Category: Training Transfer
Title: Training Transfer: the Secret Sauce for Making it Stick
Date: Thursday, September 12, 2013
Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT
I believe that learning is continuous and shouldn’t stop when a training session ends. This approach is a total immersion learning experience that emphasizes training transfer, which drives adoption, which drives impact (company value). We need to think beyond training sessions to ensure the information “sticks” and will be used effectively in the workplace. This interactive conversation demonstrates how to incorporate training and development lessons into “real world” situations.
In this complimentary webinar, I will explain how to integrate training into your teams’ work behavior and implement activities and techniques that will increase your company’s training transfer rate to 60-70% or more. Additionally, I will explain how to use innovative techniques throughout the entire process – from pre-course, training, and post-course – to successfully drive training transfer.
In this session, participants will learn:
- What is “training transfer” and why is it important?
- More than 20 specific actions to do before, during and after training to improve the “stickiness” of their training.
- How to partner with management for training’s roll-out, so more skills are transferred to the workplace.
- The importance of planning for training transfer in the earliest set-up phases of your training – and how this increases training’s ROI.
- How to cultivate a “training transfer mindset and culture” in your company.
Title: Training Transfer: the Secret Sauce for Making it Stick
Date: Thursday, September 12, 2013
Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT
Reserve your seat at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/264748329
I am always thinking of ways to make training transfer and Adoption Evaluation better, more efficient, valid, reliable, and meaningful to participants. I have decided to pilot the use of a decision diary as a post-course transfer activity and then use that data collected as part of my Adoption Evaluation work with one of my clients.
Before I employ this, please take a few moments to look at what I am thinking about. Do you have any suggestions? Have you done anything like this before? If yes, what were your lessons learned?
My definition of a decision diary for training transfer is … a record of decisions made by the participant post-program associated with the use of skills learned, together with any assumptions made and the reasoning employed. The record is used to derive lessons to assist future decision-making and evaluation of the Adoption Rate of predicted on-the-job behaviors.
I provide participants with an on-line system where they can easily capture their decisions using the form below. During the course, we train participants on how to use the system and when to update. I recommend 5 minutes at the end each day for 2-4 weeks.
Weekly I compile the dairy entries and send them to each participant for their records. I then compile all the data and use it as part of my Adoption Evaluation data collection methods and include it in my analysis.
So what do you think? Worth the effort? Doomed for failure? Any thoughts you can provide would be greatly appreciated?
In my Learning to Performance System blogs, so far we have covered how to (1) create an Impact Map , (2) perform instructional design & course development , (3) redesign work processes & tools that are aligned with the new training effort, (4) prepare management to support the training effort , and (5) conduct training.
In the Learning to Performance System, Training Transfer is defined as participants successfully implementing and integrating skills learned in training into their work behavior. To make this happen you need to plan for and implement activities and techniques that will increase your company’s training transfer rate to 60-70% or more. Some of the best techniques in the area of post-course activities that drive successful transfer are:
Hold Virtual Retreats.
Here you want to keep the learning fresh and renewed by holding two virtual retreats at 90 and 180 days. Bring the participants and any instructors back together through some form of virtual meeting and facilitate a conversation of successful transfer by the participants. This is also an opportunity to review content and skills learned in class.
Post-Program Meetings with Managers.
In our
management prep sessions
we informed the managers of how to run
pre-course conversations
to prepare their employees for training. Now we have a session with the managers to coach them and show them how to support their employees as they try and master their new skills. This also refreshes management on what was taught thus keeping them engaged in the transfer process.
Ask the Professor. Establish an email address that is monitored by course instructors and used as a helpline when students have questions as they begin to apply their new skills.
Coach Participants.
Establish a coaching program for participants. Here either external or internal coaches are assigned to participants and work with them for a defined period of time to observe and coach them as they apply their new skills. I usually try to assign coaches that are not part of the participant’s management chain of command so they feel comfortable as they master their new skills. This is usually a formalized process in which coaches and participants meet on a regular basis to achieve the fine transfer outcome.
Mentor Participants.
Establish a system where participants can be mentored by other employees. Here, seasoned highly performing employees mentor the participants as they master their new skills. I usually encourage a formal process (driven by the participant) in which employees and mentors work together as necessary.
Roadmap to Success.
Produce a document or provided online system that shows the roadmap for successful transfer. Here you provide participants with a guided approach of how to apply and master their skills typically with the timeline of what you would do in the first week, the second week, and so forth.
Use Social Media.
Consider using intra company social media activities to drive transfer. Establish instant messaging systems where graduates can ask each other questions, support each other, and share best practices on application of course skills.
Summary: this is just a few of the possible techniques and activities you can use to drive and manage the transfer of training back in the workplace. As always please let me know what other activities you have used in this area.
COMPLIMENTARY WEBINAR
Training Transfer: The Secret Sauce for Making it Stick
Thursday, May 17th, 2012 2:00-3:00pm EST
Please join me for the fourth of the webinar series Making the Most of Corporate Training Dollars .
In my work I emphasize that learning is continuous and shouldn’t stop when a training session ends. My approach is a total emersion learning experience that emphasizes training transfer, which drives adoption, which drives impact (company value). I encourage organizations to think beyond training sessions to ensure the information “sticks” and will be used effectively in the workplace.
Recently one of my clients took what I consider the next evolution in Action Planning (
Intention Goals
). They have implemented I am calling “Modular Journaling and Action Panning”. At the end of each major course module (approximately 4 hours of learning), the participants take a few moments and answer a series of questions specific to the skills they just learned and draft the associated Intention Goal (Action Plan).
This is a form of journaling to drive the proper Intention Goals – what makes this unique is that the questions they journal about are specific to that section of the course. The question typically include:
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.
We fail as training professionals if our participants do not transfer what they have learned in our programs back to their jobs. Too often we focus too much of our time, talent, and treasure to creating the best learning events – and usually we succeed. But we lose of what is really important is that our participants increase their job performance from we have taught them.
I always encourages organizations to think beyond training sessions to ensure the information “sticks” and will be used effectively in the workplace. We must offer total immersion learning experiences that emphasizes training transfer, which drives adoption, which drives impact (company value).
Starting with your specific Enterprise Learning Plan, consider the development of custom solutions to educate and develop your people at every level within the organization so that they can contribute to your overall business success. Here you are developing custom, world-class training programs using the most innovative learning methods and processes to help your firm achieve its goals.
The Business and Learning Connection
Highly effective learning can accelerate an organization’s performance by enabling its people to adopt new concepts, actions and behaviors that are required by the business and learning strategy. Design your programs to create the right Intentions (goals and beliefs) and Adoptive Behaviors that drive business results ( Impact ). The outcome is that people learn to think and behave in new ways, maximizing business success across all areas of the entire organization.
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.