Reprinted with permission.
At IBM, Scott Edwards is a champion of the 70:20:10 model of learning. As we discussed extensively in a recent webinar, the concept goes something like this: 70 percent of learning is self-directed, 20 percent is mentoring and coaching and the final 10 percent is formal training. It’s a handy model in an era where employee development and training has become so crucial. Josh Bersin (@Josh_Bersin) probably said it best in his “Predictions for 2015” report: “As technology and business trends evolve, professionals at all levels have to continuously reskill themselves to stay current and relevant” (p. 25).
Naturally, the feeling of falling behind is not a pleasant one, but any professional with the proper motivation can learn new skills. And fortunately, many are indeed rising to this challenge. As Bersin notes, companies such as IBM are investing in learning management systems that help employees focus their self-directed learning efforts with “Netflix-like ‘recommendations’ for learning”:
In 2015, you should reevaluate your learning platform; make sure you have a plan to deliver a “digital learning experience” that lets people rapidly find the content they need, helps them to find experts, and advises them on the formal training appropriate to their roles. (p. 26)
Bersin’s statement here gets to the heart of the matter. If 70 percent of learning is self-directed, then those efforts must be supported with the appropriate resources. Training modules and content are certainly helpful, but they won’t always have all the answers. Human resources in the form of knowledge experts and employee-generated content are invaluable to the social learning process. If you can’t find the answer, you can at least find someone who can point you in the right direction.
When coauthor Cheryl Burgess (@CKBurgess) and I were writing our best-selling book The Social Employee (McGraw-Hill, 2013), we learned how IBM retooled its own internal processes to prize this precise kind of knowledge-sharing. The Digital IBMer Hub provides employees with training modules and essential policies, but it also teaches them the fundamentals of knowledge sharing and community building in online networks. With Connections, IBM’s groundbreaking enterprise social computing and workflow software, employees also have access to daily news streams of content relevant to their position, a messaging network that allows for quick community responses to employee questions, and access to keyword-searchable employee profiles—ensuring that an internal knowledge expert (and potential mentor) is never too far away.
Systems like IBM’s have proven so effective because, ultimately, even self-directed learning depends on a community, on a sharing of resources that both speeds up learning processes and makes them more effective. Creating an infrastructure of support actually boosts the bottom line, as greater access to information means less time spent searching. And naturally, the quicker an employee can effectively learn a new skill, the quicker they can apply it to the task at hand—keeping both their organization and themselves marching confidently into the future.