Meten is weten. How Effective is Training?
Laurie Bassi measured how well employees are trained and developed (Delahoussaye, et al., 2002). She writes that organizations that make large investments in people typically have lower employee turnover, which is associated with higher customer satisfaction, which in turn is a driver of profitability (p22). A second driver is manager proficiency — good managers determine if people stay or go, and this is also influenced by training and development. Formal and Informal Learning. Malcolm Knowles is generally considered to have first coined the term informal learning through his book published in 1950, Informal Adult Education: A Guide for Administrators, Leaders, and Teachers.
Allen Tough (1971) was probably the first person to really study how adults use informal learning through his work at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. The next big proponent of informal learning is probably Jay Cross (2007) who has wrote about it extensively through his blog and book. Shell informal learning. On November 8th 2010 I delivered a keynote at the second Symposium of the Dommel Valley Group in Eindhoven.
The theme of the day was “Informal Learning”. My presentation touched on the “Learning DNA” of the company I work for, looked at some of our efforts in the informal learning space and brought up nine (non-exhaustive) things that I see coming up in the near future. Please check out my slides (or download a 4.3MB PDF copy of them): The nine points led me to ask the audience nine questions: Common Craft - Our Product is Explanation. The How-to Manual That You Can Edit. 8 Reasons to Focus on Informal & Social Learning. Corporate learning.