Embracing Informal Learning and Rethinking Corporate Training

Empowering employees with resources to continually self-educate can be the best way to train people to best do their jobs.

Years ago while working in a corporate department that developed curriculum and instructional materials for a popular software product line, I was often conflicted because at the time I was diving deep into the science and practicalities of learning. I wanted to discover how people learn best, not how we’ve historically thought people learn best. The more I discovered, the more I felt that corporate training organizations were slow to change to be in alignment with the most effective ways people learn.

I documented insights from my investigations in my book, The Art of Self-Education: How to Get a Quality Education for Personal and Professional Success Without Formal Schooling, published in 2014. I stand by most of what’s in that book, but it could also use a rewrite. New developments like generative AI (such as ChatGPT) might upend some of the best self-education strategies going forward.

Fast forward to today and I’ve definitely seen some positive changes, but the old mindset that a corporation is going to actively train you through a formal curriculum of some sort (push education) is giving way to education solutions I believe help people learn better through…