I’m finally getting around to reading the ASTD State of the Industry Report for 2009 which was released in November. I found this graphic quite interesting. I suspect one of the greatest needs now is to come up with an actual strategy for implementation. Or is the plan just to let the horses out of the barn?
Might I suggest a first step if you’re talking the strategy route – understand the common problems that get in the way of execution and analyze your organization within the context of these overarching things:
- Process and governance
- Technology and standards
- Organizational and learning culture
- Utilization of local and global resources
- Skills and competencies
You’ll be looking for stuff like this:
Initially, I thought governance was out of step with Web 2.0. It’s not. I like this definition of governance from AACSB (my original link is now dead):
Governance is the process of decision-making and the process of implementing (or not implementing) those decisions. Learning governance consists of planning for learning, allocating investments to learning, and managing those investments.
Governance should be aligned with business objectives and performance goals. You’ll have a better shot at getting resources and support with common goals. That might be a no brainer but some organizations are a bit out of step.
If your goal is to create an environment for collaborative learning using technology, you’ll have to discuss a specific strategy for technology.
Not readily available to me is this oldie but goodie: Itami, H. & Numagami, T. (1992). Dynamic Interaction Between Strategy and Technology.
Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 13, 119-135. ABI/INFORM Global.
They defined three relationships between strategy and technology:
- between current strategy and current technology
- between current strategy and future technology
- between future strategy and current technology
Typical questions they proposed include:
- How should technology be used as a tool?
- When should technology be introduced?
- What type of strategic focus is most effective given the constraints on the technology available?
- How should the organization cope with technological innovation and trends?
Basically, you’ve got a couple of ways to go…piggyback on an existing enterprise-wide strategy or move forward with baby steps.
If strategy is about doing the right things, implementation is about doing things right. (Harvard Business Essentials, 2005)
This is the process I used for executing:
Here’s a two-pager with some key points about learning 2.0.
(This post is based on a report I wrote just over a year ago. I hope you find the excerpts from it helpful.)
