In my previous post I asked the question, 'Is Autonomous Learning the same as Informal Learning?' I'd been reading Daniel Pink's new book Drive and my mind had turned to thinking about autonomy, learning and motivation. The post itself was a fair reflection of this thought, but not the end. Over the last week I've kept being drawn back to questions about, and relationships between, informal/formal/autonomous learning.
This led me to doodle a new thought:
In my post on autonomous learning I had looked mainly at who was in control of the learning, in fact I defined Autonomous Learning as: "you are in control of what you learn, where you learn and with whom you do the learning". Generally however, the difference between formal vs informal learning is defined in terms of how structured the learning is, for example, whether a set curriculum exists.
Now look again at my doodle. I've now combined both these variables, on the vertical axis is control and on the horizontal axis is structure. I think it leads to a range of interesting conclusions and applications for amplifying the impact of informal learning within businesses. I'll start however by clarifying what I mean by structure and control.
Structure
When I think of learning in structured settings I see learning that includes:
- assessable outcomes
- detailed curriculum
- defined learning outcomes
- formalised learning materials
- set order of 'learning'
On the other end of the scale, learning with no structure includes none of these characteristics.
Of course, the horizontal axis of structure is a continuum, so that all levels of structure in learning may exist.
Control
In terms of control, at one end of the scale I saw a place where decisions about what someone learnt were made entirely by someone other than the learner, I called this extrinsic control. At it's extreme, it's a situation where decisions regarding learning participation lies in someone else's hands, indeed participation in learning may be 'compulsory'. For example you are told that you will be completing the company's Leadership Programme. Extrinsic control may also be less transparent, for example it may be, 'if you do this....then I'll give you this." It may even include rewards for achieving business KPI's, for example, "if you can figure out a way of increasing sales by 10% you get $$$$!"
In this last case the 'how' of reaching the target is up to you, but your motivation is tied to the $$$ - control still sits with another person. So, in this case, the structure is loose but control exists.
If one end of the control scale is extrinsic, then the other must be intrinsic control. I see this as a place where decisions about what is learnt, how you learn, when you learn, why you learn, where you learn and with whom you learn sit entirely with the learner.
Again, the vertical axis of control is a continuum, so that all levels of control in learning may exist.
The Learning Landscape
When you put all this together you get an interesting result, you are able to map all types of learning across the landscape, from structured, company specific workshops on the one hand through to autonomous exploration and play - and everything in between.
I've mapped out a whole range of different learning scenarios in the diagram below. In each case I've placed items according to how I assessed the structure and control of each item in a typical (fictitious) business, of course in your own situation you may decide that there is more/less control/structure in your own workplace and the items may be placed somewhat differently. It doesn't matter, what does matter is that you are now able to map all learning in your business onto this landscape.
I've numbered 5 examples to discuss further - let's look at what these show.
1. University/College courses selected by the learner. These are courses strong on curriculum and set outcomes, in many senses this is 'formal' learning, but the choice to undertake the learning is sitting with the learner. They are paying, doing the learning in their own time for their own reasons. The business the learner works for has no control over what happens but they may end up being a beneficiary! The benefits for the learner will vary upon their motivation for undertaking the learning, the business however will gain the windfall of new knowledge and insights.
2. Company newsletters. The information contained within newsletters in controlled by the business, the structure is generally fairly freeform. People do learn from information contained in newsletters but the learning is quite informal.
3. Internal social networks. There is generally some structure underlying social sites within businesses, rules of engagement, layout, use and so forth. Participation in social sites is however generally up to the individual so control is low.
4. Compulsory eLearning courses/workshops within your business. We could safely say that this area represents the traditional concept of formal learning.
5. Reading blogs. Generally pretty unstructured learning and in most instances the decision to read blogs is up to the individual.
(You can see that I've added many other examples as well. Can you think of any other type of learning activity that I haven't placed? If so have a go at adding it. I can't imagine any type of learning that won't fit within this learning landscape.)
What is the use of all this?
Try this activity. Print out a blank copy of the Learning Checklist and the Learning Landscape . Use the checklist to rate the control/structure of each item then map your results onto the blank Learning Landscape. (I've been finding it easiest to do this stage all on a whiteboard, though it would also work well as a team activity if you used post-it notes to help you move things around depending upon team input)
Once you've done this you will have created your business's current learning landscape. What does it look like, any surprises? Here are some of my guesses as to what you may have found!
A. Your team find ways of learning that you were not aware of!
B. There are some gaps, let's call them deserts on your learning landscape.
C. The activity has got you thinking......'what if I could help change deserts to rainforests?' Imagine if my team were learning across this full landscape!
You will also be left with many questions!
Where to from here?
I've realised that this topic is too big for a single blog post and there are many areas I'd like to keep thinking on!
So, over the next week or so I will continue to explore this model. I've already got a series of topics in mind to run with including:
- Challenges created by the learning landscape
- Benefits for businesses of intrinsically motivated learning
- Control and motivation - carrots and sticks
- Where are we now...where would we like to be?- designing a learning landscape to deliver results
- There is no map
- You're the learner - build your own learning landscape
- Way-showers and learning