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Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways That Inspire Innovation and Performance
John Wiley and Sons Ltd, Dec 2006, Pages: 320
Several years ago, the late Peter Henschel, then director of the Institute for Research on Learning, posed an important question: If three-quarters of learning in corporations is informal, can we afford to leave it to chance? With this new book by Jay Cross, training professionals can finally stop playing the roulette wheel.
Offering advice on how to support, nurture, and leverage informal learning, this book helps trainers to go beyond their typical classes and programs in order to widen and deepen their reach. Cross reminds us that we live in a new, radically different, constantly changing, and often distracting workplace. He guides us through the plethora of digital learning tools that workers are now accessing through their computers, PDAs, and cell phones. He also explores the concepts of Workflow Learning, Communities of Interest, and Personal Knowledge Management. The second half of Informal Learning provides specific suggestions for training professionals who are interested in expanding informal learning in their organizations.
This includes supporting the informal learning process by:
- Providing time for informal learning on the job
- Creating useful, peer-rated FAQs and knowledge bases
- Providing places for workers to congregate and learn
- Supplementing self-directed learning with mentors and experts
- Setting up help desks 24x7 for informal inquiries
- Building networks, blogs, Wikis and knowledge bases to facilitate discovery
- Using smart tech to make it easier to collaborate and network
- Encouraging cross-functional gatherings
Cross also suggests informal learning is positively effected by organizational culture, thus recommending that learning professionals:
- Set up a budget for informal learning. (There’s no free lunch.)
- Don’t confuse informal with random or optional
- Publish a statement of support for informal learning
- Position learning as a growth experience
- Conduct a learning culture audit
- Add learning and teaching goals to job descriptions
- Consider all-in cost of turnover and of not growing your own
- Support innovation (which requires making failure OK)
- Encourage learning relationships
- Support participation in professional communities of practice
About the author
Jay Cross coined the term eLearning. He has championed informal learning since designing the first business degree program offered by the University of Phoenix. He served as long-term CEO of eLearning Forum. An internationally acclaimed strategist, speaker, and designer of corporate performance systems, Jay is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School.
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