On April 27, 2011, Clark Quinn and I kicked off a meeting of the Chief Learning Officer Executive Network at Symantec in Mountain View. The Executive Networks people took notes; here are the main points from my presentation. (more…)

My colleagues at Internet Time Alliance and I have been discussing new models for learning. Not that I am giving up on this one:

Experience is still a more important teacher in the workplace than classes or workshops. People retain more when they learn informally, in response to need, because they deem the subject relevant and what they learn is reinforced when they put it into practice. The proportions of formal and informal learning vary with the task at hand, the context for learning, and the psyche of the learner. Generally, informal learning carries anywhere from four to ten times the weight of formal learning.

The old model is a wake-up call that says informal learning is important. Instead of acting like it’s not there, we should shape our organizations to nurture it. What’s missing is the how. How do you choose the aspects of informal learning you want to emphasize? The model doesn’t tell you that. You’ve had to select from a separate menu of options, for example: (more…)

Internet Time Alliance spent a couple of days last week putting the 2.0 into a tedious proposal for a large, forward-facing multinational corporation. (more…)