"By sharing what we are doing and how we are learning, we distribute the tacit knowledge otherwise so hard to capture; invite feedback and encouragement from others; invite others to learn with us; document our work and learning for future use; and tie our learning to the efforts of others. Here’s a true story about physical rehab turned learning turned hobby turned community of practice turned two successful businesses, all via informal, social means. And all within six months."
See this month's "Nuts & Bolts" column: http://www.learningsolutionmag.com/articles/984/nuts-and-bolts-narrating-our-work
UPDATE 2026. In a server move the new owners of the Learning Guild deleted a good deal of old content. That column no longer exists. Luckily I still have all my files.
[Leader Here’s a
true story about physical rehab turned learning turned hobby turned community
of practice turned 2 successful
businesses, all via informal, social means.
And all within 6 months.]
Narrating Our Work
There’s a lot of talk among the
social/informal/curation-interested learning set, of which I hope I’m
considered an active member, about the idea of narrating our work. This has
become decidedly easier over the last decade given the many new tools available
for it. By sharing what we are doing and how we are learning, we: distribute the tacit knowledge otherwise so
hard to capture; invite feedback and encouragement from others; invite others
to learn with us; document our work and learning for future use; and tie our
learning to the efforts of others. Here’s a true story about physical rehab
turned learning turned hobby turned community of practice turned 2 successful businesses, all via
informal, social means. And all within 6
months.
Self-directed
informal and social learning. I have an acquaintance from my hometown,
Gloria Melton Mercer, who became a Facebook friend some time back. Gloria, a retired
elementary school art teacher, needed surgery on her dominant hand in October 2011
and was told she’d need to find a way to rebuild her strength and dexterity. Thinking,
“You should mix something fun with something you need to do, right?” she
decided to teach herself to create elaborately decorated bakery-style cookies (learner identifying own needs; taking
ownership of learning; choosing own solutions). Gloria started with YouTube videos, many
provided by bloggers whose work she then followed (self-directed learning). A
lot of her learning was through practice and trial-and-error (experiential learning). And along the
way she decided to share her project with her Facebook friends (because that camera on her phone is really
easy to use; Facebook makes things so easy to post; she wanted to solicit
feedback; she thought it might be fun
to share her work; she had learned from
others who shared theirs). Many
photos included comments about what she was learning, and how (narrating her work and learning out loud).
A community of practice (CoP). Then: As Gloria became familiar with the videos and
blogs, she developed a growing awareness of an existing active community of
people with similar interests. She began engaging with some of the bloggers,
asking questions and sharing her own answers.
Gloria’s daughter Marlo and Gloria’s friend Whitney, seeing Gloria’s
creations on Facebook, decided they wanted to learn, too. Soon they
started sharing what they were learning; all were participating with the
explicit mutual goal of getting better at their new craft (per Etienne Wenger, this
is the very definition of a community of
practice). As they worked they emerged
as contributing members of a true community of practice, with production of artifacts (recipes, actual
cookies, and pictures of them), a repertoire (libraries of cutters and
techniques mastered, like cartoon characters and airbrushing, and a specialized
vocabulary with meaning mostly for other cookie bakers). The repertoire
included another classic mark of community, members developing own in-jokes and
references. As they went along the rest
of us watched, encouraged, suggested cookie ideas, and commented . Eventually Gloria became a full participating
CoP member as she began teaching others.
Real Application to a
Real Workplace. Now? Gloria continues to work on her technique, but cookies
remain for her only a hobby. Marlo started and operates Coastline Cookies in Midlothian
VA, USA. Whitney started and operates Beach House Cookies in Virginia Beach VA,
USA. The “roi” of this informal, social
learning experience? I guess you’d need to ask Marlo and Maria to hand over
their books. They have businesses where before they had none, and they both
report operating at a profit only a few months in.
Here’s how it looked:
October
2011-January 2012: Gloria learns basics from YouTube videos, then finds that
many of those posting videos also have blogs and Facebook pages. “I found a company called Karen's
Cookies that showed how to make cookies and decorate them. I figured she would
give me correct information if she wanted people to buy their supplies from her
(evaluating credibility of information).
Karen’s Cookies site posts some of her favorite blogs. Many of the bloggers
also have Facebook pages. I made a special Facebook list for these, so I can
watch each day to see the latest cookies.” In January Gloria begins
posting pictures of her early efforts, which she called “trash”, but reports
that where cookies are involved, even hungry husbands like “trash”.
Figure 1: January 3, 2012, making trash
Figure 2: January 10. Cookies are no longer “trash”. Gloria
offers comments about her learning. 
Figure 3. January 13: Gloria’s feeling confident enough to
make cookies for family gifts.
Figure 4. January 18.
Gloria says she still can’t make her hand and icing “do what she wants.” Gloria’s daughter Marlo, 125 miles away, joins
in, as does Gloria’s friend Whitney. Gloria describes the need to “stop and
stand back” when learning to decorate.
Figure 5. February 2012: Marlo
and her husband Mike begin taking orders for cookies. Marlo obtains a business
license and Coastline Cookies is born. Marlo says: “After the experience with the Valentine’s Day cookies Mom and
I were both hooked. We would spend hours out of our day watching videos and
reading blogs and calling each other to share what we had learned. We still
do!”
Figure 6. Gloria tries her hand at using the airbrush.
Figure 7: April 2012: Gloria is turning out gorgeous cookies by the
dozen.
Figure 8. Gloria begins teaching others.
May 2012: Marlo learns
web design so she can launch and manage the Coastline Cookies site http://www.coastlinecookies.com/
Figure 9. July 2012. Marlo’s Coastline Cookies company is already a huge success.
Figure 10. July 2012. Whitney’s Beachhouse Cookies is likewise doing well http://www.beachhousecookies.com/index.html
And Gloria continues to learn new techniques and share as
she goes, while the rest of us remain on the lookout for new, interesting cookie cutters. Her new special interest is in learning
better ways of photographing her final product.
Figure 11. Gloria moves on to learning about heat guns,
quilting, and cookie photography.
There are so many lessons to be gleaned from this case: The social aspect of publishing your learning,
getting feedback and encouragement from friends, and helping other friends as
they learn; the fact that enthusiasm can
be contagious; the willingness to share and not keep everything to yourself;
the real way that knowledge is shared; the organic ways that networks grow.
And more to be learned here: that learning often spawns the desire for
additional learning (like web design and photography); the futility believing we can ‘capture’ knowledge as discrete pieces
of data in a spreadsheet; that ‘generations’ has nothing to do with anything;
the ways in which social technologies can accelerate learning and give it
geographic reach; and the value of a community truly committed to improving
practice.
This is social
learning. This is informal learning. This is narrating our work.
So the concluding question: For Gloria this was a hobby, but
for Marlo and Whitney it has become full-time employment. How can we encourage
others to narrate their work? What
support or tools would enable that? How
about the repair technician who figures out a new, quicker workaround? Or the
restaurant chef who develops a new technique? Or the software engineer who…? Or
the paralegal who….? What opportunities are we missing?
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