Training Industry Magazine - Fall 2016 - 11

- CH AR L E S J E NNING S

PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY

LEARNING
OUTCOMES
WE ARE PRODUCTS OF
OUR ENVIRONMENT

Most of our actions are determined by
our environment. Whether at work or
play, our environment dictates how we
behave and respond more than most
of us realize.

then send them back to the unchanged
workplace in the expectation the awayfrom-work inspiration will result in their
improved performance. This happens
less often than we'd expect.

Brian Wansink is a leading academic in the
field of nutrition and behavior. Wansink
and his colleagues carried out some
simple studies that suggest the reasons
we eat have little to do with hunger and
a tremendous amount to do with subtle
environmental cues and influences. For
instance, if you use a big spoon or serve
yourself on a big plate, you'll eat more. If
you move the small bowl of chocolates
on your desk six feet away, you'll eat half
as much. And the more people you eat
with, the more you'll eat.

WHY MOST DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAMS FAIL

Understanding this important principle
can help in our work as training and
development professionals. If we want
to initiate change, drive performance
and achieve our desired outcomes, then
we need to focus on not just helping
individuals change, but we also need to
focus on helping change occur in their
working environments.

CHANGED BEHAVIOR IS
THE ONLY EVIDENCE
OF LEARNING.
Many observers have noted that changing
people and then putting them back into
an unchanged workplace is a definition
of stupidity. Yet this is still the underlying
premise in the design of many training
courses today. For example, we might
take a group of managers away from
work to attend a leadership program,

Gurdjian, Halbeisen, and Lane at
McKinsey & Company underpinned the
importance of focusing on environment
to achieve change when they found
much of the value from the $14
billion invested annually in leadership
development in the U.S. alone is lost due
to some fundamental errors. The errors
these researchers found with leadership
development is echoed across training
and development generally.
CONTEXT IS CRITICAL FOR OUTCOMES
The first error the McKinsey team found
was overlooking context. At the individual
level, the one-size-fits-all approach of
many training and development initiatives
fails to take important differences into
account. At the organizational level,
culture, organizational strategy or CEO
mandate is often overlooked for a variety
of reasons, such as it is seen as simply
too difficult or a provider can only offer
standard solutions. Failure to align with
the environment to which participants will
return is almost certain to lead to failure of
any overall initiative.
REFLECTION IS CRITICAL
FOR OUTCOMES
The second error the researchers
identified was that reflection is decoupled

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

from real work. It may be fun to design
a program where participants discuss
and reflect within the confines of
the classroom, but reflection is more
impactful if it takes place with our own
colleagues, in our own work context. The
closer to the point of use that learning
occurs the more effective it is likely to
be, and reflection that is tightly coupled
to our work is likely to be more effective
in changing our behavior than any awayfrom-work reflection activity.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MINDSET
FOR ENGAGEMENT AND OUTCOMES
The McKinsey team termed the third
error they identified as "underestimating
mindsets." Helping build capability
through knowledge and skills is not
enough. Changed behavior is the only
evidence of learning and changed
behavior relies on also changing attitudes,
feelings, assumptions and beliefs. Your
training team is likely to have more impact
and see improved outcomes if it focuses
on each of these elements and helps align
them with organizational needs.
Learning is like eating - multidimensional
and relying on environmental influences
more than we imagine. If we fail to
consider the environment when we're
designing solutions, we're likely to fail in
our efforts to develop high-performing
people and organizations.

Charles Jennings is a director of the Internet
Time Alliance and founder of the 70:20:10
Institute. He is the former chief learning
officer for Thomson Reuters. Email Charles.

| 11

http://www.trainingindustry.com/ezine.aspx

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