Utilizing Social Media and Cloud-Based Collaboration

Reprinted from Utilizing Social Media and Cloud-Based Collaboration

by Omar Nielsen, 2011. SPBT.org

Utilizing Social Media and Cloud-Based Collaboration

By Omar Nielsen

Next week, Kira will start managing a team with members in multiple time zones. Too bad the next Managing Remote Employees course is not scheduled until next month.  What if Kira could go to a manager’s learning portal to search for – and interact with – other managers virtually?

Jake has to manage a project until a replacement project manager takes over in a month, so he needs to brush up on the project management tracking software used. Too bad the two-hour online module he took didn’t go into depth on the one feature that’s been giving him trouble. What if Jake could access the online forum to search for answers?

Samir is new to a sales team that has just hired several new employees to support a new product launch. He’s completed a full schedule of instructor-led trainings, but a related question has come up in his first week. Too bad there is no way for him to contact his instructor and ask. What if Samir could access an onboarding collaboration site, and post a question to that instructor?

In progressive companies today, learning professionals are finding ways to utilize available online collaboration technologies to support informal knowledge transfer and performance support (just-in-time content delivery), as well as formal training solutions. The familiar social media tools (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) go by different names within the enterprise, but are still used to connect employees. Online networking activities are driven by the use of wikis, micro/blogs, discussion forums, video/audio file sharing, polls, live chat, etc – powered by open source tools or off-the-shelf solutions such as those offered by Yammer, Clearspace, mZinga, Google Sites/Docs, and SharePoint. Fusing these social tools with learning activities has become a conscious strategy in some learning departments.

Within Genentech’s HR Learning & Development group, online collaboration sites and moderated social spaces support formal classes and informal knowledge exchange for managers and their employees. Using a variety of enterprise social software tools, paired for each course offering or subject area, employees are encouraged to engage the expert moderators/facilitators and learning cohorts, as well as each other. All of these strategies help employees access information when it is needed most.

For example, the Management Fundamentals course offers employees a multi-phased approach for digesting the new curriculum. Content is unveiled over a couple of months as opposed to crammed into a two-day workshop. This allows for time to apply new skills on the job and make adjustments. An online program collaboration space (a Google site) is refreshed for each learning cohort and provides participants a place to post their results to specific exercises assigned. All exercises are tied to the employee’s actual project work. The online space is also used by attendees to get acquainted before and in between session dates. 

The costs associated in the support of this “informal learning process model” and informal online collaboration technology are equal to or less than the costs associated with more traditional methods of training delivery. In this case, the social learner is the focus and the design allows for new skills to be exercised on real work, with peer coaching and online support throughout the process.

Omar Nielsen is Senior Manager, Learning Technologies for Genentech. You can reach Omar at nielsen.omar@gene.com. 

Reprinted from Utilizing Social Media and Cloud-Based Collaboration

by Omar Nielsen, 2011. SPBT.org,