Driving Performance Through Learning summary

The world of work is changing fast. Competition is high, disruption is everywhere, and the pressure for efficiency and budget cuts is immense. People tend to have more varied careers these days, and the workplace is changing too, with home working increasingly popular.

One thing, though, has stayed the same: employees need to learn.

How can organizations, and specifically their L&D teams – the ones responsible for learning and development – best cater to this need? If you’re like most people, two words probably spring to mind right away: training course. But is that really the best way?

Most people have a lot going on, and it isn’t easy for them to take time out of their schedules. Couldn’t they learn just as much while still doing other work? Well, yes, they could.

The key message here is: Employees often learn more effectively in-the-flow of work, rather than in a course.

When people think of learning at work, they think of training courses. You’ve probably even heard coworkers complaining that they can’t do certain tasks because they haven’t been trained to do so. But this is an attitude that needs to change.

A lot of the time, learning should simply take place when it’s actually needed, while staff members are doing their jobs. This is learning in-the-flow of work, and it’s a principle that’s changing the way people think about learning and development.

It’s not a completely new idea. For a while now, the concept of 70:20:10 has been well-known among learning professionals. The idea is that 70 percent of learning takes place from experiences in the workplace, with 20 percent from coaching and other interactions, and just 10 percent from courses.

That very precise-sounding ratio isn’t that important, but the underlying principle is vital. The mindset in the workplace should be that learning is ever-present.

What does that mean for L&D professionals? Well, they’ll still have plenty to do – their role is to identify an organization’s learning needs, track progress, and, of course, find solutions. Sometimes that’s just booking a training course, but sometimes it means playing the role of facilitator, encouraging things like community interaction, coaching, and individual learning.

And how can L&D professionals do that? Well, good news: you’re about to do a little bit of learning yourself.