LEARNING IN CYBERSPACE

Learning Spaces - supporting continuous learning

Traditionally management development has been a one-off experience. Designed to match key points in the manager's career, a manager would be 'sent' on a long, 3 to 12 week, course to learn new knowledge and skills. This long period spent on a course allowed time for new competencies to be digested and absorbed and often practised. In addition, firm friendships were established and a network of peers emerged which provided both encouragement and peer pressure to try out the things learnt once the participants returned to the workplace.
Today two major obstacles prevent us from relying on long periods away from work and the workplace to skill-up our managers. Firstly, the pressure on time. As organisations have become leaner there is less opportunity for a manager to be away from the work processes and projects for more than a few days. This has driven management training events to become shorter and shorter. Much of the time required to obtain the value of digesting new competencies has been lost. Furthermore, there is less opportunity for making firm friendships and less time to understand each other and each other's goals. The support network and peer pressure to change is lost. At the worst extreme the manager is briefly brought into contact with new ideas, allowed to show a response and is then moved on. Termed 'sheep dip' training, this extreme has little or no value.
The second pressure encourages the trend towards sheep dipping even further. Most modern business environments are intensely chaotic. Change is rapid and new challenges arise daily. As a result, there is a wider range of skills and competencies to learn. All this in less time. In order to combat the trends, development courses are moving towards a focus on the manager's actual job rather than on case histories. At the same time, managers are encouraged to continue the learning process within the work place during the processes and projects they manage. This is called Continuous Learning. The demand for continuous learning is met through open learning centres or courses designed in this mode.
When designed in a continuous learning mode, management development becomes modular and will often include a support process for interaction during the work focused periods between modules. To achieve this continuous learning, Pentacle The Virtual Business School designs modular programmes and uses collaborative software platforms.
How does it work? Groupware allows the participant to share issues of concern. It also allows the educators to respond to those concerns so that, within the workplace, the participant has access to local, tailored support. It works on a principle similar to e-mail but not quite:
E-mail		Point to point No overall co-ordination No central record of all the learning Doesn't allow eavesdropping by the business educators
Groupware - collaborative software		Point to centre Co-ordination at centre Record of all the learning Business educators can eavesdrop and help with guiding learning Learning materials available to all Separate centre may be accessible to bosses etc. for updates Allows regular review of learning and application
What are the results?
We have found that the impact of groupware on the learning process is absolutely phenomenal. The network develops and participants transfer learning into the workplace. Furthermore, the educators can help to develop competencies which are required but were not covered by the original training needs.

On-line certification and communities

Pentacle the Virtual Business School has invented, and leads the world, in the provision of on-line communities for you to join and learn about issues close to your heart - the things which keep you awake at night!

Closed rooms

These are available only to people on continuous learning programmes and virtual team members.  We only run programmes for organisations.

If you want to discuss your organisation's needs you can e-mail us here.

INVENTING TOMORROW  Strategy, Innovation
DELIVERING TOMORROW Programme Management Project Management Change Management
DELIVERING TODAY Process Management New World Management
LEADING PEOPLE TO DELIVER Leadership Virtual Teaming Organisational development
ENSURING RESULTS  Making Money

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^*"Nouvomondism" - The New World business approach was invented by Professor Eddie Obeng   (BioNote)

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