Podcasts

Click here to see some of the webinars I’ve run.

Below is a list of the episodes from the “Social Learning Strategies and Trends” podcast that I do with Kevin Jones. You can also subscribe to this in a couple of ways — through iTunes, by searching on the name of the podcast and then subscribing as you would to any podcast, or through an RSS feed — don’t follow it as a link though since it will do nothing.

Episode 1: Introduction to Social Learning Strategies and Trends

As you might expect, this podcast introduces the topics and themes of our series. Kevin and I also provide a brief background on ourselves and our experience with the subject, and a bit on how we met and why we decided to do this.

Episode 2: Control

This episode is primarily about the zen idea that “you gain control by giving up control” when it comes to social learning and community. Many organizations think that they are giving up “control” over content and quality, when in fact they don’t really have any today. If 80% of learning happens informally and training organizations are influencing none of this, how much control do we really have today? By capturing social and informal learning exchanges through web 2.0 technologies, we actually gain an influence over this kind of learning that we lack today.

Episode 3: Getting Started (as in How Do You Get Started with Social Learning?)

The basic gist to this podcast? Just do it. Kevin and I talk a lot about how you really need to use these tools to really understand them. We give some examples of why this is true and how you might think about gaining some quick real world experience.

Episode 4: Getting Started Part II — Cool Tools to Try Out

As a follow-up to Episode 3, we talk about some of the ways learning professionals can get started through blogging tools, social networking platforms, social bookmarking, Twitter etc…

Episode 5: Social Networking Analysis and Talent Management

This episode is about social networking analysis (SNA) and the results of some recent studies by Rob Cross. Specifically, we talk quite a bit about a key data point from one of Mr. Cross’s data — when employees identify key influencers within their organization, only 33% of the names map to individuals identified in top performer programs or other formal talent management systems. We discuss at length what this means, and some ways in which SNA and community can provide a better way forward. I also blogged about this is a post on Social Networking and Talent Management.

Episode 6: Overcoming Objections to Social Learning

This is sort of a recurring theme for this podcast. In this session, we talk about some of the topics that came up when we raised this question on the Social Learning Question of the Day Twitter group.

Episode 7: Social Learning and the Recession Webinar Q&A

Kevin was gracious enough in this episode to help me answer questions from the webinar I did on “Social Learning and the Recession.” As is typical in my webinars, I never leave enough time for questions. On the next one that Kevin and I do together, we’re going to try to really drive a lot more participation and two-way communication.

Episode 8: Informal Learning vs. Social Learning

In this podcast, Kevin and I talk about the SLQOTD (Social Learning Question of the Day) topic for Friday — “what is the difference between informal and self-directed learning?” We also totally muff the beginning of the podcast which is hilarious.

Episode 9: Discussion with Steve Nguyen – Real World Adoption of Social Learning

Steve is actively defining his social learning strategy. In this, the first of a series of a podcasts chronicling Steve’s efforts to implement social learning, we talk about the overall strategy, where to start, and where he might have the greatest impact in the shortest time.

Episode 10: Dealing with Locked Down Environments

Does your IT department prevent you from accessing Facebook or LinkedIn or other social sites? In this session, Kevin and I talk about ways to still get some collaboration done. We also talk a bit about the Skittle Twitter campaign and the whole question of “openness” vs. “security.”

Episode 11: Overcoming Objections to Social Learning and Social Media

Many of us are having trouble “selling” the idea of social learning and social media in the workplace. We dedicated this episode to some of the top objections we’ve been hearing and more importantly, how to overcome them through good arguments and real-world success stories.

Episode 12: Changing our Roles and Becoming Community Managers

In this session, Kevin and I talk about new roles that are emerging in the world of social learning and parallels to the news industry and encyclopedias. On a lighter note, I did this podcast with a phone in one hand, a newborn in the other, and a bottle on my chin so I could feed him while I did this. Good times!

Episode 13: Overcoming Objections to Social Learning
This was sort of a pre-call prior to the webinar Kevin and I did on this same subject. We tackle some of the major obstacles to adoption of social learning and social media in general. We also brought in some of the @slqotd responses we got to this same question. Interestingly, this is when I first start defending Twitter in earnest which led to a viral blog post that’s *still* bouncing around Twitter.

Episode 14: Webinar Recap

Not surprisingly, this is the follow-up to the Top 10 Objections to Social Learning webinar. Mostly we just congratulate each other on a kick-ass webinar so if you don’t want to hear that, don’t listen… ; ) We also begin to address some of the topics we couldn’t get to in the webinar.