7 ways to improve teamwork and collaboration through informal learning

It is becoming increasingly important for team leaders and managers to understand how they can utilise informal learning to generate a collaborative teamwork environment.

Team leaders and managers are often the unsung heroes of organisational learning.

Yet they play a pivotal role in leading good teamwork and team learning, and supporting their people to work, grow and succeed together. Team leaders and managers are key connectors between formal learning and on the job application to generate behaviour change.

Every day, team leaders and managers shape and influence their teams working and learning environment through the conversations they have, the performance they reward, and the feedback they give. They are in the box seat to leverage informal learning for building knowledge and generating a positive teamwork environment.

How do you like to learn at work?

If you stop and think about some of the best learning experiences you’ve had, you may realise that they happened outside formal training sessions. You probably learned more by watching, asking questions, working with people who knew the job, or searching the intranet. This is informal learning. A lot of workplace learning happens this way.

Most learning is informal by nature, is often invisible, and can be harder to understand. Learning is as natural as breathing, we are wired to learn, change and adapt and we do it every day. Informal learning is happening all around us all the time, whether we notice it or not. It's the learning that's embedded in living our lives.

FORMAL LEARNING

Formal learning is structured and intentional. It’s an organised program or package with learning objectives. Formal learning has a designated trainer or facilitator and can lead to a qualification or credential. Formal learning plays an important role when there needs to be a systematic adoption of a set of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or methodologies to be used at work.

Benefits

Employees have the skills, knowledge and capability to perform the role
Employees who learn through formal training programs come up to speed faster once they start their jobs.
Employees learn the same information and/or processes at the same time
Addressing organisational capability needs for appropriate, systematic and result-oriented learning
Meeting legislative requirements to protect the people who work for the organisation, the users of the organisations’ goods or services, and the broader community
Creating a shared understanding and a common language
Can be used as an agent for broader cultural change

INFORMAL LEARNING

informal learning is the learning that happens away from a structured, formal environment. Informal learning is not organised, there are no set learning objectives, and often unintentional. Informal learning is a lifelong process in which we acquire information, attitudes, skills and knowledge - as a natural part of making sense of our world.

"Companies already use informal learning in employee development. It's an inevitable aspect of human behaviour. Companies don't do as good a job of it as they might. Employees already learn more from one another than they do from formal programs."
(Cross 2007 as cited in Radakovic & Antonijevic (n.d.))

Informal learning can include:

collaboration, teamwork, problem-solving
team leader/manager feedback

peer to peer learning
learning through trial & error
facilitated knowledge sharing, problem-solving and sense-making e.g., open space activities, Gurteen knowledge cafes, action learning coaching
job-shadowing and on-the-job training

mentoring and coaching
networking, social media groups
reading
watching videos did you know that YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google?)
online research
listening to podcasts
visiting libraries
attending lectures, conferences, webinar
volunteering
learning from family and friends.

Benefits

Generates self-directed learning
Fosters lifelong learning and a growth mindset
The learning can be more focused because the learner is driving it
Subject-matter experts may be more willing to share their knowledge
Can begin without any significant learning plan
May be more personal and less intimidating for some people.
Learning is part of 'how we do things around here', not just something that happens in the training room
Reinforces or subverts formal organisational learning initiatives.