In the complex, ever changing world that we live in, to thrive and flourish requires that we learn as we work and work as we learn. The Center for Creative Leadership conducted research with hundreds of their clients and came up with an approach they call 70:20:10. The numbers represent an approximate representation of the effort required to ensure that learning is embedded into the core of the learner to best support the organizational learning needs.
70% of learning is experiential by weaving what you are learning into your day to day tasks by weaving the learning into the task. Part of this can be accomplished by engaging with others to dialogue around the impact on work flow/process using the new learning. This does require both individual and group reflective practices. At Innovation Works we call this ‘trial and learning’.
20% of learning is social, learning and sharing through networks, communities of practice etc.
10% of learning is formal education through workshops and webinars.
They describes this as:
‘Real’ Learning
We now know that ‘real’ learning is best defined in terms of behaviour change. Like other animals, human learning occurs as a consequence of interaction with our environment.
In humans we can distil the conditions for real learning as being the outcome of a combination of four activities:
- Exposure to rich experiences
- The opportunity to practice
- Conversation and exchanges with others
- Reflective practice and reflection
As a practitioner who offers facilitated learning workshops, this framework has been very helpful in designing these workshops.
10% of the learning is the ‘formal’ classroom type of session. There are some radical shifts happening in this arena called ‘reverse classroom’ where students watch videos, read articles before the class and then come to the class to have dialogue around what was presented.
20% of the learning is social learning through communities of practice, networks, coaching and other social practices. At Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) they have found that the formal learning of Appreciative Inquiry was enhanced greatly with their Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Community of Practice. During the three years since the AI CofP started we have had an annual half day workshop to provide new insights and attract new participants. Watch a one minute video by the WLU Communications Manager describe the benefits of a community of practice.
70% of the learning is embedded in the work that you do. In our ever changing, chaotic world just in time learning is key. Taking the opportunity to learn and share with your colleagues is the most effective way to learn by taking a strength-based approach to solving the problems that you face.
“We have reached an important turning point where success is not defined by scale of efficiencies, but by the ability to learn (and unlearn) more rapidly.”
~~John Hagel & John Seely Brown, Co-Chairs for Deloitte Center for the Edge http://dupress.com/articles/institutional-innovation/