Have you been rummaging through your toolbox at home as you looked for hooks, wires, and hardware to make and hang up holiday decorations? Well, I hadn’t sorted through my toolbox since-- well I can’t remember when- so that went on the New Year’s Resolution list, though in all due respect, I’m no Martha Stewart. As usual, in sorting and organizing I begin to think about how important the tools are according to how often I use them. That got me to thinking about two huge tools for talent development (the holidays may make it easier to take a day off of “work” than to take work out of my brain). My next thought was that there are far more than two tools for Talent Development, but the obvious sort was into two big buckets—one is our BRAIN – yes, because informal learning couldn’t happen without it. Why informal learning? According to Marcia Connor’s articles in Fast Company, informal learning accounts for over 75% of the learning taking place in organizations today.
The majority of companies that invest in training are currently involved only with the formal side of the continuum; they spend the most money on the smallest part - 25% - of the learning equation. Since the other 75 percent of learning happens as the learner creatively adopts and adapts to ever changing circumstances, it’s crucial to learning how to do anything new, and especially to developing the highly coveted skill innovation. If we develop informal learning agility as a critical competency, we will also get the most out of any formal learning initiative and develop a robust learning culture (check out examples at Google).
If you’ve heard the phrase informal learning used more and more, don’t discount it- the term “informal” is not without a weighty working definition; informal learning describes a lifelong process whereby individuals acquire attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from daily experience, educational influences and resources in his or her environment. Marcia Connor’s introduction to the subject points out that informal learning would also include: intentional learning (the process whereby an individual aims to learn something and goes about achieving that objective), and non-formal learning (any organized educational activity outside the established formal system whether operating separately or as an important feature of some broader activity intended to serve identifiable learning objectives).
The big bucket of informal learning has many powerful tools within it that companies can leverage to encourage, facilitate and maximize talent brain power. As you plan the year ahead, it’s time to organize that informal learning tool box; as a start, what are the informal, intentional and non-formal learning activities in your company? If you’ve had experiences with informal learning in your organization, we’d love to hear your comments about how you integrate it into your talent management, and/or contribution of a case study HCI might feature in a Talent Development webcast. This is a part 1 of 2 on organizing your talent development toolbox; stay tuned for part 2 to hear more about the other big bucket of tools on learning technologies... and happy holidays!
