Informal Learning

Let me start off by saying that I do not consider myself an ‘academic’, I’m more than happy to dive into a book (fiction or non), but tend to stay away from L&D related books due to the authors assuming that everyone wants to wade through case-study after case-study (I don’t!).

My interest however, has been re-ignited after reading ‘Informal Learning’ by Jay Cross. This book succinctly put into context the spending/outcomes paradox that many organisations face (mine included) by presenting a simple 4-column bar graph showing that most organisations spend the majority of their money exactly where it is least effective. The use of simple analogies and wonderful diagrams really brought the subject of Informal Learning alive and has given me plenty of food for thought.

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Mapping Informal and Formal Learning Strategies to Real Work

During the Q&A at a recent conference session on Social Learning a retail industry attendee asked: “I have to train 300 store level associates in new product knowledge in the next three months.  Is social learning really what I want?” What would your answer be?

I advocate informal and social learning vehicles when appropriate and get as excited about their uses as you likely do, but it’s not a panacea for all our learning woes.  The current zeal around social learning solutions can distract from real performance needs (we’ve been distracted before).  Social learning gets positioned as the enlightened and “correct” solution for the modern workplace. Formal learning is old, tired, and reluctantly tolerated for the vestiges of the traditional, mechanistic workplace.

But, set aside your biases one way or the other for the moment and simply think of the roles and functions you support in your organization.  It will vary by industry of course, but your list is going to be some subset of the following:

..Please visit my new blog Performance X Design to read the remainder of this post and others.

Note: The Gram Consulting blog has been discontinued. I post blog introductions here to encourage former Gram Consulting readers to visit the new blog. All the Gram Consulting content, plus a bunch of new posts are on the new blog. Please come on over…

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