In the last few pages, our surveys have shown that people learn continuously in many different ways, so individuals need think bout how they can learn from all their daily activities – whether actively, or pro-actively – or trying the extract what they have learned passively or unconsciously.
If we use the results of the previous surveys into the frequency and value of learning, then an individual might spend (roughly) the following amounts of time on each of the activities colour-coded on the graphic below.
So what does this mean in terms of the number of hours per year? The following is based on a 240 day working year.
| Activity | day | WEEK (= 5 days) |
MONTHLY (= 4 weeks) |
QUArterLY (= 3 months) |
YEARLY (= 4 QUARTS) |
YEARLY (= 240 days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mins | Mins | Mins | Mins | Mins | Hours | |
| DAILY discovery | 20 | 100 | 400 | 1,200 | 4,800 | 80 |
| DAILY reflection | 10 | 50 | 200 | 600 | 2,400 | 40 |
| DAILY team interaction | 20 | 100 | 400 | 1,200 | 4,800 | 80 |
| WEEKLY networking | 30 | 120 | 360 | 1,440 | 24 | |
| MONTHLY feedback | 30 | 90 | 360 | 6 | ||
| QUARTERLY live virtual | 60 | 240 | 40 | |||
| YEARLY course/training | 10 | |||||
| YEARLY conference | 7 | |||||
| TOTAL | 251 |
In summary, applying the model in the graphic above results in 251 hours of active learning in a year.
If we assume a 7 hour working day, then a 240 day working year equates to 1,680 working hours in a year. In which case 251 hours dedicated to active learning and development (as shown in the table above) represents 14.9% of the work time.
Of course, the table can be adjusted in many different ways to provide a customised plan for any individual based on the % of time that is promoted for active learning and development in an organisation.
But what does this mean for L&D’s role?