Formalizing the informal

Ecollab will discuss Informal Learning. Can we formalize it? Can we Should we? How much? How?

This is our own response, originally written by Harold Jarche and Jane Hart:

If informal learning is so important then perhaps we should not leave it to chance. But if we formalize the processes then we may destroy the benefits of informal learning.

First of all, let's clear up some terms. Learning is something that happens inside a person and cannot be "done" to someone. What we do to support, encourage or direct learning can be in the form of training - to do something that is measurable and observable, such as driving a car, requiring practice and feedback to master. It can also be under the umbrella of education - being exposed to ideas and concepts to encourage learning. Some may call this schooling, such as the definition of "formal education" by Merriam, Caffarella & Baumgartner (2007)

"highly institutionalized, bureaucratic, curriculum driven, and formally recognized with grades, diplomas, or certificates" (p.29). [Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide (3rd ed.) New York: Wiley.

Training, education and schooling are not learning. This makes the question in title a bit problematic. A better question is whether we should formalize all practices in the workplace that encourage learning. So far we have formalized skill and knowledge acquisition through training. However, there is still much training that is conducted that doesn't address those two issues, even though that is all that training can ever hope to achieve. From the book Informal Learning, by Jay Cross:

The leading human performance authorities “have all demonstrated that most performance deficiencies in the workplace are not a result of skill and knowledge gaps. Far more frequently, they are due to environmental factors, such as lack of clear expectations; insufficient and untimely feedback; lack of access to required information; inadequate tools, resources and procedures; inappropriate and even counterproductive incentives; task interference and administrative obstacles that prevent achieving desired results” (Stolovitch & Keeps, 2002, p. 1).

At New Seasons [food market chain], you won’t see new hires crammed into three days of New Employee Training that’s so common today. After their Day One Orientation, New Seasons newbies are pretty much set free in their departments. “New Seasons’ training is like a Waldorf School experience. There’s no codified way for people to learn most jobs. People are told to look around, figure it out and ask for help when they need it,” said Charla [HR Director].

One of the reasons that informal learning has become a hot topic for workplace performance is that we now have an incredible array of communication tools, especially web social media. These enable knowledge-sharing on an unprecedented scale and we are just beginning to understand how to use them for personal and organizational learning, the latter of incredible importance for business performance. Social media enable us to get work done in a knowledge economy.

Jane Hart says that

Rather than use the broad categories of formal and informal learning - terms which I think are  pretty difficult to grasp, and which are being confused and abused if phrases I have read like "managing informal learning information" are anything to go by! - I have decided to categorise the use of social media in the following 5 different ways":
1.    Intra-Organisational Learning – how social media tools can be used to keep employees up to date and up to speed on strategic and other internal initiatives
2.    Formal Structured Learning - how educators (teachers, trainers, learning designers) as well as students can use social media within education and training – for courses, classes, workshops etc
3.    Group Directed Learning – how groups of individuals - teams, projects, study groups etc – can use social media to work and learn together (a “group” could just be two people, so coaching and mentoring falls into this category)
4.    Personal Directed Learning – how individuals can use social media for their own (self-directed) personal or professional learning
5.    Accidental & Serendipitous Learning – how individuals, by using social media, can learn without consciously realising it (aka incidental or random learning)

So here is the question:

Can we use these classifications to draw up some guidelines to help us explain formal and informal learning as it pertains to the workplace? Are there ways of "formalizing" some or all of this without losing out on the personal relationships we have with our friends and colleagues, those who we turn to help us solve a problem. Can we formalize the informal?

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