HR Managers - Does Your Organization Promote Informal Learning?
Informal learning has some huge advantages over formal learning but should be used not as a replacement but as a supplement to formal learning.
It is hard to define informal learning because it is constantly evolving but it does have some fairly clear distinguishing characteristics.
In the urgent world of management, traditional training courses are regarded as a burden.
They are perceived to be expensive and take staff away from their work for long periods of time.
By contrast, informal learning is well supported mainly because it takes place in small chunks of time, minutes rather than days.
It has a minimal cost and it is typically a response to a current workplace problem so the results are instant, easy to measure and has an immediate impact on performance.
On the other hand, traditional training disrupts work flow, results are hard to measure and the impact on performance, if it occurs, is in the distant future.
Informal learning is designed to reinforce proven best practices in the workplace and to distribute knowledge and skills from experts to those who need it, when they need it.
Informal learning is as much about a contribution to individual and team development as it is about learning.
Traditional training courses focus on what a learner can remember and apply back at work.
Informal learning on the other hand, focuses on actual work performance.
Traditional training courses are based on the ability of people to learn but informal learning requires a core skill of people who were able to train.
This concept often creates problem for traditional trainers because they believe it takes many years to learn to train.
And they are absolutely correct because their training takes place outside the workplace.
Training people to carry out informal training is much simpler and most traditional trainers have never had the opportunity to train people in basic skills on the job.
Traditional training is typically designed as a formal event with a focused objective of developing specific skills or transferring specific knowledge with a fairly fixed method of delivery.
This takes place in an environment which is totally different than the place where these specific skills or this specific knowledge is going to be used.
We know from many international studies at the transference of learning from the training room or the classroom to the workplace is as low as 15%.
Informal learning is organic.
It is a group of informal processes that will use any information that is relevant and available.
It facilitates collaboration, communication and it occurs in real time.
The objective is abundantly clear; it is to develop an immediate improvement in the individual's performance.
The major advantage of informal learning is its immediate relevance.
Nobody is more motivated to learn how to achieve something than when they are stuck in the middle of trying to do it.
It is hard to define informal learning because it is constantly evolving but it does have some fairly clear distinguishing characteristics.
In the urgent world of management, traditional training courses are regarded as a burden.
They are perceived to be expensive and take staff away from their work for long periods of time.
By contrast, informal learning is well supported mainly because it takes place in small chunks of time, minutes rather than days.
It has a minimal cost and it is typically a response to a current workplace problem so the results are instant, easy to measure and has an immediate impact on performance.
On the other hand, traditional training disrupts work flow, results are hard to measure and the impact on performance, if it occurs, is in the distant future.
Informal learning is designed to reinforce proven best practices in the workplace and to distribute knowledge and skills from experts to those who need it, when they need it.
Informal learning is as much about a contribution to individual and team development as it is about learning.
Traditional training courses focus on what a learner can remember and apply back at work.
Informal learning on the other hand, focuses on actual work performance.
Traditional training courses are based on the ability of people to learn but informal learning requires a core skill of people who were able to train.
This concept often creates problem for traditional trainers because they believe it takes many years to learn to train.
And they are absolutely correct because their training takes place outside the workplace.
Training people to carry out informal training is much simpler and most traditional trainers have never had the opportunity to train people in basic skills on the job.
Traditional training is typically designed as a formal event with a focused objective of developing specific skills or transferring specific knowledge with a fairly fixed method of delivery.
This takes place in an environment which is totally different than the place where these specific skills or this specific knowledge is going to be used.
We know from many international studies at the transference of learning from the training room or the classroom to the workplace is as low as 15%.
Informal learning is organic.
It is a group of informal processes that will use any information that is relevant and available.
It facilitates collaboration, communication and it occurs in real time.
The objective is abundantly clear; it is to develop an immediate improvement in the individual's performance.
The major advantage of informal learning is its immediate relevance.
Nobody is more motivated to learn how to achieve something than when they are stuck in the middle of trying to do it.
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