Chief Learning Officer - December 2008 - (Page 4)

EDITOR’S LETTER Here’s Hoping ith a new administration about to take over and a tumultuous 2008 winding down, I’m really focusing on looking forward, as I think everyone is. That being said, I hope you’ll indulge me in one last look backward. During the 2008 presidential race, many media pundits claimed the election was an especially divisive one for the country. I have to respectfully disagree. In addition to other similarities between their campaigns, like lots of guys named Joe (Joe Sixpack, Joe the Plumber, Joe Biden), both candidates managed to rally millions of committed supporters behind the same single goal: change. Now, that in and of itself isn’t all that earth-shattering or unusual for a political contest. But what I found fascinating was just how much the message of change stirred the blood of people on both sides of the political fence — and even the undecided voters CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER straddling that fence right NETWORK UPDATE up until Election Day. In November, I announced The idea of change we were launching the CLOtranscended the political Network on our Web site, along rhetoric, the candidates’ with groups on Facebook and personal charisma, the LinkedIn. At press time for this carefully drafted policy issue, 810 of you signed up on statements, the skewerour network, 113 on Facebook ing on national televiand 210 on LinkedIn. Have you sion during Saturday joined yet? Don’t miss the chance night comedy shows and to connect with your colleagues. even long-standing party afﬁliations. It didn’t matter if we favored the reformers, the mavericks, the political outsiders or the agents of change. It didn’t matter if we vehemently disagreed on the issues or argued about what change should look like. By believing that something different would be something better, we all joined the same juggernaut of hope. I think this prevailing, persistent spirit of hope turned out to be more galvanizing than most of us, including the candidates, ever anticipated. Based on past experience and conventional wisdom, we naturally expect people to be risk-averse and resistant to the prospect of change, even when there’s a sense of urgency or an immediate threat. But this time, that was not this case. This time, the result was historic, with record numbers of new-voter regis- W trations and renewed public interest in the country’s political future. Right or wrong, win or lose, donkey or elephant, more people were passionately engaged in the process and conﬁdent they could make a difference. And far, far fewer folks were apathetic. It occurred to me that similar side effects might be experienced if we could ﬁnd a way to inject more hope and less trepidation, more passion and less apathy, into every change process — personal, professional and organizational. I truly believe we’d see more challenges met, more goals achieved and more missions accomplished. It’s deﬁnitely an idea worth considering in today’s environment. The credit crisis, globalization and the aging workforce are all disrupting the current order. Hyper-competition, connectivity and breakthrough technologies are mandating change at a higher and faster rate than ever before. But few of us, or our organizations, are really good at change, despite long-range plans and sincere attempts to implement strategies that are supposed to help us adapt and prosper. In fact, most of us are so consumed by current responsibilities we’d be hard-pressed to imagine how we could do any more or do things differently. Likewise, few organizations have the luxury of unlimited money and manpower (let alone the support of their shareholders) to invest without restraint in being more innovative. But I think more hope and passion might be exactly what we need to break through glazed over attitudes, habits, history and inertia, and galvanize people to embrace, anticipate and instigate change. As we all look ahead to making things better in the coming year, I’d be interested in learning about the prevailing attitudes and approaches to change at your organization. Is change seen as an opportunity or a threat? Does the constant need to gain new skills, adapt to new technologies or develop new capabilities mobilize or demoralize the workforce? If you’d like to share some of what’s happening in your organization, please send me an e-mail. I’m hoping to hear great things from you. CLO Norm Kamikow Editor in Chief norm@clomedia.com 4 Chief Learning Ofﬁcer • December 2008 • www.clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com

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

Chief Learning Officer - December 2008 Editor’s Letter Contents Connections Business Impact Best Practices Effectiveness Guest Editorial The Future of Learning CLO Profile Learning Opportunities Embedded in Social Networking ManTech Leverages Knowledge Management Approaches for Social Networking Agility Training for the Learning Organization Creating an Agile Organization With Learning 2.0 2008 Learning In Practice Awards Corporate Social Responsibility: How Can Learning Contribute? Union Fenosa Corporate University: How CSR Education Impacted the Bottom Line Training in the 21st Century: Everything Old Is New Again Zions Bancorp.: Connecting the Dots Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - December 2008

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