Elissa Perry, Leadership Learning Community

"When knowledge gained somewhere doesn't move elsewhere, that's not a learning organization; that's just a bunch of projects." - The Saratoga Institute

It can be difficult to encourage new ideas and innovation from people who aren't in positions with leadership titles or much technical authority. People fear speaking up for reasons tied not just to personal style, but also -- and perhaps more commonly -- to organizational culture. There are a number of challenges as well as supports that can limit or open the space for learning and exchange in an organization.

You should start by fostering and supporting a culture of learning and innovation.

If you work with kids and education, you should know about the new competition just announced by the MacArthur Foundation. Hat tip to Andy Carvin for the heads up (via Twitter). From the release:

Awards will be given in two categories:

• Innovation Awards will support learning pioneers, entrepreneurs, and builders of new digital learning environments for formal and informal learning. These innovations might range from a teacher add-on for MySpace that allows for safe assigning of a class group discussion, to a platform co-developed by teachers and students to facilitate digital literacy and peer-mentoring between college students and high-school drop-outs earning their GED degrees, to a digital learning festival for the leaders of a worldwide youth environmental campaign.

• Knowledge Networking Awards will support communicators in connecting, mobilizing, circulating or translating new ideas around digital media and learning. For example, a team of teacher bloggers who already reach hundreds of thousands of readers may now seek to provide multimedia coverage and translation of MIT Professor Henry Jenkins’ recent white paper on media literacy.