Background

Bio: Marcia Conner is the Executive Director of The Learnativity Alliance, a small research institute and advisory services practice. She also serves as editor-in-chief of learning in the New Economy Magazine and manages Learnativity.com. Prior to co-founding The Learnativity Alliance, Ms. Conner was Vice President of Education Services for PeopleSoft, where she managed all customer, business partner, employee education, e-learning, and performance management programs worldwide. Following that, she was the Information Futurist at PeopleSoft. Before joining PeopleSoft, she helped take a company public in 1995 and was Senior Manager of Worldwide Training at Microsoft.

Ms. Conner is writing Learn More Now, a book about how learning influences life, which will be published by Wiley. Other publications include, “The Manifesto for Learning in the New Economy” and “Human Capital: Basic Beliefs about the World’s Oldest New Paradigm.” She has presented many keynote addresses, including: “Attention Please! From New Economy to Attention Economy” and “The Race for Your Mind Is On: Space Is Limited.” She is a member of the board of trustees of the Chaordic Commons, sits on the board of several high-tech companies, serves as an e-Learning Advisor to The Conference Board, and is President of the Central Virginia Chapter of the Society for Performance and Improvement.

Ms. Conner has lived and worked on three continents. Between travels, she lives on a farm in Hanover County, VA. She enjoys whitewater kayaking and volunteering her time to work with teachers and parents to find creative solutions for children with learning disabilities.

Expertise: Creating a Learning Culture 

Research

Fellowship Focus: The focus of Marcia Conner’s Batten Fellowship was to develop the intellectual components of the Batten Institute’s June 2002 conference, Creating a Learning Culture: Strategy, Technology, and Practice. These components include the overall conference framework, topics, speaker selections, and facilitation of conference panels. The conference gathered together leading minds in business and education on the theory and practice of learning. These senior corporate executives, scholars, and management education faculty addressed the core questions on learning that organizations face today.

Ms. Conner’s collaboration with her faculty host, Jim Clawson, resulted in an article entitled, “Creating a Learning Culture,” which was included in the conference primer, Transforming Culture: An Executive Briefing on the Power of Learning. She and Professor Clawson will also write a book, Creating a Learning Culture, to be published by Cambridge University Press. Output related to the conference also included the development of the content for the remainder of the primer, which included field interviews of executives from various institutions. The primer was developed in a magazine style and will be circulated widely to members of the academic and business community interested in the learning culture theme.

Additional results of the Fellowship include Ms. Conner’s facilitation of a faculty forum on complexity theory and its role in learning, an online presentation to senior corporate executives around the world on the topic of informal learning, a seminar on chaordic organizational concepts, and a segment for Batten’s Transformation & Leadership Series.

Contact Info

Email:marcia@marciaconner.com

Appointment: 2002

Resources (e.g., CV, etc.):View Vitae

Publications & News

Book:

Creating a Learning Culture: Strategy, Technology, and Practice (co-author) (Cambridge University Press; 2004)