CHAPTER 4

What About the 90% of Learning That Occurs Beyond the Classroom?

Imagine you’re at work and you’ve forgotten a step in a process that you haven’t completed in the past few months. What do you do?

• Ask a co-worker for assistance?

• Check your organization’s intranet?

• Review a previous task?

• Look in your employee handbook?

• Ask your boss?

• Google it?

Of course you do one of those listed or something similar. And you usually learn something new in the process. Ninety percent of what you learn is learned informally on the job. This 90 percent is two parts of the 70-20-10 guide for learning that I mentioned in chapter 2. Let’s dig a little deeper into what 70-20-10 really means to you.

Experiential, informal, social, asynchronous, coaching, mentoring OJT, mobile learning: As today’s talent development professional, you have multiple options for delivering learning to employees. The 70-20-10 model (70 percent hands-on experience; 20 percent developmental interactions; 10 percent formal learning) continues to serve as a valuable guideline for using a wide variety of developmental options. Trainers are experts in the 10 percent domain—delivering training or programs—but what’s our role beyond instructor-led training? How do you deliver personalized developmental experiences? Can you support social learning? How can you ensure employees are immersed in experiential learning? What is your role in influencing interaction between employees and supervisors? Can you stimulate informal learning?

The world of work is changing. Trainers must provide shorter, more accessible, relevant, immediate, global learning experiences. They need to engage learners, ensuring that they have increased competence, confidence, and commitment. Today’s organizations want the ability to drive greater individual and organizational performance. They need agility and speed, and they view a learning strategy that incorporates the 70-20-10 framework as a solution.

The Science and the Story Behind 70-20-10

The 70-20-10 model for learning and development is based on research that was conducted at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) in North Carolina beginning in the 1980s. The team leading the research included Morgan McCall Jr., Michael Lombardo, and Ann Morrison. Their research was reported in 1988. Michael Lombardo and Robert Eichinger then adapted the results of that research, leading to the current 70-20-10 framework. Today 70-20-10 is used as a talent development strategy aimed at improving workplace performance.

Other Science to Support 70-20-10

Beyond the work at CCL, what other evidence exists to support the 70-20-10 framework? Empirical studies and surveys on the topic first started in the late 1960s and demonstrated that employees acquire most of their knowledge and skills in the workplace and through others. Not all present an exact 70-20-10 split, but they consistently show a similar breakdown. Here are a few examples:

• In researching adult learning and personal change in the 1970s, Professor Allen Tough reported that “about 70 percent of all learning projects are planned by the learner himself.” Although he didn’t refer to a 70-20-10 split immediately, he later stated that is what he found.

• Mark Loewenstein and James Spletzer (1998) published a study conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics referencing research from 1993 and 1994. It stated that people learn about 70 percent of their jobs informally, although they found significant variation between both formal learning (13 to 46 percent) and informal learning (9 to 96 percent).

• In the 1990s, the Education Development Center of Newton, Massachusetts, summarized findings from a two-year study of corporate cultures, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, state governments, and the Pew Charitable Trusts. An objective of the study was to “quantify formal training’s contribution to overall job knowledge: 70% of what people know about their jobs, they learn informally from the people they work with.” Study participants included Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, Siemens Power Transmission and Distribution, Reflexite North America, Data Instruments, Merry Mechanization, Ford Electronics, and Motorola (Dobbs 2000).

• Research by CapitalWorks, a human capital management service in Williamstown, Massachusetts, found that “not only do employee learning programs based on informal methods and self-study increase employee knowledge and productivity far more than more formalized methods, they also cost less.” According to the study, employees learned about 75 percent of their skills on the job informally, through discussions with co-workers, asynchronous e-learning, and mentoring by managers. The other 25 percent were gained from formal training methods such as workshops, seminars, and synchronous classes (Lloyd 2000).

• Most recently DDI and The Corporate Board asked global leaders, “What percent of your time is spent in each of the three learning domains?” More than 13,120 responded (DDI 2014). The results? 52 percent learning on the job; 27 percent learning from others; and 21 percent from formal learning.

The Rest of the Story

As part of my preparation to write this book I contacted Michael Lombardo to confirm my content. I asked him about 70-20-10, his recollections, and to clarify some of my assumptions. For one thing I wanted to find out how the numbers should appear and what the categories should be called. Michael did not care. He stated that the most important part was that people understood the implications of the framework. How refreshing! Highlights of our discussion are embedded in the sidebar.

Formatting 70-20-10

You have probably seen the 70-20-10 framework written as 70/20/10, 70:20:10, or even 70% 20% 10%. You’ve also seen the categories called different names, such as those in Table 4-1.

Table 4-1: 70-20-10 Categories

70%	20%	10%
Experience	Exposure	Education
Workflow	Social	Formal
Informal	Self-directed	Instruction
Practice	People	Programs
On-the-job assignments	Learning from others	New formal content

You can see that designers can be creative with the 3Es or the 3Ps. Whatever your organization decides to call it is fine, as long as it works for you and that you understand that these are guidelines. As you work with the framework you will see that there is some crossover between categories too.

But the real beauty is that no matter how the numbers are presented or what the categories are called, most people in the talent development profession recognize it as representing how we develop. The simplicity helps professionals and senior leaders quickly grasp the approach and benefits.

70-20-10 Learning Activities

So what activities might you expect to find within each of the three categories? Remember that I mentioned you will find some crossover between categories. For example, a research project could be a job assignment or learning from others.

Formal Content Activities—10 Percent

The low percentage may surprise you if you are reading about this framework for the first time. Supporters contend, however, that it is a critical element in development to ensure new concepts and innovative ideas are presented. The first activities that might come to mind are probably instructor-led courses, either in person or online virtually. The category also includes:

• courses, seminars, and workshops

• e-learning and virtual modules

• blended learning of classroom and e-learning

• certification or certificates

• professional accreditation

• college or university classes

• MOOCs, CMOOCs, and SPOCs

• reading books, articles, and whitepapers.

Learning From Others (Social)—20 Percent

The social element echoes the importance of receiving encouragement and feedback. The true value is that conversations stimulate learning. Others can be mentors, coaches, role models, capable supervisors, or even incompetent bosses. Receiving feedback is an important aspect of this development category. Without feedback we tend to settle into a complacent attitude that prevents us from becoming better and even sinking back to bad habit. No matter from whom we are learning, good examples or bad, we are learning from others every day. This category includes:

• accepting mentoring and coaching relationships

• encouraging peer feedback

• engaging as a mentor or reverse-mentor

• joining online professional communities

• seeking advice, opinions, and work debriefs

• curating and sharing work developments

• building internal and external networks

• initiating 360-degree feedback processes

• leading research projects

• training and teaching others.

On-the-Job Assignments—70 Percent

The experiential aspect may make this one of the most beneficial categories for employees because it enables them to discover, make decisions, and address challenges to ultimately refine their job-related skills. Matching the most appropriate challenging experience to the developmental need of the employee is powerful. When you think back to your career, certain events, tasks, or assignments most likely stand out as key developmental turning points. These developmental opportunities helped you decide what aspect of the work you liked and didn’t and gain competencies in the process. This list encompasses just a few opportunities that are not only developmental, but also afford an employee to gain knowledge and skills, ultimately improving performance:

• solving problems (lead a project, action team member)

• handling a crisis

• participating in cross-functional activities

• accepting rotational assignments

• leading community or volunteer activities

• expanding the scope (new responsibility, acting role)

• accepting stretch assignments

• managing change

• championing a new product or service

• applying newly learned concepts

• increasing senior management interaction

• increasing the span of control.

Finally, remember that the true value of this model is using all three as a holistic approach to developing employees.

A Different Framework of Learning

In his book Flat Army, Dan Pontefract (2013) provides another view of learning ratios: 3-33, which stands for 33 percent of the learning is formal, 33 percent is informal, and 33 percent is social. What is most interesting is that the research behind his model revealed that when the learners were asked to give the percentages for how they thought they learned, the numbers were very different than when the researchers actually discovered how the learners actually learned. Pontefract calls his 3-33 approximation a Pervasive Learning model—learning is a collaborative, continuous, connected, and community-based growth mindset (Figure 4-1).

Although the Pervasive Learning model doesn’t have the history or the traction the 70-20-10 has, it is worth reviewing. Remember the title of this book is The Art and Science of Training! You can read an overview of the model in Dan’s chapter in the ASTD Handbook.

Figure 4-1: Pervasive Learning Model

Put Learning Where the Work Is

No matter what numbers the model uses, you can envision that your job is to put the learning where the work is. Figure 4-2 adds another dimension to the 70-20-10, serving as a reminder that none of these elements stand alone. The framework needs to contribute to employees’ development by weaving in and out of work and learning. Imagine that work and learning circle around the model ensuring that the right developmental activities are available at the right time.

Figure 4-2: 70-20-10

A Blended Perspective

I like to think of 70-20-10 as the first blended learning design. The 10 percent, or formal learning, includes classroom skill-building courses, simulations, instructor-led virtual classes, and reading. The 20 percent, or social learning, focuses on learning from others and includes how you can use communities of practice, coaching and mentoring, peer networking, and supervisory support. The 70 percent, or on-the-job assignments, includes new initiatives, increased responsibilities, and learning from mistakes. However, there are many crossover learning opportunities. For example, blogging or Twitter could be considered social learning but can also be paired with formal learning events. On-demand learning such as webinars, videos, or job aids are other examples of how the three categories can work together. A webinar, for example, might be considered formal learning until your supervisor discusses it with you (social) and suggests that you implement what you learned on your new project (on-the-job assignment). This is blended learning that can (and should) occur naturally.

In addition, all of these need to be experiential in nature. The 70 percent category should not be renamed “experiential.” All learning should be experiential. Imagine a transparent coating over the figure that represents experiential. How do you ensure your learners get these opportunities? What can you do to ensure learning is experiential? Here are a few ideas linked to each of the categories (Biech 2016):

• Formal—10 Percent

o Use an experiential learning activity (ELA) model in which you follow activities with a debrief that includes What? So what? Now what?

o Ensure you allow time for practice, reflection, observation, and conversation to “experience” what they are learning.

o Build future relationships by encouraging learners to trade business cards and email addresses.

o Design realistic role plays.

o Demonstrate feedback.

• Learning From Others—20 Percent

o Organize accountability relationships that extend beyond the classroom or virtual learning experience.

o Encourage and establish mentors and coaches for learners.

o Utilize apps and mobile learning; for example, could you text a challenge to a group of learners?

o Connect learners through social media using discussion boards, incorporating Twitter feeds and allowing learners to share content on Facebook.

o Enable watercooler learning by emailing a question of the day to an employee group.

• On-the-Job Assignments—70 Percent

o Work with managers to find challenging opportunities for employees.

o Encourage learners to seek out rotations, acting, and stretch assignments.

o Seek community and volunteer options.

o Communicate team prospects for those needing this experience.

o Help managers learn to ask the right questions such as:

– What’s on your mind?

– What are your thoughts about xx?

– What would you do differently next time?

– What can you implement based on this experience?

– What do you still need to learn/do/know?

 

 

Organizational implementation of the 70-20-10 framework requires learning and development to team up with managers. There are two concerns here that only you and your organization can answer.

First, do your managers appreciate the importance of their role in developing their people? This framework requires that managers are coaches and recognize that they are primarily responsible for their employees’ performance. It means that they foster an environment in which people can talk to them and to each other, share knowledge, and grow. The Brandon Hall Group found that “exposure to managers” was the second-most used development activity. Unfortunately its effectiveness was rated at 50 percent. You can’t just toss the development task over the transom and expect supervisors and managers to know what to do. It is your role as a trainer to help them understand how to develop people.

Second, does your learning and development department understand what it needs to do to support supervisors and managers? Perhaps your learning and development department has a developmental opportunity. Jon Wolper (2016) reported in the May 2016 issue of TD that “DDI research shows that [two of] the most critical skills for leaders include coaching and developing others and identifying and developing future talent.” This illustrates the important role managers have in developing employees. Put on your creative hat and paint a picture of how you could help.

Redefine Your Accountability and Relevancy

What is your role in the 70-20-10 framework? Would it surprise you to know that your talent development role is expanding? How can you target and shape learning beyond your classroom? How can you influence your learners’ developmental experiences outside your classroom? And how can you integrate the framework to redefine your accountability to your organization and be more relevant?

Sound like too much work? You have at least four big opportunities to connect your session to the other 90 percent every time you lead a session (Biech 2016). You won’t be able to implement all of these ideas for all of your learning events, but try a few—soon.

Prepare Before Your Session

Your preparation prior to the session is critical for you and your learners. Preparation takes on a new expanded and valuable part in the process when you begin to think about what you can do to connect to your participants and how they can continue to learn beyond the formal learning session. Contact or meetings with supervisors, learners, and others is key. You should:

• Meet managers and mentors to discuss what they expect from your training session, asking about the goals, measures, and changed behaviors.

• Collect messages from managers or leaders and share them during the session. The messages could be words of encouragement, offers of further development after the session, or anything else you deem useful to development.

• Ask participants to work with their supervisors to identify challenges related to the topic and arrive prepared to discuss the challenges.

• Pre-action plan with participants and their supervisors. What skills do they need to develop? What performance needs to be improved?

Engage During Your Session

Of course you are aware of the importance of engagement during your session. Be a good example during your session, because your learners watch what you do. This list addresses several specific ways that you can connect your instructor-led session with both on-the-job assignments and learning from others:

• Give feedback after all practice sessions. This accomplishes two things. Participants learn from your feedback and they learn the appropriate way to give feedback.

• Remember to use the debriefing questions. It is only a start to learning when participants hear the “what” of your message. The most important part comes with the debriefing questions or the “so what” (so what does that mean or relate to?) and the “now what” (now what are you going to do or change or implement as a result?).

• Allow reflection through journaling or designed activities. You may need to seed the reflection with possible questions.

• Assign accountability partners who work together during the session to encourage the social aspect of learning.

• Build in plenty of time for practice and rehearsal.

Focus Your Closing

Guard the time you have scheduled to close your session. Too often trainers get behind during an earlier part of the session and then rush through the closing. Many things come together and you’ll want to ensure that participants have a sense of closure to the experience. Think about how you can create continued learning for all participants, how you can help learners stay connected, or what you can do to ensure that the skills are transferred to the workplace. These ideas will help you lead the all-important transition opportunity that occurs during the closing:

• Brainstorm barriers that may occur as they return to the workplace. Form small groups to identify ideas to overcome the barriers.

• Create learning communities. Support them with a wiki or a LinkedIn page to continue the experience by asking questions, sharing tips, giving advice, or celebrating successes. Seed the site with questions, links to videos, or short articles.

• Allow enough time so that learners can create action plans and discuss with someone else.

• Help your learners design a plan to meet one-on-one with their managers to ensure both understand what was taught and how it can be implemented.

Apply After Your Session

It may be difficult to schedule time for follow up, but it is one of the most critical steps you can take to ensure that learners transfer what they learned to the workplace. Schedule your follow up prior to the session and ensure that you protect it. Remember that you helped participants start their journey; it’s important that you follow up to assist them to reach their final destination. You can implement dozens of follow-up activities such as:

• Implement peer practice groups made up of the participants, or for a different dynamic add others in the department.

• Contact learners with tips, reminders, quizzes, articles, or other support materials through email, texts, discussion boards, Twitter, or personal visits.

• Meet with managers to discuss content and application. Remind managers about the skills taught so they can reinforce behaviors they observe. Revisit any discussions you may have held prior to the learning event. Answer any questions and provide tools that support managers to continue the learners’ development.

This short list only scratches the surface of all of the things you can do to encourage development beyond the classroom. However, it will help get you started in your artist role so that you can develop yourself as you develop others.

As talent development professionals, we develop the capability for our organizations’ future. Technology has opened exciting doors and we are inundated with new tools, technologies, and approaches. Organizations want us to provide learning that is faster, shorter, and more relevant. There is no shortage of ideas for what to do; the question is how to do it. Research conducted by ATD and i4cp in 2015, as reported in Instructional Design Now: The Age of Learning and Beyond, found that fewer than half in the learning profession think they are “highly effective at addressing learning needs.”

Talent development professionals are experts at delivering formal learning as instructor-led training (ILT) in virtual and traditional classrooms. But the professional’s role has broadened and expanded beyond the classroom. Based on the 70-20-10 model, this means that we need to learn innovative delivery methods in the 70 and 20 domains to step beyond our ILT roles. We need to put learning where the work is. According to Jane Hart (2014), talent development professionals are already increasingly incorporating informal and social learning into their repertoire of delivering learning.

In addition, talent development professionals need to learn how to help their supervisors and managers. They need to coach them to be better coaches, and stay on top of the changes. Superior results will occur when you implement all that 70-20-10 has to offer.

Expand Learning Opportunities

The challenge is to move your focus from the classroom to the workplace. This means you need to reframe what you do to more closely match how your employees learn and perform. Almost everyone is comfortable with technology and how it can be used to improve options and save time. A faster pace and strong competition have increased a need to be more nimble and customer focused than ever before. Increasing levels of work for everyone has created more pressure to improve performance.

What if your organization isn’t ready to move to a 70-20-10 framework and you work primarily in an instructor-led role in a classroom or you are facilitating virtual learning? You can still implement some ideas. The grid in Table 4-2 (found on page 92) can help you create truly blended learning options that extend beyond your instructor-led classrooms (Biech 2016). It’s an excellent way for you to get some experience stepping outside your instructor-led training role. You can use the activities as a transition for you and your learners’ supervisors. Some of the activities share responsibility for the learning with the supervisors. You might call it a step in the right direction to putting the learning where the work is.

What We Know for Sure

Science tells us that we can rely on several proven facts.

• The 70-20-10 framework was not meant to be called a model. It was meant as a rough guide to influence those in the learning and development fields to think about how people develop.

• Employees need challenging tasks. Development occurs when the need and the solution meet.

• To learn, employees need to be assisted by others.

• Learning occurs when employees receive feedback and are helped by others—the social element of learning.

• The 70-20-10 framework is a holistic approach and is powerful when everything is working together. It is more relevant today than ever before.

• The best learning strategy is one that draws upon elements of all three categories.

The Art Part

Your success will depend upon how well you adapt to the situation and your learners’ needs. Tap into some of these ideas to help your learners grow, to develop yourself, and to add your personal creative touch.

DIY design. Design your own 10 x 10 grid and fill in at least half of the cells with ideas. The next time you design or deliver a training session you will have 50 ideas from which to select.

Develop yourself. We all look for new opportunities. Complete this exercise and then use your experience to help other leaders in your organization. Think about how you could start something new or make a strategic change in your job. Create three columns on a page and title them: “Reshape My Job,” “Temporary Assignments,” and “Outside the Workplace.” Under each of the headings, list four to five opportunities. For example, under “Reshape My Job” you could list “Take responsibility for a new project or process” or “Develop five-year business scenarios for my department.” Under “Temporary Assignments” you could include “Volunteer my work group as a test site for a new organizational system” or “Seek seed money for an exploratory project.” Under “Outside the Workplace” you could include “Establish a strategic plan for a community or professional organization” or “Volunteer for a task I’ve never done before in a community organization.”

Art and Science Questions You Might Ask

These questions provide potential challenges for your personal growth and development:

• How can a 70-20-10 approach to development respond to your organizational challenges and priorities?

• What are the benefits of a workplace culture of continuous learning?

• How can you optimize on-the-job training in your organization?

• What can you do to help your organization transform into a learning organization?

• How can you create meaningful and impactful informal learning?

• What’s your role beyond instructor-led training?

• What’s your role to deliver personalized developmental experiences?

• How can you support social learning?

• How can you ensure employees are immersed in experiential learning?

• What is your role in influencing interaction between employees and supervisors?

• How can you stimulate and support informal learning?

• What kind of toolkit could you develop to support managers in their roles to develop employees (for example, tips, checklists, tools, discussion starters)?

• How can you help encourage collaboration and cooperative learning to actively transfer knowledge and skills?

• How do you coordinate formal learning with on-the-job assignments and learning from others?

• How could you socialize the framework across your organization?

• How can you support managers in their role as talent developers?

• How can you best encourage managers and supervisors to develop talent?

What About the 90 Percent of Learning That Occurs Beyond the Classroom?

The 70-20-10 framework can be used to assess how employees learn and develop in your organization. It is not prescriptive, but a guide for what seems to work in most organizations under most circumstances. It is not meant to be one more thing for you to do. It is not meant to be a distractor or antitraining. And finally it is not a perfect ratio. It can help you redefine your accountability and relevancy.

The other 90 percent? The 70-20-10 framework is the reality that we all need to promote and encourage as our key responsibility. We need to become more adept at supporting and enhancing the other 90 percent.

Table 4.2. 100 Design Combinations to Expand Learning Beyond the Classroom

Resources

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———. 2015. New Supervisor Training. Alexandria, VA: ATD Press.

———. 2016. “101 Ways to Expand Learning Beyond Your Classroom.” Presented at the ATD 2016 International Conference & Exposition, May 2016, Denver.

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