Thanks for your thoughts. The subject of social media in learning and performance is a massive topic and I’ve not intended to cover all aspects in this blog post, just the two areas that I found interesting about the question that Tony Karrer received. That said, you raise some interesting additional questions.

My point about the fear of employees slacking off at the slightest hint of social media is that managers should notice if this happens. If there’s a genuine fear that introducing social media into the organisation will result in ’slacking off’ then there’s a problem with managers. What kind of manager wouldn’t notice if their team wasn’t performing at the level they should be? When L&D departments say they believe that introducing social media will result in slacking off, what they’re really saying is that they don’t have enough skilled managers or decent employee engagement.

I’m a strong proponent of social media and I believe that a great deal of learning can occur through an expanded knowledge/social/business network. If an employee is using social media to fritter away time rather than learn and grow, it suggests that there’s a promlem with the level of engagement. That’s what should be dealt with rather than a knee-jerk banning of facebook/twitter/blogs etc.

The specifics of which technology would be most engaging really depend on the organisation, the level of technical competence of its workforce and their familiarity with social media. That’s why I think experimentation and piloting can so effective (although you need to have a critical mass of employees involved otherwise it defeats the purpose).

As for some ideas? Managers are best persuaded by evidence of real life initiatives. That’s why I recommend running a pilot/experiment and getting examples from other organisatons. There’s plenty out there – our case studies give some examples, there’s BT’s Dare2Share initiative, BUPA have trialled and implemented social bookmarking, Westminster Council’s use of dicussion forums, the US Army’s Company Command site … the list is practically endless.

There’s no single method for dealing with all managers in all organisations who have doubts about social media. The discussion needs to be based on what’s relevant to that organisation, its workforce and its industry. One thing should be consistent though, they key to making progress isn’t to focus on learning, it’s all about improved performance. Informal learning plays its part, but, as a manager myself, I’m pretty focussed on how that learning can help us improve performance.

First, you refer to “slacking off.” You refer to two workers performing at the same level, one using social media sites and one not. I don’t see this related to training, so I’m wondering what the excessive use of social media actually is. Are you suggesting that the employee should be able to play on the web if productivity is acceptable? Perhaps the worker could perform more if not on the sites. Or, is the use of the social media related to work and/or learning? If so, tell me more about what is occurring.

We then get to the issue of colleagues not being interested. If we truly want to see social media in the workplace, for work or learning purposes, what specific technologies would engage them? I’m going to throw in a personal example here. My mother uses a computer regularly, most notably for work with a not for profit association. My dad uses a slower computer primarily for email relating to work from home. I don’t think he has expressed an interest in knowing or using more. When I recently visited, I set my mother up with a webcam and Skype, and she immediately connected with her sister in the UK. He saw this and decided he needs a new computer and the technology. He is 75. Could this have engaged him more in learning that takes place by having him connected from his home office?

Finally, you address social media as a learning tool, but I’m not sure how you intend to use it. Yes, successful cases can be presented, but let us in on some ideas. How could social media possibly be used in workplace learning? Of course, that was the manager’s question, not mine with an interest in e-learning research! I’m seeing that the arguments for the use of social media actually involve informal learning at work. The questions that I then pose is how the informal learning is actually occurring with social media, how is the learning being captured, and what does this mean for the individual and the organization?

If I might add my thoughts, this might include providing evidence of learning by the employee for the purposes of career advancement, for prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) in an academic program, or for professional development qualification requirements (such as continuing education credits are required by professional bodies). Let’s not forget, though, that employees may just be intrinsically motivated by their new learning opportunities. For the employer, I wonder if it translates to employee satisfaction, higher retention, and other measures that could justify the change in approach. For sure, let’s find ways to pilot study and report on the effects.