In 2008, Apple, Inc collaborated with teachers and leading educators to develop a new approach to teaching students of all ages—The Challenge Based Learning framework (CBL). CBL encourages students to learn new skills by researching and trying to solve real-world problems.

In CBL, students form small teams which identify the challenge, research the problem in detail and then take action by either implementing their solution or publishing results of their work. CBL was created with a focus on schools and universities to help students learn about teamwork, research, project work and to equip them tools for taking on today’s global challenges.

We wanted to see if this approach would work for corporate learning, which currently relies on outdated training programs with declining efficiency rate. Because employees obtain 70% of their knowledge through solving work-related tasks, we want to explore the possibilities of a method rooted in practice-based professional learning.

Our goal is to adapt the CBL framework to workplace learning and answer the following questions:

• For what categories of employees does CBL work best?
• Where can CBL be used with most efficiency?
• How to introduce CBL into corporate training practices?

For a more detailed account of the first stage of our research, see our article "How to apply Challenge Based Learning (CBL) to the workplace?" (in Russian).

We present the adapted version of CBL—Challenge Based Workplace Learning (CBWL).

Method goal—to foster the 21st century skills in employees by offering them massive workplace challenges which rely on the company mission.

The key task in training and motivating of employees is merging the company's strategic goals with personal objectives of each employee.

On the one hand, when an employee understands where and why their company is going they are more likely to do their job with mindfulness (provided that they share the company goals and values). On the other hand, a company which cares about professional and personal development of its staff has better chances of building a strong team of engaged professionals who accept and share its culture. In other words, it's a win-win situation for everyone.

We believe that the method will help attain the goal stated above and also do much more:

For employees

• increase motivation and loyalty to company;
• acquire cross-functional knowledge;
• a chance to implement their own project;
• new career prospects;
• an opportunity to try on a new role, such as project leader or researcher;
• develop skills of working with innovation, soft skills, technical and research techniques, gain teamwork experience.

For company

• generate new ideas, products and development areas;
• chance to keep hold of employees with extensive expertise;
• facilitate exchange of experience between such employees;
• promote sharing of knowledge and skills between experienced employees and motivated newcomers;
• build a talent pool for managerial positions (chance to assess employee's actions and career prospects);
• adaptation of employees.

The classic CBL framework was developed to tackle the global challenges facing the planet: environmental, economic, social, energy-related and other issues. For corporate learning, we suggest to limit the scope with the company mission.

Mission statement—a company's purpose which sets it apart from competition. Mission statement has to answer the following questions:

• What do we do?
• How do we do it?
• Who are our customers?
• Why do we do it?

In the engagement stage, the company's mission replaces the big idea from the original CBL framework and becomes a starting point for naming the challenge.

To make sure the learning process is efficient, below we've collected instruments for facilitators and instructional designers that they can use when modelling the entire experience or constructing separate sessions.


CBWL algorithm
Example of formulated mission and challenge using CBWL
Facilitator toolbox—tools for organising teamwork during stages of engagement, investigation and action
Algorithm assessing the effectiveness of learning process
CBWL canvas

Company type

We believe that CBWL will work for companies which value the following:

• innovation;
• teamwork;
• cross-functional teams;
• responsibility;
• meritocracy;
• reacting fast to changes in environment;
• flexibility of functional and hierarchical boundaries or lack thereof.

We categorise companies based on Frederic Laloux's classification proposed in his book Reinventing Organizations. Our learning method will work best for 'teal and green organizations', but it can also be effective for 'orange companies'.

Projects and skills
CBWL method using the company mission as the 'big idea' can help achieve the following:

• nurture high-potential employees (HIPOs);
• train employees with extensive expertise and work experience;
• coach managers;
• shape 21st century skills;
• build a company talent pool;
• build a system of knowledge transfer within the company.

Requirements to employees joining CBWL projects:

• minimum 3 years of relevant experience;
• at least 1 year with the company.

The requirements stem from the company mission being at the foundation of the learning process: we expect participants to be experienced employees who have a deep understanding of business environment and possess enough skills and knowledge to handle projects within the framework of CBWL. Experience is key because CBLW method per se does not involve developing basic professional skills.

However, apart from the learning program, all employees are welcome to join task groups participating in CBWL.