Okay...I'm torn.
You see. I wanted to do a piece on Dr Who given we have the 50th anniversary show this weekend and I started to rattle some ideas around Learning Dude HQ in the last couple of days. Like anything when you grow up with something you learn things, for example, Daleks can fly up stairwells, you can hear Cybermen coming and Ood's can fair hold a tune.....but......
I got an email today and along with the content of that email, the mention of something on a Webinar and comments made recently to me I felt that the only way to mask my frustration was to merge the two and therefore I give you Dr Who and the incredibly tenuous link with 70:20:10.
So lately I have been grumping a little as more and more people start talking about 70:20:10 again. For those that don't know what it is, this (in learning) relates to the "theory" that 70% of what we learn happens on the job, doing tasks, projects or problem solving (to name but a few) 20% relates to coaching, feedback and positive role models etc and 10% accounts for formal training, or old skool classroom training. As a theory and concept I don't have a problem with it even if it is a little dated given the origins date back to the 1960's and a little flawed as it is based on a fair degree of assumptions but what really winds me up more than the SS Madame de Pompadours Clockwork Men is when it is when people make a conscious decision to talk about 70:20:10 as a thing, a product or a way of life when really it is just a wrapper of numbers around content.
However, to appease business leaders we throw them some numbers and apportion the biggest chunk of learning to the business and tell them...yes....70% of what we learn requires no effort....yep, it will just happen.....projects?......yep, learning......tasks?...yep learning and so on and so forth but this is born from an assumption that the business can take time out to develop ideas, try some new things and then review and embed the learning, perhaps trying new strategies born out of that review........but if that was always possible, why would a companion not be able to fly the TARDIS on their own? Why....? well because with the job, in most cases everyone just gets on with, there is little time to stop. That's not to say you don't learn on the job but you only have to look at Donna Nobles problems when she was gifted with the her boss's.........eh Doctors knowledge. The thing about the 70% it removes itself from the formal aspect of learning but I don't think that can happen, they need to be connected.
Now we come to the 20%. Here we place a reliance on the coach, the manager and the support of a positive role model. I have no issue with this but if we consider what we said about the 70%, without structure or a connection to the formal learning part it becomes a struggle to help people develop. What I find laughable is people spend a lot of time dissecting learning to come up with 70:20:10 and then because they don't really get it they add the 70&20 together and proclaim, it's all about the 90% .......eh? .....uhuh ....okay....? What is? ....."eh.....you know the on the job and the coaching you get" Oh right, okay so what you are saying is you're going to leave even more to the business? and that's just what the business will hear......we're leaving it up to you and that's not a positive message. They need to know that while they facilitate this possibility, we are there to support it but if we leave them to it, they will go off and do it all them self which we all know means armed with lack of knowledge and a corporate credit card. Good news for the external, bad for our reputation but back to the Dr Who link. Companionship or support is an essential part of development but how can you put a figure around that? The doctor has sometime travelled with one companion, two companions or as and when required brought old and new together and lost some along the way. Different development requirements require differing levels of support but by putting a number around this to try and comfort business and say, you will only be required to coach 20% of the time......eh but you just told them 70% was on the job......and some of you said 90% lies out with the responsibility of the development community...........quick hide !
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So.....here we are at the end of my tale and yet I hear the cry of "what about the 10%?"
Here's the thing......it doesn't exist, at least I don't think it does. You see, 10% of what... is formal?
For me, there only is 100% of everything, unless you have a structure and strategy that supports dissecting learning and passing bits off here and there we should just keep it all in one spot because it grows and will only continue to grow because we have an ever expanding need for knowledge. We can go back in time and bring information forward and into the consciousness. We can plant information for future reference and ultimately regenerate ideas to match the technology of the time............why it's as if learning itself is our very own TARDIS.
I am glad I got that out of my head, now I can crack on with plans for Dr.Who........time for Day of the Doctor.
That Leaning Dude @LearningXDude
