Informal Development: Learning From Others

Posted by Sarah Hobbs

Learning on courses is easy – being in classrooms is something that we’re taught to do from the age of four. What we have rarely been taught is how to learn from informal situations – like shadowing, observing, interviewing an expert or watching them in action, and seeking feedback.

Informal learning is not something that’s particularly intuitive – often learning doesn’t feel like it’s learning unless you’re away from work in a classroom with an expert putting you through a series of exercises and case studies. But as you’ll recall from our training programmes we know that the majority of learning happens outside the classroom. So in our continuing series about how to develop people informally, let’s think about how your team can learn from other people.

1. Learn from the best, not just the nearest. Many people rely on close colleagues who sit next to them. But when you think about it, isn’t that a really random approach? Who’s to say that this colleague is the ideal person to help an individual take a big step forward in your development?
   
   

A vital first step in learning from others is to get your people to be choosy about the people they learn from. Get them to identify a couple of top performers at the skill they want to learn. These aren’t always senior people. Ensure your team member asks around until they find someone with a strong skill in the area they need to learn – whether that is presenting to the Board, dealing with customer objections, or building a business case. These people often have a passion for their subject that is infectious – and they will often be memorable and inspiring.


2. Approach the expert in the right way. Get your team member to prepare for this. They need to be clear about what they want to learn, and why they have chosen their expert to learn from. Successful, skilled people are often very busy. They’re probably willing to give some of their time, but they want to be sure that their time is used well. So, when the team member contacts someone, they need to be clear on what it is that they are trying to learn, specify how much time they are asking for, and exactly what help they need. They should avoid asking for ‘a mentor’ – instead ask for a limited amount of focused time. For example, ask for the chance to talk about good and bad presentations they’ve seen at Board level; or to observe them handling customer objections; or to run a draft business case past them for their comments. The expert needs to be clear about the amount of their time required and how the learning will work. Once the expert has agreed to help, your team member should summarise the plan in an email to them (get them to copy you in on this). 



3. Clarify what the team member is trying to learn and accomplish. Before meeting the expert, get your team member to think about some of the specific difficulties and scenarios that they struggle with. What is it that they specifically want to find out? Get them to share this with their expert – the clearer that they can be about what it is they’re trying to learn, the better. The expert is not a mind reader and hasn’t spent a lot of time with the team member, so they won’t understand what the individual’s issues and challenges are, unless this is done.


4. Focus the team member on extracting and recording information. When they’re spending time with an expert, they should probably write a lot. If they are observing, they shouldn’t just write summary thoughts and observations. They will be much better off if they capture factual information like what the expert did, the questions they asked, when they spoke a lot, and when they called a break. This detail will let them reflect after the event on what actually happened. It’s ok to capture thoughts that occur, but they should focus most of their attention on what the expert is doing or saying. 
If they are not observing, but instead talking to an expert to get specific advice and examples, recording is essential. It’s fatal to rely on memory to remember key points because it won’t help you – there will be too much information. They can take notes; draw mind maps; or book an hour of quiet time after the conversation to ‘brain dump’ everything they learned. Actually making a recording on a phone is less effective – firstly people are less frank when they are being recorded, and secondly based on long experience, it is unlikely that anyone will ever actually get around to listening to the recording!


5. Review the learning with the expert. When observing an expert, your team members should have scheduled an immediate review with the expert after the observation – to discuss how it went, test out their observations, ask questions, and get additional tips and advice. In addition, regardless of the nature of the contact with the expert (e.g. asking them questions or getting them to critique a presentation or business case) – the material needs to be consolidated. Within 48 hours the team member should take time to summarise what they learnt – by drawing a mind map, writing a report or typing up a report. (As the manager – you can create the deadline and urgency to do this!) Finally, encourage your team members to share their learning with the expert. A short email with bullet points, and a report attached will be well received – it’s rewarding for the expert to know that their time was well spent, and that they have made a difference. At the very least this will help them say yes to the next person who comes asking for help!

The Takeaway
Learning from other people is critically important in creating a high performing team. Spending time with someone who is an expert means that the content of the training is tailored uniquely to a person’s individual needs. Is there someone in your team who could experiment with the approach described above?