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The workplace is changing, as anyone with a smartphone has noticed. Business processes are transforming, the “office” environment is reinventing itself, and even the way coworkers relate to each other is shifting.

The way that learning happens within the organization also is evolving. Avi Singer, who is the founder of social learning platform showd.me, recently suggested that there are four social trends that are changing the nature of how learning happens within the enterprise. Silos are being broken, collective knowledge is being shared more widely, there’s more face time but via video chat, and documents are being shared more readily thanks to the cloud.

The first trend is that social media has changed how workers interact. Since employees now can connect with each other easily across departments and hierarchies thanks to social media, the silo effect has been reduced and is getting less pronounced by the month.

The generation that is being raised with social media also is more collaborative by nature, which is flattening hierarchies and reducing command-and-control approaches, which reduces silos.

The second trend is that more knowledge is being shared in the workplace; it is easier than ever to draw from collective knowledge thanks to YouTube (News - Alert), Pinterest and the other stores of knowledge that anyone with an Internet connection now can access. Solutions like Coordinated Systems, Inc.’s Agent Portal and E-Learning feature, as part of its workforce optimization software—Virtual Observer—allows agents to log into their work accounts from anywhere, and access a queue of learning tasks right from within the portal.

Third, interactions are changing and there are more opportunities to connect thanks to the revolution that has come from video chat. Now anyone can see the face of anyone else thanks to Skype (News - Alert) and the multitude of other video chat solutions on the market. It has never been easier to get face time with other employees and partners, and this is shaking up the workplace.

Fourth, the cloud has changed things since now it is incredibly easy to share documents and files. It used to require actually sharing a physical file with someone in the same office as you, but now anyone “sharing” is sending someone a link to your document on Google Drive, Dropbox (News - Alert) or other cloud account.

I’d add a fifth trend that is changing learning in the workplace: Better data.

Big data and workforce optimization software are enabling managers to get something that managers have wanted since time immemorial but not had until recently: A clear picture of what is going on in the office.

There is more data available than ever before, and big data is delivering the tools to actually leverage this data for insight. Workforce optimization software also is enabling businesses to better see employee dynamics and adjust so businesses run better. There’s more data, and it is better. This is a huge shift, and it helps businesses work better. This in turn facilitates learning in the workplace.

The world of work is not what it was even 10 years ago. It will be interesting to see where things are in 10 more years; 2025 could be an interesting place!