Taking a Big First Step

Rachel Burnham writes: Yesterday’s conference on Social HR organised by CIPD Manchester, brought together people from with a very wide range of HR backgrounds – generalists, recruitment specialists, L&Ders, equality & diversity consultants and so on, not only from Manchester, but farther afield.  Some were brand new to social media and a little bit sceptical; some participants had done some social media, but didn’t really get it; some wanted to build on what they are already doing; and some of us were social media enthusiasts.  A wide spectrum of experience.

The thing that struck me both on the day and afterwards wasn’t the tremendous range of social media tools out there – though there are a staggering array of different tools.   It wasn’t the many, many different ways that you can use social media in HR.  It wasn’t even the amazing energy present amongst participants as we got working together in the event and sharing ideas & asking questions.

What struck me the most is the big difference it makes once you get a sense of how social media can be useful professionally.  The crucial difference I noticed was not really between social media users and non-users (although there is an overlap with this), or even to do with levels of expertise in using social media, but between those who’ve grasped something of the possibilities that social media opens up for working life and those who currently see social media being just personal and probably rather fluffy.  (And of course with all those animal photos being shared and all that discussion of chinchilla’s there is definitely some fluffiness!)

If you aren’t using social media at all or are using it just for personal use, it can be hard to imagine just how much it can be used professionally. 

I think this is the big first step.  The bit that requires the leap of faith.  The step into the unknown.  Because until you give it a try, you can’t really work out just how social media can be useful for you, in your particular work, in your specific context, and just how it can fit into your already busy day.

That’s where I was 18 months ago. At that stage the only social media, I made use of was LinkedIn and that was only very feebly, as I had a limited CV held on it.  And then everything changed and I decided I really needed to give some ‘new’ things a go – well they were ‘new’ to me.  Over about a fortnight, I set up a personal Facebook page, a professional Facebook page, updated my LinkedIn account, began using Twitter and began writing a blog, which because I decided to publish on Blogger, meant setting up on Google+ too.  

And breathe! That was a busy fortnight! 

And I was rather scared doing this.  It was a step into the unknown for me.  

I had resisted Facebook for ages – my main concern being how to keep a professional approach if my clients were mingling with my friends – many of later are Viking re-enactors & frankly a bit unusual – I solved that by having the two pages and simply not letting professional contacts become Facebook friends.  You can probably tell that I’m feeling much more relaxed about that issue now.

With Twitter I simply couldn’t see how it could be useful professionally.  Prior to the decision to join, I only knew two things about Twitter – 140 characters and that Stephen Fry tweets a lot.  I am forever grateful to the Certificate in Learning & Development Practice (CLDP) students who introduced me to using Twitter professionally – I always to say to new CLDP groups that I will learn lots from them & I think they often don’t believe me, but it is inevitably true.   

At first I did find Twitter confusing – it is a bit like jumping on a crowded commuter train, in which lots of travellers are all talking at once and usually to someone at the other end of the carriage.  Since you have missed the beginning of the conversation and have no idea who any of these @XXX’s are, or what RTs and DMs are, it can be hard to unravel.   From listening to the stories told yesterday, I think this is what often gives people a bit of a wobble.  So stick with it.  Because there are lots of friendly HR & L&D people out there who will only be too glad to encourage and help you to make sense of it.

I can’t believe what a big difference social media has made to the way I’m working, the work I’m doing, the people I’m in touch with, the growth in confidence and thirst for learning I’m feeling now.

There is a lovely jazz piece ‘The Computer Age (In Motion)’ by the singer Susannah McCorkle, who wrote the very funny lyric to an infectious tune by the Brazilian drummer, Thelmo Porto.  She wrote the lyrics before the impact of social media and so the refrain goes:

‘Here in the computer age, where we heading for?

Internet is all the rage, where we heading for?’

Now, we might sing to the same beat:

‘Here in the so-cial age, where we heading for?

Collaboration’s the rage, where we heading for?’

And we don’t know where we are heading for – but if you want to find out, you need to take that seemingly big first step and join in.

If you do take that first step, there will be lots of hands outstretched to welcome you.  So, why not take that step now?

Rachel Burnham

17/10/14

Here are some resources to help you take that first step in using Twitter for professional development.

Burnham L & D Consultancy helps L&D professionals become even more effective.  I am particularly interested in blended learning, the uses of social media for learning,

5 Books to Help You Get Out of the Training Room

Rachel Burnham writes:  Here are some wonderful, practical yet inspiring books to help you to create relevant and useful learning opportunities that aren’t limited to face to face delivery in a training room.  They aren’t brand new books – but they are full of useful advice that can help you to try out different approaches and build on the experience of experts.

‘The Blended Learning Cookbook’ 2^nd Edition by Clive Shepherd (2008) Published by Saffron Interactive.

As the title suggests this book is all about blended learning and how to design learning effectively using a mix of learning methods.  It opens with three short sections which provide some background to the topic and overall thinking, before moving onto the core of the book which is a series of practical examples of different blended programmes designed to meet a range of needs.   The great thing about these examples is the sheer variety and this means that it can give you some great ideas for starting points for designs to meet needs in your own organisation.  

‘Informal Learning At Work – How to Boost Performance in Tough Times’ by Paul Matthews (2013) Published by Three Faces Publishing.

In this book Paul Matthews explores informal learning – those very many learning opportunites beyond formal courses and education.  He sets out the advantages to be gained from recognising & encouraging informal learning in organisations and sets out how L&D teams can encourage a learnscape that facilitates this.   He includes many examples to illustrate his points and provides evidence of the effectiveness of informal learning.  He includes lots of examples of different forms of informal learning, so that you get a great sense of the range of possibilities.  

My only criticism of this book, is that there are sometimes so many examples provided that you lose the narrative thread  (well I did!), but this does make it a great resource bank.

I have also written about informal learning in an earlier post 'Lift off for Informal Learning'.

‘Social Media for Trainers – Techniques for Enhancing and Extending Learning’ by Jane Bozarth (2010) Published by John Wiley.

This book has a very special place on my bookshelf, as it played a significant part in getting me into using Twitter.  I had taken it along to a workshop to share with some CLDP students, one of whom was already on Twitter.  Before the workshop started she tweeted Jane Bozarth and by the time we broke for morning coffee, we had had an answer back from Jane!  I was sold on Twitter from that moment!

The book is both great as a guide to key examples of social media – Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and Wikis and even better at providing many, many suggestions of how these can be used to enable learning.  These suggestions are set out so clearly, that you don’t need to be particularly tech-savvy to see how these can work and to give them a go.

‘Job Aids & Peformance Support – Moving from Knowledge in the Classroom to Knowledge Everywhere’ by Allison Rossett & Lisa Schafer (2007) Published by John Wiley.

Job aids & performance support are playing an increasingly important role alongside learning opportunities.  Performance support enables us to draw upon resources at the point of need to enable us to do a task efficiently & effectively.  This means that there are a whole range of work related tasks that we no longer need to learn in their entirety, but can rely on finding the resources to help us, either to prepare or to use during completion of the task.  At a time when there is more and more that we need to be able to do and constant change in the information we need to work with, it makes sense to not only use learning to meet these needs, but also performance support.  Sometimes learning on its own will be appropriate, sometimes performance support will be sufficient and sometimes both will be needed.  

Again, this book is packed out with examples & illustrations to enable you to see the possibilities and start to make use of them yourself.

‘The New Virtual Classroom’ by Ruth Colvin Clark & Ann Kwinn (2007) Published by John Wiley

I found this an invaluable guide to designing & delivering webinars/virtual classrooms ie usually short learning sessions delivered via the internet which bring learners at a distance together at the same time.   It provides excellent suggestions and tips for creating effective interactive webinars to meet different sorts of learning needs from computer based skills to knowledge & understanding  The book is all based very firmly on research and experience.   I have also found that it has influenced my practice in face to face delivery, as many of the points have a wider application.

I have also written about my own experience of webinars in a previous post, which you may find of interest 'My Learning About Webinars'. 

Each one of these five books has earned its place on my bookshelves.  With this collection to draw upon, there is no reason to limit yourself and your organisation to face to face learning in workshops and every reason to consider other options.

I would love to hear your comments on these book suggestions and also your own ideas.   What has been your experience of making use of these other learning methods?

Rachel Burnham

15/9/14

Burnham L & D Consultancy helps L&D professionals become even more effective.  I am particularly interested in blended learning, the uses of social media for learning, evaluation and anything that improves the impact of learning on performance.

Follow me on Twitter @BurnhamLandD