BuildingTraining
It’s a trainer’s worst nightmare: Hours of effort poured into training and excellent survey results, but the word on the street is that the learning is not being implemented consistently. Unfortunately, this is often the reality. Learning experts including Will Thalheimer tell us that in just one hour after being exposed to a concept, people forget an average of 50% of what they have learned and up to 90% within a week.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way if we structure our post-training follow-up to include proven techniques that enhance retention of knowledge. This article lays out six solutions for more memorable training.
For adult learners it is essential that learning reflect the actual day-to-day role of the employee. If there is a mismatch, or the skills being learned are only occasionally used, there will be little motivation to use the knowledge and little opportunity to practice the skills.
This allows employees to think critically about the challenges they face daily and to find ways to solve those problems in an environment supportive of creative and critical thinking via case studies and simulations. They can practice those solutions in the classroom collaboratively with teammates, and then once effectively performed, the skills can be transferred to the field and practiced with the support of managers as experiential learning.
Most of us have one teacher we reflect on as being a key mentor. For me, it was Mrs. Sandel. She made me feel accepted for who I was as a student, but she also had high expectations of me that were not static. She gradually and consistently pushed me to grow, and, as a result, in that year I showed incredible growth in learning.
In the professional world, managers provide this support and ongoing coaching and feedback that is necessary for growth. Structured support enables positive learning outcomes. Managers can be given a structured “learning by doing” playbook with a timeline for implementation.
We often think of exams as simply a tool for evaluating whether someone has learned the material, and we overlook testing as a tool for learning. Research has shown that repeated testing with questions that engage employees at increasing cognitive levels can be more effective than simply studying material. Designing assessments to progress through the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy can be a part of sustaining learning outcomes. These same evaluations can be used to pinpoint gaps in learning and ensure training is aligned with current needs.
Repurpose the problem-based learning from the initial training and the retrieval practice sessions and use them for spaced repetition. Spaced repetition is a research-proven method for combatting the forgetting curve. Review sessions are scheduled, starting shortly after completing a training and then at increasing time intervals (for example, one day after a workshop, then a week, then a month and so forth). This allows for deeper memory encoding.
These strategies will fall flat, however, without a structured mechanism for accountability. The best way to create a structure for accountability is using technology to program regular checkpoints and nudges for each of the learning pull-through topics.
Create a structured timeline and use one of the many available platforms to send out regular microlearning “nudges.” These can include regular field touchpoints with managers and other coaches; peer accountability exercises; regular knowledge checks accompanied by leaderboards; field challenges and case studies; and self-reflection and analysis. Leaderboards can employ collaborative learning instead of competitive to create a supportive learning environment.
In conclusion, align training with work roles, use problem-based and experiential training that can be repurposed for continued learning, use retrieval as a learning and evaluation tool, use regularly spaced repetition and structure accountability with technology. All these techniques combat the forgetting curve, ensure learning sticks and contributes to behavior change in your organization.
Amy M. Lang is training manager, U.S. in-market training, for Astellas Pharma. Email Amy at amy.lang@astellas.com or connect through linkedin.com/in/amy-lang-7961097.
