Chief Learning Officer - October 2007 - (Page 4)

editor’s letter Happy Anniversary! It seems like only yesterday we were putting the finishing touches on the debut issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine. Now, here we are looking back on half a decade. Time sure does fly when you’re having fun — and having a critical impact on something as vital and dynamic as workforce learning and development. In my first editor’s letter, I referenced Jack Welch as a pioneer in recognizing that an organization’s ability to learn and rapidly convert that learning into action is, and will continue to be, the ultimate competitive advantage. So, it’s no coincidence this anniversary issue features an interview with Steve Kerr, the former CLO at GE and the first corporate educator anywhere to hold that title. Like Steve, all of us who are involved with the evolution of learning have witnessed seismic shifts as the past five years have sped by. With the integration of China, India, Russia, Brazil and other developing countries into the global economy, a much more interrelated world labor market has emerged, drastically transforming not only patterns of production, trade, employment and wages but also employee development, performance metrics and change management. We’ve seen how the addition of the millennial generation to the workforce has converged with globalization to form a perfect storm and dramatically change the rules of traditional knowledge sharing, learning and training. What a short, strange trip it’s been! And let’s not overlook technology’s influence on the expectations and requirements of the modern workforce. The rise of social computing based on Web 2.0 technologies, for example, is beginning to have a powerful impact on corporate learning by enabling the growth of communities of practice. A community of practice, according to Wikipedia.com, refers to the process of social learning that occurs when people who have a common interest or problem “collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions and build innovations.” Here’s another not-so coincidental piece of information: One of the most significant changes we’ve witnessed here at Chief Learning Officer has been internal — watching the magazine evolve into a community. The CLO Symposium, for instance, has become one of the leading live-conference events in the industry. It offers a rich and unique opportunity for learning leaders around the world to exchange ideas, share best practices and network. The same can be said for the CLO Breakfast Club series, which brings together regional learning professionals, and our CLO Think Tanks, which engage more intimate groups of learning leaders in conversations about strategic issues affecting our industry. It has long been our dream to extend these experiences beyond their limited time frames and physical settings and more fully capitalize on the opportunities to learn and grow from one another. To that end, we have redesigned our Web site, www.clomedia.com, to take advantage of Web 2.0 technologies and offer to the learning community more meaningful and robust online social networking opportunities. Launching this month, the new Web site features numerous ways for members of the learning industry to commune and share with one another. There are live, interactive conversation threads on topics introduced by both our editors and individual social network users. Community members can share their comments on articles from the magazine and our online editorial content. To keep the conversation going and help everyone build effective, productive professional networks, we’ve added a profile-sharing function and built a forum for industry leaders’ blogs — an increasingly important tool in the dissemination of new ideas. Time and time again, it has been proven that a large group of peers is more adept at solving complex problems than a small group of experts. With all these new opportunities to use Chief Learning Officer as your “gathering place,” I hope you’ll visit us often — online, as well as in person — to share solutions and continue the great work already begun in workforce learning and development. As always, I look forward to hearing from you at norm@clomedia.com. October 2007 I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer 4 Norm Kamikow Editor in Chief norm@clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - October 2007

Editor's Letter Table of Contents Letters to the Editor Taking the Lead Trends Best Practices Effectiveness Guest Editorial Elements of Social Media Arrive on the Learning Scene Trend Micro: Making Learning More Modular CLO Profile Learning’s Role in Talent Management INTTRA: Using Global Learning to Better Enable Talent Management Operationalizing Communities of Practice U.S. Army: Sharing Lessons from the Field Looking Back, Moving Forward Leveraging Business Data to Develop Strategic Learning Solutions Chrysler LLC: Metrics, Score Cards and Automobiles Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources Connecting the Dots: Recognizing Talent Development Differences at Nonprofits Nonprofits in Health Care: Learning at ENH Case Study Business Intelligence Case Study In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - October 2007

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