When you are thinking about ideas for career development, it’s a natural inclination to first turn to exploring available training courses or checking out the latest book. However, if we limit our actions to these tactics alone, we may end up missing a significant chunk of development opportunity. As it turns out, development is likely to occur when you think of it as a three-part process: Experience, Exposure and Education.
According, Jeanette Lindsay, a talent portfolio manager in University Human Resources, it is estimated that 70 percent of development occurs through on-the-job experiences, and 20 percent of development comes from feedback or relationships. Education, through things like courses and reading, represents the missing 10 percent. This philosophy of career development and growth, is sometimes referred to as the 70-20-10 model or the 3E Model.
Acquainting yourself with the 3E Model may help you can spot and apply Experience and Exposure opportunities to take your development efforts to the next level.
Experience, known as learning by doing, is acquired through practice in real-world situations that allow you to “stretch” and grow as you refine knowledge, skills and behavior.
To acquire valuable experience, consider actively applying these methods:
Including Exposure opportunities—where you learn by observation—into your development activities is an essential component. Exposure allows development to occur through feedback and connections with others that produce insights and a broadening of your perspective.
Consider these common Exposure development activities:
Join or start up a community of practice to learn and share best practices with colleagues across campus. There are a variety of collaborative communities you can join. From content strategy to information technology and development practices and more. Or, consider creating and moderating your own collaborative community.
Coming full circle, Education, in the form of learning through training classes and courses, a professional conference, reading articles, journals or books, or pursuing a degree program is the final piece of the development puzzle.
Make a commitment to action for your professional development by incorporating Experience, Exposure and Education into your plans. To learn more about the 3E model, visit the Learning at Stanford section of the Cardinal at Work website.