Training Industry Magazine - Fall 2016 - 41

Photo by MA Product Design Students at BIAD

he problem of training transfer and
its most recent synonym, "scrap
learning," have been the nemesis
of learning professionals for decades,
yet very little has changed beyond
identifying them as a problem. Luckily,
there is a solution. I've coined it Learning
Effectiveness by Design. It's a systematic
method for improving the effectiveness
of key learning solutions by bringing
together instructional design skills,
informal learning techniques, change
management tactics, and evaluation and
assessment strategies. This approach
requires reframing the traditional role
of the learning professional in order
to harness the benefits of each of
those elements.
The Learning Effectiveness by Design
approach begins with one key question:
Does the learning design achieve
the desired performance outcomes?
If you can't answer this question for
a key learning solution, you will be
able to after working through this
thought process.
WHEN TO USE LEARNING
EFFECTIVENESS BY DESIGN

This approach is not applicable to
learning solutions geared at achieving
general awareness about a topic.
Rather, it is designed for a key learning
solution that is intended to achieve a
behavior modification and meets one of
these criteria:
High investment: Does it have a high

dollar and/or time investment per learner?
High impact: Does it impact most of the

organization, a specific target audience or
a business unit?
High priority: Is it a key enabler of a

broader organizational priority and/or
change effort?

T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MA GAZ INE - FALL20 1 6 I WWW.TRAININGI NDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE

If any one of the following three key
criteria is met, then it's worth investing
the time to use this approach, especially
if you are in the process of developing or
redesigning the solution.
THE LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS
BY DESIGN MINDSET

A linear ADDIE mindset does not work for
key programs that aim to change a behavior.
This may be a tough pill for learning
professionals to swallow, but the fact
that the transfer problem has existed for
decades makes this claim highly plausible.
Despite its utility, the ADDIE mindset
results in a myopic approach to designing
a learning solution. Learning professionals
become bogged down in tasks like
assessing training needs by interviewing
learners who don't know what they don't
know, crafting perfect learning objectives
that conform to Bloom's Taxonomy,
battling with subject matter experts over
content and writing elaborate facilitator
guides that aren't used. All of these
tasks are important; however, focusing
on ADDIE consumes most of learning
professionals' time. As a result, they don't
spend enough time assessing the gaps in
their learning culture. Addressing these
gaps is crucial to achieving the intended
behavior modification.
A Learning Effectiveness by Design
mindset moves a training professional's
thinking away from learning objectives
and shifts it to performance outcomes.
Learning effectiveness means that a key
learning solution has proven to (a) modify
the learner's behavior (b) to such an extent
that his or her performance has improved,
(c) resulting in a measurable and positive
business impact.
When a learning professional adopts a
Learning Effectiveness by Design mindset,
he or she will develop a habit of asking
this question: "Which learning design(s)
or intervention(s) at an individual, team,

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - Fall 2016