Everyone enjoys a good event. You get to sit and watch and be entertained. But treating learning like an event fundamentally misses the mark on how adults learn. We have found that training needs to be treated like any other business process. The instructional period (“the event”) is only one link in a chain of causation that is not complete until the training has produced the desired business results on the job.
Our research has shown that companies that give equal attention to all three phases of learning, i.e. what happens before formal instruction, the instructional event, and what happens after to drive learning transfer reap the greatest dividends. Unfortunately, more often than not, the vast majority of resources are committed to the instructional period with little time, attention, or money allocated to what happens before and after the formal instruction.That’s a mistake, because what happens before and after profoundly influence whether value is generated or not.
So, if learning is to be changed from an event into a process that yields transformational results, what needs to be different? We need to begin focusing holistically on the complete learning experience. Great instructional design paired with a skilled facilitator is necessary but inadequate if optimal results are to be achieved. As with baking a cake, if all you focus on is mixing the ingredients, you are likely to be disappointed with the end result. Oven temperature and cooking time are also essential elements that if overlooked will sub-optimize the results.
We need to break the current paradigm and begin to reorient our focus to give equal attention and adequate resources to the preparation phase and the post-program learning transfer phase.
For many years, we have studied the characteristics that distinguish highly-effective programs from less-effective ones. We have discovered six disciplines that are characteristic of the most effective learning and development programs. When practiced together, they free organizations from the “learning as event” paradigm. Applying the 6Ds when you design and implement new learning programs will transform them from events into comprehensive learning solutions which will deliver maximum impact to the business. The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning are:
D1: Define Business Outcomes
D2: Design the Complete Experience
D3: Deliver for Application
D4: Drive Learning Transfer
D5: Deploy Performance Support
D6: Document Results
1. Define Business Outcomes
Effective training and development efforts are an integral part of the company’s business strategy. They focus on business outcomes and are planned and delivered with an eye to what people will do better and differently as a result. They are clear about how the program will benefit participants’ careers and the organization as a whole. Less effective training and development departments are inwardly focused. They define program objectives purely in terms of the learning that will occur as opposed to the business benefits. If the program is not tightly linked to the strategy and needs of the business, it is destined to disappoint.
2. Design the Complete Experience
A second difference between effective and ineffective training organizations is that effective departments consider the learner’s complete experience; less effective organizations focus only on the event – the course or module. In the end, development depends more on what happens before and after the formal learning event than what happens in the course itself.
The complete experience includes all three phases of learning:
- Phase 1: Preparation and readiness
- Phase 2: Learning Event / Course
- Phase 3: Learning Transfer and Application
- = Value Created
To maximize the return on training and development, manage all three phases of the learning process:
- set the right expectations prior to training;
- emphasize application throughout;
- provide support for follow-through, learning transfer and application and hold learners accountable for using new material on-the-job.
3. Deliver for Application
The third key to effective development is to minimize the learning-doing gap by focusing on the application of learning, rather than learning, per se:
- clearly articulate the business rationale;
- illustrate theories with relevant examples;
- have people reflect on how they can apply what they have learned to their own priority work;
- ensure that guided practice with feedback is part of every program.
Tune in later this week for the final three disciplines!
Andy Jefferson is the Chief Executive Officer for the Fort Hill Company. He excels in helping companies maximize the value they realize from their investments in learning and development. Andy is a co-author of The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning: How to Turn Training and Development into Business Results and Getting Your Money's Worth from Training and Development (San Francisco: Pfeiffer, 2009). He is a frequent and popular speaker on the subject of learning transfer and application who loves to teach and learn, and has a passion for helping individuals and teams succeed.
Photo courtesy of dkuropatwa
