When do you develop a formal learning solution and when an informal learning solution?

In my last posting I talked about the 80-20 rule – that says that 80% of learning in an organisation is informal whereas only 20% is formal, and that this means most of your “training” budget should be spent on supporting informal learning within your organisation. I also provided some examples of what informal learning solutions might look like and said that I believed by creating informal learning solutions (rather than costly formal courses), you could make your budget go a long way.

But the question I want to pose now is, when do you opt for a formal learning solution and when for an informal learning solution to address a learning problem? In other words what is the most appropriate type of learning solution for a given problem?

For us at WHLA, this is the most important question that you can ask, and the decision that you make will have a significant impact on how successful you will be at addressing the business problem or challenge you have.

Your decision will of course depend on a number of factors, the business challenge or problem itself, the people involved including their line managers, as well as the organisational culture and technical infrastructure in which the solution will be delivered.

That is why one of the key services that we offer our clients is a site survey to help identify and understand all these factors so that the right decision can be made and that a solution can be designed (and detailed in a Learning Blueprint) that will fit the people and not be one that forces people to fit the learning.

However, we are now developing a range of online diagnostic tools that can be used to analyse the different factors that will support this decision making process. These diagnostic tools will include an Organisational Analysis tool, a Learner Preference and Profiling tool and a Manager Preference and Profiling tool. One of the significant aspects of these tools is that they will be able to help you understand your organisation and people before problems arrive, rather than having to do this only once a problem is recognised and time is short.

Although these tools will be launched very shortly, if you would like to know more about them or would like us to let you know when they are ready, please send us an email at info@WHLA.co.uk