Question:

How do I make Learning Transfer a reality for our participants? Many of them come with the idea of “learn and leave” vs. “learn and achieve.” What can I do to help make my priority a priority for them?
Answer:

I like the way you posed the question of getting your participants to move from an attitude of “learn and leave” to “learn and achieve.” This is in line with our definition of Learning Transfer, which is “the process of putting learning to work in a way that improves performance.” Your employees need to understand that “the real work begins when the training ends.” That is, their training is not finished until they have used what they have learned to improve their work.

To help make Learning Transfer a reality for your participants, let me give you a checklist and then some ideas on how to execute what’s listed.

Participant Learning Transfer Checklist
1. ___ I can immediately apply what I learned in my work.
2. ___ What I learned provides a clearly better approach.
3. ___ What I learned will solve a problem or create an opportunity.
4. ___ I will get visible credit for achievement.

Immediate Applicability

Imagine that you are a participant in your program and that you have just returned to your work. From such a participant’s perspective, can you clearly articulate how and where you would apply what you have just learned?

Immediate applicability is a key lever to make Learning Transfer a priority. We see this every time in our 6Ds® Workshops when we ask, “What makes it the easiest for you to apply what you learned?“ The most common answer is, “I have an immediate opportunity to use it in my work.”

Here’s a quick test you can do to see if you have applicability nailed. Can you identify several examples to share with your participants about where this learning can be applied in the kind of work they do day to day? Then share it with them to get their feedback on whether your examples ring true and will be valuable enough that what they just learned will translate into priority actions they can immediately apply.

Clearly Better Approach

This next test is a step higher. Is the solution your participants will learn significantly better than their current best practice? To do something in a different way requires time and energy, so the only way to make Learning Transfer a priority is for participants to be able to see that the new learning will help them create visibly improved results. Otherwise, your participants will not make the effort.

To see if you passed this test from the participants’ point of view, ask them if what they learn will merit priority action compared to everything else they have on their plate.

Bring a Problem to Solve

This serves as both a final test and first step for Learning Transfer to become a reality. Given the work your participants are doing, what is a problem or opportunity you could ask them to bring? I learned this approach from Pete Cage of Agilent Technologies, because Agilent always has participants in their Manager Programs bring a real world challenge that what they learn during the program can solve. The easy way to think about this is how can you help your participants bring “work to learning” and then “learning to work.”

For example, when I teach the 6Ds Virtual Workshop, I ask each participant to bring a course they are responsible for to apply the 6Ds to. This helps me set-up the question of applicability and value because by the end of our workshops, each person has to give a presentation about where they have created the greatest value using the 6Ds.

Visible Credit for Achievement

If your participants know that others will give them credit for their efforts and improvements, they are much more likely to make Learning Transfer a priority. Here are three ways you can ensure that your participants get the credit they deserve:

1. Cue your participants about how to cue their colleagues to look for the improvements they are making. This does several things. By going public with others, your participants are much more likely to continue to take action and make progress.
2. Another way to do this is to automate the communication process. For example in ResultsEngine®, the managers of participants typically get a copy of their final update. Because participants know this will happen, they most often take advantage of it so that their managers will know what they have accomplished.
3. Finally, suggest to your participants that they take their workplace learning achievement stories to their annual performance review. If your participants discuss how they are doing their work better or differently because of what you taught them, they will give themselves a competitive advantage. Imagine the power of going into a performance review with a brief description of how you have applied what you learned and the improved results this new approach is having.

I invite you to share with me your best practices to make learning transfer a priority for your participants. My email is wick@forthillcompany.com. I would also like to invite you and your colleagues to join me for a complimentary webinar, “How to Make Learning Transfer a Priority for Training Participants,” on Tuesday, April 5 at 11:00am EST.

Join the conversation: The 6Ds LinkedIn Group and the FHC Blog

In the Chinese calendar, the Year of the Rabbit begins February 3, 2011. The Year of the Rabbit is a good time to stop, reassess, and begin anew.

In learning and development, 2011 should be the Year of Learning Transfer. This is a favorable year for talent development professionals worldwide to stop, reassess, and start with a renewed conviction about the importance of learning transfer and their responsibility to influence it.

Economic Growth Provides New Opportunities

The good news is that an economic recovery is underway. It isn’t happening as quickly as we all would like, and some industries are still lagging; but, nevertheless, training budgets are finally trending upward again.

The strategic question for learning leaders is how they will invest the additional resources they garner. One way, of course, is to rebuild the structures and approaches they had before the crash. That would fulfill Einstein’s definition of “insanity”—to continue doing the same thing and expect a different result. The alternative is to step back and take a different perspective on training’s mission and how best to achieve this within the new demands of today’s economy.

Competitive Pressure Demands Greater Productivity

While it is true that the money supply is improving, it is equally true that competitive pressures are as great as or greater than ever. Companies everywhere must constantly seek greater productivity in every function. Training is not exempt.

In recent years, training departments have focused primarily on the cost side of the equation—reducing cost by switching to e-learning, virtual classrooms, mobile learning, and so forth. But that strategy can only be extended so far. Ultimately, “you cannot save your way to success.” You have to improve effectiveness as well as efficiency.

And, from the business’s perspective, effectiveness means improved on-the-job performance. That’s the new finish line for learning, and achieving it requires effective learning transfer in addition to great learning (Figure 1).

Learning Transfer Is Training’s Achilles’ Heel

The fact is that while there is a lot of great training happening these days, learning transfer remains the weak link between training and results. When we recently asked 500 learning leaders what percent of participants actually improved their performance after training, the average response was 16%. When we asked the C-suite officers of a multi-billion dollar company, they said 10%.

Only one-quarter of respondents to a recent McKinsey & Company study said that their training programs measurably improved business performance. The problem is a lack of learning transfer between the training and the job. This is a problem that learning professionals need to address if we want to avoid yet another cycle of boom and bust. That’s in part why ASTD is sponsoring a series of live and virtual workshops this year to help members improve learning transfer.

Technical Advances Create New Capabilities

2011 should be the year of learning transfer because training needs to deliver greater value to justify greater investment, and because we finally have the tools, systems, and processes, like ResultsEngine®, to make support for learning transfer practical, scalable, and affordable.

Moreover, it makes economic sense. Comparative studies have demonstrated that adding learning transfer support boosts training’s value—including financial ROI (Wick, et al., 2010). In other words, you can get greater value from the same training program just by adding transfer support. Are you up to the challenge of producing—and proving—REAL results from your programs? Take the 6Ds Challenge, to see how you stack up against best practices, then Contact us to find out how we can help you extract greater value from the training you already provide.

Are You Results Ready?

Are you ready for the Year of Learning Transfer? To learn how you can build a stronger business case for Learning Transfer in your organization, please sign up for our FREE upcoming webinar, The Business Case For Learning Transfer, to be held on March 10, 2011.

• Question:

  Do you have any insights on how I can utilize the limited amount of L&D resources we will have available in 2011 to get the greatest impact?

• Answer:

  Yes, we do, as a result of our research for the second edition of The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning and two studies we recently completed. Both have strengthened our conviction that the single best opportunity for learning and development organizations to increase their value is to take greater ownership and invest more in learning transfer.

  It’s important that we do so. The McKinsey & Company study that Andy Jefferson discussed in the November LearningAlert! raises serious concerns about the effectiveness of training. Only one-quarter of the respondents said their training programs measurably improved business performance. McKinsey concluded, “The most important failures occur outside the classroom. By focusing on creating a receptive mind-set for training before it happens—and ensuring a supportive environment afterward—companies can dramatically improve the business impact of their training programs.”

  We concur because we continue to see organizations get additional value from the same training when they add post-course learning transfer support with online tools like ResultsEngine®.

  Additional insights come from a study we conducted as part of our continuous improvement efforts. We surveyed all the participants from a company that had used ResultsEngine in the past 12 months. Of the 161 responses, 72% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “The process of periodically updating my progress helped me improve my performance.” Respondents also confirmed the value of social networking through these tools: 80% looked at their classmates responses, and 68% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “I found it valuable to review what others in my class were doing.”

  In a second study, we analyzed 66,000 users from the ResultsEngine and Friday5s® web-based transfer support tools to gain insight into what drives learning transfer.

  The findings were unequivocal: managerial engagement is vital. In ResultsEngine, participants can ask for feedback on their progress from their manager. The more interest managers showed (by providing feedback through the system), the more effort participants made to transfer their learning (as measured by how many updates they completed). Participants whose managers made the effort to provide feedback completed 50% more updates than those without any manager involvement. More effort to apply learning translates into greater performance improvement.

  Amazingly, the influence of managers is so strong that just including managers in the participants’ online profile increased their post-course efforts! Participants whose ResultsEngine profile included their manager’s name completed, on average, 1/3 more updates than participants who did not have a manager as part of their profile—even when the manager provided no written feedback.

  Having a coach or “learning transfer” buddy also positively affected post-course transfer efforts, but to a much smaller degree than having managers involved. This confirms an American Express study that concluded, “An immediate leader has the potential to either make or break any training effort.”

  The bottom line is that if you want to boost learning’s impact with limited resources, invest in learning transfer tools and take steps to be sure managers are informed and engaged. Focusing on learning transfer will create a lot more value for you and your organization than other more expensive initiatives such as adding new courses or hiring inspirational speakers. Contact us to learn how.

  Join the conversation: The 6Ds LinkedIn Group and the FHC Blog

  Happy New Year from all of us at Fort Hill!

• Question:

  I recently received a copy of the October 2010 McKinsey Quarterly article titled Getting More From Your Training Programs. I was very interested in the degree of alignment between the recommendations contained in the article and your 6Ds™ model that seems designed to make those suggested improvements a reality. The article makes some specific recommendations about how to get more from training. Could you please share your views on how to use the 6Ds to bring the McKinsey recommendations to life i.e. to get great business results?

• Answer:

  We were delighted to see the article published by McKinsey regarding increasing the business impact from training. We agree that it aligns well with our broader message that learning should always be designed, delivered and supported in a way that will produce the maximum benefit to the business. The article’s authors (Aaron DeSmet, Monica McGurk, and Elizabeth Schwartz), highlighted five principal areas of focus: three which occur before training and two that are applicable after the formal instructional period. Let’s look at each recommendation and how Fort Hill’s 6Ds can be used to create a strategy for improvement.

  Before Training:

  The McKinsey authors correctly point out that we need to pay close attention to principles of adult learning. It is fundamental to adult learning that there be a clear line of sight to why a learning participant is going to expend the effort and energy to develop a new skill. In D2, Design the Complete Experience, a core area of focus is to ensure that participants come to the session with a clear and positive sense about why they are going to training and how the training aligns with their priority work as well as enables them to perform that work more successfully. This will make the process of “choosing to learn” much easier for participants and help drive higher learning transfer rates.

  The McKinsey article also calls notice to the importance of learner mindset. We have long recognized that expectations strongly influence an employee’s decision to fully participate in and utilize new learning. In The Six Disciplines book, we make the case that expectations will significantly influence outcomes. The expectations range from preconceived ideas about the work that training addresses to the actual training program itself. One very positive way to influence this is to ensure that participants are invited to the training in a way that serves to make relevance and WIIFM explicit. Try looking at invitations or descriptions of your learning programs. Would they motivate you to want to attend and then apply the learning? Is it clear from the description how the learning will impact their work? If not, try crafting a new invitation that will “sell” people on the program’s value to them and your organization.

  Getting the support of leaders is also a key point made by the McKinsey authors. We agree completely. Permeating all of the 6Ds is the idea that we need to have leader support in all elements of the process. This begins in D1, Defining Business Outcomes, by engaging leaders to ensure that the needs of the business are well understood and the learning is meeting those needs. It then extends throughout the learning process in the form of pre-program meetings between participants and their managers to set objectives that are tied to the work of the business and define practice opportunities post-program.

  Back in the Workplace:

  Another point of agreement between the McKinsey authors and Fort Hill is the critical need to reinforce new skills. Much research has been done regarding how people develop new skills. The general agreement is that learners must engage in deliberate practice after a learning intervention to begin assimilating the new skill and overcoming old habits. D4, Drive Learning Transfer, and D5, Deploy Performance Support, specifically deal with the concept of driving post-program learning transfer in an environment (transfer climate) that includes direct engagement from a learning participant’s manager and the opportunity to practice new skills with support and coaching. Our ResultsEngine® learning transfer technology is designed to support and facilitate this post-program period by enabling practice, coaching, content delivery and collaboration.

  The final and critical area focused on by the authors was the need to measure impact. McKinsey research found that less than 30% of companies surveyed used any kind of metric that measured the effectiveness of training. As we often point out in D6, Document Results, there is no way to know if you have hit a target if you are blindfolded. That is why we feel it is so important in D1, Define Business Outcomes, that the business need and ultimate measure of success are agreed to with the business leaders before the design of the program commences. By doing D1 well, you will then be well equipped to move onto D6 and document the value the learning has delivered in terms of improved business performance. We then encourage learning professionals to use that information to ensure that continuous improvement is a core part of all learning and change initiatives.

  The authors sum up by pointing out that learning can fail for many reasons, but the most important of those reasons occur outside the classroom. On this point we are in complete agreement. Our research has shown that in most instances it is not the instructional portion that breaks down, it is what happens before and after. That is why we encourage all learning professionals to design a complete learning experience that accounts for all four phases of learning:

  

  The goal of L&D should be to design a Complete Learning Experience. When all four phases of learning are comprehensively addressed, the systemic breakdowns which derail learning transfer can be mitigated, and great business results can be achieved.

  We are very excited to see a company of McKinsey’s stature examining the learning transfer issue and feel that their conclusions are completely in line with our original thinking when we first put pen to paper to create the Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning back in 2004. The level of awareness raised by the article and the increasing body of work supporting innovative ways to drive learning transfer has the potential to make 2011 the year learning transfer takes center stage in our industry and we collectively start delivering on the explicit promise of learning and development: improved business results! Thank you for the great question.

  Join the conversation: The 6Ds LinkedIn Group and the FHC Blog

• Question:

  I was unable to attend your recent Learning Transfer Summit. Could you please share a few highlights? Also, when will next year’s Summit be held? I want to be sure to save the dates.

• Answer:

  We are sorry you couldn’t join us this year— feedback from those in attendance indicates that this was our best Summit yet! We have outlined below some of the key learning points from the Summit along with some of the fun anecdotes. By the time you have read this email, I hope you have a clear understanding of:

  1. What was covered
  2. The benefits participants took away from the Summit
  3. And, at least one thing you might try differently tomorrow

  Fort Hill’s annual Learning Transfer Summit brings together some of the industry’s top thought leaders, progressive learning professionals, and FHC’s clients and friends to share ideas, insights, challenges, and what’s working to advance the value of learning and development. This year’s Summit was held in Philadelphia and was organized around four themes:

  1. Partnering for Performance
  2. Learning as a Process
  3. Driving Learning Transfer
  4. Delivering on the Promise

  The first theme, Partnering for Performance, focused on how learning organizations can strengthen their partnerships with the business. This session’s keynote speaker was Keith Dugdale from Brisbane, Australia, who shared thought-provoking insights from his best-selling book, Smarter Selling. Keith explained how learning and development leaders need to give their internal clients value in every meeting. He also explained how L&D leaders can use the first minute of any meeting to demonstrate the value they will bring to the meeting, inviting the client to want to be in the meeting:

  I – I am meeting with you today to discuss Learning and Development’s agenda for 2011.
  We – We will need to talk first about your organizational priorities so that I understand them. Then, we can discuss how L&D can support those priorities.
  You – By the end of our meeting, you will have a clearer picture of how we can support the business in achieving its top priorities and what you can do to help make this a reality.
  Does that sound like a good use of our time today?

  Keith’s keynote was followed with breakout presentations by Maryann Billington, a partner from Korn/Ferry and Diane Hinton, head of Plastipak Academy, who shared what they have done to become trusted business partners.

  The second theme, Learning as a Process, featured a keynote from Al Switzler, co-founder of Vital Smarts and co-author of the best-selling books, Influencer and Crucial Conversations. Drawing on the groundbreaking research in Influencer, Al explained that there are six sources of influence that impact ability and motivation at the personal, social, and structural level.

  

  © VitalSmarts, All Rights Reserved

  Successful change agents employ multiple sources of influence. Fort Hill’s 6Ds methodology applies the following concept to training and development: to truly change behavior and improve performance requires managing the transfer climate—aligning multiple sources of influence to help people change in a positive direction. Robert Sachs, Vice President of Learning and Development at Kaiser Permanente and Gary Walljasper, Head of Organizational Development for Principal Financial, explained how they are leveraging the 6Ds in their learning organizations to establish a common language and manage learning as a results-focused process.

  Fort Hill’s Chief Learning Officer, Roy Pollock, led off the third module—Driving Learning Transfer—with an exploration of why it is vital for learning organizations to invest time and resources to improve learning transfer. The performance improvement the business is looking for is the product of learning and learning transfer—both must be present to achieve training’s goal.

  Karen Rice, Sales Training Director at Unum, discussed the strategy and tools that Unum uses to maximize learning transfer and shorten the time to productivity for new hires. Geoff Rip, Strategy Director of the Institute for Learning Practitioners illustrated what happens when learning transfer is left to chance:

  

  The final module, Delivering on the Promise, began with a panel discussion featuring Andrew Wojecki from ExxonMobil, Maryann Billington from Korn/Ferry, and Glenn Hughes from KLA-Tencor. Glenn stressed that to deliver maximum value, learning and development must first get crystal clear on its mission. Once he and his colleagues had agreed their role was to accelerate learning at KLA-Tencor, then it was easier to prioritize their work and even refuse projects that didn’t contribute to the overall mission. Maryann gave a thoughtful discussion about what delivering on the promise means in the context of a company like Korn/Ferry, which has one of the premier brands in business. Andrew discussed what it meant to stand in the role of a business partner and deliver value through learning that ultimately drives business results.

  Robert Terry, Managing Director of ASK Europe, reviewed the research on learning transfer and explained what his firm has been doing over the past five years to make transfer an integral part of their process. Jerry Frasso, Corporate Employee Relations Manager of UPS, showed how soft skills training in building relationships produced hard business results and how adding learning transfer support further boosted the impact.

  Summit participants agreed that they came away with new thinking and tools to increase the value of their learning functions. They also placed high value on the networking opportunities and candid roundtable discussion sessions throughout the Summit.

  And, finally, in regard to your second question: We are excited to announce the 2011 Learning Transfer Summit will be held in San Francisco, CA on October 12-13, 2011. In order to continue the tradition of small group sharing of best practices, the Summit will be limited to the first 50 attendees, so please let us know if you expect to attend.

  Join the conversation: The 6Ds LinkedIn Group and the FHC Blog

• Question:

  Over the next three months, 150 of my employees will be attending a training program. How can I ensure that the time and money invested will pay off? What advice can you give me for making sure they apply what they’ve learned when they return to their jobs?

• Answer:

  Learning transfer has always been the greatest challenge in training and development. Action on two fronts is needed to meet this challenge. In the 6Ds™ Methodology these two areas are D4: Drive Learning Transfer and D5: Deploy Performance Support. Implementing D4 and D5 will ensure your employees apply their new skills and that you get your money’s worth from the training.

  ACTION 1: Drive Learning Transfer

  Learning Transfer is the process of putting learning to work in a way that improves performance. Your employees need to understand that “the real work begins when the training ends.” That is, their training is not finished until they have used what they have learned to improve their work.

  Three specific things you can do to Drive Learning Transfer (D4) when participants get back to work are:

  1. Define Specific Actions and Outcomes: Provide your employees with a schedule of events for the post-course period, including an agenda, assignments and deadlines. Give them assignments that require them to use their new skills and knowledge to accomplish existing objectives. Teresa Roche, the CLO of Agilent Technologies, has used this tactic, stating, “If they have to do the work anyway, then the application of learning goes from being an added burden to a gifted blessing.”
  2. Reminders: Just as we use an alarm clock to wake up and an electronic calendar to remind us of meetings, reminders are important to wake up your participant to the need for putting learning into action. Reminders also help keep learning top of mind and improve transfer rates. Send them periodic reminders of the need to use their training.
  3. Accountability: Give your employees a clear and tangible finish line for demonstrating improved performance as a result of the training. Set a date and a mechanism by which each employee will be able to demonstrate or explain—and be recognized for—the progress they have made.

  ACTION 2: Provide Performance Support

  The fifth discipline of the 6Ds is to Deploy Performance Support. That is, to be sure that employees can get the help they need as they begin to practice their new skills. Essential support includes:

  1. Manager Involvement: Research proves that if a manager is engaged, then employees will be engaged. Four things you can do to get managers involved are:

  1. Prior to the course, tell managers what the content will be, what the expected business outcomes are, and the What’s In It For Me (WIIFM) when their direct reports apply their learning.
  2. Ask the manager to have a brief conversation prior to the training to underscore its importance and define key areas of focus.
  3. Encourage the manager to have a conversation after the training program to define an outcome goal of what their direct report will accomplish within two months of the training.
  4. Hold a payoff meeting that includes trainees and their managers in which direct reports share what they have achieved.

  2. Coaching and Feedback: Build coaching and feedback into the post-course learning transfer period. Good examples of coaches include managers, a respected peer, a subject matter expert, or someone who has taken the same course and successfully applied it.
  3. Electronic Performance Support: Our research shows that learning transfer is maximized by five factors: Reminders, Action Reflection, Content, Coaching, and Collaboration.
     
     The problem is how to provide these efficiently for a large number of learners. Ask your training department to look into using ResultsEngine® to make this possible. It is a powerful tool. This past month, for example, I have been using ResultsEngine to work with participants who are all in one program but are located around the globe. The system automatically reminds participants to make time to reflect on actions taken, lessons learned, and next steps. It makes it easy for participants to collaborate and for me to track their progress and provide coaching and encouragement.

  I am interested in hearing about the best practices others have developed.

  Join the conversation: The 6Ds LinkedIn Group and the FHC Blog