Several people have asked me not to denigrate formal learning in the workplace, the 10 of the 70:20:10 model. Indeed. Formal learning has its place. It’s apt for bringing people up to speed in a new discipline or topic. Formal learning accelerates exposure to the landscape, the rules of thumb, the frameworks and specialized vocabulary, and a lot of other things that would be laborious to learn from experience.
Standing around the water cooler is not the best way to learn algebra.
Furthermore, it’s a fast-changing world. We’re all novices at some things so even senior people shouldn’t write off attending the occasional workshop.
No worries, Jay,I still enjoy the shock value of “courses are dead” if only to rattle the cavemen into the sunlight to try and contradict it. I’m finding fewer and fewer examples where formal learning is the way to go. Even the overused cry of “Don’t you want your doctor to have formal training?!” is being challenged by gaming innovations: http://o.canada.com/2012/08/28/forget-the-scalpel-med-schools-use-robots-video-games-to-train-new-doctors/