70-20-10 Learning Framework

The 70-20-10 Learning Framework is a model for how people develop capability at work. It suggests that roughly seventy percent of development comes from challenging experiences and on-the-job practice, twenty percent from social learning through others such as coaching and mentoring, and ten percent from formal training and courses. The point of the ratio is not precision but balance: it reminds organisations that most growth happens through doing and through relationships, not only in the classroom. This framework covers aligning the model with your business, designing each of the three components deliberately, and integrating them so they reinforce one another. It solves a familiar imbalance where learning budgets pour into formal courses while the far larger sources of development go unmanaged.

Organisations adopt 70-20-10 when they want more capability growth without simply buying more courses. It fits when formal training feels disconnected from real work, when development stalls after a programme ends, or when leaders want a shared way to talk about how people actually grow. Because it foregrounds experiential and social learning, it pushes managers to think about stretch assignments, mentoring, and reflection as core development tools rather than extras. The framework also helps you allocate learning investment more sensibly, since it reveals how much growth depends on the experiences and relationships you were previously leaving to chance. Used well, it builds a learning culture where development is woven into everyday work instead of confined to a training calendar.

The framework has four parts. Foundation and alignment educate stakeholders on the model, assess your current learning mix against the ratio, and secure leadership sponsorship with clear success metrics. The seventy percent covers experiential and on-the-job learning: a catalogue of stretch assignments and action learning tied to real business challenges, plus structured reflection to extract lessons. The twenty percent covers social and collaborative learning through formal mentoring, communities of practice, peer coaching, and learning circles. The ten percent covers formal learning: a targeted curriculum aligned to capability priorities, blended and microlearning design, and effectiveness measured with the Kirkpatrick model. A final integration layer ties the three together through leadership role modelling, embedding the framework in development conversations, and tracking activity and investment across all three components with an annual review.

This free template lays out the model and all three learning components so you can plan without signup. Start by assessing your current mix against the ratio, then edit each component to fit your organisation: list your stretch assignments and action learning projects, define your mentoring and community structures, and curate your formal curriculum. Record success metrics and owners as you go. When your plan is ready, copy it into your working doc, download it as a PDF or DOCX, or open it in Google Docs to share with leaders and managers. Everything is editable so you can refine the balance year over year.