Next year, I intend to start making the world a better place, and that’s going to take more oomph, focus, and work with others. Knowledge workers have replaced factory workers. Shareholders owned the factories, but workers own their minds. Information spreading through network connections empowers workers to make decisions and take responsibility for them. Give workers the resources and challenge them to do what’s required. MORE

Embrace the gig economy work structure for a strategic advantage over out-dated workflow practices. But managers and HR departments tend to operate from a perspective of fear, convinced that employees can only complete work if they’re supervised in an office. Most companies still adhere to a traditional labor structure of employing full-time workers, hoping to find the best talent within driving distance of an office. More incentive for high-quality work done quickly. MORE

I'm discussing the current role of knowledge workers, how it's changing, and will propose a definition for a new type of digital worker that's emerging Continue Reading → The post The Half-Life of Knowledge Workers appeared first on E-Learning Curve Blog. MORE

Working smarter is the key to sustainability and continuous improvement. Knowledge work and learning to work smarter are becoming indistinguishable. The accelerating rate of change in business forces everyone in every organization to make a choice: learn while you work or become obsolete. The infrastructure for working smarter is called a workscape. It’s not a separate function so much as another way of looking at how we organize work. MORE

What sparks this post is the combination of a recent post by Stephen Downes that includes a brief exchange with Jay Cross in the comments and some interesting discussions in the Enterprise 2.0 world that included a post by Bill Ives - Managing Personal Knowledge: Setting a Foundation for Transformation? In it, he points out that a stepping stone to Enterprise 2.0 Learning-Knowledge-Work - they really are the same and I need to do them all at once. MORE

But there was another significant trend in the answers… Learning and Work Converge In a world where Knowledge Work and Learning is Inseparable , finding ways to support and improve work is the same as finding ways to support and improve learning. Jay Cross in Ten Years After puts it: In a knowledge society, learning is the work. Who in an organization is responsible for supporting and improving work? MORE

The crux of the talk was: Why being able to tap into the social grid is important for concept workers. Leveraging Networks is Key Skill and the most important Knowledge Worker Skill Gap. Tools and Methods for Networks and Communities - Discusses specific tools and methods for using Networks and Communities as part of Knowledge Work. I'd need to know more to understand what would work for the particular situation. I'm working on XXX. MORE

I also had a chat a few days ago with a Wall Street Journal reporter who is researching an article on knowledge worker productivity. I said yes, and mouthed the old Peter Drucker chestnut that "making knowledge work productive is the greatest economic challenge of this century." Workforce Unprepared for Knowledge Economy, Author Warns - Heartland Institute. Knowledge Management - Creating A Sustainable Yellow Pages System. Was Drucker Wrong? - MORE

What I wrote more about in 2010 than past years: Text-to-Speech (8) OCW (3) SharePoint (8) eLearning Strategy (16) eLearning Tools (34) Corporate eLearning (18) Knowledge Worker (8) Authoring Tools (8) Voice (15) Knowledge Work (4) Captivate (11) Adobe Captivate (6) Enterprise 2.0 (6) Social Learning Tools Should Not be Separate from Enterprise 2.0 MORE