Get Serious About Informal Learning

Formal learning works for 20% of learning needs, while informal learning handles the other 80%. In the past, informal learning was turning to ask your teammate a question. Today, the rise of Web 2.0 technologies and social media — and a growing cadre of Millennial workers — bring both the means and the will to expand informal learning to the company scale. As an information and knowledge management (I&KM) pro, the time is right to harness informal learning approaches like targeted job-related content, internal YouTube-type video clips, and employee-generated wikis. This report describes the informal learning approaches of BT (formerly British Telecom), Intel, and Nike and describes how these innovative firms have made informal learning part of their learning programs.