I agree that the real power of the 70:20:10 model is that it has made many people think hard (or perhaps even just realise) that we learn in different ways - and therefore it has opened eyes, conversations and opportunities to develop genuinely effective learning architectures.

I would say, however, that its not even a 'rule of thumb' - it's not a rule, and it's not a principle. What it is, I believe, is an observation (with a catchy title). An observation that, if we use it (along with others in our armoury) must influence us in how we develop truly useful learning architectures that are going to work in organisations of the future.

The danger of any rule (of thumb or any other sort) is that it can be used by different strategists according to what they want to achieve. I've seen it used as an argument for increasing L&D budgets, decreasing L&D budgets, opening up great opportunities as well as closing down others.

Andrew Joly
Design Director, LINE Communications