This months Learning Circuits question is who takes the leadership role around new work literacies. Specifically: - Should workplace learning professionals be leading the charge around these new work literacies? -Shouldn't they be starting with themselves and helping to develop it throughout the organizations? -And then shouldn't the learning organization become a driver for the organization? - And like in the world of libraries don't we need to market ourselves in this capacity?
I agree with all these questions and my response is a whole-hearted YES. Yes, I am responsible for all of this. I was a bit surprised that we are debating about these because somehow, I never thought anyone else is going to be doing this in my organization! Yes, I, as a learning professional would like to lead the charge around these new work literacies. Yes, I have started with myself and hope to help it develop in my organization. Yes, I take the responsibility to drive the use of the new work literacies and yes, just for libraries and everything else in life – I need to market this too.
As a learning professional, I expect myself to introduce my organization to all new in learning - new tools and technologies included. In that sense, yes, I lead the way. But I don’t want to be a consultant who doesn’t know what she’s talking. I don’t want to be a learning professional who is sitting on the fence and talking about new tools and technologies and hasn’t used any! So, I use and experiment with these technologies in my own way – for example, I write my own blog, contribute to group blogs, use Wiki and Google to learn, have an identity on facebook, and an avtar in second life – I am trying to try it all – to experience, explore, and learn, and to share my learning with my organization. While I explore these to develop my own personal learning environment, I hope to help my organization use some of these and develop them as learning opportunities available to everyone in my organization. I feel, that somewhere, somehow, the learning revolution and acceptance of new tools and technologies has to start with me – as an individual. Unless I try to explore the possibilities, I will never be able to build a business case around the use of these technologies for the organization as a whole. So, yes, I lead the charge, start with myself, and hope to develop it for my organization.
Now about the learning organization being the driver for the organization. Well, yes – but only when learning is aligned to the organizational goals, it can really drive anything! For the organization to trust the learning professionals and consider us as ‘learning advisors’, it is important that we as learning professionals are aware of what we can bring forth to the table. We need to know what is happening in the learning world and what can we do to help our organization make correct, well thought-about learning decisions – which positively impact the business decisions. Our real value lies in helping the organization grow better, faster. The new tools and technologies can serve as stepping-stones to this path of success.
About marketing – well, in today’s world everything needs to be marketed! I feel, we are all salespersons and we are all in the business of selling our thoughts. We do it all the time, whether we know it or not. So, yes, to develop the tools and technologies and help them become new work literacies, I will need to market them. I have started small – market my own blog, share learning links with teams, talk about emerging trends learning in forums, and discussions, and over coffee conversations. I also have realized that all marketing becomes easy when the consumer sees the value of the product/service. Therefore, as a learning professional, I am striving to arrive at the value of everything that I propose to my organization including the new tools and technologies.
So, whether it is initiating formal learning, informal learning, Web 2.0 or anything else and everything else to do with learning – I willingly take the responsibility for leading the change – for myself, and my organization.
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