Jay Cross | Founding Member, HRExaminer Editorial Advisory Board

Jay Cross | Founding Member, HRExaminer Editorial Advisory Board

Jay Cross is a champion of informal learning, web 2.0, and systems thinking. He has challenged conventional wisdom about how adults learn since designing the first business degree program offered by the University of Phoenix. Full Bio


Ridiculous Research Findings on Informal Learning

by Jay Cross

An analyst reports that her company’s research finds that only 30% of U.S. companies spent money on informal learning tools or services last year. Of those, big companies spent $16,000 on average; little ones spent $5600.

What an astounding finding! The only way I can imagine coming up with these absurdly low statistics would be by asking the wrong people.

L&D people.

Most informal learning takes place despite training departments, not because of them. Informal learning is mushrooming as organizations implement social software. It’s hard to imagine informal learning not going along for the ride when a company embraces Jive or Chatter or Yammer or Socialcast or similar networking environments.

 
  • Master Burnett

    John, good call. It’s still very surprising to me how many within the human resource function blatantly disregard all activity that occurs outside the narrow scope of their planned approach.  With funding for many internal communication platforms coming from outside the HR function, I could see how a small portion of the function’s budget could be allocated to informal learning, but from an organizational perspective the spend would be much greater, especially if you consider the salary spend of time spent on collaborative learning.

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