People have always been learning informally. Why has informal learning had to be rediscovered?

Jay Cross: Informal learning has merited rediscovery because, while it's the most important learning there is, most organizations totally neglect it. You would think that managers would be finetuning informal learning since we are in the information age. Quite the contrary. Informal learning ususally flies under the radar with no budget and no accountability.

What can organisations do to leverage informal learning?

Jay Cross: The most important step is cultural: trusting workers to contribute to the greater good.

Informal learning is something natural. Can technology really change the practice? Where do you see the role of new Web 2.0 applications?

Jay Cross: Technology can give informal learning a tremendous boost. The most important learning technology ever invented is human conversation. Web 2.0 apps facilitate conversations that are instant, global, documented, and specialized to the end of the "long tail."

Controlling is important for organisations. Isn't there a big fear of contact with ideas of free space, independence, and personal responsibility?

Jay Cross: Yes, there is a great fear, and it's not confined to informal learning. The scary things are the demise of hierarchy and the democratization of the workforce. This fear is largely unfounded. Controlling other people is a delusion. A worker does something exemplary. That's the worker's choice, not her manager's.

Given the fact that not only in the compliance field, a huge amount of formal training will still be needed, and knowing that employees operate under extreme time pressure, will informal learning take place at the expense of formal training or can it be an adequate substitute for special qualification areas?

Jay Cross: Informal learning is not a deus ex machina. Formal learning is great for novices and mandatory for compliance. When properly implemented, informal learning often saves time over more formal methods. In some cases, informal learning will replace formal learning entirely, saving everyone time.

On Friday Jay Cross joins the plenary session on "Informal Learning". Leading experts will present startegies for improving learning opportunities in a variety of contexts and how learning managers can harness the potential of informal learning.