Learnscaping, Getting Things done in Organizations, is now available on Amazon for $25 + shipping. It’s a 160-page unbook, a continuing work in progress but containing enough meat to justify the price, I think.
Learnscaping describes a dozen learning patterns, e.g. processes that organizations are using to improve performance through networked informal learning.
Andy McAfee, late of Harvard B-School and now crossing the Charles River to MIT, has gone me one better with his discussion of Enterprise 2.0 patterns. His recent post, Toward a Pattern Language for Enterprise 2.0, details two sorts of patterns for optimal enterprise 2.0 technology, no-brainers and maybes. Both sets of patterns apply to Learnscapes, which are in essence a subset of enterprise 2.0 (a term Andy invented).
Patterns Where 2.0 Should Replace 1.0
| 2.0 | 1.0 |
|---|---|
| Technology appears to have been designed for the user | Technology appears to have been designed for someone other than the user — the developer, the boss, a lawyer, etc. |
| Only small amounts of time and training are required to become familiar with a technology | It takes significant time and training in order to become minimally competent with a technology |
| Few steps are required to accomplish basic tasks; technology-based work is ‘frictionless’ | Many steps are required to execute basic tasks; technology-based work has a great deal of friction |
| Devices delight, pleasing the eye and the hand | Devices exist to accomplish tasks and are designed only for function, not form |
| Delays and latency are low; technology responds instantly | Delays (especially at startup) can be long and latency can be high |
| Crashes are no big deal and are easy to recover from | Crashes are time-consuming and costly / catastrophic |
| Relevant data is in the cloud, so it doesn’t matter which device the user employs | Relevant data is stored locally at many devices, so it matters which device(s) the user has access to |
| Users navigate via search | Users navigate via menus and directories |
| Work is accomplished via the browser | Work is accomplished via many discrete applications |
| Technology accurately guesses what users want, is forgiving, and makes users feel smart | Users have to guess what the technology wants. The technology is unforgiving and makes users feel stupid |
| It takes virtually no time to author (to contribute online content) and few if any approval loops exist | It’s laborious to author, and many approval loops exist |
| At its best, technology is welcoming and empowering | At its worst, technology is alienating, isolating, and frustrating |
Patterns Where 2.0 is an Alternative to 1.0
| 2.0 | 1.0 |
|---|---|
| Technology is used to execute spontaneous collaborative work | Technology is used to execute planned / predefined business processes |
| Technology is used to share work and conclusions with others | Technology is used to generate or analyze information individually |
| Technology is used to broadcast information publicly to people both known and unknown | Technology is used to transmit information privately to known people |
| Technology is used to ask questions and solicit information and help from people both known and unknown | Technology is used to ask questions and solicit information and help from a small group of already-identified people |
| Online content is the start of group-level work; it is work in progress | Online content is the end point of group-level work; it is finished goods |
| Online content is generated by many people | Online content is generated by a few approved sources |
| A person finds new colleagues by examining the online content they’ve generated and assessing its quality | A person finds new colleagues by asking around an looking through official directories |
| Information sources give good answers to the questions users thought they were asking | Information sources provide complete answers to perfectly phrased questions |
| Technology is used to create and diffuse new knowledge | Technology is used to encode previously-generated knowledge |
Andy’s book, Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for your Organization’s Toughest Challenges, is due out soon. You can download the first chapter for free here.
RSS Feed
Follow Jay on Twitter
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }