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Message to Decision-Makers: Why Training Doesn't Transfer
“Most leader and team development programs don’t produce significant changes in behavior. The evidence of this fact has been in front of us for many, many years. Talented trainers present excellent programs, participants usually enjoy the programs, and many of them come away enlightened and motivated. But in most cases, many months later, there are few if any noticeable changes in behavior to justify all the expense and effort.”
Of course he wasn’t the first to say this. His “shocking” statement was actually just the latest reminder. In the world of HRD, this challenge has been referred to for over a decade as “transfer of training,” the fact that what is learned in the classroom often doesn’t transfer to improved behavior patterns on the job—where it counts.
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Make Training a "Process," Not an "Event"
In the case of improving leadership behavior patterns, only a small percentage of what needs to be learned can be acquired in the classroom. Changing leadership behavior takes a long time, so the majority of skill-building must be gained through practice and experience—on the job. Even with great instructors. Even with great curriculum. Even with motivated learners. What is learned in the classroom is a vital beginning, but only the beginning.
In the May 2005 issue of Fast Company, John Kotter said: “The central issue is never strategy, structure, culture or systems. The core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people.” The article reported that if ten people were given the ultimatum…change or die…in the end only one would successfully make long-term behavior change. A good example of this is when a person suffers a heart attack. Immediately after this frightening experience people typically try to change their toxic habits. But most people revert back to their old habits within a year.
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A Revealing Interchange...
I recently had an interesting virtual conversation via email with a human resource professional. It was refreshing to hear these questions again, and I thought it would be revealing to include the entire exchange here:
First Inquiry: I have a question regarding the Process vs Results article.
Are you suggesting to base performance management review/bonuses on results (outcomes) instead of process (behaviors)?
If employees use their 360 results to develop personal objectives, would it make sense to measure the achievement of these objectives and use it as part of a performance evaluation along with the achievement of other results objectives?
Read the entire thought provoking exchange here
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The Plain Truth About Your Pain
The following is an accurate summary of the most common complaint we’ve heard from senior leaders over the years:
We agreed that our line leaders knew the business, but most of them weren't very effective with their people. Frequently we noticed friction and a lack of cooperation. Disagreements and arguments festered. You could sense the tension out there. Morale was low in many areas. It wasn't the positive, high-energy culture we wanted. We lost several of our best people.
We concluded that our managers needed to be better leaders, and we decided to bring in a top-flight leadership effectiveness program. The trainers were fantastic and our managers raved about it. We were satisfied that it was money well spent. In the months afterward, we saw an improvement in several managers, but we noticed that most of them weren’t using the new skills. To be honest, these were the same folks doing the same things. A year later, I look around and can’t say there’s been much change at all. It’s hard to believe that a program of such high quality didn’t get better results in the long run. It’s been a huge disappointment.
The executives expected and deserved a far better return on their investment. The employees desperately needed better leadership from their managers. The programs should have been a big success story for the trainers. But what about the learners????
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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?
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The Second Pillar of Reinforcement: Ongoing Feedback
The following story is true. I know, because it’s about me.
Several years ago after my company, Performance Support Systems, had published 20/20 Insight, a customizable performance feedback system, we decided to use our technology on ourselves. We set up a comprehensive people skills survey, and each of us received ratings and comments from each other.
I’ve always thought of myself as someone who appreciated feedback, asked for feedback, depended on feedback, and even paid people to give me feedback. But when my team rated me low in the area of listening, the feedback was hard to swallow. After all, I was an expert on listening! I had created models for listening; I had written extensively about it; I had taught thousands of managers how to listen more effectively. Apparently, however, I wasn’t practicing the skills I understood so well.
When I finally accepted the reality that I was causing problems among my coworkers, I resolved to change my behavior. I didn’t need training. I knew what ideal listening behavior was. I simply needed to make a good-faith effort to do what I already knew how to do.
That’s when the ongoing feedback started. You see, my business partners were also in the feedback business. They were adept at giving effective feedback, thank you very much, and they didn’t hesitate to do so when I failed to measure up. They let me know every time I happened to regress into my old patterns. I was dismayed at how difficult it was to change the way I listened.
Developing new skills means gradually growing new neural pathways in the brain. This process takes time and persistent effort to overcome decades of ingrained habit, even if these patterns cause problems.
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The Third Pillar of Reinforcement: Coaching
In leadership development, we’re talking about replacing a counterproductive habit that has been ingrained for decades with a brand new approach introduced in training. During a typical training course, motivated participants can absorb quite a lot of valuable content. However, the transference of this new knowledge into routine behavior takes time. This result is something that must be achieved on the job, after training.
A great deal of learning from experience is needed to make a new leadership skill habitual. An impressive amount of reinforcement is needed to achieve the level of comfort that makes a behavior familiar, comfortable and automatic. Along the way a learner can expect to experience awkwardness, failure and embarrassment, which can be discouraging. It makes a big difference to have someone to talk to, someone who can listen, understand, advise and encourage.
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The Fourth Pillar of Reinforcement: Accountability
Leadership development programs can have significant costs in terms of time and money. They’re procured not as entertainment, but as vehicles for vital learning. So it’s reasonable for executives to expect that the participants of these programs actually improve the skills that are the focus of these programs. Executives are responsible for planning and supporting the best programs they can, including a structured program of follow-up. Participants have a responsibility, too, which is to make a good-faith effort to improve their behavior patterns.
In other words, both the organization and the learner are accountable—the organization for invests in and supporting high-quality training and follow-up reinforcement programs, and the participants for improving their behavior patterns.
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A Familiar Tale of Woe...And a Solution
We agreed that our managers knew the business, but most of them weren't very effective with their people. We noticed friction and a lack of cooperation. Disagreements and arguments festered. You could sense the tension out there. Morale was low in many areas. It wasn't the positive, high-energy culture we wanted. We lost several of our best people.
We concluded that our managers needed to be better leaders, and we decided to bring in a top-flight leadership effectiveness program. The trainers were fantastic and our managers raved about it. We were satisfied that it was money well spent.
In the months afterward, we saw an improvement in several managers, but we noticed that most of them weren’t using the new skills. To be honest, these were the same folks doing the same things.
A year later, I look around and can’t say there’s been much change at all. It’s hard to believe that a program of such high quality didn’t get better results in the long run. It’s been a huge disappointment.
This is a fair summary of numerous stories we've heard in recent years. The executives expected and deserved a far better return on their investment. The employees desperately needed better leadership. The programs were excellent. They should have been a big success story for the trainers. But what about the learners???
Learn more - click here to read the entire story
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Practical Methods to Reinforce Skills after Training
After training is over and participants have learned how to do improved leadership skills, the real work begins. Now they have to replace their old, habitual ineffective responses with newly learned effective responses. That will take a great deal of reinforcement, and they’ll need support. We recommend using a combination of peer groups, mentors, weekly reviews, online reinforcement, follow-on surveys and coaching. None of these initiatives involve a significant investment in time or money.
Learn more - click here to read the entire story
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A Process That Achieves Accountability and Long-term Behavioral Change
Participants of training typically give their programs high marks, even though long-term, measurable behavioral changes rarely occur. Understandably, senior leaders would like to make sure long-term changes actually occur and people are held accountable.
With the help of two award-winning programs, we’ve been able to develop an implementation process that consistently produces highly motivated learners and measurable behavioral changes in the long term. The Vital Learning leadership series is a behavior-based, skill-acquisition learning program. 20/20 Insight Gold is the platform that automates initial and ongoing feedback. The combination of these two systems with our process supports a long-term program of reinforcement learning, coaching, feedback and ultimately—accountability. And several months after the initial training sessions, executives have evidence that the new skills have been acquired and are being used.
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Why is so much reinforcement needed to ingrain a leadership skill?
There’s a huge difference between learning a concept and putting that concept into practice. It’s the difference between “knowing” and “doing.” By doing, we mean comfortably using a skill over and over as a habitual behavior pattern. That kind of consistent, automatic behavior, of course, is the goal of all skill development programs. But achieving that result means that a neural pathway has established itself in the brain.
And that takes time...
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The Reinforcement Imperative
If you’ve ever tried to master a skill in any sport—such as doing a speed turn in swimming, serving a tennis ball, hitting a golf ball out of a sand trap or throwing a football, you know that a lot of practice is involved. Not just to get it right, but to make the skill feel like second nature, so you can do it that way every time without having to concentrate on all the elements of the skill.
Learn more - click here to read the entire story
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