Develop through doing!

I guess most of you are familiar with the 70:20:10 ratio from Charles Jennings and the 70:20:10 Forum.  70% of our learning comes from on the job experience- shadowing an expert, working on projects , team work and real interactions, giving experience and practice.  20% of our learning is then enhanced through networking, coaching and mentoring; giving us exposure to giving and receiving feedback and learning from others.  Finally 10% of our learning is classroom based, e-learning or accredited programmes.

Working with a team of people last week, I was considering the learning as it was a two day session looking at Coaching for Leaders.  It was their first experience of coaching and initially the concepts were difficult to grasp, particularly as they worked in a clinical environment where they are trained to offer solutions and direct others in a hierarchical structure.   It was only when they had time to practice the coaching skills and receive feedback from an observer that they really applied the learning and understood how radically different their conversations could be.

We always ensure that our sessions offer time and space to put the learning into practice and lead to real tangible changes to working practices.  My reflections recently have been that we can develop this further.  What about if we had facilitated development sessions where customers also attended?  What about 'competitors ' also being involved in our development work?  Could our industry networks and institutions facilitate learning in new and interactive ways across sectors that enable us to learn more quickly from other sectors?  We could take this further-could you use mindfulness principles to enhance the learning for a group so that they proactively search for deeper feedback?  Could we bring in the international dimension to explore the best way to practically develop experiential learning, applying cultural learning and international best practice.  I know some of this is starting to happen but we can ensure that on the job development is specific, referenced, supported and evaluated to be so much better.

What do you do with your teams to ensure their on the job development is outstanding?  What other ideas do you have to take this further?  I would love to hear from you at ruth.denwood@thebeechcentre.co.uk