You may have heard the following statistic: people learn 70 to 80% of what they need to know to perform their jobs through informal means. While traditional classroom courses and e-learning programs aren’t likely to fade away, it is time to focus some of our efforts on that 70 to 80%.
Let’s take a look at a three-step strategy that can help you incorporate informal learning in your organization.
Step 1: You first need to have a clear understanding of the informal ways people learn. Surfing the internet, talking with co-workers, reading trade journals/newspapers, and watching people perform their tasks either live or through YouTube are all just a few informal ways that people learn their jobs. Once you have a clear understanding of informal learning, you can choose methods/strategies that will work for your company.
Step 2: Any initiative requires upper-management support, and encouraging informal learning is no exception. As training leaders, we need to “pull-out all the stops” by marketing/promoting informal learning. Talk to as many leaders as possible in your organization about the benefits of informal learning and the strategy you plan to implement. Hold lunch-and-learns, town hall meetings, and attend management meetings where you can communicate the values of informal learning. Encourage all levels of management to allow their employees time to share their knowledge. Don’t be too critical of people who are talking at the water cooler, for example, because it could be informal learning in action.
Step 3: Few new initiatives get incorporated successfully without some form of incentive. Incentives could be as simple as free donuts in a break room where people can meet and share, to gift cards, days off, or fun/friendly competitions for helping others perform better in their jobs. Be creative when creating incentive programs!
As training leaders, we need to embrace a new culture of learning in our organizations. Just remember to always stay positive and up-beat during the transition and be as visible as possible because you are politicking for an important cause.
How are you encouraging informal learning in your organization?
Ron
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Comments RSS
Fundamentally, L&D pros need to incorporate tasks into their roles and responsibilities that support informal learning. Informal learning is by definition happenstance and bottoms-up. You can’t coordinate it, but you can facilitate it.
Help employees find information, resources, and experts. There’s a balance between self-service and full-service. Some things some people can do some of the time on their own. But there are always exceptions. Be there when those exceptions arise.
Help make knowledge easier to find when people need it, and easier to share with peers. Curate good content. ESN’s make this task much easier. But an ESN isn’t the whole of it. Your organization needs good knowledge management, too.
Knowledge management is not traditionally under the purview of L&D, but the two are inextricably linked. It’s okay if people don’t know a fact so long as they know where to find it when they need it. If your organization has made a mess of knowledge management, then it’s time to start ringing the alarm. Otherwise, your efforts at helping with informal learning will go no where fast.
What then is value of formal classroom training? Especially for a new hire, or the launch of a new process or application. Is a high-level introduction and overview the essential 20 – 30% of learning that makes the informal learning possible? Or is it a waste of time that blows out the short term memory, leaving participants overwhelmed?