Lever Learning

Have you cracked the business nut of social networking yet?

I’m just now finding there’s potential business value, in tapping into the connections social networking sites provide. If you’re like me, and have been resisting most of these sites until now, let me share my recent epiphany.

I’ve started to connect with different learning communities globally, talking about the latest news and research from the world of learning. One of the topics I am seeing discussed is the role of social networking in learning. Admittedly social networking types are the ones driving these discussions. But they’ve certainly made me think, so I’m running the ruler over social networking as a possible way forward.

It may be too much of a leap for many right now to believe that social networking could hold the key to effective learning in the future. But exploring this intriguing question has led me to thinking about whether learning is best played as a team sport or a solo game, whatever its delivery medium.

We all know that having fun, sharing knowledge, brainstorming and learning from the past experiences of others are all integral content in a successful learning program. So surely learning must be a team sport? This logic is why many L&D professionals are thinking that blogs and shared discussion boards will become increasingly important as aids to learning.

But what about the transfer of learning? A more interesting and challenging question perhaps.

In her report ‘Learning from Experience through Reflection’ noted US educator Marilyn Wood Daudelin compares the effectiveness of group reflection, individual reflection and support reflection, to see which is the most effective in leading to transfer of learning. Her conclusion – individual reflection and supportive reflection work best. ‘Supportive reflection’ in this context is where the participant reflects with the help of one additional person – a mentor, manager or learning specialist.

Her report found that with group reflection the tendency is for the group to search for shared experiences, rather than the unique meaning for each individual. Also, groups kept the discussion at a higher level, rather than probing for personal insights and detail. And very significantly, no-one in the group took notes of insights or actions.

My own experience supports Marilyn’s findings. I agree that individual or supportive reflection (we call it ‘guided reflection’) is more powerful than group interaction for gaining the insights that ultimately lead to action. In fact, our Turning Learning into Action® program is based on providing guided reflection to create the right environment for behavioural change.

Let’s put these findings into the context of social networking as an aid to learning.

If the aim of using social networking in learning is to increase collaboration and a sharing of knowledge, that is, providing content, I can see it being very useful.

But if the aim is to help transfer the learning or knowledge into action past the learning event itself I see trouble ahead.

In any event, there’s always a competitive edge in keeping up with the latest thinking. So we recommend keeping a close eye on how social networking continues to develop and influence the way people communicate and interact, particularly in the context of learning and development.

I’m very interested in your thoughts on this topic.