Whether you’re ready for it or not, it’s happening. Your employees are generating self-driven development experiences from any multitude of resources. They’re taking to Google, YouTube, blogs, books, podcasts, and industry experts to get the answers they need. Information is ubiquitous and informal learning is the name of the game.
In fact, research shows that at least 80% of all workplace learning is informal.* So let down your hair, loosen your tie and join Saba as we discuss how to assess whether or not your organization is ready to embrace informal learning and what it means to nurture informal learning in a way that works for everyone.
*Bersin by Deloitte
5. 5
INFORMAL LEARNING
refers to all the “non-formal” ways
people learn: coaching, access to
experts, developmental assignments,
reading, performance support,
mentorship, apprenticeship, and more.
Source: Bersin by Deloitte
7. BUSINESS CHALLENGES
UNTETHERED
• 20% are temps,
freelancers,
contractors
• 30% work
somewhere other
than the office
Source: Bersin by Deloitte 7
ON-DEMAND
• 70% more likely to
seek information via
search engine (vs 50-
60% in course)
• Increase in smart
phone use
COLLABORATIVE
• 80% of learning
happens in on-the-
job interactions
• Learners are learning
from each other
EMPOWERED
• Professional skills have
a half life of 2 ½ - 5
years
• Only 32% of workers
report growth
opportunities at work?
HOW DO YOUR
REACH THEM?
HOW DO YOU
SUPPORT THIS?
HOW DO YOU
LEVERAGE THIS?
HOW DO YOU
EMPOWER USERS?
9. OUTSIDE OF THE COURSE AND THE CLASS,
HOW ARE PEOPLE LEARNING?
SEARCH PEERS/COLLEAGUES
MENTORS ON THE JOB
TRIAL AND ERROR
9
They are doing this whether or not
you have the mechanisms in place!
No control over the tools OR over the content
Not reusable and no way to measure
15. HOW DO YOU MEASURE TRAINING
EFFECTIVENESS TODAY?
WHAT IS
MEASURED
Attendance
Grades
WHAT DOES THIS
TELL YOU?
X number of people
completed the course
People retained X amount
of information upon
completion of the course.
HOW EFFECTIVE WAS
YOUR TRAINING?
More text here
16. WHAT SHOULD YOU MEASURE?
Whether learning is informal or formal, how you measure its impact should
be the same.
WHAT BEHAVIOR
IMPACT DO WE
NEED TO SEE?
Why are you promoting
learning of any kind?
Where are you now and
where do you want to be?
HOW CAN WE
MEASURE THIS
CHANGE?
What’s your current baseline
Are you prepared to
measure again in 6 months,
12 months?
WAS THE
LEARNING
EFFECTIVE?
Was there a positive change
in behavior or performance?
Was it sustained?
21. CORPORATE CULTURE
Willingness to
embrace CHANGE
Emphasis on a
COLLABORATIVE
work environment
Push and PULL
learning environment
21
THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR WHEN EVALUATING AN
ORGANIZATION’S WILLINGNESS TO ADOPT INFORMAL LEARNING STRATEGIES
26. Informal learning needs a
STRATEGY
for it to be successful
Define your metrics for
SUCCESS
Participation
Satisfaction
Assessments
Business Outcomes
DEFINE
27. Create a learning & development
INVENTORY
MAP
how & where people are currently
accessing content
Identify what’s
WORKING
and what’s not
AUDIT
28. Apply some
STRUCTURE
to your informal learning program
✘ Instructional design
✓ Experiential design
✘ Creating content
✓ Curating content
BUILD
29. Convey the unique
BENEFITS
of informal learning to your organization
Build a
BUSINESS CASE
to take to your leadership team
Get managerial buy-in &
COMMITMENT
COMMUNICATE
32. WHAT ABOUT FORMAL LEARNING?
Are heavily regulated
or COMPLIANCE
based
Reason number TWO And reason number
THREE
32
Formal learning still plays a major role in organizations who….
33. 33
62% lower turnover rate
among high performers.
LOWER TURNOVER
64% of employees would like
more focus on development
EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION
2X the median
revenue
HIGHER REVENUE
2x
64%
Source: Bersin by Deloitte
FORMAL & INFORMAL LEARNING, BETTER TOGETHER
Caitlin
What do we mean when we say “informal learning?”
Caitlin
Here is one definition that is pretty simple... but when we scratch the surface it means a heck of a lot of THINGS:
Caitlin
Caitlin
Caitlin
Traditional learning delivered with pushed courses, and compliance training represents only a fraction of how we learn and how we want to learn
Show 3 buckets in the 70-20-10 in this circle diagram… one more circle!
Caitlin
It’s tempting to just let this learning happen untracked and unmonitored, but that means that organizations lack the insight into what’s happening so they can’t a) reinforce good learning and b) get out in front of bad learning.
Knowing that this learning is happening, why should you care
Make sure ppl are getting the right access and support that they need
Anita: I think it may be specific to call “on the job” out directly - ALOT of it happens on the job and not by a formal, schedule activity, whether they recognize it and self-direct our BYOL or not!
Anita
Anita
What is Saba’s definition of informal learning?
Reframe as benefits of informal via LMS
(Anita’s Notes:): We can tie our talk track back to the "How do we learn" conversation and the 70/20/10... with the 70/20 evolving to this...
Some folks may say that SMALL learning and MOBILE learning could also be part of the formal learning equation if they are part of an intential instructional design. To counter any resistance - we may want to be upfront on this and say this is also part of the informal equation when people curate or self-select their own mobile and bite size earning chunks
Anita
Anita
Caitlin
Caitlin
Caitlin
Link to " the real outcome we are trying to measure is performance or impact on individual or organizational performance.
we want to look for impact on the job - at an indivdiual, team or organizational level
Anita
Anita
[explanation of challenge, impact of not having everyone on-board, two-way adoption between employees and managers, building informal learning into performance management…]
Learner readiness and other pieces from Anita’s email*
Anita
it's about getting Leadership support and then supporting our end users.
Creating a learning culture at your org, enable employee learning, northwestern presentation
Anita
Anita
Creating a learning culture
Anita
Anita
Gallup statements, engagement and performance outcomes, highlight impacts
Anita
No matter where your organization sits on the spectrum of informal learning willing and readiness, there steps you can take to get you to where you need to be.
Anita
Anita
Caitlin
Caitlin
Don’t get stuck in instructional design… think about experience design, sharing versus creating content, embrace new paradigms
“potluck analogy for talking points”
Anita
Anita
Anita
Anita
Anita
other stats as well**
Caitlin
Caitlin
When all development activity happens in a single place the benefits are exponential. For the learner, the opportunity to build on what they learn is huge
Caitlin
When all development activity happens in a single place the benefits are exponential. For the learner, the opportunity to build on what they learn is huge
Caitlin
Caitlin
no longer enough to consider yourself a “trainer” or “instructional designer” by career. While instructional design continues to play a role, we now need L&D to focus on “experience design,” “design thinking,” the development of “employee journey maps,” and much more experimental, data-driven, solutions in the flow of work.
While I know many of you find these shifts disruptive, they are happening much faster than you think. I find almost all the companies I talk with are now teaching themselves design thinking, they are using MVP (minimal viable product) approaches to new solutions, and they are focusing on understanding and addressing the “employee experience,” rather than just injecting new training programs into the company.
While the shift in skills seems profound, in many ways I think its a natural evolution of what we do in L&D and HR. Our job is to understand what employees jobs are, learn about the latest tools and techniques to drive learning and performance, and then apply them to work in a modern, relevant, and cost-effective way. We’ve been doing this for decades, and now we just have to learn to do it again – albeit with a vastly new set of technologies and experiences.