Business Development
Option 4: Different Time/Different Place
This is the trickiest option of the lot for Informal Learning and represents learners learning at different times with no access to the learning of the others. It is important to acknowledge that this mode lends itself very well to traditional e-learning where facts must be digested to demonstrate compliance.
The lack of a shared experience and any interaction with the other learners makes it very difficult for any form of conversational or Informal Learning. Perhaps one thing that might work here is a virtual supervisor who has access to the learning of all the learning having 1:1 conversations with each of the individuals to bring some shared/conversational aspect to their learning.
Practical Actions
So in summary the Informal Learning model is growing in popularity but it is also hampered by the fact that it’s ideal delivery mode, Same Time/Same Place, is somewhat of a luxury for certain types of distributed and virtual organisations.
I believe there are 3 key points to take away here:
1. Try to find time for some well-designed Same Time/Same Place Learning in critical areas of Leadership Development as the results will
probably more than justify the extra cost and time
2. Be prepared to augment Informal Learning Models with the modern learning/communications environments to explore Same Time/Different Place and Same Place/Different Time Options
3. Don’t try to stretch Informal Learning into Different Time/Different Place models – it simply won’t work. Keep this mode for your traditional e-learning activities.
Ken Thompson is founder and Managing Director of Dashboard Simulations. He has been designing business simulations games for over twenty years. Ken has also authored two highly regarded books on high-performing teams and effective collaboration based on the principles of learning from nature (organisational biomimicry)