What Is the 70-20-10 Model, and Where Practice Fits In

The 70-20-10 model shows up in almost every L&D strategy deck. It is also one of the most misread ideas in corporate training. Teams quote the ratio, trim formal programs, and then wonder why new managers and new reps still struggle in the conversations that matter most.

This guide covers what the ratio says, where it came from, and what teams get wrong about it. It also shows how enablement and L&D leaders can use it to plan practice for customer-facing and leadership teams.

What the 70-20-10 Rule Says

The rule describes how people develop on the job. According to the Center for Creative Leadership, the breakdown is:

• 70% from challenging experiences and assignments
• 20% from developmental relationships
• 10% from coursework and training

In plain terms, most growth comes from doing hard things. A smaller share comes from the people who coach you and give you feedback. The smallest share comes from formal training.

The idea sits close to the broader case for experiential learning. People retain more when they do the work themselves, which is why experiential learning outperforms passive learning in most skill-based programs.

Where the 70-20-10 Learning Model Came From

CCL describes the rule as an outgrowth of more than 30 years of its Lessons of Experience research. That research studies how executives learn, grow, and change over the course of their careers. Successful leaders were asked to reflect on the experiences that shaped them, and the ratio summarizes their answers.

That origin shapes how you should use it. The model records where executives said their development came from. Treat it as a description of how people learn, and use it to decide where practice and feedback belong in your program. It works poorly as a budget formula.

What People Get Wrong About 70-20-10

Treating the numbers as precise

The ratio is a guideline. ATD has published a piece examining the evidence behind 70-20-10, and practitioners have long debated how literally to read the numbers. The useful takeaway is the direction. Experience and feedback do most of the work.

Using it to justify cutting formal training

Some teams read “only 10% from training” and conclude that formal programs can shrink. A better reading is that formal training works best when it sets people up for the 70 and the 20. A workshop with no follow-up application or feedback will underperform whatever share you assign it.

Assuming on-the-job learning happens on its own

Challenging experiences only build skill when people get to repeat them and learn from them. A new manager who has one hard performance conversation per quarter gets very few reps. A new AE who runs three live discovery calls in the first month learns from each one, but every mistake costs a real opportunity.

The Practice Problem Inside the 70

For customer-facing and leadership teams, the 70 is where the tension sits. The experiences that develop people the most are also the ones where mistakes are expensive. Here are a few examples:

• A rep’s first pricing negotiation with a strategic account
• A support agent’s first escalation with an upset enterprise customer
• A new manager’s first conversation about underperformance
• A partner rep’s first pitch of a product they learned last week

Organizations want people to gain experience. They would rather that experience not come at the customer’s expense. Realistic practice gives people a place to build that experience first.

Where Practice Fits in the 70-20-10 Model

Realistic practice gives people more of the 70 without the risk. It also gives them more of the 20, because feedback comes with every attempt. Teams using Yoodli build this practice around the exact conversations their people face on the job.

Practice extends the 70

A roleplay that mirrors the real conversation lets people build experience before the stakes are real. A rep can run the pricing conversation ten times before the actual call. A manager can rehearse a hard conversation before sitting down with a direct report. The skill carries over when the practice looks like the real job.

AI roleplays make that volume possible. Each learner gets a realistic counterpart who responds to what they say, and they can repeat the scenario as often as they need.

Practice scales the 20

Developmental relationships are limited by manager time. Most managers cannot sit in on every call or rehearse every conversation with every direct report. AI roleplays give each attempt immediate, specific feedback. They also give managers visibility into who is practicing and where each person is struggling.

That visibility lets managers spend coaching time where it has the most effect. Harness used Yoodli to cut sales training review time by 75%. Managers then put that time into the conversations that needed their judgment. For more on how this works in a coaching program, see how managers can use AI coaching data in 1:1s.

Practice makes the 10 stick

Formal training carries over better when people apply it soon after. Pair each module with a practice scenario that uses the same content. When a team launches a new product or pitch, have people practice the conversation that same week. Without that step, most of the content fades along the forgetting curve before anyone uses it.

The same approach works for product launch training and for sales onboarding with AI roleplay. At scale, it looks like Google Cloud, which used Yoodli to certify 15,000+ people on a new GTM pitch.

How to Apply 70-20-10 to a Real Program

Here is a simple way to plan a learning and development strategy for a customer-facing team using the model.

Start with the conversations

List the three to five conversations that most affect results for the role. For an AE, that might be discovery, demo, pricing, and competitive objections. For a support team, it might be escalations and renewals. For new managers, it might be feedback, performance, and one-on-ones. Yoodli has a set of key roleplays for manager training if you want a starting list.

Keep the 10 short and specific

Formal content should show what good looks like for each conversation. Keep it tight so people move to practice quickly. A short module with a practice rep right after it gives people something they can use the same day.

Build practice for each conversation

Create scenarios that match your buyers, your customers, or your org. Use your own content, your own objections, and your own methodology so practice looks like the job. L&D teams can see how this fits a broader program on the Yoodli learning and development page.

Schedule repetition

One practice session gives people a feel for the conversation, and the skill builds when they come back to it over several weeks. Tie practice to real moments like a launch, a new quarter, or a pricing change.

Give managers a view

Managers should be able to see who has practiced, how each person performed, and where each person needs help. That is how developmental relationships scale without adding hours to a manager’s week.

Measure behavior

Track whether the conversations improve on the job. That is Level 3 of the Kirkpatrick Model, and it is the level that matters for customer-facing roles. Performance-based certification is a stronger signal than a quiz, because people have to show the skill.

FAQ About 70-20-10

What does 70-20-10 stand for?

70-20-10 stands for the share of development that comes from three sources. According to the Center for Creative Leadership, 70% comes from challenging experiences and assignments, 20% from developmental relationships like coaching and feedback, and 10% from coursework and formal training. The numbers describe a general pattern in how people grow at work.

Who created the 70-20-10 model?

The framework comes from the Center for Creative Leadership and its Lessons of Experience research. That work asked successful executives which experiences shaped their development over their careers. The ratio summarizes their answers, and it has since become a common reference point for L&D teams planning on-the-job learning.

Is 70-20-10 backed by evidence?

The ratio is based on executives’ reflections on their own development, so it is best used as a directional guideline. ATD and other practitioners have questioned how precise the ratio is. The core idea holds up well in practice. People build most of their skill through experience and feedback.

How does practice fit into 70-20-10?

Practice adds to all three parts of the model. Realistic roleplay gives people more experience (the 70) without customer risk. It delivers feedback (the 20) on every attempt, at a volume managers cannot match alone. It also helps formal training (the 10) carry over, because people apply the content right after they learn it.

Putting the Model to Work

The 70-20-10 model is a reminder that people develop by doing and by getting feedback. For teams whose work happens in live conversations, the most valuable experiences are also the riskiest ones to learn from in real time. Realistic practice gives people more reps and more feedback before the stakes are real. Yoodli AI roleplays give enablement and L&D teams a way to build that practice around their own conversations, content, and methodology.