Okay, I'll join in on the thread, replying to LO14150 --
Gaye Mara asked:
"what proportion of time people need to have free to devote to learning
activities, formal or informal, in a learning organization?"
Agreed with many that there are no right answers here. As a technical and
professional services manager it really depends. We have invested many of
our staff at our cost into shadowing other technical people in their
assignments to build skills, observe, trial and retrial. Recalling
somewhere that an activity, method, process, or skill set must be used a
minimum 3 times to gain profficiency (and get off the learning curve) this
investment seems in many cases worthwhile.
Now for some operational numbers. For high margin work (like consulting)
we look at 10-20% over long term for learning events (not OTJ learning or
training) based on a 40-50 hour work week. For higher volume, lower
margin work (like programming) we look at 10% based on a mean 50-60 hour
work week. The challenge is balancing cash flow, learning targets and
activities that clients are willing to pay for. Of course the best idea
is to structure assignments where integrated client and staff teams learn
together, building cohesiveness in teams and eliminating short-sighted
financial drivers.
I would appreciate any other comments and experiences.
Best regards.
William D. Newman
Certified Management Consultant
A-OK Applied Technologies Group
Waterford, MI USA
"Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that man
doesn't have to experience it." -- Max Frisch
Visit the IMC website at http://fusion.imcusa.org
--"William Newman" <bruinz@sprynet.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>