Utpal Writes          On Project Management, Leadership, Technology and Self-Help

A day ago we were discussing about learning methodologies and what is more important – Formal study or informal learning? In most cases, we cannot deny the importance of formal studies however if we have an eye for learning from anything and everything that happens around us, we are surely a step ahead.

Here is some light about what informal learning is, how we generally get into it, its advantages and the disadvantages:

Informal Learning:

1. …is learning through experience. Yours as well as others.
2. …can take place entirely in the workplace while doing your regular day job.
3. …directly depends on your observation power and your ability to understand and apply it in the correct context – Observe what your experienced colleagues are doing and map their actions with the results that they are getting. Positive and Negative– both counts.
4. …is considered to be more effective in building proficiency than formal learning methods – that’s the reason while hiring a candidate, experience counts more than mere degrees in the practical world.
5. Its major advantage is that it is mostly relevant and it is done in small steps in which the learner is a kind of entity in the overall happening so the learner can experience and then understand it thoroughly.
6. Its major disadvantage is that it depends on learner’s abilities. Not all the learners may be benefited with this method. It does not happen in the planned manner and thus for average learner it would be difficult in the initial stages.
7. Nonetheless, apart from all the formal learning we get, if we keep our eyes and ears open to any kind of knowledge that can be applied practically – we are on the right way to climb the cliff.

See Also:

1. Five Steps To Turn An Organization Into A Learning Machine
2. Workplace I Love As A Power-Performer (and you would too!)
3. Leadership Virtues That A Software Project Manager Should Have