Jan 23 2022

My 18th Book Has Just Been Published

The Kindle is up and available at Amazon ($20 USD). The Paperback is also available ($25 USD). And a Hardback version is available (for $35 USD).

Matthew Richter
President, The Thiagi Group
USA

“Coaching has become a driving support for performance management for decades now. Countless books, trainers, and thought leaders have preached heavily on the need to coach. But, as far as I can tell, none have broken down the mechanics of social learning structure (the grandparent of modern coaching) in a way that is so readily transferrable to the work environment as Guy Wallace has done in his latest treatise on performance support.

In STRUCTURED SOCIAL LEARNING, Guy breaks down the mechanics for how coaching in the workflow happens in various contexts, how you can adopt and adapt it into your workflow, and how to evaluate whether what you have done actually worked. The book is densely filled with practical and prescriptive formats you can readily apply to your own contexts. Buy the book! Please read the book!! And then give it to all your colleagues and friends.”

Sofie Willox
Senior Learning Architect
Owner of So We Grow
Belgium

Social learning is one of the most powerful and oldest ways to learn. Organizations today are changing their focus (fortunately) from classroom trainings towards Social Learning. However, what we don’t always do, is doing so following a structured approach.

In this book expert Guy Wallace guides the reader step by step to a structured approach and takes structured social learning to the next level. By following this process, L&D professionals make visible and non-tangible behaviors and decision making processes tangible. This does not only lead to a more transparent and objective approach, but also maps out the ROI of social learning.

This is a book for both Talent Development professionals, working in generic functions as well as for learning designers dedicated to dive into the topic of structured social learning.

John W. Toups
Owner and CEO of eTracker
USA

I am personally and professionally impressed with the thoroughness of this book! This process will help the employee with clarity and support to develop the right behavior and critical thinking that the work and the environment will reveal. It is sure to produce a fulfilling experience and win-win results!

Harijanto Tjahjono, EdD
Instructional Designer
Lecturer and Researcher in Learning and Development
University of Surabaya
Indonesia

A must have for learning professionals! Reading this book feels like walking next to an expert in performance improvement (which Guy Wallace is) and listening to him guiding you through every step of implementing a system of social learning (otherwise known as on-the-job training).

Mr. Wallace’s years and years of experience in guiding companies building their learning system shines through in this book. If you are an L&D professional this book is a valuable addition to your personal or company library.

There are so many gems and references on how to develop your learning system that you will check the book frequently for Mr. Wallace’s wisdom. I know I will!

Chuck Georgo, CPT,
Executive Director, NOWHERETOHIDE.ORG, LLC
USA

“In my personal experience, Structured Social Learning (SSL) is the most natural of ways that humans learn; that being from other humans. It begins early in life when your parents taught you to hold a spoon or to ride a bicycle. Later in school, although you weren’t aware of the fact, SSL was how you learned to play a musical instrument or to kick a field-goal. In his 18^th book, Guy Wallace lays out a comprehensive “how to” for bringing the SSL approach into your organization as a tool to increase the performance and fluency of your staff, in turn helping your organization to better achieve its financial and societal goals.

Matthew C. Day
Anthropology PhD Research Student
UK National Health Service
England

This book provides a complete guide for establishing systems of social ‘coached’ learning that enable an organisation to cultivate learning and expertise transfer for targeted performance competence. The text starts with a detailed introduction to ‘Structured Social Learning’. The reader is provided with a detailed breakdown of key categories for interpreting necessary performance variables, an outline of the system, its constituting roles, features, and functions, and how to identify and define desired outputs. This thorough introduction is supported by a rich and personal case-example from Wallace’s experiences developing and applying such systems of social learning.

The main body of the text builds on this introduction to sequentially guide the reader through processes of analysis, design, development, and implementation for developing social learning systems. This includes a sophisticated application of Wallace’s ‘modular curriculum development’ to construct ‘the building blocks of structured social learning guides’ along with a detailed range of modes and media for learning/instructional designs and tests for performance competence. These guides and tests are generated by, maintained, and organised through a phased process of clearly defined leadership, core, and support structures that enable transparent and credible governance and assurance models for concise communications, administration, monitoring, reporting, and change management. Wallace’s approach makes accountability clear throughout and ensures that the production of social learning is cohesive, economic, and measurable: ultimately targeting efforts to where rewards and risks are high for an optimal output from time and resources.

In addition to providing a detailed method to design ‘structured social learning’ through a systems approach, the book offers equal attention to the operation of such systems, the management of pertinent data, and the balance between legitimate continuity and continuous improvement. This book, like the other current texts in Wallace’s 2020s books series, requires no previous introduction to Wallace’s approach. However, I felt at substantial advantage having read Conducting Performance-based Instructional Analysis (2020), The 3 Ds of Thought Flow Analysis (2021), and Performance-based Lesson Mapping and Instructional Development (2021). Structured Social Learning for Enterprise Performance Impact is an excellent addition to the series. Wallace presents an authentic and pragmatic approach for developing structured social learning, particularly ideal for those leading, designing, or reviewing organisational learning and development strategy. This book provides proactive and tangible methods that are responsive to the popularising epistemological interest in ‘cultures of learning’, the increasing value placed on local situated leadership, and the importance of transferring expertise within the workplace.

Is This Book for You?

This book is for you if you are an Enterprise leader, L&D leader, or an L&D Practitioner interested in improving the performance competence of your Enterprise’s people in their WorkFlows via Structured Social Learning – a more formal approach than informal, Un-Structured Social Learning.

A Structured Social Learning System isn’t always appropriate for all situations – but it might be ideal as part of the mix in terms of how L&D is deployed and people are developed.

Large Target Audiences requiring specific, targeted Performance Competence development are probably served better by approaches other than by just a Structured Social Learning System – which is really a Structured Apprentice System or a Structured Coaching System or Structured On-the-Job Training System.

A Structured Social Learning System simply may not scale easily or practically enough to meet that level of need at speed.

But medium and smaller organizations, functions, or departments might take this approach to transfer and build Performance Competence in general, or combat the loss of knowledge, skills, and competence due to upcoming retirements, or expand capabilities and capacity due to growth projections.