The 70/20/10 model, developed in the early 90s by Robert Eichinger, Michael Lombardo, and Morgan McCall, asserts that seventy percent of learning and development takes place from real-life and on-the-job experiences, tasks, and problem solving; twenty percent of the time development comes from other people through informal or formal feedback, mentoring, or coaching; while ten percent of learning and development comes from formal training.

One worry is that formal learning initiatives are devalued and that if ninety percent of learning is informal, it therefore requires no attention. Another is that this observational research is used as a hard-and-fast strategy for designing learning models.

In a presentation given at a forum event hosted by LINE Communications, LINE's Design Director, Andrew Joly, suggests that 70/20/10 should be an influence on strategy rather than a strategy in itself, and that the most useful application of this powerful model for understanding learners and their learning world should be to

• strongly support the seventy percent learning;
• develop and exploit the power of the twenty percent;
• design the ten percent within the clear context of the other ninety percent.

The BBC's Nick Shackleton-Jones adds to this picture of the balance between formal and informal learning in his own presentation. He suggests that people will learn informally around the subject areas that most interest them, while the most uninspiring, mandated areas of training are the most important areas in which to supply exciting, highly engaging formal learning interventions.