This post is in response to Donald Clark and Peter Isackson, who did an outstanding analysis of formal and informal training. The discussion they started should have started a firestorm of responses. I think it is one of the most important conversations we can have at this point. I recommend reading his post, and then reading this attempt to answer his excellent question - "How do you see the joining of formal and informal learning?"
The answer is "I don't. I do not see them merging, and would never join them."
For once we need to stop and listen to the Voice of the Customer - the student (i.e. Knowledge Consumer, not the one who holds the check or the performance review). We need to listen, instead of trying to save our jobs as developers of formal training, by trying to breed hybrids like' blended learning'.
Your post tells me that people really like informal training. It also implies that my work as a developer of formal training programs has very little impact. If my work is really impacting on only 20% of the problem, I would consider myself a small part of the solution.
So rather than try and extend our reach by incorporating the informal, I think we need to finally say to ourselves and each other, "Okay, the evidence is overwhelming, we surrender, informal learning is the biggest component of learning in the workplace." Period.
So the bigger questions are not how to combine the two, but ask the questions that look forward:
1. How can formal learning lay a foundation that will support the informal learning process?
2. How can we provide tools and systems (e.g. Subject Matter Expert Location Programs, Knowledge Repositories, Workflow Systems,etc. ) that enable the informal process to be more efficient and effective. Reduce the 15 hours a week devoted to informa learning to 10 hours?
IDC research tells is that we spend upto 25% of EVERY workwork searching for information. What tools and systems can we implement today to increase the effectiveness of this search time and further the efficacy of informal learning?
3. What can we learn from the informal process that may - or may not - inform a somewhat more formal approach? Why does it work so well? Why do people like it so much more?
4. And perhaps most important, how can we figure out when any learning - formal or informal - is not even needed? When does 'just doing it' and moving on, without ever learning a thing, become acceptable in terms of performance?
I really think that, for people who are currently involved with developing formal learning programs, informal learning is one of Clark Aldrich's dead elephants in the room.
I say "Leave it alone." The worst thing that could happen in the workplace is for formal learning developers to try and grab the informal learning process, and try and splice it to formal learning programs. That's a recipe for wrecking the informal process. I suggest we just accept the hard facts, research and mounting evidence of serious studies (e.g The Department of Education, Stanford, Bureau of Labor, etc.) and challenge ourselves to start asking the right questions.