Joining me this week is Will Mannon.
Will is the Chief Product Officer for Write of Passage, an online cohort-based course to teach people how to become digital writers. They’ve taught over 1,000 people how to do this through eight cohorts — I took this course in cohort two. I’ve been following their journey ever since, and I even got involved as a mentor in cohort five. It’s been incredible to watch them push the boundaries of online education, cohort-based education, and how people really learn.
I’m excited to share this conversation with Will, someone I consider a good friend. Will and I have regular catch-ups on all things online education. As you’ll find in this episode, it always ends up being an in-depth, far-ranging, and very enjoyable conversation.
Today’s episode is packed with so much valuable learning material:
- Working in a 30,000+ sales force at Oracle and how information was siloed and dispersed.
- Top-down vs. bottom-up training and how bottom-up training actually enabled Will to do his job.
- Crowdsourcing quality knowledge, trade-offs between top-down and bottom-up, having skin in the game, and the difference between unhelpful information and wrong but contextual information.
- Key skills for navigating information and knowledge in companies today, and what makes Write of Passage tick.
- Key success factors for motivating signups and involvement from participants.
We finish our conversation with a discussion about differences between 1990 and 2020 mindsets. I know you’re going to love this one.
Please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Will Mannon.
Full Episode
Guest Links
Show Notes
- An eye-opening experience while working for Oracle. (00:03:43-00:08:12)
- Challenges of bottom-up training. (00:08:13-00:11:22)
- Will’s thoughts on tacit knowledge. (00:11:23-00:15:08)
- The trade-offs between top-down and bottom-up training, and the difference between unhelpful information and wrong but contextual information. (00:15:09-00:21:52)
- Key skills needed for discerning information and knowledge in companies. (00:21:53-00:27:34)
- Brief background of Write of Passage and plans for the future. (00:27:35-00:33:42)
- Key success factors behind the program. (00:33:43-00:40:19)
- How Will’s team motivates people to sign up and get involved in the cohort. (00:40:20-00:46:53)
- Exploration of motivation, benefits of a cohort-based program, and lessons we’ve learned. (00:46:54-00:56:47)
- Learning by teaching. (00:56:48-1:00:36)
- The 1990 vs 2020 Mindsets. (1:00:37-1:02:42)
- What’s next for Will and Write of Passage. (1:02:58-1:04:28)
Selected Links from the Episode
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