Infolust – “Consumers cannot get enough information as long as it’s relevant and useful to them”, so says Henry Mason of Trendwatching.com, as cite by this week’s BRW article Pick The Trend.

We are all consumers, and most of us use the internet without fuss to find the information we need to make decisions, and to keep abreast of our interests and friends. As consumers, we inherently know the power of information to help our problem-solving. So, why do most of us not engage with information in the same way at work? Why is ‘Infolust’ felt so little by our staff?

I’m sure the answer to this question is complex; linked to culture and climate, motivation and so on. But some of the answer lies in the way we ‘do’ information management in organisations.

Last week in my Connect Thinking blog I explored what we can learn from content marketing about information writing and distribution. Below is my attempt at examining the differences between online content at home and at work.

If we start to write and treat online content as if we were internet marketers, it would go a long way to ‘enabling’ staff to use information to make informed decisions, problem solve and develop mastery.

Some organisations do this well; in particular IT-based organisations and R&D organisations who have understood the value or accessible content for a long time. But many are so far behind in content management that it’s a significant impairment to staff capability development. One way to ‘litmus test’ where organisations place the value of accessible content is by taking a look at their intranet.

Seven years ago I developed a synchronising searchable job-aid app for field laptops, long before smartphone apps were invented. As a learning practitioner I was criticised for introducing content management to my role. I think learning practitioners have every reason to be at the forefront of content management. Let’s see if we can build the ‘Infolust’ felt by our staff. Let’s empower our staff with accessible content. This would be a significant contribution to workplace learning.

A question from a client in organisational learning.

How do I create m-learning?

Well, the answer to this question is both simple and complex. There are 5 things you need:

1. Appropriate content. This may be an expert opinion, 3 minute nugget of information, a process or a quiz. Remember, unless the m-learning is mandatory (i.e. being tracked by a quiz), the best content is that which answers relevant “How do I?” questions or most staff won’t bother accessing it. A small percentage will access nuggets of wisdom, but these people are generally highly motivated people who prioritise learning and reflection in their daily activities.
   Remember, your content has to be instructionally designed with thought for people on the move.
2. Authoring tool. For audio or video podcasts, the authoring requirements are pretty simple. Camtasia from Techsmith will export audio with an accompanying picture, or video (e.g. video of a person or PPT exported to video) in the right format you require to suit iPad, iPhone etc. If you want to use assessments, you need to use a authoring tool for mobile, such as Hot Lava from Outstart. So, for Learning professionals, the biggest challenge here is learning the authoring tool to it’s optimal.
3. A platform for distribution. Just as I rely on YouTube and iTunes to distribute and make video available to people, you will also need a simple distribution platform that can enable staff to search, retrieve, download, engage with and delete. Some LMS have mobile distribution features, but I’m not sure if mobile learning belongs in a LMS. You will need to talk with your IT department on what you may have available internally, or whether you need to purchase a distribution platform.
4. Mobile access. Your staff will, of course, need a mobile device to access the m-learning. Some mobile devices are a more natural partner to a distribution platform than others (e.g. iPhone/iPad and iTunes are a match made in heaven).
5. Corporate policy will. What I mean by this is that you may come up with objections about having corporate content mobile and unsecured. So, get m-learning strategy sign-off early.

For related blog entries on this topic, click “Mobile learning” or “Authoring tools” from the Categories list.

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I noticed the 2011 National Learning and Development Index report was cited in BRW last week (Training decisions made on the run, June 23-29, pp51). The point being made was that training decisions appeared to be largely based on reactive responses to performance reviews rather than a conscious building of strategic capabilities linked to long-term business growth (reference Jeanne Marshall, National AITD president).

Jeanne’s comment resonated with my earlier blog post E-Learning Apporaches for Small Organisations, where the concepts of Enablement, Agile Content and Employees as Producers were explored. Social media enables peer-to-peer sharing, networking and collaboration like never before. RSS feeds, aggregated content, mobile devices that store and prioritise content for just-in-time support are all examples of how technologies can build employee capability. Webinars (aka virtual classrooms, web conferencing) can enable learning practitioners to connect with geographically dispersed teams and facilitate expert opinion sharing, problem-solving and innovative thinking.

So, why aren’t many organisations investigating these technologies to identify how they can support specific strategic capability development? I’m not entirely sure, but here are a few of my observations.

1. Many organisations have good IT departments that have purchased or at least understand the power of these technologies. Yet a strategic exploration of the tools for learning and performance improvement has not been completed between IT and Learning and Development (L&D). Examples of technologies I have seen available in organisations but not explored for learning purposes are webinar, RSS news aggregators and enterprise wikis.
2. Many IT departments are inhibited by corporate risk concerns which may have been valid several years ago, but may be less valid now when weighted against business benefits and considered against new risk management tools (e.g. Yackstar has a bank of prohibited words that detects when an inappropriate word has been written and then quarantines the comment)
3. L&D departments are stretched, and it’s difficult to find time to inform ourselves of these technologies; play with them and get an understanding of how they can be used to enhance capability
4. When stretched to deliver a result, many L&D practitioners default to what they know best - transactional training where content is pushed out, learners are immediately assessed, and the training box is ticked. This model of training and instruction is becoming less appropriate for knowledge workers who need to think critically and problem-solve
5. Some L&D organisations still consider e-learning or learning technologies to be simply self-directed courses. This is the strategy, and where much of the budget is spent. With so many new technologies available to us, time needs to be given to redefine the e-learning strategy
6. HR often identify compliance as a major risk, and the squeaky wheel gets the most oil – budget is directed to informing staff of policy at the detriment to developing smart blended learning solutions for capability development
7. A risk is identified that staff are not ready for web 2.0 and social media for learning and performance, and so this kind of innovation is put on hold. To an extent this is often true, and change management is an important component to implementing social media, RSS aggregators etc for peer-to-peer informal learning. Sooner or later new skills for ‘learning how to learn in my organisation‘ need to be developed. Recognition and reward for contribution is another important requirement to motivate change.

My deep concern is that the divide is widening between learning design of ‘yester-year’, the requirements of a ever-changing business landscape, and the opportunities that web 2.0 technologies enable staff development. Our practice is changing. We must begin to plan, strategise, touch and play with the tools that our staff are using at home anyway.