Make Training Stick: Easy and Effective Ways to Increase Training Transfer

22 May 2011, Sunday

Speaker: Barbara Carnes

Training Transfer Process

Before	During	After
Learner characteristics: Cognitive abilities Self-efficacy Pre-training motivation Absence of negative emotional state Openness to experience Extroverted Perceived usefulness Career planning Commitment  to the organization Organizational Environment & Support – BEFORE Strategic link Supervisory support Accountability Peer support	Training Design Learning goals Content relevance Practice & feedback Behaviour modeling Error-based examples Self-management strategies (Learning take place here)	Organizational Environment & Support – AFTER Opportunity to perform Strategic link Transfer climate Supervisory support Accountability Peer support Job performance & Skill maintenance

The speaker started by sharing the training transfer process.  According to her, for learning to take place, more emphasis needs to be placed at the BEFORE process and for learning to impact job performance, the AFTER process plays a critical role.  For learning to take place, both the participant and the organization that sponsors the participant to the training needs to play their part well.  For example, if the supervisor does not support the training, or the participant does not believe that the training will have a positive impact in his work, learning usually does not take place.  Similarly, if there was no opportunity to practice what was learned during training, then the training session could go to waste. 

At the workshop, many participants agreed that currently, most of the emphasis was placed at the DURING process whereby if learning did not happen, the blame usually goes to the trainer.  I am probably guilty of this too.  Most of the time, we evaluate a training session based on the trainer, the content and the way the programme was delivered.  We hardly look at the BEFORE and AFTER process closely.   Learning this new information, I think I will try and be more proactive in the future, to make sure I consider some of the factors in the BEFORE and AFTER process.  For example, I should consider the learner characteristics when I do the training roadmap and try and find opportunities for my staff to practice what they learnt after attending training.

Next, the speaker provides a long list of techniques that make training stick.  I chose the following because these make sense, are new and/or interesting J:

1.      Sticky Objectives – Objectives should be linked with performance, criteria for the job.

2.      Target Objectives – Find out what participants want to learn.

3.      Training Buddies – Having a training buddy provides a support system that can help make learning a smoother and faster process.

4.      Use Podcast – Use podcasts to deliver pre-training materials, to reinforce learning and follow-ups after training

5.      Use Board Games – People tend to learn better at play!

6.      Pre-training and post-training briefing by Boss – The supervisor should take time to explain the reasons for the training, and find out from the participant if he or she benefitted from the training.  By showing interest, the participant will be more motivated to learn.

7.      Success stories and Lessons learned – Stories tend to stick in the mind; the more the better.

8.      Training Transfer Certificate – To be given when the participant demonstrates that learning has been incorporated into the job.

Wai Cheng