These are uncertain times, and people are curious how to cope. A recent webinar announcement from i4pc touted how a American Management Association survey concluded: “one of best ways to avoid becoming victim of the economy is to focus on corporate culture”. That’s great reinforcement, as culture is one of the components of improving organizational learning infrastructure. Of course, I recommend you take the broader steps, not just culture, but culture is key.
Marcia Conner’s presentation for the Corporate Learning Trends conference was on steps you could take even without a budget. Steps were to be more open, get more experts presenting, and more people contributing value. It’s all about leveraging the existing corporate capabilities in opportunistic new ways. Lightweight, high value. But it takes a culture where people value contributions, feel safe to share, trust one another’s opinions and values.
And one of the things social networking does is surface your learning culture. When you provide the opportunity to share, (see the Social Learning Question Of The Day responses, great ideas about the benefits of social learning), you’ll see whether your culture is really supportive. Of course, you’ll also have the opportunity to address it. And social networking is one of the lowest cost investments you can make!
Shutting down capability by laying off divisions means you’ll be lagging when things pick up. Those who invest in internal capability now will be those poised to capitalize when opportunity resurfaces. Don’t you want that to be your organization?
Great post, I was just reading something similar over at http://www.tompeters.com, where he opines that the issue of dissemination of culture from the top down (the “style” of the leadership) is of utmost importance.
I hope somebody starts listening to you guys soon.
J