Greetings:
My name is David Mallon.  I am a Principal Analyst here at Bersin & Associates, covering Enterprise Learning and Collaboration.  I am leading our research on how organizations and their employees/members are meeting the challenges faced by knowledge workers in today’s business world.  In 1964, before the advent of the PC or the Intranet, Marshal McLuhan predicted (correctly) that “under [information] technology the entire business of man becomes learning and knowing. In terms of what we still consider an economy, this means that all forms of employment become paid learning, and all forms of wealth result from the movement of information.”  The knowledge worker learns as part of performance and performs as part of learning.  They are one and the same. My hope for this blog is to engage you in a wide-ranging discussion covering all manner of topics related to learning / knowledge / information and the various means by which we create / discover / evaluate / analyze / categorize / connect / assimilate / master / archive / share / advocate / teach in order to get work done.    While certainly future-oriented, my intention is to ground the discussion in real issues and – where possible – real solutions faced by individuals just like you and companies just like yours – today.

To kick us off, I’d like to take a moment to fill you in on my current research projects:

First all, I encourage you to check out the Primer on Social Networks for Enterprise Learning and Talent Management that we just published this week (you’ll need to become a Trial Member if you’ve not already done so).  This report answers questions such as

• What are social networks and social media (for those who could use a crash course)?
• How can social media and social networks provide measurable business impact in the enterprise?
• How might a corporation being to develop a strategy for using these tools?

As a companion to this report, I am also working on a more in-depth report (due in the Fall) covering the market for Enterprise Social Media, Social Networking, and Collaboration Platforms.  In this report, we intend to answer questions such as:

• What enterprise focused solutions are on the market today? How have they evolved?
• How might these providers address both internal and extended enterprise needs?
• How might an organization choose a provider that best meets their needs and business context?

Finally, I am working on a comprehensive study of the various ways that organizations are meeting the in-the-moment, on-demand learning needs of the knowledge workforce.  Expect this report to publish later in the year and to include:

• What are the most pressing business problems related to on-demand learning facing organizations today?
• What solutions to these business issues are available to organizations?
• How are these solutions same/different from existing learning practice? What the long term implications for learning functions and learning systems?
• How can organization develop a comprehensive strategy for enabling on-demand learning?

If you have on opinion on this topic, click here to respond to the survey we’ve deployed as part of the research for this report.  

I look forward to our conversations in the future.

- David