If you work in the learning space, experiential learning is an expression you probably have come across over the last years.
Experiential learning is an active learning process through which the learner develops knowledge, transferable skills, and attitudes from direct experiences. Many experts today go as far as hailing the approach to close the ever-growing skill gap we are facing in today’s work environment.
But is experiential learning really a new trend?
In 1984 David Kolb described experiential learning as a fundamental component of adult education and as far back as the 1940s, Edgar Dale theorised that learners retain significantly more information by what they “do” (90 per cent) as opposed to what is “heard (20 per cent), “read” (10 per cent) or “observed” (30 per cent).
Even centuries ago, Chinese Philosopher, Confucius has been attributed to saying: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn” which later was reimagined by Benjamin Franklin in one of his famous quotes.
Today, learning thought leaders such as Gomez assert that the most effective method of assessing and developing the skills for the 21st century is through hands-on learning.
Given the large body of research, it is surprising that organisations are not deploying experiential learning yet as a major part of learning strategy and still tend to rely on classroom-based lectures or, since the pandemic, on self-directed online-only learning.
So, how can you include the approach at your organisation as a business leader, people manager, or L&D and HR professional?
First of all, it is important to distinguish between experiential learning activities and team-building games.
While the latter is often designed for the main purpose of fun and team bonding, experiential learning follows a clear purpose and outcome aligned with your strategic business challenges or skill gap objectives and is targeted at specific groups of employees.
Activities complement knowledge injections, are embedded into the flow of work, and always incorporate an element of reflection at the end to help transfer the experience into the day-to-day work.
Examples of experiential learning activities that we have designed include an exploration of Selfridges London to learn about customer experience and future store concepts, a computer-based simulation on Mergers & Acquisitions of two retail banks to understand how to engage stakeholders, a plane crash crisis simulation to practice media speaking under stress with a real film crew, Lego-based play to help the exec team of a major media company to design their strategy as well as activities in the wild to build leadership, resilience, and agility.
Anisa Al Raissi, Experiential Learning Facilitator at New Metrics observes: “Learning should be active where employees have to think creatively and collaborate to solve complex problems. Activities should be designed to test limitations and boundaries and encourage to take risks.”
“The ability and power to transform an organisation from within should never be underestimated by today’s leaders and experimentation should therefore be encouraged.”
If you are trying to build a future-ready workforce or if you are just looking to increase learning retention and skills at work, now more than ever is the time to get experiential.
Miriam Kugel
mkugel@newmetrics.net
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