The idea that people who use products should have input into their design is not entirely new. There have been many episodes of user-driven creativity in the history of invention, which scholars such as MIT professor Eric Von Hippel have shown through their research. As Don Tapscott points out in his book, Wikinomics , steam engine makers in 19th century England collaborated openly with mine owners to improve the efficiency of the steam engine used to pump water out of coal mines. A more recent example comes from BMW. When it came time to rethink the features for future models (such as GPS navigation), the company released a digital design kit on its website to encourage interested customers to design these features themselves. Thousands responded and shared ideas with company engineers, many of which have since turned into valued business initiatives. Now BMW hosts a "virtual innovation agency" on its website, where small and medium-sized businesses can submit ideas in the hope of establishing an ongoing relationship with BMW. Increasingly smart companies see co-creation with their customers as an important way to develop new products. Technorati Tags: Wikis, Corporate Learning

Open source innovation creates a Linux style approach to involving employees, customers and outside experts in the creation of new products and services. Fast forward to the world of corporate learning and ask yourself: Are you involving your learners so that they can contribute their input to enhance your organization’s learning offerings? Think about the many ways to involve both the learners and your learning staff. Sun Microsystems CLO Karie Willyerd has suggested a number of ways to use open source innovation in learning, like creating wiki sites for your learning department in multiple areas. Here are some of her great examples: 1) A course design site. Give the URL to subject matter experts and let them start unleashing their power, which includes allowing them to edit online in real time. 2) A learning terms site - for use by those interacting with the learning function. So many of us tend to use training jargon, so this will be a great benefit for interacting with business leaders and important collaborators. 3) A wiki devoted to your learning organization’s vision and goals. Remember those long sessions in the conference room devoted to coming up with the optimal vision statement? This can now all happen online through this site. You can generate input from contributors across the organization, edit immediately and seek feedback just as fast. 4) An acronym site, for the most frequently used terms within your company. Instead of having to update that dusty New Employee Manual the old way, it can happen online. 5) A course wiki for use by learners that includes regular updates of all the common terms and concepts. Perhaps most important of all, thogh, is to allow learners to easily add content and then instruct them in how to tag this content so it is easily located by everyone. Technorati Tags: Open Source, CLO

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Welcome to New Learning Playbook—a blog tracking innovations and trends in learning among corporations, universities and government agencies. The blog features case studies, interviews, links to resources in the field and more. The first series of posts will focus on how learning is being redefined for the Net Generation, those individuals born between 1980 and 1994 who are especially adept at collaborating and socializing online. How will corporate learning evolve to provide Net Geners with the experiences to which they are accustomed? Sun Microsystems had to address this issue. While the average age of a SUN employee is 42 years old (I was surprised by this. Are you?) 100% of Sun new hires are Net Geners, accustomed to a fast-paced life of constant, immediate communication, including frequent posts to Facebook and exponentially more text messages than emails. These Net Geners are demanding to be in charge of their digital lives both on the job and in the "classroom." Charles Beckham, Chief Technology Officer for Sun Learning Services, the learning arm of Sun Microsystems (which provides learning to Sun employees, customers and channel partners), discusses in the video above how his company has revamped learning. The journey to redefine learning has included adding a social networking capability behind Sun’s firewall, as well as the creation of a multi-player game for Sun new hires which requires them to learn about Sun’s vision, values, industry, competitors and strategy in order to win the game. As you view the video think about your own new hire program and how well prepared your organization is to attract, motivate and retain Net Geners.

While companies are off debating their policy regarding access to social networking sites as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, there is a growing body of evidence that Net Generation employees, who put a huge premium on doing things quickly and with zero learning curve, will demand access to these sites. In fact, Professor Clive Holtham, of Cass Business School, notes that in California some firms are already finding they cannot attract or retain staff because their IT infrastructure fails to meet the standards of the Net Generation. Consider some of the benefits in adopting social media to attract, develop and retain top talent: Increases in Creativity and Innovation Deloitte has come up with the innovative idea of hosting an employee film festival, where employees submit creative videos articulating the company’s values and culture. The best of these are now on YouTube. Deloitte has engaged in social media in a variety of other ways, with a special focus on using social networking in new hire on boarding. You can visit the Deloitte New Hire Facebook group from London of September 2007 to get an idea of how social networking can be utilized by new hires. Increases in Employee Engagement We know from the Gallup Organization that engaged employees lead to greater productivity, customer engagement and, by extension, higher profits. Hence, companies with populations of mostly actively engaged employees tend to outperform those with populations of mainly disengaged employees. Increases in Communication with the Troops Some aspects of social networking have already found their way onto the CEO agenda. Consider the growth in the number of CEO’s of publicly traded companies who have their own blog: Jonathan Schwartz, "Jonathan’s Blog" — CEO of Sun Microsystems Bill Marriott, "On the Move" — CEO of Marriott International Mike Critelli, "Open Mike" — executive chairman of Pitney Bowes Robert Lutz, "Fast Lane" — GM vice chairman David Neeleman, "Flight Log"— chairman of JetBlue Airways Michael Hyatt, "From Where I Sit" — CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers While CEO’s that blog are still rare, what is more common is the company department that starts a blog to share their lessons, insights and practices to a global workforce. Whatever road your company takes to developing a high performing workplace, the key will be to recruit, develop and retain the best talent and that talent may in fact demand you equip them with the latest tools in order to more closely match the way they run the rest of their lives.

There have been many definitions for Web 2.0 but perhaps the easiest one is by Tim O’Reilly, who first coined the term at the O’Reilly Media conference in October of 2004. He referred to this new web as a collaborative network characterized by the participatory and cumulative experience of users. Let’s break down the three major components of Web 2.0: Collaborative: Supports extensions to itself, is not a finished product but always a "work in process." Accessible across multiple platforms: Meaning, Web 2.0 can be accessed by devices of all kinds from PCs to Mobile Phones to You Name It… User-generated: Rather than viewing content as static, the well-established boundaries between professionals and amateurs are eroding and content is open and continuously updated. Listen to Tim O’Reilly, often called the father of Web 2.0, as he describes the concept on YouTube. Now let’s step back and ask if this user participatory experience, which is at the heart of Web 2.0, can be incorporated inside corporate learning departments. As you consider this question, five issues come to mind: What happens to the instructional design process? What is the role of subject matter experts versus professional instructional designers? How do Learning Management Systems need to be adopted? How do learners continually add their experiences, stories and lessons to formal learning programs? What new processes and methods need to be created to take into account the "wisdom" of the crowds? If the cardinal rule of Web 2.0 is that users add value - then how does this fit into the current way you design, develop and deliver corporate learning programs?

Do you understand your employees’ motivations and desires to the same extent as your customers? Perhaps not, and here is the opportunity for you. The Towers Perrin Global Workforce Study had some interesting findings related to innovation, learning and development. First, improving one’s skills and capabilities ranked second to competitive base pay in a list of key drivers for employees in attraction, retention and engagement. The Tower Perrin Global Workforce Study polled 90,000 workers in 18 countries on drivers to being attracted and engaged at an organization. Specifically, the top five drivers of engagement include: Competitive base pay Career development and advancement opportunities Challenging Work Flexible Work Location Flexible Schedule So how does your organization stack up against these top five? You can see all the results at theTowers Perrin website.

"Why $0.00 Is The Future Of Business," on the front cover of the Wired Magazine March, 2008 issue is one of the most thought provoking articles I have read in a long time. The author is Chris Andersen, who also wrote The Long Tail and resides as Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine. The article explores the concept of FREE - a marketing strategy where digital products are given away and previews Chris’ forthcoming book called "Free." Chris argues that with cost of digital products rapidly dropping, it’s time to give them away for FREE. There are plenty of examples in the article including: free web web mail from Google and Yahoo, free access to online content from the New York Times, and free DVR’s from Comcast. According to Wired article: FREE was once a marketing gimmick, free has emerged as a full-fledged economy. Offering free music proved successful for Radiohead, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and a swarm of other bands on MySpace that grasped the audience-building merits of zero. The fastest-growing parts of the gaming industry are ad-supported casual games online and free-to-try massively multiplayer online games. Virtually everything Google does is free to consumers, from Gmail to Picasa to GOOG-411. The rise of "freeconomics" is being driven by the underlying technologies that power the Web. Just as Moore’s law dictates that a unit of processing power halves in price every 18 months, the price of bandwidth and storage is dropping even faster. Which is to say, the trend lines that determine the cost of doing business online all point the same way: to zero. Just last week the United Nations University was launched. At this stage, the UNU OpenCourseWare Portal offers open access to about a dozen courses developed by three of UN’s Research and Training Centres and Programmes (RTC/Ps) and the Tokyo-based UNU Media Studio. The goal of the UNU OpenCourseWare Portal is to make the course materials used by UN Research and Training Centres available on the Web, free of charge. This is not meant to replace degree-granting higher education or for-credit courses, or even customized learning programs, but to provide content that can be used by educators for curriculum development, by students to augment their current learning resources and by individuals for independent self-study. As more of these initiatives are launched and heavily promoted I can see senior executives of companies asking learning and talent management professionals the tough questions including how to integrate FREE content into some of their customized learning programs and in the process lower the cost and improve the quality of these programs? On a final note, I wanted to take Wired Magazine up on their offer for a FREE March, 2008 issue where this article is the cover story. But on the Wired web site you will see the following notice: The March 2008 Issue For Free Offer is Now Closed. So much for walking the walk…

This week I participated in an interesting panel at the 2008 National Human Capital Institute entitled, Attracting and Retaining the New Economy Workforce: Generation X and Y. After a brief discussion of how generational differences can impact behavior in the workplace (see below), the focus of the panel was on what talent management executives can do about developing new practices for attraction and development of Generation Y, also known as Millennials or the Google Generation. Some suggestions to consider in thinking about adopting new practices for a multi-generation workplace include: Learn how the marketing, operations and sales departments in your firm are using social media to attract and retain new customers. In many organizations, experimenting with new media happens outside of the human resources department. For example, in June 2006 Blue Shirt Nation was launched for Best Buy associates. This is a voluntary, open-source, corporate-sponsored social network site that operates outside of the corporate firewall and is moderated by its users. Currently there are 20,000 members of Blue Shirt Nation and it’s become a place for Blue Shirt associates to help each other solve retail store operation issues. It has become influential in affecting changes to the email policy, improving enrollments in the 401k program and setting up systems for employees to communicate between shifts. In terms of retention, the funder of Blue Shirt Nation claims that while company turnover rates hover around 60%, members of BSN have a turnover rate of just 8.5%. Work with your talent management group to develop innovative ways for Net Generation X and Y’s to connect with one another while showcasing their creative abilities. One of the panelists, Leah Reynolds of Deloitte shared a YouTube clip from the Deloitte Film Festival. This is a contest run among Deloitte new hires where they make short films that express their vision of the firm’s culture and values. The best of these videos are posted to YouTube, check out my favorite, entitled, The Green Dot. It is about a Deloitte superhero who shows what’s its like to be a client services superhero for a day. Finally, as you work with your teams to create new and innovative ways to attract, develop and motivate Net Generation X and Y’s be sure you take a business approach. Develop a business case for why your organization needs to look at newer alternative methods. Also define the target audience and, importantly, the results and metrics you are looking for in terms of increased retention and increased on-the-job performance.

Every year I wait to see which companies made FORTUNE’s list of America’s Most Admired Companies. This year, Apple is not only ranked #1 in America, but also #1 Globally and in the category of Most Innovative Company. Apple has not only created successful new products but it has disrupted three different industries - computers (with the Mac), music (with the iPod) and movies (with Pixar). Let me make a full disclosure here: I own most of Apple’s latest products with the exception of the MacBook Air (though, it’s next on my list). What I found most interesting about the Apple coverage in the latest FORTUNE article was the comment by COO Tim Cook, "Apple hires people who are never satisfied. You don’t get a foot in the door unless your eyes light up when you talk about your Mac." It really is passion that provides the secret sauce to talent management at Apple. It’s so easy to forget the passion quotient in thinking about talent management, but in the end it’s what drives customer satisfaction. This is what Steve Jobs has this to say about recruiting and managing talent: "When I hire someone really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself. They’ll want to do what’s best for Apple, not what’s best for me or them. Recruiting is hard. It’s finding the needle in the haystack. In the end I ask myself: How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they are challenged? Why are they here? Hopefully the answer will be: They cannot do what you can do at Apple anywhere else." Below are the lists for this year’s top 10 most admired companies and the top 10 most innovative. Top Ten Most Admired Companies Apple Berkshire Hathaway GE Google Toyota Starbucks FedEx Procter & Gamble Johnson & Johnson Goldman Sachs Top Ten Most Innovative Companies Apple Nike Medco Health Solutions Procter & Gamble Herman Miller Walt Disney Fortune Brands Burlington Northern Santa Fe McDonald’s ProLogis