Hugh MacLeod recently wrote about Word of Mouth Advertising and the importance of this for many businesses. Couple this with the famous Cluetrain quote of “Markets are Conversations” and you have the recipe for what matters most; your customers sharing and singing the praise of your service or product and changing other’s attitudes and behaviors.
It’s the same for learning and development (the verbs not the noun). Conversation is the ultimate learning and performance support tool. Not all learning is social but all social is learning. When we talk and share and question and answer about work, it informs our present and future work, we change our tactics and approaches… our attitudes and behaviors.
Learning about the benefits and value of a product or service is learning after all. Organizational learning shouldn’t be just about creating content but about creating more space for better, more frequent and easier conversation to happen. Conversation is king, Word of Mouth is how ideas spread best… and Marketing knows this. Time for organizations to apply this understanding on the inside, no?
I would agree that Word of Mouth helps spread ideas best when it comes from a trusted source.
Word of Mouth can also spread falsehoods (deliberately or inadvertently) – quicker than the truth can get their pants on – as the saying goes.
And Word of Mouth about anything can be distributed faster and better across a community with technology – the good and the bad. That’s why having a Trusted Community of Evidence Based Practitioners is so critical.
I count you as one of my trusted sources. Thanks for all that you share!
Valid point as always Guy. The tech is there. The mindset is there (well, mostly) but the new skill of Personal Knowledge Management in the digital age is only just emerging.