How Capability Is Really Built at Work

The 70–20–10 model is one of the most quoted ideas in learning and development.

• 70% of learning comes from experience
• 20% from others
• 10% from formal education

It shows up in slide decks, L&D strategies, and leadership conversations. But somewhere along the way, the point got lost.

Because 70–20–10 was never meant to be a budgeting formula for training.

It was an observation about how people actually become capable.

What the Model Really Points To

At its core, 70–20–10 is simple:

Most of what we learn comes from doing the work.

• Navigating ambiguity.
• Making decisions without perfect information.
• Handling outcomes that don’t go as planned.

That’s where capability is built.

The 20%—learning from others—happens in the middle of that:

• A conversation that reframes how you see a situation.
• A piece of feedback that sharpens your awareness.
• Watching how someone else handles a moment you’ve struggled with.

And the 10%?

That’s where concepts live.
Language. Frameworks. Ideas.

Useful—but only when they reconnect back to the work.

Where It Goes Off Track

The problem isn’t the model.

It’s how organizations try to use it. Instead of treating it as a reflection of reality, it often becomes something to engineer:

“How do we design 70% experiential learning?”
“How do we structure the 20%?”
“How do we optimize the 10%?”

But the 70% is already happening, every day ..... in every role.

The real question isn’t how to create it. It’s whether it’s producing growth—or just repetition.

Because experience alone doesn’t guarantee learning.

It just guarantees exposure.

A More Useful Way to Use 70–20–10

Instead of asking:

“How do we build more learning programs?”

Use 70–20–10 as a lens:

• What are people actually experiencing in the 70%?
• What are they learning from the way work is currently structured?
• Where is the environment creating clarity—and where is it creating friction?

Because that’s where the leverage is.

Not in adding more inputs.

But in improving the experience people are already having every day.