Ice bucket learning

by Viv Cole on September 1, 2014

If you’ve managed to avoid the ice bucket challenge, I can only commend you for managing to stay unplugged from social media on your holidays, you have surpassed me. For the rest of us, this is a cultural phenomenon, which naturally I look through the lens of L&D geekiness to see what we can learn.The act of filming a video clip and posting in on social media is commonplace. However the ice bucket challenge represents the first time for many people that they have successfully followed a multi-step process that they were previously unmotivated to do.

In a corporate setting, when there is a target audience that needs to follow a new process, the typical response has been to provide new materials with detailed knowledge inputs (screen capture e-learning, instructions etc). For the ice bucket challenge there was very little specific guidance. However in its favour there was:

  • A clear purpose
  • Endorsement by people that others respected
  • Peer pressure
  • Peer learning
  • It was fun.

This evidences that if you get attitude right, then knowledge will follow – people will seek out knowledge when they need it; a far better result for all than being force-fed.

 

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