Our Training team of 3 attended the Australian Institute of Professional Facilitators’ “Building Valued Relationships” Expo at Sea World Resort on the Gold Coast recently.  We gained some valuable insights, met up with some old friends and built some new connections, and generally had a fun couple of days.  


My favourite session of the Expo was presented by Michael Papay, Vice President for the Fort Hill Company (www.forthillcompany.com).  Michael’s session, “Getting Your Money’s Worth from Training and Development” was about learning transfer and bridging the learning-doing gap.  What particularly struck a chord with me was the notion of redefining the finish line for learning. Michael explained that the old finish line was typically the completion of the course or event, whereas the new end point is when learners have applied the learning on the job. This was neatly summed up by Michael in the following equation:

Learning  x  Follow-through  =  Results

So how can we as facilitators put this into action?  Of course we can take action within the learning programme such as using strategies that facilitate learning transfer e.g. participation, role plays, and skill practice.  Michael also advocated allocating much more time to goal setting. In workshops typically goal setting is left until the last minute, squeezed in between the last chunk of content and the wrap up, so we’re not placing much value on it. Instead Michael recommended allocating a serious amount of time to goal setting and I like his suggestion of ‘re-branding’ goal setting to “Transfer and Application”.

One of the most critical things we can do after the learning programme to ensure it delivers results is to engage the participant’s Manager. As we all know what we do in the course has much less impact than what happens when the learner gets back to work! Some simple ways to engage Managers is to be sure they know the course and their direct report’s objectives in attending. You may like to write to the Manager explaining the programme, objectives etc, along with giving directions about what to discuss with the direct report back in the workplace. And rather than having a general expectation that Managers coach employees after training, why not make it easy by providing worksheets, checklists and directions?

Action points

How can you:

• Design your learning programmes to include strategies that will enhance transfer?
• Allocate more time for ‘transfer and application’ within your courses?
• Engage Managers to follow-through with learners on the job?

I would be interested in hearing your thoughts and ideas on the above or indeed anything else that helps our customers get their money’s worth from L&D activities.
 
For further information on the Australian Institute of Professional Facilitators visit www.aipf.com.au. Here you can subscribe to their practical newsletter - Upfront - which has good articles and tips for L&D practitioners.
 
Clio Robertson