On the twelfth day of Christmas Learning: Happy Christmas!

I’ve learnt a lot this year, most of it within and alongside this community.

The astute will have noticed that the 12 days of Christmas normally run after the event, but i broke with tradition as i’m taking a few days off till the New Year.

‘Days off‘, though, is a relative term these days: as the nature of work changes, the boundaries between formal working times and informal social ones has blurred. Not only the spaces, but the communities we inhabit: whilst it used to be colleagues at work and friends in the pub, the boundaries in the Fluid Workplace are unclear.

Taking time off probably means that i’m not working on any live projects, but will i be writing? Will i check LinkedIn? Will i stay connected on Twitter? Probably, but maybe not as avidly as usual. Which makes me think: is this how i want it to be? I think that conceptually i like some divide between work and play, but i don’t really look on what i do as ‘work‘ anyway, so it’s a harder distinction.

Working in communities not only makes us more effective, it comes with a layer of social bonds too: so disconnecting is different from simply turning a switch.

The last eleven days have been about reflecting on key trends i’ve charted around learning through the year. Today is about working out loud, about reflection, about engagement: core features of how we work and learn in the Social Age.

As you look back over the year, have you learnt? What have you changed? The world around us is in flux: a state of constant change, driven by technology, globalisation, the evolving social contract between organisation and employee and changes in how we choose to balance our work and pleasure.

We have to change, to respond to the pressures for change, if we are to remain relevant, to remain agile.

Our engagement in communities helps us to do this: working out loud is a great way of building a personal narrative around change and understanding how it’s affected both us and those around us.

Perspective has also been a core theme this year: perspective on where we stand and as a way of looking in from the outside. From your perspective here today, have you achieved what you wanted to achieve? Are you a social leader or are you anchored in the knowledge age?

Many of the ideas i first expanded in ‘Exploring the World of Social Learning‘ seem more relevant day by day: the four walls of the office are more permeable than ever. Organisations need to take a more social approach to learning if they hope to enhance performance and retain talent, let alone attract the talent they need to be innovative and creative for the Social Age.

It’s been a great year: i can’t tell you how much encouragement and support i’ve had through this community, which has grown fourfold this year (a figure i can hardly believe). Our reach feels truly global and i feel honoured to have connected with so many kind and generous souls.

Happy Christmas!