Learning Takes More Than Good Intentions

There’s a commonly accepted view in the learning and development community that a good balance of learning opportunities is 70-20-10. That is, 70% of learning comes from on the job experiences, 20% comes from other people (say, through coaching and mentoring), and 10% comes from formal training.

The concept has been around for about three decades and though some people think it’s a bit dated and should be reevaluated, one key point to take away is that the majority of learning comes from on the job experiences.

At least, it can.

Simply telling people “you need to learn on the job” does not mean they will. It’s not that they don’t want to, but instead, it’s that they need a structure in which to learn, so they know what lessons they need to be learning and how to apply them in the future. Without some effort beforehand and some effort afterwards, you’re missing great learning opportunities.

You need to help your employees identify learning opportunities in their daily work and call those out so they know what to look for. Including this as part of the individual development plan points them toward important opportunities and also provides them with some accountability for their own learning. Setting objectives for learning experiences — that is, helping them to understand how their work should be helping them develop — is critical if you’re really going to get anything out of it.

The other key element comes after the experience, when they need an opportunity for reflection so they can extract the lessons they should learn and consider how to apply them in the future. That “opportunity for reflection” does not have to be a period of silent meditation in a yoga pose; in fact, it probably shouldn’t be. The best reflection comes through talking about an experience, either with a manager or with peers, to better figure out what they should be taking away from it.

Can 70% of learning come from on the job opportunities? Yes, but simply expecting it to happen naturally almost ensures you’ll never hit that figure. Think about how people learn and invest a little time to make sure they are able to get the most out of the many opportunities for learning they already have in their day-to-day job.