Informal training and education can also extremely valuable at lower levels of the organization, when it is coupled with one or more of the other sources of training and education. As I noted above, many organizations have come to recognize the effectiveness of dispersed education (Mode Three) and are beginning to recognize the potential use of just-in-time training and education (Mode Four). Both of these modes require the presence of on-the-job learning resources. Dispersed training and education is most effective when the new employee, or an employee taking on a new assignment or job, learns not only in the classroom, but also from colleagues in the workplace. Similarly, just in time learning requires that colleagues assist in identifying the learning needs of an employee and in identifying the best time and place in which to obtain the necessary skills or knowledge. We often don’t know enough to know what we don’t know. We must turn to our senior colleagues for their advice and guidance. This is the best form of informal training and education, and it is invaluable in contemporary organizations.
Source Five: Formal (Mentorship/Coaching) On-The-Job Training And Education
While mentoring and coaching are often considered the newest thing in contemporary organizations, they are also representative of a very old mode of training and education. They emulate the role played by master craftsmen during the early Modern Era in the preparation of apprentices. Today, many organizations are beginning to offer mentorship or coaching services to its younger employees or to employees who have taken on a new job assignment. I more fully describe these roles below (the ninth developmental strategy),but wish to reiterate that mentoring and coaching can significantly increase the enduring impact of those training and education programs that have been offered through any one of the first three sources of expertise.
When used in conjunction with any of these first three sources, mentoring and coaching help to anchor the learning that has occurred. Both mentoring and coaching increase the retention and transfer of learning and motivate employees to learn additional skills through both formal and informal mechanisms. When used in conjunction with either the external/professional or internal/professional source, mentoring and coaching hold an additional advantage. Both roles help an employee translate the more general concepts and tools being offered by the professionals into the everyday language-of-application that is to be found in their own specific work group.
[i] William Bergquist, Julie Betwee and David Meuel. Building Strategic Relationships. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995.
