The 4 "R"s: things that work in social learning

The learning industry suffers from the chronic disorder that things that are supposed to work, don't. Lectures, e-learning modules, learning styles, blending and MOOCs to name a few.

Of course there are some things that work pretty well - performance consulting for example - but until we have a working theory of learning it's going to stay pretty hit and miss overall.

Talking with Roger Schank a couple of weeks back, he advised ditching theory altogether in favour of talking about things that work. I'm not quite ready to give up hope, but it is a view with which I have a great deal of sympathy - so I thought I'd talk about 4 things that I have actually seen work pretty well in the (loosely defined) area of social learning:

1) Relevant: people will flock to content that really delivers, and delivers at the point of need. If you Google 'How to have a difficult conversation' the top result is a checklist. Since launching our digital leadership suite a few months ago, we've had around 30,000 uniques visitors (all elective) - largely because the content that Redmund and Shane developed was designed around the needs of transitioning leaders. But introducing design thinking to learning turns out to be a lot harder than it sounds because our processes and our way of thinking are deeply content - not context -centric.

2) Rich: failed experiments with social learning platforms have taught me the importance of having a proper content-generation strategy (since most people come to take, not contribute). This means 'priming the pump' and ensuring a constant flow of engaging, surprising and easy-to-consume content. Gemma's marketing background brought a different way of thinking about content strategy, and a total of around 60,000 unique visitors to the site.

3) Rewarding: creating a gamified environment - one awash with badges, points, achievements, levels and leaderboards - really works. When Barbara launched the Advance platform for graduates I was astonished at the take-up in these areas, which I imagine owes something to the expectations of this demographic - namely that they expect everything to be recognised in some way. So while organisations fret over what is going wrong with performance management, we can build the framework for the future.

4) Real: something else we learned from Advance is that conversational spaces can work - but only if you take the 'adults' out of the conversation entirely - you have to create environments where people are really free to say what they think. Don't put up a sign that says 'for business purposes only' or try to 'harness' it in service of business challenges because that's not how conversations work. On the other hand, if the conversation really works, business challenges will be met.

It is a lot easier for everyone to talk about things that work, but I still think progress will be driven by wondering why.