25 Ideas for Informal Learning

Informal Learning is a great way to stay current. Here are many ideas you can use,

Culaccino

When I meet friends who speak another language, I often ask them if they can think of a word that cannot be translated in English. I learned recently that in Finland, they use the word “Tokka” to refer to a large herd of reindeer. An Italian friend refers to the mark left on a table by a moist glass as “Culaccino”. Do you know of any other word like that?Creating informal opportunities to learn can be a very powerful way for teams to bond or to unleash the creative talent of your team. Will you be able to learn a new language in a year? Most babies do. That is the power of informal learning. It is free and can be the fastest and most effective way to upgrade the skills of your team.Most organizations limit themselves to upgrading their employees' skills through formal learning programs. That often needs lots of planning, travel costs and more. In a connected world, leveraging the employees network and their own experiences can be a great way to build a culture of learning. Distributed teams can use it to upgrade each others skill and motivate a colleague to learn something they do not need to wait to be nominated for. Building a culture that celebrates informal learning, sharing and building expertise is more than what many learning and development teams struggle to create.

Informal learning needs a curious mind

Think about how you learned the very first language you communicated in. There were people around you who spoke those words. They were patient enough to wait for a long time when you simply absorbed the sounds and ideas and made the connections. Just being in that environment kindled your curiosity.Then one day when you haltingly spoke the first sentence (and probably messed up the grammar as I was prone to do for many years), people still smiled and encouraged you to keep going. They seemed to be delighted at your effort - not the outcome.The response of the environment to failure is an important step. That often determines if the person will continue learning or will smile with embarrassment and stop trying. Having a safe environment is what makes people keep building. Learners are often comfortable laughing at themselves when they fumble. That removes the need for others to do the same.

Pain and failure are metrics that tell you that you are learning something new.

Ideas you can use right away

Any two people can get together and start the informal learning journey. Imagine how much more powerful it could be if you got your entire team to try it out for an hour a week. Once you get started leverage the team's network to bring in entrepreneurs, scientists, authors, sportspeople etc to share how their field is evolving and how they are reinventing themselves. The team I am a part of has been doing this for a few years now. The forum is called Friday Funda.

30 Ideas for Informal Learning

Here are more than 25 ideas for informal learning I have tried and loved:

1. Read a book - a paperback or hard cover, after you have switched off your phone and any other distraction. (here's why)
2. Find a mentor. Here are four reasons why you need a mentor (click here)
3. Find a reverse mentor. This is a great idea you can use. Here is a 12 year old I learn from <read this>
4. Launch a YouTube channel of your department or account to showcase how smart your team members are.
5. Leverage your network to invite an entrepreneur, an artist, a customer or any external speaker to talk about a day in their lives. See what ideas from their world you can apply.
6. Shadow a colleague from another department. Then give a short 10 minute talk to your team members about 5 things you learned from that experience.
7. Sign up for a free course with Khan Academy. If you studied Science in College, try a course in Humanities <here's a list to choose from>
8. Track your decisions. Allocate 10 minutes during your lunch time to write down in a diary a the assumptions behind a decision you took. You will soon discover whether that assumption was right or wrong
9. Maintain a Gratitude Journal <read more on how to write one>
10. Learn a language. Here is a list of apps that you can use on your phone (click here)
11. Shadow a junior colleague and discover what they think of the company's policies or your strategy
12. Create a Google Alert about a topic you want to know about. <Here's how to create one>
13. Eat lunch with a different person every day for a month and write down something new you discovered.
14. Teach your team a new skill in 30 minutes. Motivate someone to teach everyone something next week.
15. Shadow a sports coach for a week to learn how to coach an already highly skilled player. You can learn how to motivate a star player.
16. Eat a different cuisine every day for a week. Imagine you are food consultant to a fast food chain who is looking to introduce 50 new dishes from around the world.
17. Learn about business etiquette and gifting traditions of a different country every day.
18. Learn how to write your name in 10 different scripts.
19. Make friends with some of the students at your alma mater. Interview 10 students and see what you learn about Millennials.
20. Join Quora and answer some questions in your field of expertise.
21. Gather your team members to watch a TED talk together or listen to a podcast together followed by a discussion. <Podcast suggestions>
22. Create a 2 minute "Knowledge Byte" to tell people about your work & what they would learn if they did it
23. Use Pinterest as a research tool. I love looking at the boards by Estelle Metayer's (Competia)
24. Attend a conference of another function. You can volunteer to help them and in turn you can attend it for free. Here is what I learned from the World's No 1 Wedding Photographer <click to read>
25. Follow 20 people on Twitter. Each one should be from a different field.
26. Read a blog about a different field every day. There's lots to choose from - Sports, Music, Travel, Food, Mechanics, Science, Nature, Design, Literature, Comics, Fashion ...
27. Run a Learn from a Novice Conference (my team and I did it) - invite people to speak about a field they built expertise in by themselves.
28. Write a research paper out how artificial intelligence is going to disrupt 10 different professions.
29. Learn about five different games you have never played. <here's a start>
30. Learn a word every day (for the next 30 days) that does not have an equivalent in English like . <click here for one such list>

Love to know about informal learning opportunities you have created for your teams.==============Want to invite me to run a workshop for your team? Want me to help upskill your HR team or to work as an additional resource in the HR team? Or to do a keynote for your conference, drop me a mail at abhijitbhaduri@live.com Updated on 24 Feb 2019Read: Making learning a part of everyday workRead the Degreed guide to innovation in learning <click here>Join me on Twitter @AbhijitBhaduriJay Cross offers a free chapter on informal learning <Read it>