by Ashley Andrus

With the “Where the Wild Things Are” movie taking the box office by storm it’s a good time to think about feral learning and the ways in which Training & Development are taking a walk on “the wild side.”

In today’s “Google World” it’s possible to find instructions and information on almost anything you might need.

• Looking for that new BBQ restaurant? Google it.
• Wondering how many Rocky movies are in the series? A few keystrokes, a click, and voila.
• Need to know how to change out the filter in your furnace? You know what to do.

Most of us search online every single day. For 2009, Google reports a little under 300 million searches per day on average—almost 9 billion searches in the month of September alone. Technology has changed—forever—the way we gather information. The question is whether your organization’s training & development model has effectively adapted to that reality.

In the P.G. (pre-Google) days, the standard people development model was all “push.” Show and Tell. The company set the framework and the timeline. Both the content (the ‘what’ employees needed to know) and the time frame (the ‘when’ they got it) was determined by the organization. On-the-job learning was still taking place, of course, but without the speed and depth that the internet has made possible.

Over the last decade we’ve seen many organizations shift towards employee-driven development, in which the individual employees have a stake and a say in their own individual development plans. A recent google search for “personal learning environment” returned more than 280 million results, while “Training 2.0″ garnered 105 million. This attitude, in conjunction with technological advances, has resulted in a huge efficacy leap in the ability of learners to figure out what they need to know and to actively seek that precise information.

The result? Feral learning. The term “feral learning” was coined in the 1990s by Ted Nunan, perhaps, or by Dr. Roy Lundin (see here for an overview of the history of the term) with regard to the increasing trend by students of using the Internet to supplement formal curricula, to learn from other learners, and to adapt on the fly to situational changes.

Many K-12 and post-secondary school systems are actively experimenting with ways to more fully integrate this collaborative learning environment into 21st century classrooms (see a thought-provoking video here and an overview on how the Internet is tearing down classroom walls here.) It can be more difficult to incorporate into corporate culture (see here for some potential pitfalls in the realm of employee-driven development) but it’s here to stay and smart organizations are identifying ways to blend “push” content with “pull” capabilities.

3.5 tips for putting this trend to work for your organization:

1. HELP YOUR EMPLOYEES BECOME BETTER LEARNERS. In addition to providing the technology to access online resources, help them refine their “human Google search terms” to more effectively gather info from co-workers. Help them understand how to better gather information internally and externally through social networking, both online and in-person. As networking expert Sarah Michel notes, “in the 21st Century your network is your netWORTH™”…do your employees know how to utilize their networks on the job to help the organization accomplish its objectives?

2. HELP YOUR EMPLOYEES BECOME BETTER TEACHERS AND MENTORS. All organizations are being asked to do more with less. Therefore it’s critical to give your employees appropriate tools and techniques so they can serve as a resource for others without negatively impacting their own job performance. Todd Hudson’s excellent peer mentoring program is an example of a framework that works for organizations from copper mines to call centers with regard to effectively on-boarding new employees AND for helping existing employees tap into the knowledge that those new employees bring in with them.

3. IDENTIFY WHICH CRITICAL AREAS ARE SUITABLE FOR “PULL” LEARNING and which you still need to offer as “push” programs. There isn’t a single structure that’s right for all organizations. Your ideal training structure depends on a variety of factors. Hone your offerings and make them timely and relevant.

3.5 OFFER THAT CONTENT IN MULTI-MEDIA FORMATS. Face-to-face is excellent for some topics and some learners; some people hate podcasts and prefer to read. Offering your internal learners a variety of media from which to choose enhances the likelihood of information transfer…

…which is the point, after all.

Ashley Andrus is President of Zoe Training & Consulting. Her passion is making HR folks and meeting planners look like *rock stars* by providing one-stop access to 90+ speakers, trainers, facilitators, coaches, and consultants.