RavingLEARNatics

Bottom or top? Smart or dumb?

Here are a couple of great paragraphs from a recent column by Thomas Friedman, Advice for China, that support the Learning Democracy concepts of moving from push to pull learning, learner autonomy, and allowing the learner to influence the content from the edges of the organization . . .  

"The second trend we see in the Arab Spring is a manifestation of “Carlson’s Law,” posited by Curtis Carlson, the C.E.O. of SRI International, in Silicon Valley, which states that: “In a world where so many people now have access to education and cheap tools of innovation, innovation that happens from the bottom up tends to be chaotic but smart. Innovation that happens from the top down tends to be orderly but dumb.” As a result, says Carlson, the sweet spot for innovation today is “moving down,” closer to the people, not up, because all the people together are smarter than anyone alone and all the people now have the tools to invent and collaborate.

The regime of Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was just too dumb and slow to manage the unrest. The Tahrir revolutionaries were smart but chaotic, and without leadership. Therefore, the role of leaders today — of companies and countries — is to inspire, empower, enable and then edit and meld all that innovation coming from the bottom up. But that requires more freedom for the bottom."

The future of learning? A learning explosion!

Below is a great 10 minute video by learning thought leader Nigel Paine on the future of learning and how employee behaviors will impact productivity and performance of an organization.

In the video, Nigel mentions a great book by well known executive coach Marshall Goldsmith titled What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful, check it out. 

 

Flexible work & worker autonomy meets the Learning Democracy

A Fortune magazine article on the CNNMoney website titled How flexible work actually works is a great look into how the workplace is changing, and supports the Learning Democracy concept.

A quick overview of the article . . . what if you offer employees control over their schedules - no mandated office hour, unlimited paid vacation and sick leave, with no mandated office hours, optional meetings? Nothing gets done and the company tanks, right? Wrong. According to a new report on effective workplaces, the companies profiled are having different results. One company, MeetingMatrix International, a Portsmouth, N.H.communications firm shows increased sales (in a sagging economy) longer customer support hours, and 100% retention. The message? Focus on the end results, not hours in the office.

At Ryan, LLC, a tax services company in Dallas, employees and teams are measured on performance objectives that truly matter . . . revenue targets, 360 review scores, customer service ratings, etc. The Ryan employees don't have to account for their time, can take unlimited paid vacation/sick days. Results: voluntary turnover went from 18.5% to 6.5% from 18.5%, releasing poor performers increased from 4.3% to 6.9%, profits and revenue hit company record highs in 2009 and 2010. 

With leading edge companies moving to workplace sturctures that allow employees more autonomy and responsibility in their everyday work decisions, doesn't doing the same thing with employees and corporate learning initiatives? Of course it does . . . Behold the Dawn of the Learning Democracy!