Chief Learning Officer - August 2008 - (Page 30)

Discussion Groups: Harvesting Value from Real-World Experiences BY AGATHA GILMORE No employee is a blank slate, so organizations should leverage workers’ prior experiences through knowledge-sharing sessions to enrich learning content. hen it comes to learning, most organizations go out of their way to treat everyone equally. Each employee has the opportunity to receive training on technical and other skills, as well as to access incentives for continued education. But sometimes in the pursuit of uniformity, it’s easy to overlook the fact that employees are people, too — people who invariably have real-world experiences that give them unique perspectives on learning. “There’s a lot that occurs in a person’s life in terms of experiences and conditioning and attitudes, [and] they bring all that with them into the workplace,” said Allen Jones, president of the Edge Learning Institute. “Businesses [must] recognize CLO-FORUM that people come to them with Does your organization have all sorts of [prior knowledge], an innovative method for sharall of which ultimately detering knowledge? Let us know mine their contribution to an about it under the Knowledge organization way more than Management topic at their technical competence.” www.clomedia.com/clo-forum. But many organizations don’t have processes in place that can effectively leverage employees’ real-world, on- and off-the-job experiences. The beneﬁts of effective knowledge sharing, however, can include improved productivity, increased engagement and retention, strengthened loyalty and a workforce that feels more valued and validated. “It’s absolutely imperative that knowledge sharing W take place for a business to be competitive,” Jones said. “Equally important . . . is [for learning professionals] to help the employee understand the impact and inﬂuence of those experiences, the cause-and-effect relationship of those experiences and how that affects their ability to make contributions.” While the exchange of information can occur in a variety of ways and in many different forums, there are several things learning professionals can do to lay the groundwork for successful discussion. Culture Counts It all starts from the ground up: Having the right corporate culture in place is pivotal to fostering fruitful employee discussion. “If you’re really going to have knowledge sharing that’s valuable, you’ve got to have a culture that perpetuates trust and vulnerability and authenticity,” Jones said. “It’s risky for me to sit down with a group of people and start talking about my experiences. Depending on the person, if they’ve got a lot of self-conﬁdence and good healthy self-esteem, [they might think], ‘I can talk to anybody about anything’ — it’s no big deal. But the reality is, the majority of the people in the workplace really don’t have quite that level of conﬁdence, so [they’re] constantly assessing, ‘Is this a safe place to say what I know, or am I going to be mocked or looked at differently?’” Sylvia Ball, chief learning ofﬁcer for the Treasury Acquisition Institute (TAI), the ofﬁcial learning organization for the Department of the Treasury and the In- 30 Chief Learning Ofﬁcer • August 2008 • www.clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com/clo-forum http://www.clomedia.com

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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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