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the current targets, regardless of whether the targets are the ones that should be achieved. In some organisations with the wrong sort of culture, maybe informal learning is about how to cut corners or even how to cover up malpractice. Remember – my definition of learning includes ‘acquiring new or modifying existing values’. Embroiled in a toxic organisational culture, perhaps the values that are learned are not always the most appropriate. In these circumstances, informal
approaches just won’t do. Formal training inputs are required. That said, regardless of the number or frequency of training inputs, if the culture is hostile to the knowledge, skills, procedures and behaviours that are the subject of the training, then little will change. If I want people to do the right things and do things right, there are two activities I must carry out before designing a course.
First, I need to define what ‘right’ looks like. Second, I need to tackle the culture that supports ‘wrong’. This means working with the senior team and the managers to gain their commitment to supporting the ‘right’
behaviours and eliminating ‘wrong’ ones. Only once I have completed these tasks can any formal interventions for team members take place. Only after we have enabled people to begin modifying what they know, the skills they use and the behaviours they must adopt, can informal learning help to embed the required changes.
I know this top-down, training-led approach is not popular. It may be considered old fashioned and out of touch in a networked world, but I fervently believe if we carry on down this road then the baby is in danger of being thrown out with the bathwater. The current L&D conversation is polarised. Training equals bad and expensive. Informal learning equals good and cost effective. We should reject this binary and simplistic
approach to workplace change and development. In places where things need to change and need to change quickly, battling a culture that has allowed poor performance to prevail is hard enough. Battling that culture when our own industry is saying that the things we trainers do are not fit for purpose is doubly difficult.
It’s time that we reclaimed training as a positive word in our industry. Let’s leave the learning to the learners and, as trainers, embrace training as a force for good and the driver for the changes we would all want to see. n
Robin Hoyle is the chair of World of Learning. He is the lead trainer and consultant for Learnworks Ltd. He is also the author of ‘Complete Training – from recruitment to retirement’, published by Kogan Page.
Learning Magazine
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