Training Industry Magazine - Summer 2016 - (Page 54)

FROM WHERE I SIT - DOU G HA RWA R D SUSTAINMENT RUNS THROUGH THE FABRIC OF EVERYTHING WE DO. In a recent study by Training Industry, we wanted to understand what the most common challenges were that training leaders faced in deploying training to employees. The ability to sustain the impact of training surfaced as one of the top challenges (see Figure 1 on page 55). This issue of sustainment is one that I believe runs through the fabric of everything we do. If we are not able to ensure that training translates into improved performance on the job, then our ability to ensure consistent performance across all learners will not be achieved, and our executive's perceptions of the value we add will be strained. Conversations with many training managers have confirmed that this issue is all too familiar. The good news is there are ways we can deal with it. But we have to get back to the basics for how we design and deliver training. One of the basics that we can look to is that of reinforcement - or in more common terms, practice. And to better understand this principle, let's look at another research study that was published more than 130 years ago. 54 In 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus conducted a study to better understand the impact of retention of information - or in other words, how fast a learner forgets information after the initial learning experience. His hypothesis stated that without repetitious reinforcement of the learned information following the consumption of the information, the learner will forget it at an exponential rate. He called this the forgetting curve. Essentially, if training does not provide for repetition and practice of the desired skills, then the learner will forget the information taught at an exponential rate when leaving the classroom - or more importantly, when they return to the job. And if the information is forgotten at an increasingly fast rate, then how can we expect the learner to apply the knowledge to the job? The answer is, we can't. And this is why we are under so much pressure from our executives and constituents to find better ways to provide training and to sustain the training postclassroom experience.

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