The model and where it comes from
Some background I dug up after class: the model comes from research in the 1980s by Morgan McCall, Michael Lombardo and Robert Eichinger at the Center for Creative Leadership, who asked successful executives where their most meaningful development actually came from. The answer, published in Lombardo and Eichinger's 1996 Career Architect Development Planner: about 70% from challenging assignments, 20% from developmental relationships, and 10% from coursework and training. The model splits learning into three streams. 10% is structured learning — the formal learning event: workshops, webinars, online portals, eLearning, mLearning. 20% is learning from others — communities of practice, subject-matter networks, user-generated content, collaboration platforms, coaching, mentoring, feedback. The workbook calls this stream learning momentum. 70% is learning from experience — action learning and problem solving, placements, secondments and job rotations, shadowing, self-directed and incidental learning, projects and special assignments: workplace integration of learning. The uncomfortable implication for a trainer: the thing we obsess over — the workshop — is the 10%. Its real job is to ignite the other 90%: to set up the assignments, the shadowing, the feedback loops where learning actually compounds. A workshop that ends at the classroom door was designed to fail.
Mentoring — the deep end of the 20%
My notes on mentoring, which lives in the 20% stream: it runs on experience, it goes deep, it needs an expert in the field — a subject-matter expert — and it cannot be done in a big group. Mentoring is depth; training is breadth. They are different tools and they fail when swapped: a workshop cannot transfer judgment, and a mentor is wasted teaching basics a video could cover. Training transfers knowledge and works for many; mentoring develops judgement and works one-on-one or in small groups — the mentoring cycle runs experience → reflect → mentoring conversation → adjust → repeat. The classic proof: Warren Buffett studying under Benjamin Graham. Graham didn't just teach formulas — he taught a way of thinking, and Buffett combined that foundation with decades of his own experience. A great mentor builds your foundation; experience builds your path.
A feedback framework worth keeping
Also in the 20%: feedback. The simple three-part structure we practised for giving feedback after someone presents: 1. What went well — and be specific. Not "good job", but "I like your voice", the tone, the pacing. Vague praise teaches nothing because the person cannot repeat what they cannot name. 2. What needs to be improved — with clear observations and examples. 3. What to avoid — nothing vague, personal, or absolute; no "you're not good enough", no "always" and "never". Specific praise first is not politeness, it is information — it tells the presenter which behaviours to lock in. Pairing the three keys with the SBI framework makes it even sharper: Situation (describe the context — "in the client meeting yesterday"), Behaviour (what you observed — "I noticed you interrupted the client several times"), Impact (what it caused — "the client felt rushed and didn't answer our questions"). Then the conversation flow: prepare, share, listen without interrupting, discuss, agree and follow up. This maps directly onto how I should review anything: name what to keep before naming what to change.
Case Study
growing a duty manager on 70:20:10
We promote our best front-desk staff to duty manager, and historically we develop them with… a course. That is a 10% solution to a 100% problem. Redesigned as a 70:20:10 development plan: The 10%: a two-day structured block on the non-negotiables — night audit, incident reporting, refund authority, escalation thresholds. Formal, assessed, done early. The 20%: three deliberate relationships. A mentor — one of our senior property managers, a genuine subject-matter expert, one-on-one because mentoring cannot be a big group. Weekly feedback sessions using the three-part frame: specific things done well, what to improve, what to avoid. And a peer channel with duty managers at our other properties, because most operational answers already exist somewhere in the group. The 70%: the actual development engine. Two weeks shadowing an experienced duty manager, then reversed — running shifts while being shadowed. A rotation through a different property to see problems their home property never has. And one special assignment with real stakes: owning the overnight-incident playbook revision, presenting it to management. The course is one line item in the plan instead of being the plan. That is the model applied.
Reflections
The 10% is not unimportant — it is the ignition system, not the engine. Design every formal session with explicit hooks into the other two streams: what assignment follows, who gives feedback, what gets practised on the job this week. If those hooks are missing, the workshop is decoration.