The 70:20:10 Framework

It’s not about the numbers; it’s all about change

Charles Jennings
Internet Time Alliance

Background:
I have been working with the 70:20:10 model for 15 years. I first
encountered the model when examining an innovative leadership
development initiative at Goldman Sachs. The initiative was called the
“Reverse Engineered” Development Plan. Goldmans had set out to
identify critical success factors of individual career development. Output
from the identification exercise aligned with the work of Morgan McCall
and his colleagues at the Center for Creative Leadership some 10 years
previously. In turn, McCall’s work reflected the findings of Professor
Allen Tough at the University of Toronto in the 1960s and 1970s.

Goldman Sachs had created a leadership development template that

explicitly stated the majority of development efforts would be achieved
through on-the-job experiences, and provided a range of job-specific
suggestions to senior management for experiences that individuals
could be offered both within and beyond their current role.

Over the intervening 15 years I have had the pleasure of developing

and implementing the 70:20:10 model as a strategic framework in
large global enterprises. I have also had the pleasure of helping more
than 100 organisations - ranging from huge multinationals with
hundreds of thousands of employees to small and medium-sized
enterprises and government departments - to explore and exploit the
70:20:10 framework and to actively make it work.

Insights:
This work has provided a number of insights. The FIVE below are
critical:

1. it’s not about the numbers, it’s about change.

2. top-down thinking and bottom-up action are both essential.
3. a new understanding of ‘learning’ is needed by everyone.
4. learning professionals have to step up and let go.
5. manager engagement and capability are both critical.

©2014 Charles Jennings | e: charles@jennings.net |

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 [1] It’s not about the Numbers, it’s all about Change
70:20:10 is not about a fixed ratio. It’s a simple and extremely helpful
framework for changing focus and aligning resources to support
workforce development and learning with where most of it already
happens – in the workplace.

So, why use ‘70:20:10’ at all?

The numbers are a useful reminder that most learning occurs in the
context of the workplace rather than in formal learning situations and
that learning is highly context dependent. The numbers provide a
framework to support learning as it happens through challenging
experiences, plenty of practice, rich conversations and the opportunity
to reflect on what worked well and what didn’t.

It’s also useful to keep the ratios in the back of our minds to remind
ourselves that learning naturally occurs this way. They’re not some
tight formula that organisations should be targeting.

It’s well worth reading my Internet Time Alliance colleague Jay Cross’s
article about formal/informal learning ratios on his Informal Learning
blog. Jay makes clear something we all know deep down - that learning
is not a binary process – it usually doesn’t happen exclusively formally
or exclusively informally, but mostly part-formally and part-informally.
The mix varies depending on the situation.

I’ve also stressed this point in my ‘70:20:10 Learning Approaches’

presentation that can be viewed on SlideShare.

The KPMG work with the global food manufacturer, Sara Lee, cited on
the Informal Learning blog, provides a good example of the fact that
the ratios will vary with specific situations and therefore shouldn’t be
taken as a mantra.

One thing I do know from working with many organisations using the
model is that The 70:20:10 framework is an extremely helpful change
agent – for both changing mindsets and changing learning
practices.

©2014 Charles Jennings | e: charles@jennings.net |

Skype: charlesjennings | Twitter: charlesjennings | LinkedIn: charlesjennings |
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 One of the 70:20:10 model’s most powerful uses is to provide a
structure for de-focusing time and effort on sub-optimal away-from-
workplace training and re-focusing on more efficient and effective types
of development. Almost without exception in my experience
organisations that have adopted 70:20:10 have achieved greater
impact on performance at organisational and individual level at lower
cost than was being achieved beforehand.

Recently I’ve seen variations on the numbers being put forward.

Some of these ideas are the result of thoughtful and useful analysis.
Others are ‘angels dancing on heads of pins’. It would be an exercise in
futility to re-define the Sara Lee data above as the 45:30:10:8:3:2:2
model.

As social media comes into more ubiquitous use in workforce

development - from executive and leadership development to individual
contributor functional development - the ‘20’ will strengthen at the
expense of the ‘10’, so we may get to a time when the ‘70:20:10’ just
doesn’t make sense anymore and we’ll need to find some new way to
express the need for change. However, we’ve some way to go before
that point is reached.

[2] Top-Down and Bottom-Up

Organisations that succeed in deploying the 70:20:10 framework are
those that understand the need for adopting a clear strategy but are
capable of focusing on practical ‘low-hanging fruit’ to implement.

This top-down and bottom-up approach is essential. Clear direction plus

senior stakeholders who are engaged, enrolled and prepared to act as
‘champions’ will get the change process underway and keep it on track.
Then HR and learning professionals who can identify the quick wins and
achieve them are also critical to ensure that change happens on the
ground.

Simple things such as embedding 70:20:10 concepts into annual

development planning processes and templates, educating workers and
their managers that ‘development’ does not equal attendance on
programmes and courses, ensuring that social learning and reflection is
embedded into work practices, all contribute to the change process.

©2014 Charles Jennings | e: charles@jennings.net |

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 [3] Re-thinking ‘Learning’
The thinking that hard-wires ‘knowing’ to ‘learning’ has set back our
efforts to build high-performing organisations. Learning and knowing
sometimes coincide, but they are different beasts.

There is still a huge focus on ‘knowing’ in organisational learning. We

build formal classroom courses and eLearning programmes that consist
of pre-tests and post-tests. We then assume that if delegates gain a
higher score after some formal learning process (almost invariably
assessed through a test/examination/certification based on knowledge
recall) than they did before, then learning has occurred.

Most of us know deep down that this is bunk.

Passing knowledge tests immediately following a course tells us little

about real learning. It may tell us something about short-term memory
recall, but real learning can only be determined by observable long-
term changes in behaviour.

The 70:20:10 framework, with its emphasis on learning through

experience (the ‘70’ and ‘20’ bits, especially), helps push the
understanding of what learning means. It moves thinking towards
‘know-how’ from ‘know-what’. It moves activity towards demonstrating
learning through action – behaving differently when confronted with
specific circumstances. Morgan McCall, one of the researchers who
carried out the Centre for Creative Leadership survey of managers that
led to the 70:20:10 framework becoming more widely known and
adopted, explains the power of experiential learning here.

Organisations that effectively incorporate the 70:20:10 framework into

their workforce development strategies invariably build a wider
understanding of what ‘learning’ means – and follow that up with
empowering many people to think of learning opportunities outside the
class/curriculum mindset.

Changing mindsets is a critical process in the strategic implementation

of the 70:20:10 model.

[4] Learning Professionals: Stepping Up and Letting Go

70:20:10 implementation challenges entrenched learning and
development practices and, in so doing, puts pressure on quite a
number of learning professionals.

©2014 Charles Jennings | e: charles@jennings.net |

Skype: charlesjennings | Twitter: charlesjennings | LinkedIn: charlesjennings |
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 It does this because one of the underpinnings of the framework is the
acceptance that only a small percentage of organisational learning (the
‘10’) can be managed by the HR and L&D departments. The vast
majority occurs outside their bailiwick.

The categorisation below, developed with my Internet Time Alliance

colleagues Jane Hart and Harold Jarche, shows clearly that most
‘informal’ elements of learning can’t be managed, but can only be
supported by HR/L&D. Others can only serve as lessons themselves.

So, a precursor for effective implementation of the framework is for

learning professionals in the organisation to let go trying to control
everything and look instead to support, encourage and learn from the
learning that is happening all around them.

This is not to say learning professionals are necessarily

redundant. However it does mean that they need to step up to
challenges that they probably haven’t faced before and change
their modus operandi from simply designing, developing and delivering
formal learning activities and programmes.

Effective deployment of 70:20:10 usually requires significant support

for line managers – as they’re the people who have the most influence

©2014 Charles Jennings | e: charles@jennings.net |

Skype: charlesjennings | Twitter: charlesjennings | LinkedIn: charlesjennings |
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 over effective implementation of the ‘70’ and ‘20’ (and the most
influence over learning and performance improvement generally). The
L&D staff can play an important role in supporting line managers to
identify, enable and encourage social learning, information sharing,
collaborative knowledge building and other workplace development
activities. But the skills they need to do this may differ from the skills
that the learning professional role previously required.

[5] Managers: It can’t Happen without them

Every time I work on the 70:20:10 framework with an organisation I’m
reminded of the fundamental role that manager/line leader engagement
and capability play in overall success.

We know from the Corporate Leadership Council’s Employee

Development Survey research into Driving Results Through Employee
Development that line leaders who are focused and effective at
developing their reports achieve around 25% better performance from
their teams than line leaders who are not effective at developing their
people.

It is essential that senior leadership and line leaders fully understand

the implications of this research – that the greatest levers for learning
and performance improvement are in the hands of people managers.

There are a large number of tools and techniques that are available to
make this job easier for managers. These need to be an integral part of
any 70:20:10 rollout - from simple techniques to help reflective
learning as part of regular manager-report meetings, to guides,
templates, tools and tips to support experiential learning and learning
through people networks. I wrote about this on my blog (see link)
‘Managers and Mad Hatters: Work That Stretches’.

Charles Jennings

©2014 Charles Jennings | e: charles@jennings.net |

Skype: charlesjennings | Twitter: charlesjennings | LinkedIn: charlesjennings |
perfor ma nce . learni ng . producti vi ty