
Wendy Tan
Author, Keynote Speaker & Managing Partner of Flame Centre | Future Skills Institute
Updated 31 Mar 2023

Beyond 70/20/10
Those in the learning world take 70/20/10 as a gospel; to learn a skill and pick activities that help you learn from:
1. Experience 70% - e.g., projects at work
2. Exposure 20% - e.g., mentors & experts
3. Education 10% - e.g., degrees and courses
My contention is these learning activities do not guide our learning process. So what, after we participate in a project, speak to a mentor or attend a course? How do we design our learning process, so we take 6 hours to learn something, instead of 10?
Four Types of Activities For the Adult Learning Process
From my research involving in-depth interviews with 25 professionals on how they upskilled to be successful in career changes, I discovered four types of activities that contribute to the adult learning process:
1. Input - Identify multiple types of learning resources so that learners benefit from the unique affordances each offer
2. Reflection - Provide time and space for learners to reflect using guided
questions
3. Application - Create an avenue for learners to share or apply their new knowledge, which helps organize thoughts and test new
behaviours
4. Feedback - Ensure learners have access to credible feedback sources that can provide insights into the learning
Skillfully weaving together these in a process, we can almost learn anything with agility and transfer our learning to impact at work. Most importantly, the process deepens and widens our learning which keeps us going, making learning stimulating and fun!
I share more about this accelerated learning process in my article published by TD, Association for Talent Development.
“Wendy Tan takes a holistic approach in helping teams and organizations understand the practical ways of building a conducive environment to encourage continuous learning. Wendy’s work is particularly important and relevant in the current climate with a heightened level of uncertainties. Wendy has an energetic speaking style and she offers practical advice that provide the audience with useful takeaways.” - Vivien Li, Director, Human Resources, Global Equality & Inclusion, Quest Software
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