In a recent study by Training Industry, we wanted to understand what the most common challenges were that training leaders faced in deploying training to employees. The ability to sustain the impact of training surfaced as one of the top challenges. This issue of sustainment is one that I believe runs through the fabric of everything we do. If we are not able to ensure that training translates into improved performance on the job, then our ability to ensure consistent performance across all learners will not be achieved, and our executive’s perceptions of the value we add will be strained.
Conversations with many training managers since launching the Certified Professional in Training Management (CPTM™) program have confirmed that this issue is all too familiar. The good news is there are ways we can deal with it. But we have to get back to the basics for how we design and deliver training. One of the basics that we can look to is that of reinforcement – or in more common terms, practice. And to better understand this principle, let’s look at another research study that was published more than 130 years ago.
In 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus conducted a study to better understand the impact of retention of information – or in other words, how fast a learner forgets information after the initial learning experience. His hypothesis stated that without repetitious reinforcement of the learned information following the consumption of the information, the learner will forget it at an exponential rate. He called this the forgetting curve.
Essentially, if training does not provide for repetition and practice of the desired skills, then the learner will forget the information taught at an exponential rate when leaving the classroom – or more importantly, when they return to the job. And if the information is forgotten at an increasingly fast rate, then how can we expect the learner to apply the knowledge to the job? The answer is, we can’t. And this is why we are under so much pressure from our executives and constituents to find better ways to provide training and to sustain the training post-classroom experience.
So what can we do to improve the level of sustainment and ultimately impact the performance of our learners on the job? First, we should build repetition, or practice, into the training experience. The more the learner practices the desired behavior then consistency in performance increases, and the support of our constituents should increase as they see that training is making a difference. The problem is that building practice into training can be expensive. It increases the length of the training program, and ultimately the time learners are in the classroom and away from the job. And this goes against what our constituents want. We all feel the ongoing pressure to reduce the cost of training and time learners are away from the job.
This brings us to the second important change we must make. We all know that learning isn’t isolated to the classroom. The 70-20-10 model teaches us that approximately 90 percent of learning occurs outside of the classroom. Our opportunity is to provide solutions that extend the learning experience by reinforcing content to the learner when they return to the job. This approach has been coined as “learning boosts.”
What I find exciting is there are many new tools, technologies and methodologies being introduced that allow us to extend the learning experience and ensure the learner continues to develop skills when going back to the job. We call this new market segment the reinforcement market. Many of these tools are taking advantage of the idea that we all have a mobile device on us at all times, and we can deliver boosts through the use of learning apps.
An example of how a reinforcement tool, or learning app, works is to look at something as simple as what Dictionary.com does to teach subscribers how to improve their vocabulary. Every day Dictionary.com delivers a “word of the day” to the mobile device. This approach boosts the subscriber’s exposure to new words, ultimately increasing their vocabulary.
Now, relate this to corporate training. Assume your training objective is to increase your salesforce’s knowledge of product information so they can answer questions more accurately and faster. By sending daily knowledge boosts to the sales professionals, you help improve their knowledge and retention of critical product information – ultimately improving their performance on the job and with customers.
From where I sit, we are at the very beginning of a new frontier for our profession. One that allows us to extend the learning experience beyond the classroom, and to better utilize the technologies and tools we have right at our fingertips.
