#1 The First Pillar of Reinforcement: Ongoing Learning
Skill learning involves physically growing new neuronal connections in the brain. What’s more, improving leadership skills means working against previously ingrained habits that have been reinforced for decades. We’ve sometimes called the reinforcement phase the “missing link” of leadership development, because most organizations don’t follow assessment and training with the kind of formal, structured reinforcement programs that will ingrain the new behaviors.
So what programs are needed? The end result would seem worth the effort, but what works? How much time and expense will be involved?
An effective program of follow-up reinforcement will have four basic elements:
- Ongoing learning
- Ongoing feedback
- Coaching
- Accountability
Here's a brief explanation of what we mean by ongoing learning:
Most training events last from one to five days. Afterwards, without repeated efforts to put into practice the behaviors shown in training, the training content will slowly recede from the memories of the participants. This degradation is a natural, inevitable consequence of a lack of reinforcement.
The key is to think of training not as an event, but as a long-term process. An effective training program serves as an excellent introduction; it provides the baseline, models and explanations of expected behavior. But the most effective lessons are learned on the job, so learning should extend months into the future with an ongoing series of structured events.
Structured learning events can make sure that on-the-job experiences trigger related learning, that these experiences are not just poorly understood events among many others in a day at work. For example, during the months after formal training, participants can be given a series of practical exercises that guide them to put into practice what was learned in the classroom. In addition, unstructured on-the-job learning is perhaps an even more powerful way of ingraining skills. Ideally, participants will discuss both kinds of experiences with others or analyze them in writing.
When convenient, “brown bag lunch” meetings are excellent venues to view videos, analyze on-the-job experiences and discuss challenges of skill application. When distance or time make physical meetings difficult, virtual meetings are possible. Online forum technologies are available to empower learning support groups to share experiences, information, advice, feedback and encouragement. These groups can be moderated by trainers, coaches or the learners themselves.
One educational resource ALD provides is the Supervision Series from Vital Learning Corp; in addition to focusing on the basic and important skills of leading people, the Supervision Series contains workbooks, numerous worksheets, guides and references specifically designed for ongoing learning and reinforcement. In addition, videos that model positive behavior are available online and on DVD. The Supervision Series is available for classroom, online or a blended approach. The online instruction is available to participants for up to one year for reinforcement purposes.
Developing leaders will also benefit from related books, tapes, videos and websites, many of which are recommended in the Supervision Seriesworkbooks and online.
The cost of this kind of ongoing learning in time and money is minimal, because the programs are self-paced, involve virtual media and employ materials that were previously used in training. If these ongoing learning practices continue for many months after classroom training, leaders have a chance to actually develop new habits of behavior. To assure this outcome, however, a program of reinforcement should also include activities involving the other three pillars of reinforcement.
Excerpted from an article by: Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., CEO, Performance Support Systems, publisher of 20/20 Insight GOLD assessment software and Dave Erdman, President, Vital Learning Corporation, publisher of The Supervision Series
Next Month: The Second Pillar of Reinforcement: Ongoing Feedback | 
