Jay Cross | Founding Member, HRExaminer Editorial Advisory Board

Today’s piece is by long time contributor Jay Cross. He’s the godfather of informal learning. Jay is doing a webinar on April 30 called Making Learning Stick

LEARNING IS THAT WHICH enables you to participate successfully in life, at work, and in the groups that matter to you. Informal  learning is the unofficial, unscheduled, impromptu way people learn  to do their jobs.

When faced with massive, inevitable change, and the hyperinflation  of time certainly qualifies, living things adapt or die. Darwinian evolution is one form of adaptation, but natural selection is glacially  slow; we don’t have eons to wait. Living things also adapt by learning. Learning is any non-genetic adaptation one makes to interact  more effectively with the ecosystems in which one participates.

Corporations would bypass learning altogether were it not politically  incorrect to do so. Executives don’t want learning; they want execution. They want the job done. They want performance.

All learning is self-directed. DAN TOBIN

To a business manager, learning is a means to an end. If someone  were to invent a smart pill that enabled workers to excel at their  jobs without training, that person would make a fortune marketing  smart pharmaceuticals, and most trainers would be out of work.

Let me reiterate: learning is adaptation. Taking advantage of the  double meaning of the word network, “to learn” is to optimize the quality of one’s networks.

INFORMAL LEARNING OR FORMAL?

Some people see the world in terms of dichotomies: yes or no, on  or off. To them, everything is black or white and only rarely gray. Real issues contain gradations, maybes, what-ifs, emotions, miti-gating factors, and other entanglements.

Formal learning and informal learning are both-and, not either-or.

When you assess  what will work for your organization, consider how informal learning  might supplement what you are doing now rather than replace it.

 THE SPECTRUM OF LEARNING

Formal and informal learning are ranges along a continuum of  learning. Formal learning is accomplished in school, courses, classrooms, and workshops. It’s official, it’s usually scheduled, and it  teaches a curriculum. Most of the time, it’s top-down: learners are  evaluated and graded on mastering material someone else deems  important. Those who have good memories or test well receive gold stars and privileged placement. Graduates receive diplomas, degrees, and certificates.

Informal learning often flies under the official radar. It can happen intentionally or inadvertently. No one takes attendance, for there are no classes. No one assigns grades, for success in life and work is the measure of its effectiveness. No one graduates, because learning never ends. Examples are learning through observing, trial-anderror, calling the help line, asking a neighbor, traveling to a new place, reading a magazine, conversing with others, takingpart in a group, composing a story, reflecting on the day’s events, burning your finger on a hot stove, awakening with an inspiration, raising a child, visiting a museum, or pursuing a hobby.

Formal and informal learning both have important roles to play. Informal learning is not a cure-all, and were it not for formal learning, I would not be writing this book.

Most learning experiences blend both formal and informal aspects. Sometimes public transit is the best way to get somewhere; other  times it’s better to take one’s own path.

SAP’s Etay Gafni helped me conceptualize the split between formal and informal learning by describing the styles of his one-year-old son and four-yearold daughter. When his son is hungry, he wants food. Any food that Etay brings will suffice. He trusts Dad to deliver.His daughter is more discriminating. She wants rice, not potatoes, and the ketchup on her plate should never touch the rice. His son is analogous to a formal learner: he accepts what comes. His daughter takes control, as does an informal learner.

In an ideal world, everyone will progress from passive, formal learner to creative, informal storyteller.