Chief Learning Officer - August 2008 - (Page 18)

EFFECTIVENESS Trios Trump Singletons Three heads are always better than one • BY JAY CROSS ast week it was hot (82 degrees) and rainy in the instead of the group chokes off today’s opportunities Southern Alps, so my family drove 110 kilometers with yesterday’s limitations. Groups of people, not individuals, are the key to south to eat lunch on the shore of Lake Como. Our producing value in the knowledge era; yet, corporameal was so fresh and artfully arranged, it could have made the cover of Gourmet magazine. The service tions hire individuals, performance reviews assess a also was impeccable, so I didn’t mind paying the bill single person and career paths are solo. Whenever we catch ourselves thinking of individ— 154 euros — even though that was the most I’ve ual workers, let’s take a moment to consider whether ever paid for lunch. We have a photograph of our son at the same table we should be thinking of teams instead, as conversa20 years earlier, a 3-year-old in a booster seat with tion is the wellspring of innovation, and innovation the panorama of the Bellagio unfolding below. Same results from the creative friction of people with differplace, same fresh ingredients, same lavish service — ing perspectives. They co-create the concepts that bring them into but then, the tab for lunch was 30,000 liras, less than harmony with their environment. They reinforce one 20 euros. another. That’s “they,” When I moved not “he” and not “she.” to Europe in the late I recently orches’60s, the most popular CLO-FORUM trated a series of one-day guidebook was Europe Do you have thoughts about how to use meetings to help organion $5 a Day; $5 today Web 2.0 technology to create a team zations understand how is not enough to buy environment? Let us know about them networks evolve and how a beer in Berlin. Simiunder the Web 2.0 and Learning topic network effects change in larly, organizations were at www.clomedia.com/clo-forum. the way business is done. once proud to offer two We talked about Interweeks of annual trainnet tools, collaborative ing; today, ﬁve times culture and what has worked in pioneering organizations. that much is hardly sufﬁcient. Thinking with outdated currency keeps most That’s just education: My goal is to light ﬁres. Web 2.0 puts powerful network tools into the CLOs from reaching their potential. Their organizahands of the people who use them. The tools are by tions believe meaningful projects are supposed to take months to plan, quarters to implement and years to pay and large easy to understand and modify for one’s purposes. (If the going gets tough, ask anyone under for themselves. Every CLO has heard this self-fulﬁlling prophecy: the age of 25 for help.) Web software enables people to experiment with “You have a great concept there, but we don’t have new concepts in hours, not months. And in our time to tackle it now.” This belief is a vestige of industrial-age thinking. sessions, we build blogs, wikis and communities as When work is manual, time away from work is value we talk about them. In the past, organizations often sent a single individdown the drain. And for the most part, hours equal ual to an outside meeting, believing that he or she would value, and value equals hours. However, knowledge work does not suffer from bring the message home to share. This rarely happens these same limitations. Brains can generate valuable because the individual is the wrong unit of production ideas in milliseconds. One minute may lead to an for taking advantage of learning innovation. Organizations that send teams are more likely to put innovation that changes the world. things into practice. Colleagues reinforce one another; As a result, value is no longer proportional to hours worked, so saying there is not enough time is a an individual is but a lone voice. A small team cannot only plant the seeds of innovation but also nurture statement of priorities, not of scarce resources. While the individual is the old unit of human them, so the optimal unit for an innovation-building production, continued emphasis on the individual session is a trio, not a single person. CLO L Jay Cross is CEO of Internet Time Group and a thought leader in informal learning and organizational performance. He can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. 18 Chief Learning Ofﬁcer • August 2008 • www.clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com/clo-forum http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - August 2008

Chief Learning Officer - August 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Connections Business Impact Trends Best Practices Effectiveness High-Octane Leadership Development Leadership and Personality CLO Profile Discussion Groups: Harvesting Value from Real-World Experiences Kimpton 2.0: Discussion on the Web Learning Olympics: Development Through Competition Bypassing the Obstacles to Change Listen Up: A How-To-Guide for Podcasting University of Toyota: A Success Story in Podcast Implementation What Stinks About Webinars? Webinars for Learning Professionals Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - August 2008

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