Sam Herring: Social learning

As a result, learning from each other produced all human knowledge, including languages and cultures. People will continue to learn from each other so that society can evolve. In business, success is based on trying new things, failing a few times and learning and improving through these experiences. Since companies are made up of teams, social learning is critical to the growth and success of a business.

I recently spoke with Sam Herring, General Manager and Co-Founder of Intrepid by VitalSource , a leading learning platform for team learning, to learn more about social learning and the technology that enables it. Sam is a respected thought leader in corporate learning from Seattle, Washington.

The beginnings of Intrepid - a new vision for digital learning

Sam, since we're going to be talking a lot about the auto industry today, let me ask you first: What's your dream car?

Sam Herring: Oh man. I'm not really a car guy, so this might be disappointing to your audience of car experts. I'm a utilitarian as a car owner, as evidenced by the two cars I own with my family. One is a 2015 Toyota Highlander and the other is a 2016 Toyota Prius - highly functional family cars.

However, the next car I buy will be electric. The car my son and I are talking about is the Ford Mustang. The Mustang is such an iconic American car as one of the most popular muscle cars of the 60s. I have always loved the 1965 Mustang in particular. The first car I owned was a Plymouth Barracuda, which was also a muscle car. I'm inspired by the new electric Mustang because it's a bridge to the American muscle car of the 60s and for me a nostalgic link to my younger days - and I suspect others feel the same.

Is this the one? A Plymouth Barracuda.

1965 Plymouth Barracuda Forumula S Sports with the unique rear window

Sam Herring: Yes, exactly. It's got that curved rear window. It has a very modern 60s retro look - and the car goes off like Schmitz's cat! It was a bit dangerous for a 16-year-old to drive that car, which is why I loved it! Mine was a 1965 hardtop, it was a great car and a lot of fun! 

Very cool, indeed. Let's switch gears. When you started Intrepid, what was the realization for you? Why did you start Intrepid, why did you create the platform?

Sam Herring: Together with my colleagues, I founded and ran a highly professional services company in the corporate learning space, and we had grown it to a significant size and revenue. We served large global companies such as Boeing, United Airlines and Microsoft as clients. We sold this learning services business to Xerox and it was integrated into their corporate learning outsourcing practice

Our experience in providing learning services to large global organizations gave us incredible insight into the state of online learning. Not everything was particularly elegant - things in the corporate online learning space were very static for a long time. We started looking at new technologies about 10 years ago when we saw changes driven by consumer tech, including the widespread adoption of smartphones and social media apps. Consumer tech, which focused on user engagement, started to influence corporate tech.

We saw all the horribly boring e-learning that had been churned out over the years and thought, "Wow, what if we could create a consumer experience that gave learners the glue for social learning to connect with each other while solving real-world day-to-day problems at scale?" That was our realization. It wasn't a complicated concept, but it was motivated by consumer tech and our desire to help learners have better, more impactful digital learning experiences.

Passive learning is not enough - real competence requires interaction

I'm impressed by the simplicity of Intrepid, the technology and the smart combination of functionalities.

Sam Herring: We had another realization, and we still believe this is an important issue today (with the focus on upskilling their employees given the rapid change in skills): Many organizations do a good job of identifying the skills their employees need to be successful in their jobs. But very often the learning solution to developing targeted skills is simply to point the individual employee to a catalog of self-directed learning and assume that this is sufficient for real skills development.

But this simply gets nowhere. Passive repetition of content is not learning. Learners need to be actively engaged, practicing new skills, exchanging ideas with others, and reflecting on their learning process.

These are the things we are absolutely convinced of. We focus on social learning opportunities, practicing through projects and tasks, and engaging learners through various challenges, gamification and diverse content. We deal with all the ingredients necessary for effective learning experiences. Good content is only one piece of the puzzle.

Social learning as an evolutionary success factor

A prototypical way of learning is to sit in a library and study a book. You take notes while working silently and alone. No one speaks. This is seen as effective learning. In your opinion, what are the ideal use cases for learning in a team or cohort?

Sam Herring : When I think about learning in isolation, and you gave a great example of learning at a university, it's very much focused on knowledge acquisition. This is different from creating a skill.

It's interesting because isolated learning is often the standard that we think of when we think of the experience of learning. But isolated learning (including common forms of self-directed e-learning) is the rare exception when we consider the broader human history and experience of learning.

Because if we think about how humans have learned since the beginning of time, how we have learned to communicate, we have had to tell each other stories to pass on our knowledge, to coordinate, to survive, to avoid being eaten by the sabre-toothed tiger. We had to pass on our knowledge, our wisdom, our culture. In this sense, networked social learning is not a new concept. Social learning is probably the beginning of learning. It is deeply embedded in our DNA and part of who we are as humans. Isolated learning and the self-directed digital forms we are surrounded by today are the outlier.

This explains why social learning has so many applications: Where there is a need for deep skill building; Where there is a focus on learning nuanced skills; Where the environment is dynamic and changing; Where what is learned can be applied to solve professional challenges with others; Where teams need to work together.

Where can we experience social learning in the workplace? There are many examples, for example the induction of new employees, where we meet colleagues for the first time and build important relationships. In leadership development, we can practice social skills with others, reflecting on our weaknesses with colleagues who are likely to face similar challenges. In professional development, whether it's technical or soft skills, we have the opportunity to practice with others. Another example is diversity, equality and inclusion, where isolated learning doesn't work, people need to interact and have the opportunity to share real experiences.

A real-life example is the use of social learning to drive strategic business transformation. We had a client that went from a holding company to an integrated operating company. And they had to bring about a complete change in the entire company. Not just top management, but all levels of management had to be involved. To do this effectively, the company needed to give managers the opportunity to apply new concepts to their part of the business and to have meaningful, connected and social experiences to learn from each other.

Other examples of large-scale change in organizations that benefit from social and applied learning include mergers and acquisitions and digital transformations. There are so many challenges that can be overcome through social learning.

Driving business transformation through social learning

I went through the case studies of Intrepid; Telstra, Miller Heiman Group, ServiceNow and Microsoft. What they have in common is: a team works in an organization and applies a process. And then the process is changed or the company is transformed.

Sam Herring: Exactly. You've found the common thread, Steffen. A strategic change can be digital transformation or transforming the company from a holding company to an operating model. Microsoft's transformation was about moving its product suite from on-premise software to cloud subscriptions. ServiceNow is focused on developing partners' expertise in both ServiceNow products and consulting skills to drive customer adoption and success. So it's about strategic transformation, training individuals to be successful and supporting organizations to be successful.

Why social learning is more important today than ever

What makes social learning so valuable for companies in these scenarios?

Sam Herring: Companies are undergoing massive change. For example, the automotive industry switching to electric vehicles or financial service providers adopting sustainable finance practices. Every organization is undergoing change. And if we think back to a year ago, digital transformation seemed less immediate and even somewhat abstract.

But one year after the launch of ChatGPT, it no longer feels abstract. It feels personal. If you're a copywriter or a screenwriter, your world is turned completely upside down. People think, "Wow, I need to stay one step ahead. I need to learn how to use these tools to stay relevant in my work." And companies think: "Wow, I need to figure out how to use these technologies to increase the efficiency of my business and stay relevant as a company".

It is therefore understandable that companies are looking for consciously designed learning experiences to keep pace with digitally driven strategic change.

It has never been as important as it is today. It has never been more important for teams to come together to overcome the challenges of digital transformation.

Let me give you another example. We have a professional services client that is going through a digital transformation that is fundamentally changing every part of their business, from consulting to audit to controlling. For example, data analytics is now being used in auditing and auditors need to develop skills in using these tools and understand how to use them specifically in the context of an audit. It is no longer enough to apply what they have learned in the academic world and through years of audit experience.

And we have so many examples of this from our clients where the nature of their work has changed dramatically and therefore people in business need to learn to learn not only in isolation but also from each other.

The need for social learning seems to have increased compared to 10 to 15 years ago.

Sam Herring: Absolutely. The nature of change, the speed of change and the skills that we know are driving upskilling are significantly more sophisticated than the tools of the past - self-paced e-learning, virtual classrooms, WebEx, etc. We have a much more urgent need for effective training and now have more powerful tools at our disposal.

In Call to the automotive industry: Invest in collaborative learning

We talked about the transformation in the German automotive industry in the previous interview. If you were asked to send a letter to the CEOs of the German automotive industry, what would you say?

Sam Herring : There is no need to point out the changes that are coming their way. Not just in products like electric vehicles, but also in disruptive technologies that they can apply across their business. For example, how generative AI can revolutionize design and production, or the integration of digital and social learning into the sales process for salespeople and the buying process for customers.

I would suggest that they consider investing in cross-industry digital learning academies and pathways to train designers, engineers, marketers and other knowledge workers to understand the possibilities and applications of cloud computing, GenAI and other new technologies for different aspects of their business.

An effective digital learning academy must have relevant and excellent expertise, be it from Microsoft, Google, universities, consultancies or wherever that expertise resides. But the expertise needs to be combined with the provision of opportunities for knowledge workers to truly engage in deep skills development. Inviting an expert for a few days of external training is not a sustainable and effective solution.

Relevant content is only the first step. Boards need to be committed to creating an environment where continuous learning can take place, where application can occur in the work environment through projects, and where employees have the opportunity to learn iteratively.

These could be company-specific academies such as the Volkswagen Design Academy, but also cross-industry academies.

This would be a superior alternative to the usual management consulting approach to providing expert knowledge, which is expensive, not scalable and difficult to implement as it does not focus on application and sustainable impact. The focus needs to be on deep and continuous skill building that automotive companies need.

Thank you Sam for sharing your knowledge on social learning in business transformations.