Venchito Tampon

70 20 10 Rule: How to Optimize It for Learning and Development

The 70-20-10 rule is a widely fundamental framework in learning and development (L&D). It is also the basis of my learning structure when I design corporate training programs and packages for our clients.

This rule defines the optimal mix of learning and sources for effective professional growth, especially for managers and leaders. It was developed in the 1980s by Morgan McCall, Michael M. Lombardo, and Robert A. Eichinger at the Center for Creative Leadership. 

In this guide, we’ll explore the 70-20-10 model, its components, and my practical insights on applying this for leadership development, with real-life examples so that you can visualize it yourself. 

What Is the 70-20-10 Rule?

The 70-20-10 rule suggests that learning happens in three ways:

• 70% through experiential learning (on-the-job experiences)
• 20% through social learning (interactions with others)
• 10% through formal learning (structured courses and training)

While in real-life scenarios, you’ll find variations of this percentage, to be honest, but the principle remains the same. Not every learning and development comes from simply attending courses and training programs. Most active learning happens in on-the-job experiences and through coaching and mentoring (which has become a trend in talent development today). 

The Three Components of the 70-20-10 Rule

70% Experiential Learning

Experiential learning focuses on learning by doing. It involves tackling real-life challenges, solving problems, and applying skills directly in the workplace. Employees apply what they have learned from formal and informal education to tackle daily work challenges in this type of learning. 

Experiential learning is the most significant contributor to growth because it allows individuals to learn in a context relevant to their roles. Instead of simply acquiring knowledge, they learn, unlearn, and relearn by doing the task. Their knowledge is tested when they encounter obstacles to accomplishing it so they can find efficient and better ways to solve problems. 

One of the best examples of experiential learning is leadership development. It covers these initiatives and skills assessments to learn and grow from work experiences.

Project Ownership: A manager leads a cross-functional team to execute a new initiative, learning project management and team dynamics. By having autonomy on the subject, the employee can own the decisions and outcomes arising from every task accomplished.

If you are a leader, one way to ensure your subordinates learn from their work is to inculcate project ownership. The more they make decisions and achieve wins, the more they want to accomplish. 

Problem-Solving: For example, addressing workplace conflicts teaches communication and decision-making.

Most conflicts cannot be solved simply by attending a problem-solving and conflict-management seminar. However, it would help if the corporate trainer smoothly transitioned the session to discuss issues within teams openly. 

In reality, this doesn’t happen in most cases. Conflicts get burned in the ground, which causes malfunctions in relationships, resulting in more miscommunication and inefficiency. 

Stretch Assignments: For instance, a marketing professional might take on a sales role, gaining new insights and broadening their skill set.

Experiential learning becomes more apparent in new roles and projects. Since the newly trained professional doesn’t have practical experience with the new task, it makes sense that they would make more mistakes than in previous work/tasks/projects. 

The coaching and mentoring hat (20% social learning) must be worn here. If the leader becomes more of a coach or mentor than a boss, the need for further refinement of skills that can only be achieved through constant practice will be better understood. 

There are a couple more examples, but you should now understand how critical 70% of experiential learning is to learning and development. 

20% Social Learning

Social learning happens through interaction and collaboration; for leaders, it refers to coaching and mentoring. 

Through daily work interactions and professional relationships, it becomes simpler for professionals to gain knowledge and practical experience from others’ expertise and experiences.

To give you context, in leadership development, someone in a mentorship program looks like this: a junior manager learns leadership skills by shadowing a senior executive. Through actual observation of the real work, the junior manager understands the nuances and challenges of the new task. 

Even during lunch breaks, the junior manager can learn additional information from his superior, further expanding his work knowledge. 

A feedback culture is an example of social learning applied to leadership development. Team members provide constructive feedback during reviews, enabling individual growth.

Giving feedback can be formal or informal, as nowadays, most professionals are busy with their daily activities. Sometimes, it doesn’t fit into their schedules to have as frequent feedback sessions as it used to be.

You’ll find many managers giving feedback after an actual task. For instance, a sales manager giving direct feedback right after a presentation of his sales presentation with a prospective client. That feedback is more effective as the timing is right after a task is delivered, and more often than not, it is more retainable in the professional’s mind.

Topping it off as part of social learning in leadership development can help employees see improvement through the eyes of their peers, whether feedback from the same department or other departments. 

Sharing best practices regarding what works in the company can be a good source of social learning. It is relevant to the employees' work and adds more value to the overall KPIs of the team or department being assessed. 

10% Formal Learning

We couldn’t ignore the remaining 10% as it often matters. 

Formal learning refers to structured training programs, workshops, or e-learning courses. While it contributes the least in percentage, it provides foundational knowledge that can be applied in practice.

When employees join a company, they typically undergo morning sessions to gain fundamental knowledge about their work, team, department, and company. This gives them a foundational understanding of why they do what they do and how they perform at work.

In the leadership development context we mentioned earlier, formal learning could be anything in corporate training, such as attending a leadership training workshop to learn about emotional intelligence, completing an online course on conflict resolution techniques, or simply participating in seminars on emerging industry trends.

All these can add to the employee's formal learning, which can further develop as they apply all these to their work. It’s about application, as we say and know.

Many multinational companies in the Philippines offer their employees a series of modules and structured formal learning. Conversely, startups have difficulty doing this, as they focus more on their operations and often neglect their talent development. In this case, outsourcing to the top corporate training providers is a more viable option. 

How to Implement the 70-20-10 Model?

This section warrants a new post, as there are many things to do when implementing the 70-20-10 rule in learning and development. As such, giving you a start, this list gives you more actionable tips than any other guide on this subject. 

1. Make Experiential Learning the Core (70%)

This applies to any company size, industry, and revenue. All employees need a solid experiential learning culture where they can see themselves growing inside the company. As most Gen Z will constantly reiterate during their interviews, this is essential for finding personal and professional growth in their companies.

Here are some tips to make experiential learning part of your systems in your talent development: 

• Assign employees challenging projects that align with business goals to develop hands-on problem-solving skills.
• Rotate employees through different roles or departments to broaden their skill sets and perspectives.
• Incorporate on-the-job training for real-time learning in high-impact scenarios.

2. Foster Social Learning Opportunities (20%)

This tip is easier said than done, as it depends mainly on the team and company's culture and how the management manifests and leads by example in ensuring employees capitalize on learning opportunities.

Best practices in fostering social learning opportunities include:

• Pair employees with mentors to provide guidance and real-world insights.
• Host regular peer-learning forums or cross-department workshops to share knowledge.
• Encourage feedback loops during team meetings to integrate learning into daily operations.

3. Deliver High-Impact Formal Training (10%)

This is what Rainmakers, as a corporate training provider, specializes in. We deliver high-impact corporate training programs to clients of different sizes in teams, organizational structure, and training needs. 

Whether you want to do it in-house or outsource, corporate training programs must have any of these - you can do as action plans for your teams as well: 

• Create short, targeted workshops or online modules addressing specific competency gaps.
• Tailor learning materials to align with immediate organizational priorities and goals.
• Integrate post-training follow-ups to connect concepts to workplace practices.

You can check out our guides on how to conduct leadership training, its cost and pricing models, and the best leadership training programs in the Philippines.

4. Blend the Learning Methods

You won’t often find a single learning method in practice. So, blending all these methods and rules will be helpful in many of the observations for learning and development. 

Few tips on how to do it:

• Start with structured training and apply new skills in workplace challenges (70%).
• Reinforce training outcomes by assigning mentors or facilitating group discussions (20%).
• Encourage employees to document and share key takeaways from their experiential learning.

5. Continuously Monitor and Adjust

You can only ensure the effectiveness of an activity if you measure it so you can continuously adjust for more improvements. Here are some things you can do to adjust the learning initiatives:

• Track progress using measurable outcomes like skill improvements or project success rates.
• Collect feedback from participants and mentors to refine learning approaches.
• Regularly evaluate the alignment of learning initiatives with business goals to ensure

Optimize Learning and Development

We are at an age where not learning is costly for companies and individuals. Using the rule we have - 70-20-10 and other fundamentals and trends in learning and development helps us better optimize our learning and development interventions in companies. 

Organizations can create programs that drive measurable results by focusing on experiential, social, and formal learning in the proper proportions. Strengthening the synergy between these components ensures maximum impact, helping individuals and teams grow effectively.

Adopting the 70-20-10 model requires intentionality and commitment. However, proper implementation can transform how organizations approach employee development, paving the way for long-term success.

by Venchito Tampon

How to Conduct Leadership Training: Step-by-Step Guide For Effective Design and Delivery

Leadership training is a cornerstone of talent development in many organizations. The more equipped leaders are, the better the organization's future and ability to sustain success.

Many organizations' leadership training programs are attractive to younger workforce generations, especially Gen Z, who prioritize career growth and skill development (based on Deloitte Global 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey). 

Truthfully, leadership training is essential for talent recruitment and retention, so every L&D and HR practitioner must know how to implement the programs effectively.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to conduct leadership training and even share some of my experiences as a corporate trainer facilitating results-oriented leadership training programs.

How to Conduct Leadership Training? 

1. Secure Top Management and Stakeholder Support

Any success of leadership training programs begins with buy-in from top management and key stakeholders. 

While this shouldn’t be at the top of the conservative list when conducting leadership training, I find it a bottleneck for many HR practitioners as they move to the next phase of training—delivery. They could design the training program well enough, but they would find it difficult to ask participants to attend the training if it is not fully supported by key stakeholders right at the start.

Before anything else, create a business case or proposal and present it to top management and key stakeholders. Share your plans and clearly communicate the benefits of the leadership program, including its potential impact on employee work, performance, retention rates, and organizational growth.

You may include case studies and data reports to build the credibility of your proposal. It is best if you can find available data that’s locally contextualized here in the Philippines. 

If you are a learning and development manager, you can establish a steering committee to oversee the training initiative, from requests for training budgets to the evaluation of the leadership training program. 

2. Conduct a Training Needs Analysis

By identifying gaps in leadership competencies, you’ll have a solid benchmark of where to start your leadership training. This will also be the basis of your training evaluation if you can close any leadership competency gaps. 

Competency gaps could be either problem-focused or growth-focused. Problem-focused competency gaps refer to any problems in the knowledge, skills, and attitude of your leaders that need to be addressed; otherwise, they would be detrimental and, worse, could affect the culture of the team and organization.

Conversely, growth-based gaps refer to potential improvement in the competencies—including specific KSA (knowledge, skills, and attitude of your leaders)—that you want your participants to level up with.

You can check out this guide on how to do training needs analysis.

Here are a few TNA gathering methods:

• Focus group discussions (FGD)
• Interviews with key beneficiaries
• Job materials and work documents
• Surveys and questionnaires
• Feedback systems
• Incident reports and problem logs

These are just a few, but they can help you start gathering more information about your leadership training needs.  

3. Prepare a Proposal and Budget

Prepare a TNA plan and proposal after conducting a training needs analysis. The document should outline the program’s objectives, expected outcomes, and financial requirements. 

Not only will it help you secure funding, but it will also provide a guide for management and stakeholders to understand the process of your leadership training. 

Here’s what to include in the proposal: 

• Training objectives and alignment with business goals.
• Target audience and selection criteria.
• Detailed cost estimates (e.g., trainer fees, materials, venue, food, etc..).
• A timeline for development and delivery.

Budgeting is critical—factor in all possible expenses and present a cost-benefit analysis to demonstrate ROI. This is where you need to research the available options for conducting a leadership training program: doing it in-house with your trainer or hiring a corporate training provider to facilitate and deliver the program. 

You may want to check out this guide on how much leadership training costs in the Philippines. 

Now, this goes to our next step: 

4. Decide Between In-house or Outsourced Training 

There are many upsides and drawbacks to conducting leadership training programs or outsourcing to a corporate training provider. 

Doing it in-house is less costly and can foster and develop an internal learning culture, as participants are challenged to learn from each session conducted by internal trainers. 

I find this effective for multinational companies with more than 100 employees. In this particular case, they simply hire in-house trainers who specialize in competencies such as leadership and are accredited in many local and global certifications to be credible enough to do facilitation in-house. It is a different story if you’re working in a startup or SME, as it doesn’t have this type of leverage. 

Outsourced training is ideal for accessing expert trainers who can deliver leadership training at the highest level. Given that these trainers have conducted the same program multiple times and can customize it based on the context of the organization and its participants, you’ll see a much better outcome from their training.

Another overlooked advantage of outsourcing leadership training is getting fresh perspectives outside your organization. Typically, when learning revolves around each company employee, there is a tendency for limited learning. If you hire an external leadership trainer, you can acquire new insights and best practices on specific leadership competencies that could elevate the skills of your target participants. 

These insights may include patterns that the corporate trainer assesses in his career of training different sets of clients—thus allowing him to see which strategy, tool, or tip actually works for a certain industry. 

Another thing: the best upside for getting outside trainers is the training content itself—you wouldn’t simply access it if you conducted leadership training in-house. Either you attend public seminars offered by the preferred corporate training provider or hire them exclusively—both options can give you access to the trainer's premium content. 

Assuming you’re doing it in-house as you want the leadership training program to be cost-effective, here are some actionable tips for effective leadership training program design: 

• Incorporate interactive elements like real-time surveys (e.g., Mentimeter), simulations, role-playing, and case studies contextualized to your industry or organization.
• Add modules on relevant topics such as leadership communication, diversity and inclusion, culture building, and digital transformation. 
• Tailor content to different leadership levels, from emerging leaders to senior managers. It could be a series of leadership courses or coupled with individual coaching sessions for each participant. 

5. Implement the Leadership Training Program

If you outsource leadership training, the corporate trainer will 70 to 90% implement the leadership training program. 

But of course, there are a few things you should do to assist them in ensuring they’ll perfectly implement the training program. Not considering these can likely cause leadership training to fail. 

Things you should assist corporate trainers with include:

• Preparing the training venue beforehand (ensure you book it if it’s outside your office vicinities, e.g., hotel function room). 
• Ask the corporate trainer if any materials are needed (e.g., Manila paper, flipcharts, whiteboard, etc.).
• Be hospitable to your corporate training company. Make them feel you want to partner for a successful leadership training event.

For internal (no outsourced) leadership training, you can use various teaching methods to cater to the different learning styles of your target participants. Effective methods are: 

• Workshops: Encourage active participation and group discussions.
• Role-Playing: Help participants practice real-world scenarios in a safe environment.
• Case Studies: Analyze real-life challenges to develop problem-solving skills.
• Blended Learning: Combine in-person sessions with online modules for flexibility.

Your implementation phase of the training program highly depends on the availability and level of your participants. So be sure to identify them even during the TNA process. 

6. Evaluate the Effectiveness of Leadership Training

The only way to measure whether the leadership training impacts your target beneficiaries and the organization is to have it evaluated. Training evaluation is crucial for identifying areas for improvement. 

Here’s a structured approach based on Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation to help assess your leadership training program. It covers: 

1. Reaction: Collect participant feedback on the training experience. You can use post-training feedback or evaluation forms. 
2. Learning: Test knowledge acquisition through quizzes or assessments.
3. Behavior: Observe changes in workplace performance (e.g. performance reviews). 
4. Results: Measure the training’s impact on business metrics like employee engagement and productivity (i.e. ROI analysis to assess financial benefits versus costs).

Based on evaluation results, refine the program for future iterations to ensure continuous improvement. This can also help you strategize whether to retain the outsourced corporate training provider or hire a different one to customize your team's programs better. 

Invest In Your Future Leaders

Leadership training is a strategic investment in your workforce and organization. By following these structured steps—securing management support, analyzing needs, preparing a solid proposal, choosing the right program, implementing effectively, and evaluating outcomes—you can create a training initiative that fosters strong leaders, drives engagement, and aligns with business objectives. 

This approach meets the demands of today’s workforce and positions your organization for long-term success.

by Venchito Tampon

How Much Does Leadership Training Cost? (+ Pricing Models)

Leadership training in the Philippines costs anywhere between Php10,000 to Php1,500,000, depending on various factors. Companies can choose from introductory programs to advanced multi-day or modular courses, with costs tailored to their specific requirements.

Factors That Affect the Cost of Leadership Training

The answer, “it depends,” to the question, how much does leadership training cost? may surprise you, but it is the reality when you hire a corporate training provider to conduct leadership training programs or when you want to do it in-house with your L&D practitioners. 

Professional Expertise

The expertise and reputation of the trainer significantly affect pricing. A trainer with in-depth experience or popularity in their field will command higher rates. Corporate training providers like Success Options Inc., Inspire Leadership, all founded by Francis Kong, and LJMB (Learning Just Made Better) by Louie Banta are known for offering high-quality programs, which may come at a premium price.

In this regard, you should do some research and ask for proposals and quotations to determine the cost of each leadership training program.

Duration of Training

Another factor impacting the cost of leadership training is its duration. How long or short it is depends entirely on the training needs of your leaders and managers.

For instance, leadership training can change from a two-day session to a series of modules covering 10 key areas such as:

• Leadership Communication
• Coaching and Mentoring
• Decision-Making and Problem-Solving
• The POLC Framework (Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling)

The longer the duration, the more costly the training, as it covers each leadership area in detail. This is much better for facilitating a great learning experience for your participants. 

Beware of training providers who’d like to conduct one-hour leadership training. Leadership training usually lasts half a day to weeks.

Number of Participants

The standard participant size for training is 25 to 30 individuals. Larger groups might be split into batches, increasing overall costs. For instance, a company needing to train 100 employees might run four sessions, each with a unique price. So paying P70,000 for 1 batch of 25 pax for your 100 employees will cost you P280,000.

Mode of Training

Given that today's workforce consists of hybrid teams, leadership trainers adapt to this changing learning need. There are usually two types of training modes today: on-site training and virtual training (another is a combination of two—hybrid training). 

On-Site Training: In-person training costs more due to venue fees, travel expenses, and logistical requirements. And if it’s outside the metro, like the venue to be held is somewhere in Subic or Boracay, the leadership training costs adjust to that. 

Virtual Training: This is typically less expensive but may limit hands-on engagement. Hybrid options can also be explored to balance cost and effectiveness. In our leadership training, we experienced all three training modes, which highly depend on what the clients want and how the participants could better adapt to the program. 

Company Budget and Resources

Another significant factor in leadership training cost, of course, is the company budget and resources. If you’re part of the HR team of a startup company, it may not have a big budget compared to multinationals (assuming the startup company isn’t funded by any investor—in this case, it is a bootstrapped company).

That’s not to say startups don’t invest in leadership training. In fact, we’ve seen many startups today encouraging their leaders to be trained with us—it’s a matter of the decision of the top management. 

Leadership Training Pricing Models

There’s no one-size-fits-all price point for leadership training programs. Differences in training needs, target participants, and training goals produce a sizable number of pricing scenarios. 

To give you a hint, leadership training programs can fall either any of these (or a combination) of these pricing models: 

Course Model 

You’ll see a course model option for multi-national companies' leadership development programs. Leadership training comprises three or ten modules, or even more, each focused on a specific area, such as emotional intelligence, leadership conversations, or management essentials.

The course model usually works for companies with different management levels (top management, middle management, and lower management). Given that each management level requires a different leadership training curriculum, a particular corporate trainer would create customized and personalized training modules for each of these levels. 

Hourly Model

Trainers who charge on an hourly basis usually want to work on short-term projects with clients. These projects could last an hour or up to one whole day, and they would include coaching sessions for each participant for an immersive learning experience.

This is very rare for corporate trainers, given that they usually charge for a day's training, which goes to the last pricing model. 

Daily Model

Training costs are calculated per day. Depending on the factors mentioned earlier, a two-day leadership session may cost Php100,000 to Php500,000. At Rainmakers, for example, we conduct 1 day to 2 days for our Modern-Day Leadership Training. This ensures we covered all essential topics and that activities and workshops were adequately included in the training. 

How to Get Buy-In for Leadership Training Programs

If you’re an L&D or HR professional, convincing top management to invest in leadership training is crucial. It could be a make-or-break scenario, as this is where the leadership training program will depend. If you can persuade them to invest (if they’re still not into it), hiring a corporate training provider to conduct leadership training programs is much easier. 

Here’s how to get more buy-in support for your leadership training:

Influence Key Stakeholders

Present a strong case for leadership development. Don’t just mention you’ll conduct one at a particular quarter or month. 

Highlight its benefits for improving productivity, employee engagement, and business outcomes. Today, we’ve seen several case studies in which L&D practitioners can now justify training spent as long as it helps the company achieve its goals and objectives. 

Your ability to influence your higher-ups is also a good indication of how much you truly want leadership training in your organization. 

Emphasize ROI

The language of business is numbers. Emphasizing the potential return the organization can make once training has been implemented could strengthen your case when you present it to top management.

Of course, realistically speaking, you can’t quantify learning, but at least in the grand scheme of things, you can help improve the KSA of your leaders, knowledge, skills, and attitudes—which can all correspond to certain quantifiable outputs for your organization. 

One way to support you with this is to use case studies or data from companies within your level and industry. This would help management better understand the investment and impact of leadership training programs. 

Start Small

Begin with a two-day training for a select group of leaders. If you have over a hundred managers and supervisors, start with a few to help the management see its impact weeks and months after the training. 

This pilot program for a few leaders can help demonstrate the value of leadership training to decision-makers. And the more you see results (assuming you get the best corporate trainer in the Philippines), the more opportunities you’ll have to conduct the same training for your other leaders. 

Partner with Experts

Work with trusted providers like Rainmakers, who bring experience and expertise. It may sound self-promotion, but a well-known provider increases credibility and ensures high-quality training.

The typical process for conducting leadership training programs starts by proposing three or more service providers. Management will decide which one best fits the company based on context, industry experience, facilitators’ level of expertise, and other related factors. 

Plan and Budget Strategically

Allocate a portion of the annual budget for leadership training during strategic planning sessions. If you’re not part of the top management, you have to influence them to set aside a budget for corporate training.

It is easier said than done, but the only way to fully implement training for your leaders is to have it approved by the top.

Realistically, it is not easy to get a seat on the board and relay your case as to how training can impact the company's bottom-line goals. Most organizations are still reluctant to do this and would rather invest in technology and other business functions except human capital. 

In this case, your abilities and skills to influence them are much more required. 

Sample Cost Breakdown

Develop Future-Ready Leaders 

Leadership training is an investment in building future-ready leaders. 

Organizations can maximize the benefits of these programs by understanding the factors affecting costs and aligning them with company goals. 

Whether opting for a basic session or a multi-module program, choosing the right provider ensures a meaningful impact on employee performance and organizational growth. 

With the tips mentioned above on how to get more buy-in and support from top management, you’re likely to start having the confidence, trust, and courage to execute leadership training for your company this year.

by Venchito Tampon