Charles Jennings, global head of learning for Reuters, talked about is a 'conspiracy of convenience' at the Global Summit 2006 in Australlia. Mr. Jennings believes that most corporate learning initiatives are misplaced. Training managers assume that there is newly acquired skills and knowledge will automatically translate into performance improvement, which will then flow through into the business benefit. "No one measures the outcome properly and there is little or no business impact. Nothing has really happened, but everyone's happy" says Mr. Jennings. "These changes mean that knowledge workers actually need less knowledge to do their jobs than they did a generation ago. Formal training is less effective as the amount of information increases and its shelf life becomes shorter."
He calls this the 70:20:10 rule. "About 70 per cent of organisational learning takes place on the job, through solving problems and through special assignments and other day-to-day activities.
"Another 20 per cent occurs through drawing on the knowledge of others in the workplace, from informal learning, from coaching and mentoring, and from support and direction from managers and colleagues. Only 10 per cent occurs through formal learning, whether classroom, workshop or, more recently, e-learning.
"But most organisations invest at least 80 per cent of their training budgets in formal learning, where little of the learning takes place. And formal learning is also generally less effective than informal learning."
"A simple transfer of knowledge is no longer appropriate. We need to know less and learn more."