new mindset and new training – besides some of them might not want to do this) and also, it’s not for everyone. We also need our facilitators, we need our content developers for other jobs once that solution is determined to be the right one to close the performance gap.
So my interest and preference and passion for my work has always been at the commencement of this journey with the client. Doing the analysis and together, coming up with a solution that flows within their work, that uses the tools they have available (or if not, sourcing the best external tools to close that performance gap), working directly with the business and key stakeholders and together, letting THEM OWN that solution to fit in with their workplace and culture, systems and tools. I don’t care necessarily about wrong measurements and metrics as the important metric to the business is if their person can process a mortgage application with 100% free error rate; can identify a problem in a piece of machinery and put a fix in place that gets it working again within the required time frames according to their procedures etc. That’s what the business cares for – not whether they scored a 75% pass mark in their online learning course or whether they clicked on a link to a document.
In the last few years, thankfully, I was seeing the conversations with L&D and the need to have a performance consultancy role in the organisation. Who knows, maybe there’ll be more people over time taking this role up? I also think that employing a Performance Consultant from a learning vendor company also defies the true nature of being objective as they will always offer a solution that is one of their company products and services. I’ve been in this position too and sometimes, they don’t meet the need either – or you have to work with other companies to create the right blend of solution. As a vendor in a competitive market, that may also not be a preferred solution for them either. So in the meantime, I like to remain platform, tool, product and service agnostic – but I LOVE to trial them all out and see their benefits and value and where they could FIT with my client’s performance issue. This is what I enjoy most about my work – the opportunity to continually learn new products and tools, to meet new people and together with my client to design a customised solution for them that will solve their business problem and make a real difference to the balance sheet.
Good stuff Helen – my dog has caused numerous laughs by walking in to the office during webinars – and I’ve always thought a ‘pause video’ function would be really useful when I want to take a sip of my wine on the go! I think setting the environment is really important but it really does depend (as always) on your audience and what you’re trying to achieve. Wholeheartedly agree with be agile and continue to evaluate – even live in webinars I’ve been known to work things out and share at that point (reminds me of my first year teaching!).
Thanks Nigel. I need to explore video a lot more but my thinking audio is the way to go too – especially for mobility. I’ve been involved in cMOOCs where the setting was informal – ie in someone’s loungeroom or while they were driving in their car – (and in so, I guess part of this was also because the facilitator was quite inspirational to the audience of participants) and then seen formal videos in the xMOOCs where they were scripted, filmed and formalised into the content. It was pretty obvious to me that perceptions are important. For someone who has never done this type of informal social learning, having me record my video in my lounge room may come across as flippant or unprofessional. As a result, it was all done from my home office or at the NAB Village (a co-working space in Melbourne). Even the idea of having the video recorded from home would have been an interesting one. I wondered if this perception of where I work – and indeed, how people work nowadays – was a myth that had to be busted. If anything, I think the message was quite a loud one. The tools allow us to connect with anyone at anytime and our work can flow through different media and we have access to it at anytime.
Great stuff Helen, congratulations on completing the last piece, really enjoyed following along as you progressed and learning with you.
When I saw the picture of the Coke in the picture I immediately thought of Kevin Werbach’s Gamifcation course also, very cool subtle things like that that easily add a bit of character but aren’t distracting. Cats and kids are a cool interruption but they can be very distracting for both parties. Numerous times during a call of some sort I’ve had my daughter distract me and it ruins my train of thought. All in its place I guess.
Thanks Nick, yes, that’s what I found out soon enough. It got me thinking about ‘Communities of Inquiry’ and how what I was doing/developing was actually a connectivist type course | a guided social learning program | a community of inquiry. I was the facilitator but these team members didn’t know who I was – for all intents and purposes, I’m someone who sits outside and who brings a fresh new perspective to the content. Maybe I was viewed with suspicion? (I doubt it but that’s because my relationship was formed with Michelle Ockers who also supported me with her managers and internal team). This got me thinking about the role of Learning and Development as community of inquiry facilitators – would they be able to provide a more holistic program that involved not only the social aspect but also the hands on coaching on site? This is what I’m grappling with at the moment. Some organisations are not at this point – that is, learning and development also need to go through the actual social learning program themselves as well as role model the behaviours before they can facilitate in communities and undertake this role for their business. However, it’s all a step in the right direction. Regarding the video, yes, I had to be mindful to present these videos in certain ways although in the past, I have been involved in connectivist MOOCs where the facilitators created informal introductory videos that fired up the conversations in the communities. Maybe it’s an audience thing too?
Everything has to be tailored to the audience, definitely.
Great reflection on your experiences and lessons from facilitating the Work Connect and Learn program Helen. Like you, I found the five weeks during the program very busy (with this and other programs/activities) and have a lot of reflections rattling around in my head that I’d like to write about. I’ll comment here on some of your reflections and share my post-program reflections in the next couple of weeks on my blog.
Use of tools – While I had a little head start on you with learning Lync and SharePoint as I had been using them already, the functionality of both was so much richer than I had been aware of. Lync was probably a bigger surprise to me than SharePoint. It was great to discover additional functionality that could be used to run online learning – like the whiteboard, polls and pre-loading of content to a Lync session. With both tools it took some effort to learn how to do new things once I became aware that the functionality existed (how many attempts did I have at figuring out how to make a high quality recording of a Lync session!). Perhaps faced with a need or opportunity to apply the tools in a new way pushed me to learn how to use them rather than wait to be ‘trained’ by IT (I’d be waiting a long time… and it was nice to stop moaning about the lack of training and get into self-directed learning mode). In some instances I would find out on the internet about how to do things using these tools only to find that the specific functionality needed had not been enabled either on my computer or across my organisation. ‘m still pushing for some SharePoint functionality to be made available, especially community site features.
On making videos – like you, I have some hang-ups about how I look and sound on video and have avoided making them. However, I shall follow your lead and include a video in my upcoming reflection. It brings the reflection alive in ways not possible in writing. The other reason for me to get over this hang-up is that we will be running Work Connect and Learn again with a different group commencing in 3 weeks and I will need to re-do the introductory videos for each module. I hadn’t realised the game you were playing with placement of a CCA product in your videos – I only noticed it once. I thought you were being an outstanding brand ambassador and appreciated the touch. I liked the way your personality came through in the videos, webinars and online spaces – it was an important reinforcement of the message that our online presence should be aligned with our face to face presence.
Enabling people to participate in the community spaces, especially online, is going to be an ongoing role for our Capability community and the Maintenance & Engineering Managers. It was important that our Capability Managers, who provide local on the ground execution of, and support to, our capability programs, participated in the WCL program. Many of them have started providing close support to those maintenance team members who need more help to confidently use Lync and SharePoint, and in some cases are organising small group sessions to go back over the webinars and undertake the program activities. They have taken it on themselves to provide this support, indicating that they came out of the WCL program with an appreciation of the value of communities of practice and commitment to enabling participation. I’m sure that other ways of enabling participation will be identified in analysis of post-program evaluation, and a focal point during our upcoming Community Management coaching.
Finally, thank you for the outstanding role modelling you provided to me throughout the development and delivery of the program. In particular (but not limited to) (1) your interest in the people in the CCA teams you worked with; (2) your enthusiastic approach to self-directed learning; and (3) the way you provided feedback and guidance to people in the discussion forum. Working alongside you has made me a better social learning practitioner.