White Paper

The Evolution of Performance Adjacent Learning

London (UK), September 2018 - O'Reilly, a source for insight-driven learning on technology and business, has announced its new white paper "Performance Adjacent Learning: The Next Big Shift," which explores the evolution of performance adjacent learning and the tools that enable it. The contents were made available for download in conjunction with Learning Live, where O'Reilly was an exhibitor and which took place in London, 05-06 September. 

The pace of technological change in the workplace has made it more important than ever for today's workers to upskill and reskill on the job. Additionally, more employees are motivated by the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge than by perks, informal work environments, and money. The confluence of these trends has made performance adjacent learning - learning within the process of work - a variant of performance support.

O'Reilly's white paper sheds light on why performance-adjacent learning is vital to the success of modern business and how organizations can start to integrate support for it into their learning ecosystems. Some of the topics the white paper covers include

  • what defines performance adjacent learning behaviour
  • why performance adjacent learning is important
  • how performance-adjacent learning tools enable this valuable way of learning
  • how to measure the efficacy of performance adjacent learning activity

"Time spent learning is a common metric for measuring knowledge gained and learning ROI. However, this metric assumes learning and working are mutually exclusive, and an employee cannot learn and produce at the same time," said Karen Hebert-Maccaro, Chief Content Officer at O'Reilly. "In reality, employees often learn in short bursts in concert with their workflows, which is why arming workers with performance adjacent learning support is crucial for the next wave of enterprise learning."

In addition to the online download, the white paper will be discussed further in an upcoming O'Reilly webcast, taking place 27 September from 19:00-20:00 BST.