In an age of disruption, the only viable strategy is to adapt, and that has never been more true than it is today. A generation ago, the half-life of the value of a skill was approximately 26 years. Now the half-life is often less than five years. So, it is perhaps not surprising that, globally, corporations are expected to invest more than $380 billion in learning and development programs this year.
Help Your Employees Develop the Skills They Really Need
The future of work will not be determined by technology, but by creating the right mix of education, exposure, and experience needed to develop skills and put them to work, creating a vastly more productive workplace and economy. In this article, the authors recommend a “70/20/10” learning model, in which only 10% of learning comes from formal instruction (education), 20% from social learning or mentorship (exposure), and 70% from hands-on, experiential practice with feedback (experience). By adopting this model, organizations can ensure that employees not only understand new skills, but that they can apply them effectively in different contexts. It is the crucial 70% of learning in the flow of work that is most often neglected, and most needed to build the skills needed to succeed in the future.