Hello all,  Our US readers have no doubt noticed that the political discourse over the past few weeks has been dominated by the subject of tax cuts.   This past week, President Obama and the Congressional leadership of the Republican party hammered out a potential compromise framework that would allow for the extension of lower marginal Federal income tax rates for all income levels; cuts that were originally enacted by President George W. Bush.   Because these past tax-cuts were passed using a special legislative procedural gambit known as “Reconciliation” (some of you might recall this one from the health care overhaul process early in the year), they automatically expire after a set time unless enacted into permanent law through ordinary legislative means. Regardless of your political leanings – and your opinions about these tax cuts, buried in this discussion is something that everyone with responsibility for L&D should care about.
Read the Full Article

Greetings and a pleasant Friday to everyone, Here in the US, we are about to start the holiday season.   Since next week is our yearly celebration of a bountiful harvest, this week’s list of reflections is a similar smorgasbord - weighted towards fun-and-games. ReFlect #1:  Immersive 3D Simulation and Serious Games I presented a webinar recently with the folks at Caspian Learning, makers of Thinking Worlds – a rapid 3D simulation and serious game development tool.   I’ve talked about Caspian in this blog before.    Simulations and serious games have long been recognized as valuable teaching tools for corporate learning organizations.
Read the Full Article

Hello there.   This week I had the pleasure of attending Citrix Systems’ annual analyst event.   If the name does not immediately ring a bell for you, I am fairly certain you know their products, including GoToMeeting and GoToMyPC.   And, as you may also know, earlier this year they added a virtual classroom product, GoToTraining. In light of this trip and our own virtual classroom study – set to be released a little later this year – this week’s theme is the virtual classroom.
Read the Full Article

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting a somewhat loose and rapid-fire version of our workshop on developing a social learning strategy as part of 2010 edition of the Irish Learning Showcase.   The Showcase is a recurring mini-conference and networking opportunity co-sponsored by the Irish Learning Alliance (a consortium of Ireland-based learning industry providers) and Enterprise Ireland.   These groups invite a mix of practitioner organizations (corporate, government, and education) who are either already current clients of Irish learning companies or who are key prospects.   The event is a chance for relationship building between these companies and the Irish providers, as well as both a source of personal network building and professional development for all participants. Last week’s event was a great success.
Read the Full Article

By this point, frequent readers of our blogs are aware that we just released a landmark study on organizational learning culture.   For those of you who have not seen it yet, go check it out now.   It takes the nebulous concept of learning culture and makes it real and actionable.   We have isolated 40 distinct cultural behaviors and practices that have a significant connection to the bottom line (not just ‘nice-to-haves’).   And – we have collected proven, easy-to-follow tactics for improving every practice.
Read the Full Article

Happy Friday everyone, Our major industry study on the 40 Best Practices of a High Impact Learning Culture ® – how they affect the bottom line and what you, the learning and HR professionals, can do about it – will publish soon.   Not surprisingly, it turns out that support for reflection – encouraging learning from mistakes (single loop learning) and questioning the underlying assumptions behind how we make decisions  and view the results (double-loop learning) are two of the most significant aspects of a strong culture of learning.   In that spirit, this week I want to kick-off what I hope will be a regular happening in this space each week or so: Friday ReFlects – an opportunity to take a double-loop look at the happenings and conversations across the greater world of enterprise learning. Since I am just getting this project started, this time I will go back beyond the past week. .
Read the Full Article

Back in January, I wrote about the evolution of e-learning.   Now, we are about a third of the way through the year, and I have been surprised at the speed at which some of the memes I talked about as just emergent then are taking hold.   In just the last 3 weeks, I’ve had questions from mainstream learning organizations (read: not early adopters) that focused on 1) shorter, multi-purpose learning content, 2) video – not as supplement to learning content but AS the content; 3) rapid simulation; 4) portable and ubiquitous learning; and 5) the new disciplines of the modern High Impact Learning Organization™.    It is clear that companies are on the move. The recovery is definitely underway.
Read the Full Article

   ‘Culture’ is a powerful word that brings with it many meanings.   We live within them.   Our world is defined by them and the interactions between them.   History is their story.   It makes sense then that we study them, wherever they take root.
Read the Full Article

Problem: Establishing the Value of Content This post is the last part of an ongoing series on the content challenges facing today’s modern High Impact Learning Organizations. ™  Be sure to read the whole series. We live in an information-based economy.   Content is currency.   Yet, how do we establish the value of content?  It is not just the quality of content that is becoming comodity; the cost of content itself is in play.
Read the Full Article

The year is winding down, and it’s time to start thinking about 2010.   I have attended three learning industry conferences over the past month: one each targeted to a different level of learning professional – from practitioner to CLO.   I have had the privilege of interacting with a wide range of people across the industry, listening to what’s on your mind – what you are worried about and what you are excited about for next year.   And so with these conversations still fresh in my head, I want to share with you some thoughts on our industry for the coming year. First, I am pleased to report that, despite the challenging economy and the cut-backs that have come with it, there remains a remarkable amount of energy and enthusiasm in our industry and for what we do.
Read the Full Article

Problem: Democratization of Authorship This post is part of an ongoing series on the content challenges facing today’s modern High Impact Learning Organizations. ™  Be sure to read the whole series.   By now, most readers of this blog will have heard the term: web 2. 0.   Part of the definition of web 2.
Read the Full Article

The Problem:  Expectations of Speed and Accessibility   We are drowning in content.   Business leaders tell us that keeping their head above water in this sea of overwhelming content is actually the single biggest hindrance to knowledge worker performance. The success of internet search engine technology is not much of a surprise then, seen from this perspective.   What is surprising, perhaps, is the speed at which search engines are becoming indispensible extensions of how we see and interact with the world; and how they are changing our expectations of content. Water,water everywhere, and not a drop to drink! For better or worse, Google and the rest have taught all of us that content should never be more than a keyword and a click away.
Read the Full Article

Note: This post is the first in a series.  Be sure to read the whole set! For modern learning organizations, quality content can be a huge problem. In fact, we are seeing a significant increase in the questions sent to us by our members on the issue.   Over the course of the next few posts, we will look at several aspects of this issue. First, I would be remiss if I did not point out that the rules corporate learning content have changed.
Read the Full Article

You have probably heard of the socratic method, yes? Just in case you have not, here is a quick history lesson. Famous Greek philosopher, Plato, was fond of using his equally famous mentor, Socrates, as the star character in many of his writings. Plato would address a particular philosophical topic indirectly, by relating a supposed story of Socrates discussing the topic either with his students or with other important people of the time. In many of these stories, Socrates teaches his students not by lecture or presentation, but instead by asking questions - questions carefully constructed to encourage the student to truly ponder the topic and to spark ongoing dialogue. This method of learning by engagement with questions has come down to us through time as the 'socratic method.
Read the Full Article

The preparations are almost complete.   Learning and HR leaders from around the world have started to converge on the Rennaissance Vinoy in St. Petersburg, FL.   It is time for IMPACT 2009, and a quick scan of the session agenda shows that – despite the economic downturn – this year’s event promises to both powerful and timely. For an analyst in enterprise learning like myself, it’s like Christmas in April.
Read the Full Article

I attended the e-Learning Guild's Annual Gathering last week. This week I am using this space to share a few of my observations from this year's event. In this final post in this series, I want to say a few words about my own concurrent session at the event:Before You Buy - LMS Market Update for 2009. We are about to launch our latest major new research study on the LMS and Learning Platform marketplace at our upcoming research conference IMPACT 2009, on April 12-14 in St. Petersburg Florida.
Read the Full Article

I attended the e-Learning Guild's Annual Gathering last week. This week I am using this space to share a few of my observations from this year's event. In this post, a few words on some of the sessions - first, two of the keynotes, and then highlights from the concurrent sessions: Wednesday's Keynote Wednesday's keynote featured Jeff Howe, Contributing Editor at Wired Magazine and author of the book, Crowdsourcing. The title of the session: "Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business (and Learning)" Howe defines crowdsourcing as "the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call. " Alternatively, he sometimes defines it as applying opensource principles to fields other than software development.
Read the Full Article

I attended the e-Learning Guild's Annual Gathering last week. This week I am using this space to share a few of my own personal observations from this year's event.    For this first post, I'll begin with a couple of overall observations:    First - the economy is clearly having an effect on industry conferences. This is the second event I've presented at this year (the other being ASTD's TechKnowledge conference). Both events saw a marked decrease in attendance versus last year.
Read the Full Article

Hello all. It’s a new year and therefore a time for new plans and new beginnings. I would like to kick off our blog discourse this year with a look at what you, our readers , are planning to begin this year. Every so often, we at Bersin & Associates query our membership as to their research needs and priorities:  what research would be of most direct use in support of planned endeavors?  Over the past month, we sent surveys to all of our members as well as conducted interviews with a sampling.   Today, I want to share some of the captured data.
Read the Full Article