Introduction:

As I work with organizations and leaders on developing and integrating social media programs into their business operations, I often mention how these new communication technologies can increase the resiliency of their organization.

Reflecting on those discussions led me realize how closely the concepts within the resiliency framework parallel the working smarter framework that Harold Jarche discusses on his blog and work with the Internet Time Alliance. I provide an overview of Harold’s working smarter framework later in this post.

I am a firm proponent of the working smarter framework as a means to help Executive Directors (leaders) bring about essential improvements to their organization. My post is about utilizing the resiliency framework as a plug and play tool that can work with Harold’s working smarter framework, when and if needed.

Read more…

Brent Uncategorized jarche, resilience, worksmarter

On May 27th, the iSchool Institute, Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto hosted Harold Jarche for a day long workshop.

The iSchool gave me the green light to video record the presentation. The video recordings (or portions) will be accessible via the iSchool web site once I complete the editing.

At the end of the day Harold and Mark Shepphard, a workshop participant had a lively discussion, which for me captures the flavour, excitement and energy of traveling and participating in a network learning landscape.

Harold’s workshop was titled Network Learning – Working Smarter. Here are a few excerpts from the iSchool’s description of Harold’s one day course.

Network Learning (also called Personal Knowledge Management or personal learning networks)is an individual, disciplined process by which we make sense of information, observations and ideas. In the past it may have been keeping a journal, writing letters or having conversations. These are still valid, but with digital media we can add context by categorizing, commenting or even remixing it. We can also store digital media for easy retrieval.

The Web has given us more ways to connect with others in our learning but many people only see the information overload aspect of our digital society. Engaging others can actually make it easier to learn and not become overwhelmed. Effective networked learning is the difference between surfing the waves or being drowned by them. It also helps us to work smarter.

Harold has posted all the resources he used in the workshop. You can visit his site and download the slide presentation.

Harold is a partner in the Internet Time Alliance (ITA), a multidisciplinary, international think tank. The Internet Time Alliance helps organizations work smarter, by developing next practices on how to embed learning in our work. The partners are Jay Cross, Jane Hart, Clark Quinn and Charles Jennings.

The ITA is a group of insightful and inspiring network learning practitioners that I follow closely. These folks are helping me learn to learn and to develop my own network learning environment, for which I’m most grateful.

Brent Uncategorized ITA, learning, networks, workshops

The fine folks at the York University Knowledge Mobilization Unit hosted the KM Expo a few days ago. They asked me to do a 2 hour workshop on social media, aptly titled Social Media 101. I know many of the local non profits attending and Michael Johnny and his team at the KM Unit, so it was a good opportunity for me to reconnect to that part of my network.

There were a few glitches. The Internet connection was dead slow to just dead so I could not do some of the facilitation work I planned. It sure pays to have a back up when you are counting on IT connections. I made do but it was more me presenting as opposed to co-creating content online as I had planned.

I used a Mindmeister map to give participants an opportunity to think through a task, then publish your ideas to the Internet. While it didn’t work out with the slow connection, it’s available here for any participants willing to post a comment. If you were not at the workshop, you are invited to add your comments as well.

My focus was on the “working smarter, network learning, social learning” activities that organizations and practitioners can adopt in order to be stronger innovators and collaborators inside and outside the organization.

Here are the slides from my Social Learning and Working Smarter – KM Expo presentation. You can also view and download the slides on Slideshare.

I brought a few of my resource books to the workshop. A few people asked for a list of them so here they are.

Working Smarter Field Book September Edition: Jay Cross, Jane Hart, Harold Jarche, Charles Jennings & Clark Quinn

The New Social Learning – A Guide to Transforming Organizations Through Social Media: Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner

Social Learning Handbook – How to Use Social Media to Work & Learn Smarter: Jane Hart

The Networked Non Profit – Connecting With Social Media to Drive Change: Beth Kanter & Allison H. Fine

Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us: Daniel H. Pink

Social Media ROI – Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in Your Organization: Olivier Blanchard

Open Leadership – How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead: Charlene Li

Groundswell – Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies: Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff (Forester Research)

The DragonFly Effect – Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change: Jennifer Aaker & Andy Smith with Carlye Adler

Brent Uncategorized