HUMAN LEARNING - NATURAL DRIFT TO LOOSE COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

HUMAN LEARNING - PROFESSOR CONCEDES CoP AS GOLD STANDARD IN EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT

 HUMAN LEARNING - 3,000 CoPS AT CATERPILLAR WORLDWIDE

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BUSINESS PROFESSORS RANK TEACHING METHODS, INCLUDING ONLINE MODES.
Page 2.

- DEBRIEF -

The tribe has spoken...

(atleast for the time being).

The richest transmission of knowledge and skills is
real-time, real life structured experiences.

This is a brave acknowledgement by the academic fraternity, particularly when the first two cannot be provided by nearly all universities. A major reason why some 'Ivy League' universities fees are so high is that some of them do provide one-on-one tutoring by their lecturers !

Nevertheless, only 20 % of this 'tribe' have had personal experience with the distance learning tool known as web-based instruction. I would have liked to have seen the ratings given by the 20 % who had some good experience with digital distance learning. So, technology-led instructional modalities may still need to be further examined for their potential effectiveness.

Question - If KM is about talent and capability building (See Definitions in KM Tutorials section) and that technology should be designed to this end, how many of the current crop of KM leaders have instructional design competencies ? Only 5 % of the KM community is represented by Training/HRD practitioners by any estimate. That means that 95 % of KM initiatives are likely not to be based on human learning practices.... thereby making them in many cases a budget blowout nightmare with little or no tangible returns.

This study amongst learning experts therefore has been a critical study to reappraise appropriate adult learning formats that KM leaders must acknowledge and make appropriate adjustments even to their KM initiatives.

1. Essential human interaction formats. Nearly all first-generation KM offerings completely neglected close human interaction as a critical part of the KM process. This is true for many earlier touted case studies in KM. Despite a clear consensus amongst the few KM leaders that KM is primarily about culture issues and structures no new human work practices were ever generated and developed. This study advises that human interaction offerings should always take precedence over any digital offerings. This KM implementation principle has also been strongly supported by respected US technology consulting group, the META group in its recent longitudinal analysis of early KM efforts (1).

2. Learning formats not information formats. The electronic offerings the early KM initiators developed were inappropriate. At best, the electronic offerings were mistakingly designed as advanced digital distance information formats, ie., advanced resource databases. Nothing remotely resembling any form of a learning format. In other words, as 'Seven Habits' author Stephen Covey concluded in a famous story of his, "Wrong Jungle !"

3. Learning format competencies. Today all too few KM leaders have migrated , or know how to migrate, to a learning format, in person or digitally. They do not have the requisite competencies. Only Training/HRD have good instructional design competencies to date.

Distance learning will be part of the education landscape for years but the survival rate has not been high to date. At Deakin University, Australia, all students of every faculty in a few years time will have to take one of their study units by digital distance learning.Only one university, Phoenix University, USA, after exhaustive effort believes to have found the right combination of technology-supported learning modes while other US universities have closed down their online delivery degree courses (such as New York State University)(US News Oct. 200 (2) ) Unless delivery modes in distance learning dramatically improve, students will continue to have a poor learning experience that would likely show up in end-of-year results.

So this study warns that any technology-led KM initiative is likely to have a low success rate of skill generation for talent and capabilities development. the short history of KM initiatives has confirmed this finding. Inferior knowledge and skill transmission outcomes occur when there is 'distance' in both temporal, geographic and contextual realms. Unless there is "high-touch" features in KM practices, that is close physical proximity to the source, namely face-to-face interaction, then the benefit-to-cost ratio is unprofitable. Communities of practice may be the essential missing learning vehicle offering in current KM efforts..

To digress, when only dealing with 'first principles' (ie., basic level) training a hybrid of personalised training and digital training may be appropriate. Learning about the absolute basics requires regular reinforcement back on the job. Well-designed CD-Rom/Web e-learning programs make self-paced reinforcement learning a reality. I have personally greatly benefited from several software e-learning programs, both web-sourced or CD-Rom-sourced. However, a full-time KM practitioner with advanced internal consulting skills and instructional design skills with a very large budget is the minimum set of requirements. Perhaps KM is such a multi-discipline that these set of mega-competencies are impossible to acquire by any one peson. So KM leaders may need to develop good internal and external partnerships.

Why advanced consulting skills ?.... because KM practices should primarily be developed for the end-users, the operations staff, and strongly developed by the end-users and maintained by the end-users. This creates strong convictions of 'ownership' and responsibility in end-users. The result is sustained stakeholder commitment to KM practices, leading to organic, dynamic talent and capability building and performance improvement. But this requires an empowering organisational culture... Mmmmm.

Conclusion

There is NO SUBSTITUTE for being trained in-person, by close interaction formats. Creating a distance from the original source dilutes the power of learning this study has concluded. Most so-called KM initiatives still seem to be information websites that have been exclusively management-driven and maintained, a glorified communications tool ! That therefore is NOT KM. At the very minimum digital support needs to be in a learning format to which this study then considers it a worthy support to the close human interaction format. KM leaders at the very least need to partner with Training/HRD professionals and consult with the end-users for the KM business process to translate into real returns. Each KM leader needs to perservere in finding a right mix of both close and distant interaction learning formats. Face-to-face Communities of Practice balanced with active e-discussion forums and databases may be, dare it be said, the minimum set of requirements needed to effective KM practices.

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