Musings on Learnings and Happenings
Yesterday I was approached by a peer from another organisation about his plans for establishing a network of trainers/assessors using social networking software. The request was made because of my current studies and some discussions we had had on this topic. My peer had suggested the idea to his colleagues but been soundly dismissed. This surprised me as I know the group and had thought they were quite innovative in their operations.
This got me to thinking about the group I’ve been observing as part of my studies. There is a paucity of postings to this community and I had been thinking about what motivates people to contribute and what doesn’t. Research has shown that it is only 1% of participants in a community who make regular contributions and 90% are lurkers (Nielsen, 2006). This is similar to some of the change management statistics I’ve seen - 20% early radaptors; 60% move slowly & 20% won’t move.
So - how do we motivate some of the 60% to at least lurk and maybe post? This is where the social constructivists come in - learning by observing, interacting, creating knowledge. A community needs to provide appropriate models; build on the participant’s existing level of knowledge; get other “thought leaders” to contribute; have a variety of presentation media; make it interesting; provide rules of conduct/netiquette; have strong facilitation/moderation. The list goes on.
But what happens when this occurs and there’s still no response, as in the community I have observed? What else do we need to do to motivate people to contribute? While at some point we need to recognise that at some time the lifespan of the community needs to be recognised and the community ended, how do we keep the lifeforce going for sufficient time to allow members to benefit from participation?
I think one possibility is incorporating a change management strategy into the community design - as well as the educational design features. This will involve overt support all levels of management of an organisation, managers modelling behaviours by contributing to the community and an ongoing promotional campaign for the community.
