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Five obstacles that social learning will need to overcome in order to be successful
The article in the following link describes "five reasons that corporations are failing at Social Media." After reading it, I decided to I post this discussion to reflect what I believe this means to the training industry.
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/132126
1. They can’t talk about anything broader than their own products
As a corporate trainer (especially when teaching customer facing employees) I had to use course materials that "sang the corporate song" and meshed with our "marketing message." A valuable part of training is to have open discussion that addresses weaknesses as well and to help the sales people develop strategies to overcome potential deficiencies. This information was shared in conversations and informal interaction. It iuse to be difficult to keep one's own company's information up-to-date and next to impossible to keep competitive information accurate. Social learning (if adopted) would enable user generated content to keep things closer to being accurate and up-to-date.
2. They listen to customers but don’t take any action
We've always gathered learner feedback. The training department gathers this data and generally shares some of it. Allowing our learners to provide feedback that is visible more broadly is important and will increase the need for immediate update and revision to elearning and classroom content.
3. They aren’t calibrated internally with the technology
Social media technology allows for immediate sharing of knowledge amongst peers. The traditional hierarchical and sequential process of course development and course revision will be challenged by this. We will need to replace our methods of "teaching the answers" to teaching "where to find answers" and "how to validate answers." This will need to rapidly validated and updated using technology or by imbedding links.
4. They’re not framing risk accurately
There is risk if a customer, prospect or salesperson learns something unfavorable about our company, its products or services while taking a class from the training department. On the other hand - what is the risk if the learner feels that they need to get trained by someone other than the trainng department in order to learn the "truth?" Creating FUD about this potential is a strategy used by competitors to vendor provided training.
5. Their internal culture isn’t aligned for social media success
Social media success is based on transparency and authenticity. Corporations will continue to evolve to these values. Training organizations and companies have an opportunuity to accelerate this evolution by developing and delivering training materials that represent these values.
What do you think?
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/132126
1. They can’t talk about anything broader than their own products
As a corporate trainer (especially when teaching customer facing employees) I had to use course materials that "sang the corporate song" and meshed with our "marketing message." A valuable part of training is to have open discussion that addresses weaknesses as well and to help the sales people develop strategies to overcome potential deficiencies. This information was shared in conversations and informal interaction. It iuse to be difficult to keep one's own company's information up-to-date and next to impossible to keep competitive information accurate. Social learning (if adopted) would enable user generated content to keep things closer to being accurate and up-to-date.
2. They listen to customers but don’t take any action
We've always gathered learner feedback. The training department gathers this data and generally shares some of it. Allowing our learners to provide feedback that is visible more broadly is important and will increase the need for immediate update and revision to elearning and classroom content.
3. They aren’t calibrated internally with the technology
Social media technology allows for immediate sharing of knowledge amongst peers. The traditional hierarchical and sequential process of course development and course revision will be challenged by this. We will need to replace our methods of "teaching the answers" to teaching "where to find answers" and "how to validate answers." This will need to rapidly validated and updated using technology or by imbedding links.
4. They’re not framing risk accurately
There is risk if a customer, prospect or salesperson learns something unfavorable about our company, its products or services while taking a class from the training department. On the other hand - what is the risk if the learner feels that they need to get trained by someone other than the trainng department in order to learn the "truth?" Creating FUD about this potential is a strategy used by competitors to vendor provided training.
5. Their internal culture isn’t aligned for social media success
Social media success is based on transparency and authenticity. Corporations will continue to evolve to these values. Training organizations and companies have an opportunuity to accelerate this evolution by developing and delivering training materials that represent these values.
What do you think?
Views: 12
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Les Adkins on
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I believe that transparency and truth is the key. When I was a corporate trainer I developed a customized course that allowed for us to talk about the weaknesses. The one thing I would also add to #3 is to go one step further from "where to find" and "how to validate the information" and that would be to have the training class have open conversations with each other and the top performers in the organization. I believe that very soon the technical skills of the work force will increase to the point that Social Media will be a requirement for new hires. "How to use" this Social Media for success will be one of the biggest challenges for traditional trainers.
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