A long time ago, on my previous blog (viral-learning.net, now defunct), I wrote this lot (I've edited it down a little):

Organisational learning should be like a disease

The virus metaphor is a powerful one for organisational learning, particularly where supported by technology:

• Catching a disease makes it more likely that others will catch it also (the Network Effect, as shown by a wide variety of social software); sharing your learning, both during the process of learning or once mastery is achieved, makes it more likely that others will learn also.
• Studies of medical viruses and computer viruses have shown that there tends to be an "epidemic threshold", below which a virus will not spread, but above which an epidemic is probable. It's the same with learning in an organisation: knowledge and skills in almost any domain are unlikely to be pervasive throughout an organisation below a particular threshold of application.
• Key factors that influence a virus's effectiveness include readiness of hosts, effective transport mechanisms, number and frequency of connections and so on; comparisons with organisational learning are obvious here.
• Close personal contact between those with similar characteristics aids infection.
• In the early stages of many illnesses, symptoms are not evident but are sensed as discomfort - likewise learning.
• Those with antibodies to an illness will not catch it. In the context of learning, the antibodies include fear and discomfort; lack of relevance; too much information; blindness to need and so on.
• Once a disease has done its work - or once skills have been spread around a cohort - it's unlikely that the same group will be infected again immediately. So re-infection with a new disease needs to be encouraged.
• Some types of disease - types of knowledge/skill - are less contagious than others; some have very long incubation periods. We need to know which these are.

Elsewhere on the site I wrote:

• Technology could make a greater contribution by making organisational learning less manageable, less measurable and less visible, but more pervasive, more impactful and more cost-effective.

I thought that "viral learning" was a pretty cool concept. I guess this video has taught me not to take myself quite so seriously. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsHPJ0eJilU&eurl.