Encourage Learning’s Many Faces
Play, a creativity consultancy in Richmond, Virginia, fashioned a
four-square game court (like one seen on a schoolyard playground)
right inside its front door. Visitors are encouraged to play with Play’s
staff. While they bounce a big red ball, they talk about what they
want to do together and reflect on the situations they surface. In the
larger office space, people learn in open work areas, a resource
center, a quiet zone (with soundproof walls), and a kitchen where
they can linger or cook a meal together.Most informal learning occurs as a natural part of the workday,
so it consumes little or no additional budget. However, if some
resources (human or financial) are needed, help acquire them.
Create comfortable places where people can talk and attractive
spaces that draw people in. Encourage people to ask for help and to
help each other. Ask for help yourself to demonstrate your partici-
pation, and provide help when others ask. Introduce groups to one
another, and create e-mail dialogues between people you know out-
side the organization to whom your colleagues might not otherwise
have access.
Follow Learning’s Influence
At PeopleSoft, based in Pleasanton, California, I began a session at
a sales meeting by handing out little cocktail napkins with a logo
from a hotel. I then asked people to watch a demonstration, write
and draw key sales points from the demo on their napkins (a tech-
nique they might actually use to make a sale), and then have the
person next to them critique their napkin-based sales skills.
Together they learned and assessed each other’s learning in a way
they could use back on the job.Informal learning may be difficult to quantify, but you can
qualifyit. Track informal learning by keeping individual and
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