Live blog from Learning 2006 Opening Session

November 5th, 2006 | Informal Learning, The Learning Business

Learning 2006

This is a live blog post from Learning 2006. It’s Sunday evening. 1800 people fill the ballroom at the Coronado Springs resort.

Elliott opened with a 10-year old playing Mozart’s Goldberg Variations. He asked us to contemplate what it takes to acquire these skills. Practice, love, feedback, and a sense of opportunity and joy.

“Learning 2006 is a campus. Some of the best learning will be informal.”

We’re mind mapping the conference live. Also using a wireless remote device for audience feedback. “I will be in a new job within 3 years.” 59% yes. 35% no. 10% abstain. Pick a topic: (1) next gen, (2) fingertip knowledge.

John Abele, founder of Boston Scientific and now a learning philanthropist, talked with Elliott about robot-building projects that involve 36,000 high-school students annually. The point is to teach teamwork, project management, cooperation, and computer skills. Right before tonight’s keynote, robots battled one another in the lobby for supremacy.

Next Gen 18-25. How will we learn from them? Elliott’s story of bringing in a next gen worker. Go with you to a café? “Do I have to? There’s no fast forward on you. And…some elements will be so important I will want to listen to them over and over again.” iPod. “I can’t work without my tunes.” IM boxes: my digital posse, my tribe.

Back in 1995. Want to know the weather? You call on the phone. *** Stock price? Wait til the next morning. *** Mail? Buy a stamp. Next gen didn’t experience this.

Audience poll. You need a new skill.

How many would take a course? 0.
An eLearning module? 0.
Read a book? 0.
Google? (Everybody.) This is “fingertip knowledge.”

Memorization is dropping in importance.

Award #1. PIT instructional training. NASCAR pit changing crew. Discipline, teamwork, cooperation. Company benefits on Six Sigma.

The Pit people showed a brief video of Elliott in training. Yes, he went to Charlotte and practiced changing tires with a pit crew. They cut their time from three and a half minutes to thirty some-odd seconds. (The pros do it in 12 seconds.) This is the sort of escapade that differentiates Elliott from his peers. Imagine any other learning guru changing tires on a race car so he could report back on the learning experience.

Steven M.R. Covey. Speed of trust. Confidence (not suspicion). Trust > social virtue. A competency. It’s something you can do something about. Trust = character + a competence.

Trust always effects speed and cost.

Create transparency. Being open. (versus hidden agenda)
Talking straight (as opposed to spin)
Get better. Seek feedback. Staying current.
Listen first. We usually listen with the intention to reply, not to listen to understand.

Trust is learnable.

Irony: there’s some aspect to Steven that I don’t trust. He speaks in sound bites.

Award #2. Lucy Carter, Apple. Lucy is a trooper in training, responsible for learning by Apple’s 68,000 sales people The award is for both Lucy and for the podcast.

The next speaker was the improbably named Chad Wick, CEO and president of KnowledgeWorks. His organization has worked with Institute for the Future to come up with an awesome summary of the future of education.

This warmed my heart. 90% of consortium members expects performance support to grow in their organizations in the coming year. I’m going to mail this to Gloria right now.