Integrating Learning and Work

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Training generally takes place away from work – but most learning takes place when it is integrated into work and the work flow. Alan Bellinger looks at what L&D professionals need to do to make it effective?

‘Training’ and ‘Learning’ aren’t synonyms; training is done to people whilst learning is what learners do. But there’s another distinction. Training mainly consists of trainer (or e-Learning) push, whilst learning is mainly about learner pull. Of course learners will do some learning away from work – for example in a classroom or wherever the e-Learning is delivered – but we all know about the impact of the forgetting curve! The very essence of that 70% in the 70–20-10 framework is that staff are pulling content at the point of need. Whilst the 70% is mainly serendipitous, there are actions we can take that mean we can facilitate it!

1. Recognise the need – L&D needs to ensure that it can help people to recognise when they need to pull It’s all very well to say people will pull it as and when they need it, but if they don’t immediately understand that they need to pull, there is an avoidable delay. Or, to put it another way, the impact on work flow is greater than it needs to be. The Seymour Papert quote (“The best you can do is to teach them where to find it when they need it”) specifically relates to recognising the need.
2. Curate the content – the critical question that people will ask when they recognise the need is “from where do I pull it?” Ugly phrase I know, but at least I avoided ending with a preposition! And so we’re looking for a trusted source that will provide content in a minimum number of clicks. Encourage user generated content, but ensure there’s a governance framework in place or it will have no credibility!
3. Show what good looks like – by highlighting high performers and role models we can ensure that what good looks like is visible to others. If people can witness high performance in a role with which they are familiar, they are able to relate that to their own capabilities and develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours that constitute excellence

The simplest way to integrate learning and work is with a capability framework – highlight to people what they need to able to do in order to work smarter – either in their current role or their next one. Such a framework gets over one of the greatest inhibiters of capability development – people don’t know what they don’t know! And that simple key can unlock a great opportunity to facilitate the serendipity that is implied by the 70–20-10 approach. But make sure that the framework is relevant to the different job roles at which it’s aimed. When employees make the direct link between the framework and performance in their job, they will be highly engaged – it’s only when they can’t see the link that engagement is an issue!

The author

Alan Bellinger is Executive Consultant at the Learning and Performance Institute.

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