So, you completed a training needs assessment based on your most recent performance and KPI review. You searched for the best training programme provided by an organisation with a longstanding reputation for the quality of its learning portfolio and renowned for basing its design capability on principles of andragogic and pedagogical design – in short, a programme that you’re certain will meet your personal and organisational learning needs.
You attend the programme, your evaluation of it is extremely positive. The participant materials you received are great and you decide to save them to your desktop, or display in a prominent place in your office for easy access.
You are inspired to continue with the behaviours that are working well for you because you are reassured you will achieve the results you need. The learning intervention also stimulated you to define a list of performance improvement changes that will result in your next performance review raving about your success in your job role and the positive contribution you are making to the team and the organisation.
However, the very next day you find yourself entrenched in work that has piled up in your absence – customer calls that have gone unanswered, colleagues needing your input on project decisions and once again you’re firefighting, falling back into old routines and practices. All the good intentions and action plan items you set out are laid to rest whilst you get on with your “real work”.
Maybe you can identify with this scenario. Think about the last training session you attended, how much do you remember? Better still, how much of the learning did you transfer into your work practices?
So, what will increase the chances of your training being applied in your workplace? Additionally, how will that learning be transferred so that you, your team and your organisation benefit from the investment made? A learning programme in isolation is not the answer, this is like pouring water into a bucket with holes! It stays for a short while and then drains out.
The answer is not one that resides solely with the learner. The question about the transfer of learning into the workplace – what we refer to as ‘Making Learning Stick’ – is not necessarily complex, but, as we know from our own work with organisations in the last 70 years, does involve an organisational culture shift, a strategic mind-set and leadership concern.
In this series we will address what we consider to be the 5 key components of a learning transfer strategy to help organisations and the people in them succeed in transference of learning to the workplace. I will describe a model based on significant academic research and practical experience that underscores these principles, and supported by real-life insights from our most recent research study “Making Learning Stick in Action”.
What’s Next?