Home topics news News News The power of informal learning Arndria Seymour June 14, 2011 Last month I mentioned the need to recognise our investment in the development of our current and future generations, so when you consider the percentages of the 3E Model—education (10%), experience (70%) and exposure (20%)—organisations should be viewing informal learning as important. Sometimes I feel we have lost our ability to communicate with our colleagues. We seem too quick to send an email to our colleague who is sitting over the partition from us, rather than standing up and talking to them directly. Learning occurs in every interaction, we just don’t think about it. So what does that mean for your organisation? Bersin & Associates offers some potential answers in their research paper High-Impact Learning Practices : “Corporate learning is entering a new era—one of social, collaborative and talent-driven learning.” In essence, formal learning still has a role to play, but informal learning defines your organisational ‘learning environment’, that is, where information can be found, the ability to collaborate with colleagues, and generally ‘how we do things around here’. I believe encouraging an informal learning culture will support the creation of a performance-driven organisation, as employees feel more engaged, motivated and empowered to make a difference. The flow-on is naturally increased job satisfaction and reduction in turnover. Jay Cross and many other published authors believe that informal learning maybe the conceptual glue that holds a high-performing enterprise together. Always remember developing training is one thing,