Thoughts on Learning 2010, the conference I did not attend

Three years ago, I attended Ellott Masie's conference. I did not since, but as he posts a lot of video replays on his site, I do take half a day a year to virtually visit his conference. Here are my thoughts on virtually visiting Learning 2010.

http://www.learning2010.com/learning2010-video

At first impression, attending the conference three years ago or this year would not have made a big difference. Some of the speakers are actually the same (eg Dough Lynch on impact of learning and bringing some research perspective to the conference, Nigel Paine). The format is unchanged and resolves around a personality show of its famous host, trends in learning and people who've written books. There are always some talks on leadership that go into the White House (leadership style of the president), etc. Leadership and leadership training was a big thing. Question is if this will remain in 2011 or not...  Maybe it's time to focus on the performance of 'the others' in the organization a bit more than on its leaders alone. Most refreshing element of this year was the '30 under 30' initiative -  30 young learning professionals on the start of their careers. They stand for the 'evolution' of learning, not the revolution. (The 60s are a long time ago.) And yes, some of the generations debate can't be far off...

Here is some cherry picking on what I remember on seeing the videos.

From Betsy Meyers I remember her quote that 'leadership is a feeling', much more than a competence. So, how leader do you feel today? She gives insights in 'counterintuitive leadership' (the feeling), and puts a lot of attention on (faux) listening.

Interesting interview with leadership coach and author Marshall Goldsmith. Many of us (including me) suffer from the 'smart guy syndrome'. It is not about us and how smart we are (in coaching), it is about them. Others have phrased this to me before as 'the professor's curse'. We like to explain so badly how it is and works. Also interesting is his concept of daily checklists. We need checklists not because we are so stupid or bad, but because we are so busy. Last but not least, Marshall shares everything for the world to freely use at marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com. He understands the power of sharing.

From Deloitte we learn that they build - in midst crisis - a new education facility full of top notch classrooms. Yes, you heard it right. A multi million dollar classroom investment. Interesting, because a bit against the stream of thought on these conferences. It all goes e-learning, or at least blended, right? Oh, there won't be 'death by powerpoint' in this facility. The crowd goes wild.

Clay Shirky writes books, and is only present as a podcast, not video. I note down his concept of the social aspirations of the modern knowledge worker: generosity and membership. My own book deals only with the individual knowledge worker (the HoCo), and I'm still struggling to translate that to the level of the team. Can we reduce the complex interactions and mindset going from individual performance to team play to a workable model on generosity and membership? It is appealing, I must admit. I like things (overly) simple...

In the same line of interest, I watched Diane Hessan giving her piece of advice on making communities of practice work well. I'm happy we do not insist on communities that solely focus on learning. Learning and doing (and sharing) need to mix inside one single community, we should not artificially split that up by sub-goal. Here are some quotes from the interview:

• The only people who come are the low performers (on just opening a community - who has time initially? The low performers.)
• Mistake: We became completely focused on the technology. We abandoned what we've known about learning design. Getting it right up front matters a lot.
• (had to smile when she said this) As a by product, the tend to share best practices. (Love that, as a by product. Indeed, learning is on its best as a by product to other gatherings, programs, tools)
• The holy grail of communities is intimacy and relationships.
• (on social networking and tools) Don't ask for permission.

Google is a fascinating company in many ways. Last year they already talked on the conference on how they ditched making fresh content for their leadership trainings. Hey, if any company can FIND the right existing material and bring it together, it must be them. They see the goal of the learning function to facilitate Googlers to teach one another. Anyone can create a new class in their cloud-based LMS  (that you can also use for free here), no approval needed. It's an illustration how in the network age with its flattening effect peer-2-peer supersedes hierarchy. Who knows better what skills and knowledge people need? Their peers or their hierarchical boss? Then they went on how Google Breadcrump was made by 2 people only and opened up as a beta for mobile learning. Important quote: "It is normal for our culture". All that stuff fits in a culture. We have already seen lots of emphasis on the cultural element of a great place to learn in the recent year (amongst them the research of Bersin on High Impact Cultures). Seems like a move away from roles and processes to culture and values. If that observation is true, it will also mean that match-making rather than compliance will become more important if you ask me.

Speaking of culture, what is the tolerance to fail, and the ability to learn from failure? The video of Greg Hale from Disney is all about safety and safety training. They share their failures with the rest of the industry.

From Nigel Paine I remember that the people agenda is living up across the world, and we might expect a focus on the performance agenda. 

From Jonathan Kopp I remember that the word of mouth is actually a form of peer-2-peer recognition. There you have it again. Peers. (Oh, and Jonathan insists video is the killer app.)

During the video with MTV's Lori Aiken I noted that some things can only come with 'time on earth' with which she refers to experience. Indeed, the body of knowledge that comes from experience beats the one build from education, and is higher valued. Other striking quotes in line with HoCo : "If you meet the right person, what would you tell them" and "You can become proficient just by your passion."

But you should really go over the videos yourself and mark your own learning points. Here is the link again:


http://www.learning2010.com/learning2010-video