Time to Take the Risk in the World of Learning and Development

As a Learning and Development professional have a think about this:

A London school takes its pupils on 3 or 4 school trips a week. The head teacher's motto is 'London is our classroom' and the trips include those you would expect, such as visits to art galleries, museums and places of historic interest but pupils also go to local supermarkets, residential homes and businesses to do research and gain other experiences. The head teacher firmly believes that this promotes a belief that learning doesn't just happen from 9-3.30 between the four walls of a classroom but happens everyday in everything we do.

Its easy to assume that this school was in the news because of its pioneering approach and the positive impact this would have on developing a culture of lifelong learning. But no, the reason this school was in the news was linked to a call from a leading teaching union to stop school trips because of concerns over maintaining the health and safety of children who were put at greater risk out of the classroom.

Now not wishing to join the 'health and safety gone barmy' debate but you do start to think about workplace learning and why so many businesses seem to see taking learning out of the classroom as a risky option.

So what are the risks in allowing workers to explore and discover in a wide variety of more informal ways than either classroom or formal online learning? The biggest fear you will often hear is how will we know what people have learnt if we can't control it? The simple answer to that is by setting up the experiences to give lots of opportunity for learning and also talking, sharing and helping people process their learning afterwards.

When you rely on a 'tell' approach to learning it's much easier to assume because you've told people something they will now know it and use it and therefore you don't check enough. If you turn the tables and rely on people telling you what they have learnt through their experience - then you know they have 'got it'.

There is also the risk that allowing people to learn for themselves, perhaps to pick up the job as they go along will mean they make more mistakes.

It's true, maybe they will but work on the culture in your organisation that tolerates mistakes and you'll likely find that people self regulate. That means they will take small risks but will learn to trust their own judgement and seek guidance for the risks that will have the biggest impact.

And finally what about the one area of workplace learning that many businesses simply wouldn't take the risk in allowing people to take responsibility for their own learning.

That is anything to do with compliance. There is an argument that much of the training in this area has very little to do with real learning and much more to do with 'ticking boxes'.

These events are frequently commented as "it was boring, but mandatory", where people learn nothing new but the business is now covered if they make a mistake.

These are exactly the type of areas where businesses should work hard at finding ways to provide people with experiences that really do bring home the implications for example poor health and safety practices.

So, dont hold back from making significant change to the way you deliver workplace learning do it now and make 'The workplace your classroom'!