One of the many promises of Enterprise 2.0 is the ability to support peer-to-peer learning in a much great capacity than in the past. Peer-to-peer learning has been shown to be one of the most effective means of sustained learning at any age level and especially in adults. Within Enterprise 2.0, the transparency and accessibility of content coupled with the enhanced collaborative abilities will enable much incidental peer-to-peer learning in normal business activities. These tools can also be put together to increase the effectiveness of more formal learning programs.

I want to share an example that occurred in 1997-1998 using the technology of the day that could have been done much more effectively with the Enterprise 2.0 tools we now possess. I think its success with more primitive tools supports the concept and should be serve as an encouragement to use Enterprise 2.0 tools for greater peer-to-peer learning in more formal learning programs today.

A large health insurance organization was changing their IT platform to a web-based one and, more importantly, moving to a proactive customer service business model away from the traditional transaction model. This effort involved learning new technology and new business processes and attitudes. The traditional authoritarian classroom model for training call center workers took 12 weeks and it was then still 9 months before they became fully efficient. Neither of these time frames was acceptable to transform the entire work force so they integrated knowledge management and learning to both drive down classroom time and decrease the learning curve.

To achieve these goals they turned the traditional learning model on its head. They decided that they were not going to train people at all. Instead, they were going to put all the procedures, information, and knowledge to provide customer service and process claims in a knowledge management system available on the job. They made the workers responsible for their own learning but gave them what they needed to do the job. However, they did not just turn them loose on customers. They put them in a two-week simulation where they were given claims to process. To support their efforts we gave them access to the same knowledge management system they use once on the job. Other off-duty employees called in, simulating real customers. A facilitator, not a teacher, was there to answer questions. In order to graduate you needed to use the system to actually do your new job. Those who got through quickly were then asked to help slow learners, encouraging teamwork.

They also knew that not all the procedures would be documented in the initial efforts and not all those that were would be right. So they created a simple wizard to have employees write their thoughts on procedures they found undocumented as well as their ideas on how to do those that were covered even better. They gave them examples of how to write good procedures, in a help file, so they could better respond to this task. In the simulation they were required to use this wizard to encourage it use on the job. An organization was set up to evaluate and process their suggestions.

According to participant feedback this proved to be the most popular learning program that most participants had ever experienced. At one point when the new overall work IT system was being introduced sometime prior to release, the employees got much more excited about the new KM system than the IT system, itself. It even got a standing ovation after a long day of demos and employees said they wanted it right now, even if the overall IT system was not ready.

What excited business leaders was the significant reduction in classroom time and the reduction in learning curve, reducing costs and bringing forward the benefits of the major transformation of the business. What excited the employees was both the egalitarian approach and the ability to access what they needed to do their work. I have seen this occur, in part, in other places but this was the most dramatic. It would be even better in today’s tools but worked fine with the old ones. I think a mostly untapped potential of enterprise 2.0 to accelerate learning. I know that some talk about it but I think more needs to done. I would be pleased to see more examples.