The Collaborative Learning Network

History, Lessons Learned, Accomplishments

The Collaborative Learning Network began as a project between a group of technical managers at 3M and Dori Digenti of Learning Mastery. This group of 3M managers created the Corporate Outreach Committee (COC), based on the perception that it was necessary to create meaningful collaborative relationships with some of 3M's Key Accounts. The business need for the COC became obvious after several interviews with 3M senior management, who corroborated the need to better understand customers at the technical level. The COC is a recognized subcommittee of 3M's Tech Forum, a widely copied internal organization that brings together 7000 technical employees around the world.

Through the summer of 1998, the COC contacted and completed videoconferences with seven external companies, and engaged in sharing of "learns and contributes" -- what could each party give, and what could each gain from a learning network. In parallel, the COC sponsored a Collaboration Capability Assessment process at 3M, which focused on understanding and improving collaboration. Based on the results of the Assessment and the videoconferences with interested external companies, the first CLN Summit took place with four companies attending in October 1998.

In early 1999, a series of conversations led to the current effort: The Collaborative Learning Network. The initiative has thus fulfilled one of 3M's goals: to make this a project among equals, managed by the participating organizations. As a member-based organization, The CLN is dedicated to improving collaborative capability through joint learning activities. The Network met in 1999 in Denver for the second Collaborative Learning Network Summit. A series of monthly online meetings was established in December 1999, where members share internal projects through teleconferences and the Internet. A website for the Network (http://www.collaborative-learning.org) includes a passworded members section featuring tools, processes, and knowledge supporting collaboration. In the year 2000, the CLN began to use a web collaboration tool, Lotus QuickPlace, to manage its activities and communications in a "one-stop shopping" format. The membership expanded from four to eight companies. There was a Spring Camp meeting in April 2000 on the theme of "systems thinking," and an October 2000 Summit hosted by IBM on "collaborative spaces." Planning is underway for a Spring Camp 2001 meeting in Houston hosted by bp. The Network has begun work on developing a comprehensive model of cross-company collaboration as a collaborative learning effort.

The Network is constantly reflecting on assumptions about its own structure and processes. What we have learned in the first two years of existence can be summarized in the following points:

Accomplishments