No More Learners

Jay Cross has posted an interesting piece on not treating people as learners, in the same way as a the Dutch in some areas have removed road markings to encourage drivers to be more cautious. Has some real implications for current learning and development departments...see what you think.



Jay is asking for feedback here Twas David Gurteen's twittering which brought it to my attention.

Informal learning - identifying bad practice

Being a huge advocate of organisations paying more attention to informal learning, I've been attempting to raise awareness with practitioners of project managers of possible ways of learning. Then I had a sudden crisis of confidence. What if they are learning not the most effective ways to do things, but are validating bad practice.

I'm not saying that this happens, just that it's a possibility. In any gathering where practice experiences are shared, it's surely possible that there are more novices than experienced practitioners. If the experienced practitioner is advocating a practice which is not necessarily the most effective way to do things, or indeed, advocating bad practice of some sort, how are the novices to know that they should not adopt that practice? How do they identify "good" practice, when they have nothing to compare it against? After all, we don't know what we don't know. And who has the authority to identify good practice.

I return then to the concept of communties and networks, as it seems that the more contact novices have with ways of working, the more likely they are to identify mulitple ways of acting, and so be able to make their own decisions about what is good and bad practice. Without multiple contacts with multiple ways of working, their options for choosing an effective approach are lessened, another argument for the concept of Connectivism and networked learning, as advocated by George Siemens. It also appears to indicate that any community of practice must have a mix of novices, experts and all those in between, which in itself has implications for the moderation or management of communities to gain the best result for organisations.

Is it then the role of the community facilitator or coordinator to maintain a mix of skills and abilities in any given group, and if so, how do they go about identifying these? Maybe a community coordinator can direct the make up of a community to some an extent, but the development of skills in critical reflection and relationship building is far more empowering, and may better enable novices to consider critically any practice they come across. In addition, skills in network development will help them identify more individuals from which they can learn multiple ways of working.

Capability building – where Enterprise 2.0 plays a part

This somewhat ranty post was born of a conversation about the difficulty of evidencing ROI for training and development - the particular conversation didn't include Enterpise 2.0, but it should have, so I've included it anyway.

So...

The argument for a holistic view of learning which incorporates formal training, informal learning, knowledge sharing AND Enterprise 2.0
(forgive me the simplicity - this is a rant remember).

If you want someone to be able to do the job you pay them to do, they need to know how to do what they’re doing, or you’re paying out for no reason.

To get more than a return on current skills levels, to improve the skill base, or just to keep up with changes, you need to invest in people. This needs to be via formal training (the what) and informal training (focusing on the how).

Definition of formal training in this instance is directed, structured training, primarily classroom based, where a set curriculum is followed as required by the job function. For instance

• Methodology training ie Prince2, MSP, ITIL
• Principles training ie mentoring, negotiating, facilitating, dealing with difficult people,
• Application/tool based training ie MS office, autoCAD, procurement system
  

This can be related to learning to drive – you learn to drive a car (methodology), pass your test, (certification), but you only learn to drive by doing it (practice).

According to the Institute for Research on Learning, formal training accounts for only 20 percent of on the job learning (Jay Cross 2006 “The Low-Hanging Fruit Is Tasty”, - or see informal learning, the other 80%). If this is true, understanding the other 80 percent, the practice, and cultivating informal learning to improve this practice in the most effective way, must benefit the workforce.

Cheetham and Chivers also support this, they state that

"…much of the learning required to attain full professional competence actually takes place after the completion of formal training. This conclusion highlights the critical importance of informal learning. However, the results also suggest that different individuals find different kinds of experience formative, and this should caution against being too prescriptive in respect of “best practice” learning methods.”

Cheetham and Chivers 2001

Therefore broadly speaking, professionals learn a degree of what they do from formal training, but the majority of their skills, knowledge and behaviour is learnt informally.

Any investment in the development of capability therefore needs to consider informal learning to a high degree, if what is discovered in formal training is to be translated into practice and improved competence, to gain a return on investment.

Formal training related to relevant situations
As Knowles and others have identified, adults learn most effectively when what they are learning relates to their environment. Training which relates to learners particular experiences is therefore vital if what is learnt is transferred into their work. This can be done by using case studies with direct relevance to the job of the learner – ie using case studies from that company to train Prince2.

Knowledge management
Sharing knowledge about how an issue was mitigated or a risk avoided reduces the likelihood of costly mistakes. Sharing experience which was in some way successful helps to improve competence. For instance, knowing that post go-live support can be reduced by 6 days by investing time up front to understand and communicate exactly who will do what in a business process is a valuable experience which, if shared, saves 6 days expenditure and improves the likelihood of change being accepted.

Knowledge sharing is therefore a vital component of learning about a role, and thus, increasing competence. Networks and communities of pratice, both offline and online, can help to share this knowledge.

Enterprise 2.0
Blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds, instant messaging, online conferencing, all these tools facilitate collaboration, reflection, sharing, and ultimately, learning, all important for the development of competence and capability required to achieve business objectives.

Mentoring and Coaching
Mentoring also is a way of enabling people to share experience and good practice, and to increase competence, and serves to help people develop their skills in the areas they need to develop, when they need to develop it – just in time learning.

Professional Development Networks
Professional development networks, workshops and masterclasses improve practice by enabling individuals in those networks to dictate the content of workshops when they need them, keeping work current and allowing individuals to share experiences and knowledge.

In conclusion...

You need both training and development to facilitate learning and to improve competency. You need both formal and informal learning initiatives, which incorporates knowledge sharing activity, to support people in their roles in achieving your business objectives.

Informal learning in action

Yesterday I went to buy a second hand (almost new) car. It’s a big thing for me, for many people I expect, it's a lot of money to pay out. I managed to haggle down a few quid here, a few quid there (pounds to you non-Brits) and came out with a big enough discount for my own piece of mind, if not for my bank balance.

I thought about what I’d done on the way home…thought about why I’d immediately attempted to get money off (not just cos I’m tight), how I’d known what to look for, what car to go for, and thought about all the experiences that had influenced my behaviour.

They were, in no particular order:

• Talking to friends and family about what they’d done when buying a new car and what to look for/how to act
• Listening to stories I’d heard from friends and colleagues about car buying and remembered them when I got there
• Watching TV programmes about cars (Top Gear mostly, I love the Hamster…)
• Watching TV programmes about car salespeople
• Watching The Apprentice …enough said
• Reading "what to look for" check lists

I didn’t go and learn how to buy a car on a training course. I learnt how to do it by talking to people, observing, reading and actively searching for information from multiple sources, gaining a lot information which I’d somehow internalised and used when I finally decided which car to buy.

This indicates to me that informal learning really is something that needs close attention and analysis.

The first thing that really amazed me about all this was the power of TV as a learning device. It seems almost entirely passive when you're watching it whilst eating your tea (not that I'd EVER do that :-) Try watching QI a few times to realise exactly how many useless bits of info you pick up to amaze and occasionally bore your friends with. It is possible to learn something from even adverts – I learnt what a numismatist was from a McDonalds advert (it’s a coin collector…).

The other interesting thing is the recall I had when I needed it. I wasn’t aware I’d picked up and stored all this stuff, but obviously I had. But that’s for another time…

The thing that most struck me was that I was a part of a group of people who know a lot about cars. And I mean a lot. About things I’d never even heard of. But I gained more insight into what I needed to do and how to go about it more quickly than I ever could through the other channels I’d experienced.

Conversation is a wonderful thing – people are stuffed full of useful information. All in all I’d say that belonging to a community is a valuable precursor to timely knowledge acquisition, and that learning is to a great extent, informal.

And all I need to do now is find a loan to pay for the rest of the car…my friend says he’s found a really low rate….

How people really learn at work

Jay Cross tells us that 80% of learning is informal. He notes that this is supported by the Institute for Research on Learning, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the Education Development Center of Massachusetts, Capitalworks, the eLearning Guild, and Canada’s National Research Network on New Approaches to Lifelong Learning.

I love to tout this figure in conversations with colleagues, many of whom are still in the “lets arrange some training” frame of mind. Training in a vacumn just doesn’t work, it needs to be embedded in working practice, to be a part of what people actually do. Many people I speak to say “the training just wasn’t about what we do here.” Hence my interest in communities of practice and situated learning, and the possibilities for leveraging them as vehicles for learning.

My research is telling me people learn most by doing the job, and by talking to colleagues. This tells me both that my feelings about informal learning, and situated learning are correct. Well, correct in terms of my subject group anyway (she said, not wishing to get into the subject of statistical validity).

Some evidence from my workplace at last, albeit limited, for concentrating on how people really learn at work.