A Little Pain Can Help You Grow – 3 Steps to Make it Worth Your While

Learning can sometimes be a bit painful. Often you have to stretch yourself beyond your comfort zone to improve. Areas in which you feel somewhat out of control and challenged are the areas in which you have an opportunity to expand your horizons and experience something entirely new and exciting.

It is the same when you are trying out a new behavior at work. You have learned some new skills but they are not easy to apply. In fact, it takes longer to do it the new way…at least at first.

This is the challenge of the transfer of training.

Rarely are the advantages of the new way of doing things obvious at first. This is what the “learning curve” is all about. It will be easier if you:

1.     Are clear about the benefits of applying the new behavior

2.     Set up a realistic plan to take one small step at a time

3.     Get immediate and consistent feedback from a trusted source on your progress

5 Expert Tips on Habit Change that Apply to Transfer of Training

Much has been written about how to change habits…from how to quit smoking to how to maintain a healthy regime. Much of the advice has application to the effective transfer of training to the job.

Here are five tips that work both for the individual at home and for the employee in the workplace.

1.     Start small. Don’t expect major behavior changes right away. Take into account that change is difficult to begin and to maintain. Small steps toward the goal work better. It is more effective to establish a new “normal” bit by bit.

Do your instructional design, training measurement and performance review processes accentuate and reward small steps?

2.     Anticipate obstacles. Every attempt to change behavior will encounter challenges. On the job, it is often time pressure and conflicting priorities that push employees back into the “old” way of doing things.

Do you help your target audience (and their bosses) plan for how to overcome the most common difficulties unique to your company before they occur?

3.     Enlist support. Find a coworker or a mentor that will encourage and support you when the going gets tough.

Does your organizational culture encourage coaching, mentoring and feedback?

4.     Set up the environment to succeed. Create reminders, eliminate distractions and establish accountability.

Have you created the necessary job aids and support systems to make the desired changes easier?

Just do it. Do not overthink the process. Commit, begin and don’t look back.

Are the new behaviors relevant enough for people to want to change their ways?

How to Learn On Your Own – 2 Smart Tips

If you are fortunate enough to work in an organization that values learning and development, be sure to take advantage of all the opportunities you can. There is no better way to advance in your job than to show your eagerness and ability to continue to learn and grow.

Let’s say, however, that your company is not investing in learning and your requests for further training have been denied. You will need to work harder—and on your own—to find ways to develop your skills and then affect the transfer of training to your workplace.

Here are tips on how to learn when your organization does not provide the opportunities:

1. Always Be Curious. Adopt an attitude of continuous learning where you seek out new experiences, build strengths and explore weaknesses. Be willing to take on challenging projects. Ask for help from experts when you need it.  Ask insightful questions and go beyond the day-to-day tasks to understand the greater reasons, implications, risks and options in each and every discussion.
2. Always Be Learning.  Set personal goals that relate specifically to learning. Identify a few critical areas that are of interest to you and would increase your value to the organization and potential employers. Take the time to read and do research or take classes on your own.  Put as much effort into improving as you put into performing.

2 Essential Pieces to Improve On-the-Job Performance

Can we all agree that the purpose of corporate training is to improve on-the-job performance that matters to the target audience, their bosses and the business? Pretty darn simple. And yet there is a huge chasm between delivering training on the skills that need development and actual improved performance back in the workplace. Why? It all has to do with the effective transfer of training.

What good are the well-conceived needs assessments, well-designed content and well-targeted audiences if the changes in behavior never make it to the front lines? Here are two tips on how to close the transfer of training gap:

1.     Provide real-time, on-the-job learning
Let the workplace be your continuous classroom. Take real work problems and address them in the moment with the guidance of an e-learning program, an internal coach or an outside facilitator with expertise in the skill area needed.  People learn faster and deeper when what they are learning is 100% applicable to a current task they need to complete.

2.     Provide dedicated and timely training when appropriate
When an entirely new skill is to be learned, schedule highly targeted action-learning workshops for those specific individuals who need to learn it. From a timing perspective, schedule them as close as possible to when the skills need to be used.  For example, behavioral interview training in August does not make much sense when your hiring forecast calls for hiring to start in December.  Additionally, be sure that there are experts at hand who can model, monitor, coach, encourage and support the new skills on the job.

Be Specific To Effect Behavior Change

Whether you want to reach a healthier weight or be more productive, old habits are hard to break. That is why so much research is being conducted on how to improve behavior faster and for the long term. A recent study in the European Journal of Psychology on reducing snacking may not be definitive because so few participated but the conclusions make sense. And even more important, they have relevance to those of us concerned with the transfer of training.

A group of about 60 women wanted to eat fewer and healthier snacks. 20 were in the control group; 20 were given just one snack option; 20 were allowed 3 different snacks when they were hungry. Those with just one snack option were far more successful than the others in reaching their goal of fewer snacks in between meals. The researchers concluded that there were two reasons for their success:

1. They had fewer options
2. Their choice for a snack was very specific

Think about what that implies for successful behavior change…be specific about your goal and limit the options for reaching it.

Surprise - Seating Charts Actually Matter in Training

Who would have guessed that seating arrangements would make much of a difference?

It’s sort of like planning for a successful dinner party…where you seat each guest matters. It turns out that the same is true when you arrange the seating for a training program. The way you set up seating affects the way learners respond to and process the training content.

Here is what experts in the transfer of training have learned from their research. Seating arrangements can be persuasive. They activate basic needs in the following way.

• Circular seating influences the need to belong. So certainly, if you are trying to build teams, put the class participants in a semi- or full-circle plan. 
• Angular seating encourages the desire to be unique.  If you are trying to encourage independent thinking and innovation, set up the seating with angles. Researchers say that angular seating encourages the desire to be unique.

From Learning to Application—Go Wild

The transfer of training to on-the-job application should be the measure of training’s success.

There is little to be gained by simply understanding what needs to be done if you can’t actually apply the learning and make use of it. But there is so much that stands in the way of trying out new behaviors—old habits that are ingrained and fear of failure, for example. 

In order to break out into this uncharted territory of behaving differently, some experts recommend that you go a bit wild. Here are their tips.

• Expect to be afraid. After all, you are exploring new paths and the outcome is uncertain.
• Rely on people who know more than you do about this new area.
• Do not expect immediate results. Be patient.
• Avoid easy criticism. Snap judgments squelch creativity.
• Do not compare what is to what was. Remember, there is a good reason you are trying to act differently.
• Practice creativity on a daily basis.
• Stay flexible…the path will take many twists and turns before you reach your destination.

Work With Your Brain, Not Against It

A good memory is a marvelous thing…a great memory is even better. Is there anything you can do to train your memory to perform at a higher level? Transfer of training experts say, “Yes.”

Exercise for the brain works the same way exercise for the body works…the more you practice, stretch and utilize your brain “muscle”, the more efficiently it will operate for you. You need to learn how to work with rather than against your brain.

Experts say that one of the most effective ways to remember number or letter chains is to “chunk” information. It is, for example, so much easier to remember your Social Security number in groups of two, three and four rather than in a long string of nine digits. You have a much better chance of recalling this sequence (24-32-67-85) than this (24326785). Why? Because you have applied the chunking technique whereby you take large objects and break them into smaller. Give it a try…

3 Ways to Stimulate Innovative Thinking

It can be difficult to come up with timely and good ideas. 

If you would like to have your team generate lots of worthy ideas, it pays off to prime the pump.

Here are 3 tips from those who specialize in the transfer of training on how to get your team generating sound ideas, one right after another:

1. List the best practices of a well-known company that is completely outside your industry and compare to your own business practices. If you are in the financial services sector, for instance, think about how Nordstrom earned its reputation for sterling customer service. Are there any ways you can adapt their customer handling to the way you treat your customers?
2. Be open to unusual or eccentric ideas. What could you do to enhance the customer experience in an unexpected and unconventional way?
3. Try to restrict the focus. Counterintuitively, this ploy can spark really creative thinking. Perhaps invite ideas that concern only current clients.

4 Keys to Putting Good Ideas to Work

Brainstorming sessions are all the rage. But they can be exercises in futility unless you find a way to put the good ideas to work. Just as there is nothing to be gained by irrelevant training that has no real application to the workplace (no transfer of training), there is nothing to be gained by the generation of ideas that go nowhere.

Follow these 4 tips to ensure your idea-generating meetings result in real business process improvement.

1. Choose a topic for the session. Do not leave it open-ended. Decide to focus on “customer satisfaction,” for instance, rather than on “improving the way we do business.”
2. Ask meeting attendees to be prepared with 2 or 3 solid ideas on how to ensure happy customers and tell them that they should be ready to present their ideas in front of the group (so they won’t dare neglect their homework.)
3. Gather all the ideas and put them on a story board for the entire team to review and assess together.
4. Choose the 1 or 2 best ideas and put them to work as soon as possible.

Then monitor the results and adjust as necessary.

Does Social Learning Work in the Workplace?

Millions have learned how to use the internet to answer the simple questions that stump us in our day-to-day lives. It is so easy to check on our smart phone or computer to get more information on just about any topic. This is a form of learning that takes advantage of social media. The questions to ask in learning and development circles are:

1. Can social learning work as well in the workplace?
2. Is there transfer of training through what is learned this way?

The answer is “sure” as long as you set up your corporate social network properly and tend it regularly. You can set up forums on hot topics, post “how-to” videos and upload top answers to FAQs. Be sure you have a team that manages the network to review and refresh content and monitor the site to delete inappropriate or irrelevant material. Use social network rating systems to prioritize and highlight content that matters.  

Then measure the results and adjust along the way.

4 Smart Steps to Ace the Transfer of Training

There is little reason to invest in training your employees unless you expect that their new skills will be applied on the job. Training for training’s sake has little value in terms of business results for the company. Once you have defined just what skills improvements are needed, then you must take the next steps to ensure transfer of training to the workplace.

1. Teach the key skills. Give employees the knowledge they need to make the behavioral changes through instructor-led programs or carefully constructed, interactive e-learning.
2. Create coaching or mentoring partnerships so employees have an expert guide to advise them as they practice the new skills.
3. Provide opportunities to test and apply the new skills on the job so the learning continues in action-based scenarios. The learning is no longer intellectual but becomes experiential. 
4. Measure levels of skill adoption to drive accountability and target performance coaching.

This four-pronged approach is what provides the setting for improvement on the job…knowledge, guides and plenty of practice.

5 Great Tips: The Pros and Cons of Feedback

To improve your performance you need to know when you are performing well and when your work is substandard. Besides self-assessment of your performance, how can you know if you are meeting the grade?

Through feedback…from your manager and from your co-workers. But not all feedback is helpful. It takes skill to deliver feedback in a way that promotes, not discourages, extra effort in the right direction.

For feedback to serve the purpose of motivating employees to improve their behavior on the job, transfer of training experts maintain that it should be:

1. Frequent: Delivered on a regular basis, in small bits, not just at the end of an annual performance review.
2. Timely: Offered in timely fashion…on the heels of the observed behavior.
3. Balanced: Both positive and negative…but not delivered at the same time or the positive feedback will be diminished.
4. Relevant:  Used as a tool both to maintain current performance and to improve it.
5. Productive: Suggestive rather than directive so the receiver has some options going forward.

How To Really Change Behavior

If only signs were enough to change behavior.  Real behavior change is difficult to achieve.

Just as with changing ingrained habits, there have to be multiple factors in sync for change to occur. If you are responsible for changing behavior in the workplace, you need to see that all of these behavior-changing factors are in play. And, if you are considering a major investment in training, know that only if there is transfer of training to the job will you have the payoff you seek.

Use this list to evaluate if you have met all the conditions of true behavior change:

1. The New Behaviors Work: Program participants are committed to the new behavior because they are convinced it is in their best interests and the interest of the organization.
2. There is Alignment: All systems (performance management, compensation, technology, etc.) support and facilitate the change.
3. Aptitude: Participants have the ability to learn the new skills.
4. Buy-In: There is wide support by leaders, co-workers and participants for the change.
5. Value: Both one’s pride and sense of self-worth will be enhanced as the behavior is learned and practiced.

Improved Performance Can Be Habit Forming

Any new skill requires practice before it becomes an integral and comfortable part of your behavior. It is said that Tiger Woods practices 6-8 hours per day in addition to his fitness regimen. 

The same with new habits. They need to be practiced over and over before they are adopted.

Let’s take some recommendations from experts on how to succeed at forming new habits in order to learn how to effectively the transfer of training to the workplace. Here are two suggested steps:

1. Have a plan. Write it down and break the new behavior into smaller steps. If, for instance, you want to run better meetings, separate the meeting into distinct action steps: create the agenda, respect timing, keep on subject and end with agreed-upon next actions.
2. Think through possible challenges. Plan how you will behave if you have a disagreement or conflict of meeting attendees, or when someone tries to dominate the discussion. Don’t be derailed by a situation you can foresee and prepare for.

The skill, as any habit, will become easier with practice…so keep at it. 

Using Mentors to Transfer Training Two Ways

If you have ever been involved in a mentoring partnership, you know that it is not only the
“student” who learns but also the “advisor.”

The process has benefits for both.

The advantages for the student are obvious. But those for the mentor are due to what is called the protégé effect. This effect describes the additional learning of the mentor when they are called upon to actually teach and have a teachable point of view. As the “experts,” they need to review their own understanding of the topic, fill in any gaps in their knowledge and then try to explain the concept in simple terms to their learner.

Think of how this protégé effect can be applied in the workplace to enhance the transfer of training. Pair up learners of new skills with those who have some experience. The so-called mentors will review and reinforce what they know. And the mentees will have a model to follow and coaches to keep them on track as they practice the new skills on the job. 

How Behavior Theory Can Help with the Transfer of Training

With all the research and experiments conducted on how and why people and animals change behavior, there should be an application to the transfer of training within the corporate environment. And there is.

Behavioral researchers have concluded that there are multiple factors that affect changes in behavior. Simply put, they are: commitment, skills, environment, social norms, beliefs and feelings about the change, and perceived ability to make the change.

Behavioral change on the job is analogous. Employees need to:

1.    Believe in the Relevance: Buy into the change because they are persuaded that the change is in the company’s best interest and their own

2.    Have the Required Skills: Be trained in the necessary skills

3.    Feel Supported and Reinforced: Know that there is support throughout the company

4.    Be Aligned: Feel that there is alignment with company goals and values as well as with their personal belief system

5.    Observe Positive Results: Have the confidence that they can indeed change and improve

If you can design your training initiatives to cover the above needs, you are well on your way to observing the new, desired behaviors within your own corporate lab.

Habits and the Transfer of Training

As kids we all learned new habits.  Some good were good.  Some were bad.

It would be great if we could form good work habits easily. But “habit forming” is difficult. It takes dedication and perseverance...both of which require focus and time. But here are some tips on how to adopt a new habit successfully.

●      Start small and easy

●      Try one habit at a time and practice only once a day at first

●      Just dive in and begin

●      Make it fun

●      Allow no negative self-talk

●      Be consistent

●      Don’t keep it to yourself

These are the “tricks of the trade” for sticking to a plan and incorporating a new habit into your life.

Now, for those of us in the training and development business, does this recipe for successful habit adoption apply to the successful transfer of training?

Yes, pretty much across the board.

Identify the skill or competency, relatively simple at first, and practice it on the job in small doses while receiving feedback. Be positive. Enjoy the learning. Stay at it and involve your boss and a colleague who will coach and encourage you along the way.

How to Simplify Behavior Change

Being held accountable for major behavior change can be daunting for a participant, the facilitator and the project sponsor.

Is there any way to make it simpler and thus be more certain of success?

In our two decades of behavior change experience, we know that the following three principles must be in place for the transfer of training to be successful.

 The new learners have to believe that the behavior change is:

1. Easy. The necessary skills should be easy to try often and there should be no organizational barriers to adopting the new behaviors.
2. Normal. For lasting adoption, the new learner wants to know that their role models exhibit, expect and admire this new behavior. 
3. Rewarding. The employee needs to see real benefits to the new behavior, personal and/or professional. 

If you include consideration of these three elements in the changes you propose, you are on your way to achieving successful results…whether the scope of change be large (cultural) or small (new skill application).

A Few Tips on Changing Behavior

It takes more than good intentions and peaceful reflection to learn a new skill.

So let’s look at what has been learned about adopting new habits and see how we can apply those lessons to the transfer of training on the job. According to the experts, here are tips on how to change a habit and make it stick.

1. Practice. Recognize that it takes about 30 days of consistent daily practice – not a few role-plays in a classroom.
2. Clarify. Write down exactly what you want to change and commit to it.
3. Reinforce: Sign up a partner or colleague who can support you and provide candid feedback.
4. Focus.  Start small and simple. Increase the level of difficulty and challenge as the habit/change becomes easier.
5. Persevere. Don’t be discouraged. Expect some struggles. Change is difficult.  It must be highly relevant.
6. Visualize. How will you be performing once the change has been adopted? How will others see you?  What would that create for you?
7. Benefits.  Be clear about why you have decided to change and keep the benefits uppermost in mind.

Change behavior as you would change a habit and keep your eye on the prize.

When Job Training Can be More than a Band-Aid

Among the many areas of disagreement in the 2012 Presidential debates, there was one topic on which both Obama and Romney agreed: the unemployed need training for the jobs of the future.

But there is evidence that, despite re-training efforts, many dislocated workers have not succeeded in finding satisfactory jobs in new fields. What’s going wrong?

Let’s look at what we know about successful training.

1. Know first what training is needed. Get a clear picture of the competencies your organization needs to succeed in the future. 
2. Assess the current skills of your workforce. Training should be designed to close the gaps.
3. Create the environment for real behavior change. In order to have the confidence to apply the new skills on the job, employees need the support of managers, ongoing coaching, and positive reinforcement.

Without a plan that includes the overall organization’s strategy, thoughtful assessment, and a supportive environment, training can be wasted.

      I wonder which critical step was missing from the government’s attempt to re-train the nation’s unemployed? 

When it Comes to the Transfer of Training, Don’t Undermine Your Training Investment

Billions are spent each year on employee learning and development. The classroom learning may be accomplished but that’s where the process ends. The new skills are not being applied in the work place. Why not?

Because most learning providers do not fully understand or appreciate that the brain may take in new knowledge but old habits and behaviors are hard to change.

If you want to ensure the transfer of training when the training program is over, consider that emotions may be getting in the way in three areas:

• Clear expectations and performance objectives need to be set prior to the session. Otherwise, it is easier to revert to old ways and one’s comfort zone.
• When you train some employees and not others, the newly trained employee may meet stiff resistance from the others…unless you make it clear that you approve and support the new skills.
• Trying new methods can be risky. Unless you support employees as they test out their new skills, they will quickly put them back on the shelf with their training manual.

Changing behavior involves both learning a new skill and the ongoing support of managers to overcome old habits, resistance from other, and the fear of failure.

Training Our Doctors and the Transfer of Training

When it comes to the transfer of training, the on-the-job education of medical personnel has undergone a sea change in the last few years.

No longer are interns subjected to excessively long stints on duty without a break. Whereas once they had shifts in the hospital of 36 straight hours, a typical shift is now 16 hours long - a greater than 50% reduction.  The initial intention was to reduce errors but, in fact, studies show that the incidence of medical errors by interns has risen.

The important research into the reasons behind this increase continues. Meantime, there are a few suppositions that have implications for those of us in the learning and development industry.

• Less Practice.  With shorter hours on the floor, doctors are receiving less on-the-job hospital training. They see fewer patients, are exposed to fewer medical situations, and seem less well prepared to deal with the variety of cases presented to them.
• With shorter tours, there are more hand-offs. And with each transition from one doctor’s care to another, there is the possibility of miscommunication…as well as the lessening of accountability since the patient’s care is spread among so many. 

While 36 straight hours does not seem very sustainable, what can we learn? 

Transfer of Training and Competency-Based Management

Every knowledge area has its own alphabet soup of “in” terms.

Corporate organizations are no different. Since two business authors, C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel, introduced in 1990 the concept of core competency and its application in business, competency-based management has been in vogue.

Within the context of a business, a competency is the ability of an employee to do a job properly that should positively impact the performance of the business. When it comes to the transfer of training, competencies are the specific skills and behaviors you want employees to learn and then successfully apply on the job.

For well-managed staffing and hiring as well as for well-managed performance, each job should have a profile.  A job profile lists the skills (often in terms of the years of experience) and competencies (often in terms of soft skills) needed to be successful. Both should be observable and measurable.

The effectiveness of training interventions and an employee’s performance can then be evaluated according to how well they demonstrate these skills and competencies regularly on the job.

Once difficult to track, especially as the needs of a company would change, competency-based management is now easy to implement with the use of inexpensive and specially designed software.  And the periodic performance reviews so dreaded by manager and employee alike become instructive, specific and supportive of targeted development. 

To Transfer Training – Remember the ABCs of Learning

Behaviorists agree…there are three simple steps to learning something new and having it stick that apply to people of all ages...the ABC’s of Learning. Whether you are trying to learn to ski, to play the piano, or to create a PowerPoint presentation, it pays to follow these guidelines:

1. Break the skill down so you can work on one aspect at a time. For skiing, first work on carving “S” turns on a very gentle slope. For piano, work on scales with the right hand alone. For PowerPoint, find a template you like and create titles and simple text. You get the idea: begin with small steps and make concrete progress.
   
   
2. Visualize and talk yourself through each step. By imagining successful execution and thinking aloud about the elements of the skill, you are engaging all three modalities of learning—visual, auditory and tactile. Remember to reflect upon what is working and what is not working so that you can connect lessons learned to your next round of practice and application.
   
   
3. Do not keep the skill to yourself. Share your learning with others. You will feel more accountable for your own progress and you will cement your learning through practice, demonstration and coaching the skill for new learners. Having a teachable point of view will go a long way toward transferring the new skills and knowledge back on the job.

Separating Transfer-of-Training Fact from Fiction

You do not need a microscope to know that the majority of companies do not know what percent of new skills get transferred from training programs to the job.

Or to know that even fewer leaders know the performance impact of the new skills that are adopted.

The good news is that transfer-of-training is possible to measure and implement. The bad news is that many falsely believe that it is too hard or impossible based upon some faulty assumptions.

Those of us in the training and development industry owe Fitzpatrick and Thalheimer a debt of gratitude. So, you might ask, who are they and what have they done for us? They have helped to debunk a pervasive myth that often gets in the way of effective learning and development initiatives.

You have no doubt read the bogus fact that only 10 percent of what is taught in the classroom is reflected in behavioral change on the job. Please do not repeat this because it is not true.

Fitzpatrick and Thalheimer researched the issue of transfer of training and found the original statement in an article by Georgenson published in 1982. Georgenson did not intend to mislead. He was simply exploring the transfer of training issue and asked a rhetorical question, “What if only 10 percent of the classroom learning was demonstrated on the job?”

The question has been repeated over and over as a statement of fact. Rather, it was a conjecture innocently made over three decades ago. Now you know.

Transfer of Training Lore - An Oft-told Tale

Stomping out a myth that has appeared in countless research papers, books, training magazines and the web seems nearly impossible.

But we are going to try.

What makes the attempt to expose the myth even more difficult is that it must first be described before it can be crushed…so it finds print once again.

While it seems like common sense based upon the scarcity of well-design and strategically implemented training these days, it is not true that “only 10% of skills actually result in transfer to the job.”

So how did this false tale get started and repeated (and unfortunately lived) so often?

A friend of mine pointed us in the right direction. It originated in an article published in 1982 by David L. Georgenson on the transfer of training. Georgenson was simply posing a “what if” question. He wondered how often the skills that were learned in training actually changed the way one performed on the job. He cited no studies and conducted no research. But the topic was of interest and his words caught on as if they were factual, not rhetorical.

Beware the oft-told tale until you verify the source. And please, to transfer skills back on the job, make your training relevant and follow-through.

Do Employees Really Value Training as Much as a Raise?

This transfer of training article has been moved to: http://lsaglobal.com/employees-really-value-training-much-raise/

To learn more about the transfer of training, please visit: http://lsaglobal.com/lsa-transfer-of-training-methodology/