Category: Adoption
Not every participant will adopt his or her goals. The question is what is an acceptable percentage of those who adopt? That is what the adoption rate attempts to do. It is the percentage of participants that we want to perform the work (Adoptive Behaviors) and is the prediction of successful transfer from training to the workplace. The Steering Committee needs to answer this question for each Intention Goal: What percentage of participants with this Intention Goal will successfully perform the Adoptive Behavior?
So far we have predicted training’s value by predicting the intention goals and each goal’s associated distribution rate. We also have predicted the beliefs the course should create. The next step is to predict the adoptive behaviors . Here we ask our steering committee to document, by intention goal, of the expect the goal to be performed on the job.
The Committee members must tackle the challenge of predicting the Adoptive Behaviors that they want participants to perform on-the-job. An Adoptive Behavior is the unit of work (what the participant does on-the-job, based on the intended goals, beliefs, and course design).
The Adoptive Behaviors flow from the course design and are the manifestation of Intention Goals and Beliefs.
One of the key elements in my Predictive Evaluation (PE) model is the activity to Predict Training’s Value. A few weeks ago I had the honor to present PE to the ASTD chapter in New York City and the chapter president, Patrick Dial, suggested that I create a blog series to show how to do this. It is a wonderful idea. So, for the next few months I will post the steps and techniques for Predict Training’s Value – I hope you enjoy them.
The steps to Predict Training’s Value
In Predictive Evaluation (PE), I share my evaluation findings with stakeholders using the dashboard concept. The dashboard is a report to senior management providing an at-a-glance perspective on the current status of a course in the context of predetermined (predicted) metrics for that program (Intention, Adoption, or Impact). PE dashboards are simple, short, and do not require interpretation. Click here for a sample of these types of
Predictive Evalution
dashboards.
Recently, some of my clients have needed year-end reports that share evaluation findings ( Intention , Adoption , and Impact ) in a single dashboard. I thought that sharing this new year-end dashboard with you was an excellent topic for my final blog of 2011. When designing the new dashboard I set the following requirements:
Action Planning enables learners to identify significant aspects of the content, which they intend to apply in the work place in order to improve their level of performance. A well-designed action plan also provides guidelines to ensure the action items are written in performance terms, are do-able, and will make a significant impact. Action planning enhances the likelihood of transfer, and also provides a baseline for transfer evaluation after 2-3 months.
At the end of each course, every participant is walked through an action-planning exercise in which they demonstrate how they will apply the skills and knowledge acquired in the course. Consider using industry-specific situations and real-world goals in structuring these course action plans in order to best match the participants’ training to their job challenges. Thorough and thoughtful coverage of action planning means your employees are ready to hit the ground running once training has been completed.
Consider automating the transfer process by providing reminders, coaching, collaboration, and content on-line. Systems like this have proven facilitate transfer. The first and most widely used transfer support system is:
from the Fort Hill Company. ResultsEngine is a fully-integrated web-based learning transfer support system designed to drive learning transfer and ensure that training delivers behavior change and tangible results. ResultsEngine reminds participants of their objectives, prompts them to reflect and take action, provides just-in-time goal specific content, engages managers and coaches, encourages collaboration with classmates, and documents results.
I used this system with my leadership classes when I ran the Leadership and General Management College for Ingresoll Rand and found it to be a wonderful aid to training transfer. Has anyone else used a this system or something like this system?
I’m pleased to share that an article I wrote spotlighting the
Predictive Evaluation (PE) Model
is in the March 2011 issue of the prestigious
Performance Improvement Journal
. As an evaluator and training leader, being spotlighted in Performance Improvement Journal is an honor, as it’s a premier resource for practitioners of performance technology in the workplace.
Click here to read the article.
In the Performance Improvement Journal article, I showcase a case study involving the Vice President of Talent at a global Fortune 100 company, who had to justify the value of a company leadership college that she was overseeing. When leadership cut the company’s training budget to fund other projects throughout the organization, this VP used the PE Model to forecast the value that her Business Acumen Training would provide to the company. When I met with this VP, she asked me if my approach could predict the financial benefits from Business Acumen Training and set metrics to predict training success in relation to intention (motivation to use on the job), adoption (application or transfer to the job), and impact (tangible organizational results). My answer was yes, and together, we used PE to demonstrate how this training was an investment with a predicted return. As a result, this VP was able to save $600,000 from being cut out of the program, and many employees were able to benefit from this training.
Action Mapping
takes action planning further – it is modeled upon the principles of force field analysis. The participant authors their goal (plan of action back on the job). They then identify the barriers and enablers to goal accomplishment. Finally they create actions to deal with the barriers and just as important use enablers for goal accomplishment.
Here is a sample of an action map (see below) that I use with selected leadership programs. The process I have participants follow is:
Action planning is a set of clearly written statements describing in measurable terms the specific actions the participant intends to apply on-the-job as a result of training. In preparing this, the participant is drawing up a personal transfer plan, thinking about how, where, and when to match the new skills to concrete situations on-the-job before leaving training. This goal-setting strategy enhances the likelihood of transfer. Once back at work and confronted with e-mails, phone calls, meetings, and problems, the participant’s intention to adopt is negatively impacted—few participants take time in the two or three days after training to think about how they will use what they have just learned and practiced.
Provide the goal-planning sheet in the participant materials and provide notes for the instructor, explaining the purpose of the activity, how to introduce it, how much time to allocate, and criteria for acceptable action items. Allocate time at the end of the program to write goals. As a rule of thumb, participants need fifteen to thirty minutes to write two goals.
At conclusion of course modules, participants document what they learned and what they possibly could do with it back on-the-job.
Participants forget what was learned on Monday morning – journaling often and at the conclusion of course modules provides a basis for putting plans in place of what to do back in the workplace. Try to spend no more than 5-10 minutes per journaling effort. Note: Journaling is usually private and not shared with anyone.
Journaling is not only for classroom courses. For e-learning programs, the journal can be built into the code for the participant to access, enter their thoughts, modify entries as they progress through the course. Consider having a print feature built into the course so that they have a hard copy if they wish.