Training Industry Magazine - Summer 2016 - (Page 3)

PERSPECTIVES - K E N TAY LO R This edition of Training Industry Magazine challenges us to think broadly about how and when we need to focus on the long-term skills impact of training programs. When it comes to truly impacting the performance of an employee on the job, we have to think beyond the event and focus on the battle against the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve - the consumer of much of our investment in employee development. ANY INVESTMENT IN SUSTAINING THE IMPACT OF A TRAINING PROGRAM SHOULD BE VIEWED AS INSURANCE FOR OUR ROI. I liken an investment in sustaining support for a training program to an insurance policy for the return on investment of the program. Any time we can help employees retain the skills we helped them develop, the more likely they are to use that skill, and that in my opinion is at the heart of great training programs. At a recent conference, I was amazed to see the degree to which the supply side of our industry is developing innovative ways to help employees retain information. The core of all this innovation is focused on a few key notions that can be included in any program, even the most budget constrained program. First, your sustainment strategy needs to be relevant to the context in which the learner will consume the content. Having a salesperson watch a one-hour e-learning module on his/ her smartphone to brush up before a sales call isn't likely to work, and will probably be ignored. Second, we need to look for triggers in the employees work environment that can be used to prompt them to refresh a skill. For example, during performance review time (the trigger), it might make sense for a feedback tips and tricks video to be sent out to managers as they prep for their periodic employee reviews. Third, think broadly about what constitutes a sustainment strategy and what tools will be used for reinforcement. As with any addition to an L&D project, be careful what you introduce into your programs because the learner will become accustom to the quality of your sustainment strategy (meaning: if it is effective then they will engage, if it is not then they will ignore the reinforcement). This edition of the magazine has a collection of ideas that can help you sustain the impact of learning beyond the event and even how to build sustainment into your program design. The earlier you consider building it in, the less difficult and costly the additions will be. As always, please feel free to reach out and let us know your thoughts. Ken Taylor is the president and editor in chief of Training Industry, Inc. Email Ken T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MA GAZ INE - SUMMER201 6 I WWW.TRAI NINGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE 3 http://www.trainingindustry.com/ezine.aspx

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

Perspectives
Table of Contents
Three Strategies to Ensure Your Training Has Tensile Strength
Experience, Exposure and Education
Beyond the Classroom Paradigm
Applying the Buddy System
Purpose-Driven Professional & Organization Success
Making It Personal: The Four Pillars of High-Impact Mentoring
Blowing Your Millennial Mindset
Hidden Forces: Unconscious Bias in Learning
Memory: The Critical Bottleneck to Learning
Gender Barriers & Solutions to Leadership
Cognititive Collaboration: Utilizing Diverse Thinking & Behavioral Preferences
Get Into the Act: Accelerating Collaborative Teamwork
Dispelling the Five Myths of Microlearning
Quicken Loans: Culture Driven
Developing Global Leaders: On-the-Job Leadership Development
From Where I Sit
Why Do We Wait to Train Our Managers?
Is Knowledge Overrated?
Is Your Business Acument Showing?
Avnet Expands Services with ExitCertified Acquisition
Company News
What's Online
Training Talk

Training Industry Magazine - Summer 2016