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Introduction
The
purpose of this article is to briefly describe Sterling Institute’s
approach to experiential
learning, an approach that we have coined, the Accelerated Experience
Method™. The development
of this new method has evolved based on our observation of how
managers learn. Managers
learn as they always have—in three basic ways.
They learn from their experience, their supervisors and from
formal training.
Managers
still learn, however, mainly from their experience on the job.
From 75 to 90% of what managers know they learn from their own
experience. What they
learn from their supervisors and from formal education only accounts
for 10 to 25% of what they have learned.
Formal training has always played a relatively minor role in
management development.
Now,
that should be a challenge to those of us involved in improving the
skills of managers to lead people and manage business.
The key issue is how to improve the role of management
training in the development process.
If
we really want to bring about change and improvement, we must focus
our attention on the 75 to 90% managers learn from their
experience—not solely the 10 to 25% they learn from formal education
and training.
We
are constantly told that experience is a manager’s best teacher.
But if we want to improve the development process, we must do a
better job than experience in teaching managers.
We should look at experience carefully, therefore, to see
whether it is doing its job effectively.
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