Informal Learning in Organizations

How to Create a Continuous Learning Culture

Kogan Page, 2015

15 min read

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Most development within organizations occurs through informal learning.

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Seasoned learning and development (L&D) professional Robin Hoyle explains why organizations need to manage informal learning and how they can do it well. Planning and management apply to purposeful undertakings – for example, classroom instruction – but informal learning is ad hoc and unrestrained. The solution lies working with the inherent contradiction between unscripted improvisational learning and the degree of structure a company needs to organize its employees and to track what they know and what they’re learning. getAbstract recommends Hoyle’s guidance and his program to L&D professionals.

Summary

Most Learning Is Informal, Not Formal

Learning is not restricted to classrooms or high-tech e-learning environments using sophisticated online modules. Informal learning takes place anywhere, among all employees, in every format, at any step of a process and all the time.

Some people regard classroom instruction as the most traditional learning form. But throughout history, informal learning has been the primary way that people educate themselves. Humans learn mostly through discovery, not from being taught. Beneficial and efficient informal learning requires planning, organization, management and support. Learning and development (L&D) professionals and their organizations can enable informal learning by providing a focus for it, motivating learners, creating ambitious standards, responding positively to learners’ aspirations, and consulting and deliberating on how long learning should take and how to pursue it.