New Report Details Acceptance of Informal and Social Learning Strategies, Describes McDonald's Use of Triple Creek's Market-Leading Enterprise Mentoring and Structured Social Learning Software

DENVER, July 21, 2011—Triple Creek, the leader in enterprise mentoring and structured social learning, today announced that Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) published a new report on the growth of informal learning, including a case study on McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) and their use of Triple Creek's Open Mentoring® 5 software.  "Informal Learning Garners Acceptance As A Legitimate Learning Approach" (July 2011) highlights the impact of Millennials on corporate learning today and looks at the emergence of informal and social learning as a result of this generation’s influence.

"Research shows that employees learn more from their peers and others in the corporate environment than they do from formal online or classroom learning," according to the report.  "Informal and social learning often contribute to the success of formal training and open up other just-in-time learning opportunities.

McDonald's uses Triple Creek's Open Mentoring® 5 software to facilitate career, topical and situational mentoring.  "The new system provided informal and social learning that was not only flexible but globally scalable," the report states.  This proved to be a key factor for McDonald's as they offer Open Mentoring® 5 to 4,500 employees currently through their talent development program, and make plans to expand the program even further.

"Once people shift their mindset around what mentoring is and begin to view it as a vehicle for contextual and personalized learning, countless possibilities emerge," says Randy Emelo, President and CEO of Triple Creek.  "McDonald's has been on the forefront with embracing this new concept and they skillfully incorporate informal and social learning into their overall corporate strategy for engaging learners of all ages across the enterprise."

Forrester's full report can be purchased via their website.

About Triple Creek
Triple Creek's web-based Open Mentoring technology gives large organizations the ability to foster, improve and grow people-to-people collaborative learning across divisions, geographies, experience and knowledge sets.  Backed by an experienced team of mentoring and development practitioners, Triple Creek helps its clients grow authentic, effective, enterprise-wide mentoring initiatives. Founded in 1994 and based in Greenwood, Colo., Triple Creek counts organizations such as McDonald's, Credit Suisse, PepsiCo, AT&T, CDW, Sodexo, Dell, and the U.S. Navy as customers.  For more information visit www.3creek.com.