If you’re a Learning Manager or Training Manager for a corporation, the following scenario may strike you.
You’re at your desk and the phone rings. The caller says, “I need your help. My employees need training on teamwork. They operate as lone agents and prefer to work in silos. Often, they duplicate efforts and we have a real loss of productivity here. Do you have a course on teamwork? It has to be web-based because we’re too busy and dispersed to meet together in-person.”
Sound familiar? If so, it’s likely that:
- The caller mistakenly perceives you as an order taker who will satisfy his request through a transactional exchange.
- The caller mistakenly perceives your learning organization as the Wal-mart for Training Needs.
Neither of these perceptions are good for you, your organization, or the people who work for your organization. These perceptions indicate that others fail to see the strategic value of your role. Perhaps you could persuade them to think differently by sharing some key predictions from a new book by Karl M. Kapp and Tony O’Driscoll entitled Learning in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration.
Kapp and O’Driscoll write about the next generation of the World Wide Web – Web 3.0, which they say is happening now and companies better take heed of this fact. If Web 1.0 had to do with accessing and finding information, and Web 2.0 had to do with sharing, participating, and collaborating in information exchanges, Web 3.0 is different. Web 3Di, as the authors call it, has to with co-creating information socially and outside of the formal, hierarchical structures imposed by organizations. This trend toward decentralized, social production-based ways of knowing stand ready to transform traditional learning paradigms.
So, as a Learning Manager or Training Manager, you may want to learn more about how this “webvolution” will drive innovation and develop human capital. In doing so, you can assist your organization in achieving a competitive advantage in the marketplace. And that, by the way, is certain to shift perceptions and demonstrate the strategic value of the learning function to the organization.
Dawn,
Thanks for bringing a “manager’s perspective” to the content of the book. We wanted to try to ensure that executives, managers, trainers, designers and others were included in the discussion of 3D VIEs. We particularly wanted to provide a road map and road signs that could be used by managers to understand the transition their organizations and customers are experiencing.
The change from Web 1.0 all the way to 3.0 is a radical transformation. It seems superficial on the surface but when you dig a little, you find that learning, collaboration and work environments are going to be radically changed forever and that mangers are going to need to lead, follow or get out of the way.
The book will help them lead the charge and give them the information and ideas needed to bring their organizations into the 3D web.