Did you say revolution or resolution?

So the other day I went on a terrific rant about the web2.0 revolution and what it has done to the age-old traditions of corporate training and learning. The core message was that we, as individuals, are now in charge of the means of production – our own intellectual capital – therefore we are also in charge of our own learning.

Road Closed From Creative Commons and Flickr. Uploaded on January 19, 2008 by stevelyon

That got me thinking about whether or not people want to be in charge of their own learning. It seems that some people are highly motivated lifelong learners. Some are not. The question that I am mulling over on this Friday afternoon is – how do you get the latter to become the former? Are people born to be lifelong learners? Can you create a lifelong learner? If so, how. I am not sure where to go with this, other than to let everyone know that I am thinking about it and maybe you have some ideas as well.

Some places for me to start:

Are there organization barriers that prevent people from becoming ardent lifelong learners in our company?

How are lifelong learners different from non-learners?

Is there anything that we can be doing as a company to motivate our employees to become lifelong learners?

What can I do as a learning professional to help create this environment?

I find these questions to be very interesting, and of course, any input would be welcome!