Why
Training Doesn’t Work
…
What went wrong … and what to do about it
by
Ricky Lien
Making
training right for you
During the programme
• What are some of the informal support structures and processes to ensure continual ongoing support by peers/mentors after the formal training programme has finished?
• How easily accessible and timely is the support available to participants and their managers? What if external training providers are used?
•
Does the training programme ‘dove-tail’ or ‘fit’
with the other training programmes being run in the organisation?
• Where does this particular training fit in the overall developmental
picture of staff in the organisation?
• What measures are put in place for ongoing individual mentoring, coaching, feedback and learning planned, monitored and measured?
• Is the application of the knowledge learned focused back into the culture of the organisation or is this a ‘generalist’ approach?
• What feedback mechanisms are in place for participants’ direct reports and team members to give them feedback on the growth/development/application?
• Are there reward and recognition processes in place that support the learning, risk-taking and achievements of the participants?
Post programme
• Are the participants involved in the ongoing assessment and development of the programme at Kirkpatrick levels 2, 3 and 4?
• Do the participants get invited back to the programme as mentors of later participants or to present case studies of their learnings and successes and mistakes?
• As the participants progress after their training, are they invited to give any feedback to modify and further improve/develop the ongoing programme?
• Is the programme regularly reviewed to ensure an ongoing match between the business goals and the planned growth and development of the organisation?
• Outside the training room, who else can add valuable insight into the outcomes of the training? What about the managers of the learners? What about co-workers? What about customers?
• What sort of reporting is currently used? Are evaluations reported to the proper people in the organisation? What decisions are made about the training programme as to its worth or value to the organisation?
• What evidence you do have that the learner has achieved competency in a particular skill or knowledge back at the workplace? How do you assess for this evidence?
• Is assessment made a valuable part of the ongoing process of training?
• Is feedback provided to the learners, assuming that assessment activities are carried out?
• If assessment is carried out as a matter of procedure after training, who does it? Is the trainer involved? Is feedback given to the learner’s manager?
I believe that if a learner likes and enjoys a training programme, this does not guarantee that learning has taken place. I have also learnt that the demonstration of learning in the training room does not guarantee that new learning is later applied back on the job.
So in what other ways can we make training work? For training to be worth anything, learning that occurs off the job must be implemented when the learner returns to the job. The organisation must involve all concerned, and especially the trainer, to assist in meeting the post-course needs of learners. In the same way that you would expect a surgeon to carry out regular checks on the post-operative needs of a patient, so we must give the ‘after-sales service’ of training. And, in addition, the only true test of competencies is assessment in the workplace.
Very often, I find that learners learn material in the classroom but fail to apply or improve their performance on the job. This is called encapsulation of training – the training is not released but contained in a capsule, and not applied to the work situation. Why is this? It could be a supervisor’s or peer’s resistance to change, inflexibility in the system, a lack of motivation, a poorly designed learning experience that does not transfer the learning back onto the job, or even the inability of the learner to cope with the tension produced by change. Whatever the cause, encapsulation is one of the major reasons why training doesn’t work and training therefore fails to produce results.
Rewards are important to everyone, but if rewards are not in the learner’s working environment to reward the extension of new behaviours beyond the training room, again, training doesn’t work. Sometimes these new behaviours are punished, for example, by sarcastic comments made by subordinates, peers or even by defensive supervisors!
So what else can we do to ensure that training works? I suggest we look at follow-up programmes that are comprehensive and planned, involving the trainer/s and others in the process. Some examples of follow-up activities include group workplace projects, individual workplace projects, action plans, individual guidance, coaching or mentoring, formal sessions, bringing in guest speakers, seminars and other workshops to extend the knowledge of learners while reiterating the core concepts of the training.
This would avoid ‘spaghetti training’, ie one-off training that is like throwing spaghetti onto the wall and hoping that some learning sticks!
If you require further information, or simply need to ensure that training does work back in your organisation, please contact Ricky Lien.