Article Published on - Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 2:41 am Click here to Comment!

The first few days of ASTD 2012 have been packed with great sessions. Below are the top rated insights from Monday and Tuesday of this year’s conference.

If you haven’t submitted an insight, there’s still time (click button at end of this post). We’ve extended the most valuable insight contest to Friday to give everyone the opportunity to share insights from today’s sessions… so keep them coming! If you know someone who would like to participate, send them to Booth #932 before the Expo Hall closes. We’ll send an iPad to the person with the highest rated insight as of Friday, May 11 at 9am PDT.

1. Insight from the session with Jim Collins –number one skill for successful executives is to select the right people (that is in his words to get the right people on the right seat of the bus). Then what separates a level 4 leader (good) from a level 5 leader (great) is humility and perseverance.

2. In attending the M205 session (Learning Transfer Guaranteed) I had a significant ahha!! By changing my previous learning objectives to business objectives I create value, align with what is most important, instill ownership in participants and help managers know what to expect for follow up. Not to mention I work at getting a seat at the table since I am linking training to business needs. Thanks much!! It will be a career changer.

3. Our value as L&D professionals is to improve performance. If we are not achieving business outcomes we are not adding value.

4. Quit thinking learning objectives, think performance objectives. It’s not “what you will learn,” but “what you will do” on the job!

5. Monday general session: make a “stop doing” list to reduce busy-ness and focus on what really matters.

6. From Jim Collins: life can be a series of transactions or it can be a series of relationships. Make meaning of your life and build those relationships. Be in service to others.

7. Fanatic discipline is critical – consistently hitting your mark (or the 20 mile march as Jim Collins describes it) every single time. Equally important to achieving your march is to resist the temptation of try to too far exceed it!

8. An overarching theme I’ve heard is, “begin with the end in mind.” Therefore, to go from ‘good to great’ we must prepare the new finish line of learning by planning for the business outcomes we need to see for success.

9. That we, as Learning professionals, need to speak in the specific business terms of those we are speaking to, in order to gain the credibility and respect needed to be effective at each level in the organization.

10. In his keynote, Jim Collins posed these three questions which have caused me to pause and reflect: What are you passionate about? What are you wired for? Where can you be useful in ways that society values? I have thought about how I would apply these questions to me personally, how I can use them with my direct team, and how I can use them when developing future leaders.

Stop by Booth #932 to sign-up for a Free Trial and learn more about how to use We Achieve to collect and identify the most compelling insights, actions, and achievements in your organization! Remember signing up for a free account will double your chances to win an iPad.

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Article Published on - Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 10:17 am Click here to Comment!

On May 7,  Fort Hill launched our new product, We Achieve™ at the ASTD International Conference and Exposition in Denver. It is quickly becoming the buzz of the conference!

The only tool of its kind, We Achieve is a break-through application that incorporates attributes of surveys, interviews, and peer validation to crowdsource compelling insights and achievements. ASTD ICE attendees have been using We Achieve to share, learn from, and vote on the most compelling insights from this year’s conference. On the final day of the conference, we will be sharing the top rated insights with all the participants, and the person with the highest rated insight will win a new iPad.

Day 1 Leader Board:

1. From Jim Collins:  Life can be a series of transactions or it can be a series of relationships. Make meaning of your life and build those relationships. Be in service to others.

2. Listened to Jim Collins this morning. Particularly liked his emphasis on humility as essential to great leaders. So true, but why? I think it’s that humility opens leaders up to curiosity, learning lessons from others, using data that surprises… thus a humble leader, person, will be continuously learning, which is nothing but good.

3. The processes of brain plasticity occurs not when we are awake, but when we are asleep. David Rock and Jessica Payne suggesting that sometimes we just need to go to sleep! (ok, off to take my nap!)

4. Great quote from Arie de Geus at the Global Panel for Learning Transfer… “learning is the only true competitive advantage.” Learn faster than your competitors or fall behind.

5. The insight from the session with Jim Collins that had the greatest impact on me is that the number one skill for successful executives is to select the right people (that is in his words to get the right people on the right seat of the bus). Then what separates a level 4 leader (good) from a level 5 leader (great) is humility and perseverance.

If you or your colleagues are attending the conference, swing by Fort Hill’s Booth #932 to participate and see the We Achieve Leader Board streaming live.

If you are not here in Denver with us, no worries. Click here to see a brief video showing how We Achieve can make achievements contagious in your organization; we will be in touch with more information.

Article Published on - Friday, May 4, 2012 at 4:34 am Click here to Comment!

Are you or any of your colleagues attending the 2012 ASTD ICE in Denver next week?  If so, you won’t want to miss the opportunity to be among the first ever to experience Fort Hill Company’s exciting new product, We Achieve™, which leverages state of the art crowdsourcing capabilities to revolutionize the way learning leaders demonstrate the impact of their training initiatives.

The only tool of its kind, We Achieve is a break-through application that incorporates attributes of surveys, interviews, and peer validation to crowdsource compelling insights and achievements.

Fort Hill will be offering We Achieve for use during ASTD 2012 in a fun and exclusive contest where conference participants will be able to share and vote on the most compelling insights they experience throughout the event. On the final day of the conference, we will create a list of the top insights (as voted on by you and your peers) that will be shared with all of the attendees and presenters, and the participant with the highest rated insight will be awarded a brand new IPad.

To participate, you can either provide your email address to a Fort Hill representative at our Booth #932, or send an email to weachieve@forthillcompany.com, and you’ll automatically be entered in the contest. We look forward to seeing you in Denver and harnessing the collective wisdom from all the great minds in our field!

If you are not able to attend the conference but would like to learn more, please email us at info@forthillcompany.com and we’ll contact you to schedule a brief call to discuss how We Achieve can easily and affordably add more value to your programs and initiatives.

Article Published on - Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 7:47 am Click here to Comment!

Recording of Michael Papay’s “Turn on the Results; Plug the all new ResultsEngine® into your Training Programs” Webinar conducted on April 16, 2012:

Article Published on - Friday, April 6, 2012 at 2:36 am Click here to Comment!

Question: Why is there so much interest in Achievement Stories as an output of learning and development initiatives?

Answer: Great question! As you’ve seen in our last few Learning Alerts, there has been a great deal of focus within Fort Hill on achievement this year. We thought it might be helpful to discuss why we see Achievement Stories as such a valuable asset to the learning and development community. We also want to share some exciting news about a new innovation we have been working on to support the collection and sharing of Achievement Stories.

Research

In the latter half of 2011, Fort Hill set out to discover the greatest problems experienced by learning and development leaders. We first conducted interviews with over 50 L&D professionals from around the globe, focusing on identifying problems or challenges related to their learning and development initiatives.

The thematic analysis of those interviews identified six challenges (I guess we have a thing for the number six!) that were consistent and pervasive enough to warrant further investigation:

Of these, we concluded that demonstrating business results was a challenge that nearly all learning leaders experience regularly and where few are satisfied with existing solutions. Because few currently available products, services, or methods are adequately addressing this problem, most learning leaders agree that having the ability to clearly articulate the ways learning initiatives produce results for the organization would be of significant value.

Solution

One thing we heard in the interviews is that demonstrating business results often requires both qualitative and quantitative data, which can be difficult to collect. In our work over the last decade, we’ve consistently seen how a well told story that illustrates how a participant used their learning to create something valuable in their organization is a very simple and powerful way to demonstrate results. This led us to the development of Achievement Stories as the basis for a solution to this problem.

We also repeatedly heard that any tool participants are expected to utilize must be easy to use and work within their existing systems and processes. This led us to envision a tool that would allow the requesting and submitting of achievements to take place over email, a process that is both familiar and completely mobile. The tool would also ask participants to rate each other’s stories, which would create a crowdsourced, ranked order of the most compelling achievements from the group. Having participants determine which stories are most compelling creates a social environment where participants are learning from their combined achievements and, at the same time, providing learning leaders with examples that best demonstrate the results taking place.

Validation

Having determined a specific problem and a possible solution, we proceeded to conduct a series of surveys to probe further. Surveys were completed by over 600 respondents, including learning leaders, business leaders outside L&D, and learners themselves. The purpose of this validation was to confirm that each group of respondents was aware of the problem and saw value in the solution.

We asked each group of respondents to:

Over 70% of learning leaders indicated that a tool like this would create a lot of value or solve one of their biggest problems. Business leaders also confirmed such a tool would be similarly valuable. And, perhaps most importantly, greater than 75% of learners themselves said that this tool would be somewhat or very valuable to them.

In addition to seeing the value of such a tool, 75% of learners said they would be able to submit an example of an achievement resulting from an initiative.

Learners also confirmed that they would be interested in and comfortable with seeing and rating the achievements submitted by their peers.

In all cases, each group indicated that they are capable and would find value in participating in a collaborative process for collecting and rating achievements from learning.

Social Data Collection

One thing that has always been lacking in the traditional top-down means of collecting data (surveys, interviews, etc.) is that the person providing the data rarely has access to see and learn from the input of others. This is why we are so excited about the crowdsourced method of collecting and identifying the actions, achievements, and results occurring after L&D initiatives. It truly represents an improved way of collecting data. Engaging learners to share and rate the results they’ve achieved creates a social environment where they are seeing and learning from each other’s successes.

Thank You!

We would be remiss if we didn’t thank all who participated in this research by either agreeing to be interviewed or by completing a survey. It is this research and our experience working with many of you that helps us understand how and where to focus our efforts.

Please visit Fort Hill’s Booth #932 at the upcoming ASTD 2012 International Conference in Denver this May to learn more about our exciting new product, We Achieve™, which helps demonstrate results from learning by engaging participants to describe an achievement made after a learning initiative. If you would be interested in piloting We Achieve with one of your programs, please email me at tanner@forthillcompany.com. We would love for your participants to be able to experience the social power of achievements!

Additionally, be sure to attend our upcoming complimentary live webinar, “Using Achievement Stories to Demonstrate Value Delivered and Improved Performance” on Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 11:00am EDT, where details on using Achievement Stories to create added value for participants, managers, sponsors, and learning leaders will be shared.

Article Published on - Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 2:51 am Click here to Comment!

Recording of Dr. Roy Pollock’s “On Beyond ADDIE: An Introduction to the 6Ds and Learning Transfer” Webinar:

Article Published on - Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 8:57 am Click here to Comment!

Question:
We followed your advice from Learning Alert #55 and your webinar on collecting stories of achievement. We’ve got some great ones; what are the best ways to use them?

Answer:
I am glad – but not surprised – that collecting stories of achievement has been valuable. Now comes the good part: sharing them. Initially, we expected that the primary value of such stories was sharing them with Executive Sponsors as a powerful way to illustrate impact. But there are at least four audiences and 11 ways to use Achievement Stories™ (stories that illustrate visible and valuable improvement catalyzed by learning).

A. Participants

Achievement Stories can help current and future participants in many ways. They are powerful teaching tools to help shift the paradigm from “learning as an event” to “learning as a process” that delivers improved business outcomes.

B. Managers of Participants

Achievement Stories should be shared with managers of participants to illustrate that – as Teresa Roche, the CLO of Agilent Technologies, so aptly put it: “learning is a part of work and not apart from work.”

C. Executive Sponsors of a Learning Initiative

The question Executive Sponsors want answered is, “what did I get for my investment in Learning and Development?” Stories, in general, are powerful and memorable communication vehicles.

D. Build the Learning Organization and Company Brand

Imagine if your Learning Organization became known not just for delivering great learning, but also for consistently delivering improved performance. Achievement Stories can help you achieve this. Use Achievement Stories to:

In Conclusion

Achievement Stories are a powerful adjunct to other evaluation strategies. They are important to bring the results to life and make them memorable; for some courses, Achievement Stories suffice. If you are not already collecting Achievement Stories, start doing so. You will find they have many valuable uses.

To learn more, attend my upcoming complimentary webinar, “Using Achievement Stories to Demonstrate Value Delivered and Improved Performance” on Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 11:00am EDT, where details on using Achievement Stories to create added value for participants, managers, sponsors, and learning leaders will be shared.

Tell Us Your Thoughts:

Please take a minute to complete a Short Poll we have created on LinkedIn to vote on what use of Achievement Stories would be most valuable to you.

Additionally, we would love to hear from you! Please share with us examples of how you are collecting and using Achievement Stories in your organization.

Article Published on - Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 7:37 am Click here to Comment!

In this inaugural LearningAlert! for 2012, let’s review what we as learning professionals accomplished in 2011 and then look ahead to the exciting developments in L&D we can expect in 2012.

The Year of Learning Transfer

2011 was the Year of Learning Transfer. Recognition of the importance of learning transfer reached an all-time high; numerous studies and articles underscored the importance of making sure that learning is put to work rather than languishing at the classroom door. Examples include:

• McKinsey & Company, in an article entitled “Getting more from your training programs,” was blunt: “To improve results from training programs, executives must focus on what happens in the workplace before and after employees go to class.”
• ESI conducted an extensive study of learning transfer, involving more than 3,000 learning professionals. They concluded that while most learning organizations recognize the importance of learning transfer, very few have processes in place to ensure or measure it. A copy of the report is available on the ESI website.
• Robert Terry, Executive Chairman of ASK Europe, and a long-time Fort Hill partner, conducted the first-ever national survey of transfer and application practice in the UK. You can request a copy of the results from the ASK website.
• Michael Leinbach and Ed Emde of Wilson Learning published an article called “The 80/20 Rule for Learning Transfer,” in which they cited research that showed “significant increases in the use of skills resulting from well-designed, efficient learning transfer activities” and “20 percent of learning transfer activities…create 80 percent of the impact.”
• ASTD partnered with Fort Hill to offer two Learning Transfer Conferences in 2011. Three more are scheduled for 2012. Visit the ASTD website for more information or to register for one of these conferences.

What’s Next?

We see 2012 as the Year of Achievement, in which the focus of L&D professionals will shift increasingly toward ensuring and documenting achievement after training. Cal Wick has long talked about the “New Finish Line for Learning”- the idea that training doesn’t end on the last day of class, but only when there has been successful application and achievement on the job. Learning transfer will continue to be the critical link between training and achievement, but we believe that achievement will take on increasing importance in the year ahead.

In the first edition of The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning, we described the three phases of corporate learning as:

In the second edition, we recognized that there was a fourth and critical phase that was overlooked in most training and development programs – giving the learners a sense of achievement:

Focusing on achievement through applied learning gives participants a clear and more relevant finish line for the program. It improves effort, focus and learning transfer. Achievement is contagious and releases an innate drive that everyone has: the desire to contribute and be recognized. Providing a mechanism – as part of the course design – for participants to report their achievements is a powerful source of intrinsic motivation, which, as Daniel Pink described in his book, Drive, is far more powerful than extrinsic rewards.

Now that more and more learning professionals are embracing the importance of learning transfer, it is time to turn our attention to highlighting and capturing the ultimate goal of training – achievement in terms of improved performance.

To that end, we have been working on the concept of an Achievement Roadmap™ to help learners visualize the journey on which they are embarking, the ultimate goal, and the steps to get there. Join us for a complimentary webinar on February 7 if you would like to learn more. Register here.

Lastly, in 2012, we will add enhancements to ResultsEngine® to make it even easier to capture and highlight achievements as well as new technology to help learning leaders demonstrate the impact of their programs.

Throughout this year, we will provide ideas through LearningAlert!s, webinars, and the 6Ds of Breakthrough Learning LinkedIn Group on how to make 2012 the Year of Achievement for you and your learners. As always, we welcome your ideas and comments.

Article Published on - Friday, January 27, 2012 at 6:41 am Click here to Comment!

In this concluding article, Sydney, Australia-based learning transfer expert, Emma Weber, CEO of Lever Learning, interviews Fort Hill’s Chief Learning Officer, Dr. Roy Pollock. Roy shares his insights about the role of the manager in regard to learning transfer and clearly shows why this issue will become a significant priority for L&D professionals everywhere.

We encourage your input on the subject and look forward to your engagement. Thank you for your continued participation in this important global topic.

T & D article Interview with Dr. Roy Pollock (2)

Article Published on - Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 9:01 am Click here to Comment!

Question:
As a learning professional, I am frustrated by what seems to be an obsessive focus on training’s shortcomings. I can’t attend a conference or listen to a webcast without hearing about what’s broken in learning and development. Sure, we have lots of opportunities to improve—every function does—but, surely, there is a lot going on in training and development that is positive. So, my question is this: What do we do right? What are strengths on which we can build to produce great results for our organizations and trainees?

Answer:
Great question! Take learning transfer as an example. Learning transfer is the process of putting learning to work in a way that improves performance. There is no question that in many programs, it is the weak link. But, you could also say that the learning transfer glass is partially full. There are many programs after which learning gets put to work in ways that really do improve results. So, rather than focusing on what is broken in learning transfer, we could explore what is working and start to build on those strengths.

That’s the fundamental rationale for appreciative inquiry. Appreciative inquiry is very different than traditional business problem-solving. Instead of always starting with “what’s wrong,” appreciative inquiry assumes that the potential—or capacity—for exceptional performance is already present in every organization; that there are many things already being done well, resulting in outstanding performance. The goal is to learn from and build on these strengths, rather than always looking to “fix problems.” Appreciative inquiry rejects the deficit approach and instead asks the question, how can we do more of what we are really good at to drive performance.

By way of illustration, compare how typical corporate problem-solving and appreciative inquiry would approach the same issue. In their excellent book, “Appreciative Inquiry,” Barrett and Fry frame the example this way: Suppose that you were in a company that was experiencing an employee turnover rate substantially higher than the industry average. The knee-jerk reaction is: “let’s figure out why 15% of our employees are leaving.” Appreciative inquiry would reframe the question as: “let’s find out why 85% of our employees choose to stay, so we can further strengthen those areas with the result that 90% or 95% choose to stay.” (Barrett & Fry, Appreciative Inquiry, Chagrin Falls, OH, Taos Institute, 2005) The first approach leads to a disheartening laundry list of what is broken; appreciative inquiry leads to creative and positive ideas to make those things that are working even better.

In October, I had the privilege of putting these ideas into practice on the topic of learning transfer with a large group of talented learning professionals from many different organizations at Fort Hill’s annual Learning Transfer Summit. We began the session by exploring what we currently are doing well, by having participants tell about a time or program in which learning transfer was outstanding. Using that as a positive platform, we then shifted to creating a future vision three years from now.

Building on the things we are already doing well, we were able to describe an exciting and positive future for our profession. We included the already taken actions and the impact they produce when we are at our best. The following is the future we envisioned through appreciative inquiry; I hope you will agree it is much more energizing than a list of problems to fix. Our thanks to all the LTS attendees who helped create it. Now let’s make it happen!

Vision Generated by Appreciative Inquiry

October 2014 – Much has happened in the three years since we met at the LTS in San Francisco to envision a positive future for learning and development.

Nowadays, learning is co-designed with our internal clients, so that business outcomes are clear and participant’s job relevance obvious. The learners’ perceptions of relevance and utility are tracked routinely, and programs are adjusted whenever a disconnect is detected.

Learning design emphasizes work as the practice field; the learning intervention is conceived as the catalyst that launches our participants onto the “Achievement Highway™.” Specific plans to support learning transfer are now built into all instructional designs. As a result, high levels of learning transfer are consistently achieved, producing competitive advantage; transformational business results are now the norm. Soft skills programs achieve the same levels of transfer and application as technical and compliance training.

The CEO (formerly the CLO of the organization) ensures that all leaders appreciate the strategic importance learning can have, provide support for their employees’ learning, and are active participants in the process. Performance improvement through learning is embraced as a shared responsibility between management and the training department. Demonstrated learning agility is a key criterion for selection as a high-potential employee. Leaders throughout the organization are exemplars of continuous learning and cite the ability to learn and adapt as an important factor in their success. Learning and development professionals have a seat at the table and a voice in the discussion of any new strategy; the CEO requires that every business plan includes a discussion of the new skills and knowledge needed for its execution. Senior business and learning leaders work together to develop an annual learning plan that is closely linked to the business strategy and focused on the highest priority needs and opportunities. Learning and development earned its seat at the table by delivering—and documenting—improved performance in business-relevant measures.

Across the entire enterprise, every participant is expected to deliver visible and valuable improvement as part of the learning process. Credit for completing programs is granted only when competent on-the-job application is apparent. Achievements are documented in a way that can be verified and shared broadly across the organization. Active measurement and evaluation ensure that learning is delivering on its promise, as well as continuously improves. The commitment to delivering and continuously improving business results has transformed the learning function from a cost center to an acknowledged contributor to top- and bottom-line performance.

This future was achieved by learning leaders who were courageous in their execution, who viewed themselves as true strategic partners, and who, as a result, took calculated risks to try new approaches to integrate learning into the business.

The Road Ahead

As we look forward to the New Year, let’s envision the future we want for ourselves and our learning colleagues. Let’s be mindful of what we already do well, and ask—through an appreciative inquiry—how we can use the elements of excellence that already exist in ourselves and our organizations to create the future we want.

To continue your learning, be sure to attend our upcoming complimentary webinar, “Using an Achievement Roadmap™ to Create Valuable Business Results,” on Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 11:00am EST.



Article Published on - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 9:02 am Click here to Comment!

Question:

In the July Learning Alert, you talked about getting participants to tell an Achievement Story about putting their learning to work. Can you explain why and give an example?

• It gives participants a concrete finish line to shoot for. If they know that by a specific date, they will be expected to tell an Achievement Story, then they will need to have achieved something to talk about. If they know their manager will be included, that provides additional incentive.
• It also gives participants a way to communicate and get credit for their efforts and results.
• Lastly, achievement stories are powerful ways for the learning organization to communicate the value of training programs, both to management and to future attendees.

What Goes Into an Achievement Story?

The following questions will help participants frame their Achievement Story:

An Example

The following example is an achievement story told by a sales team leader following a program on holding more productive and authentic conversations:

Next Steps

Choose a strategically important course where it is vital for participants to apply what they learn.

Inform them that they will be expected to tell their Achievement Story and when. Include their managers and other key stakeholders. Consider using ResultsEngine® to help keep them on track and to automate the capture and dissemination of stories.

Select the most compelling stories, verify them, and tell them frequently to communicate the value of the program to the business sponsors and the value of learning transfer to participants.

To learn more, attend my upcoming complimentary webinar, “Using an Achievement Roadmap™ to Create Valuable Business Results,” on Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 11:00am EST, where details on using the Achievement Roadmap™ will be given to help participants get great Achievement Stories as well as using ResultsEngine as a GPS to create even greater learning value.

Article Published on - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 3:55 am Click here to Comment!

When the APi Group created their L&D Department, it was estimated that between 8%-10% of those participating in organizationally funded soft skill training programs (primarily leadership development) achieved level three transfer (using the new knowledge/skills gained from training upon return to their jobs). At this time, only level one participant surveys were being used for measurement and evaluation purposes.

The department made several changes in their learning design and evaluation procedures in order to increase level three / four learning transfer. These included:

• The creation of pre-course contracts that required participants and their supervisors to discuss the course, the reasons for attendance, and to formalize two initial participant goals for the course.
• An experiential learning design that gave participants an opportunity to apply their learning to a real work problem they brought with them to the class (formalized in their pre-work). Using tools provided in class, participants created an action plan that could be implemented immediately upon return to their jobs.
• Employing Fort Hill Company’s ResultsEngine® in order to facilitate the completion of two formalized course related goals, which were set at the end of the classroom portion of the course. ResultsEngine supported the transfer and application of learning on the job and its data-mining and report generation capabilities enabled them to convincingly demonstrate the measurement and evaluation of level 3 / 4 learning transfer.

Over a three year period, these changes have achieved the following results:

• 81% of training participants either achieved or made significant progress with their two course goals (indicating change in behavior).
• 79% of training participants state that their performance on the job improved due to their involvement in the course and follow-through program.
• 96% of the participants’ supervisors state that they observed course related participant performance improvement.

The APi Group’s learning function is now a strategic business tool that is getting tangible results and has been given an ASTD 2011 BEST Award.

Article Published on - Friday, October 21, 2011 at 8:21 pm Click here to Comment!

What would you ask a human capital and organizational development expert about how to better leverage training to drive performance improvement?

T & D article Interview with Dr. Roy Pollock (1)

Article Published on - Friday, September 16, 2011 at 3:45 am Click here to Comment!

Question:

I have been reading Rita Smith’s new book, Strategic Learning Alignment. She makes the point that learning organizations need to make a business case for learning. What about learning transfer? Is it possible to make a business case for investing time and resources in learning transfer?

It is, and you should.

We agree whole-heartedly with Smith when she writes: “The only reason that learning functions exist is to drive business outcomes” (p. 10). Training and development drives business outcomes by equipping people with new skills and knowledge, that when applied to their work improve performance, resulting in better service, higher revenues, improved quality and so forth, which collectively produce a competitive advantage for the organization (Figure 1 below shows the path by which learning creates value).

It is clear from the sequence of events that realizing the business benefits depends on BOTH high-quality training to impart vital skills and knowledge AND on the transfer of those skills to the work of the individual and firm. When there is no transfer, there are no benefits.

Unfortunately, transfer is the weak link in most corporate training initiatives. For example, ESI recently polled 3,200 learning professionals about the effectiveness of learning transfer. The majority felt it was less than 50%, many much lower. In other words, in their organizations, more than half the training effort is wasted for lack of transfer to the job.

This, improving learning transfer, represents a huge opportunity for training and development to increase the value it delivers. That is why a recent research report by Bersin & Associates stated: “Based on our research, we expect learning transfer support to be a major differentiator for high-impact learning organizations in the next 10 years.”

The Payoff

Improving learning transfer makes sound economic sense. Here is an example based on not atypical numbers: XYZ company runs a program for 100 participants that costs $1,000 each. When they evaluate the results three months later, they find that only 20% of the participants applied what they learned; but those that did generated, on average, an additional $6,000 each for the company in new revenue and cost savings. So, the ROI is good: 20% on this investment of $100,000 (Table 1).

Table 1: ROI Analysis for Program A

The learning team, however, is convinced they can do better. So, they invest some of their time and resources in a learning transfer support system and materials. The effort increases the cost per participant by $200 each or 20%. On analysis three months later, they find they have only increased the transfer rate from 20% to 30%. So, the question from a business leader’s point of view is: Was spending the extra money worth it?

Now let’s look at the analysis for Program A+ (the same program + support for learning transfer) in Table 2.

Table 2: ROI Analysis for Program A+

The results are quite startling. Increasing the cost of the program 20% by investing in learning transfer increases the ROI two-and-a-half times! Note that the value per participant who used their learning did not change; it shouldn’t since the course was exactly the same. All that changed was the percent of people who diligently applied what they learned.

We often hear learning professionals say that they have no additional budget for supporting learning transfer. If that is true, then an alternative that should be evaluated is: What would happen if you trained fewer employees and used the cost savings to support learning transfer? Would that produce better results than continuing to train so many with such a low yield?

Let’s do the math. If we use the preceding example of Program A+ (with support) but instead of adding budget for learning transfer, we reduce the number of participants trained so that we stay within the $100,000 allocated, then the results would look like this:

Table 3: ROI Analysis for Program A+ with Fewer Participants

Surprisingly, this approach produces both a higher total dollar return as well as a higher percent ROI than the base case (the program with no transfer support). In other words, you can often create greater value by training fewer people and investing the savings to make sure that those you do train put their learning to work.

What accounts then for the huge increase in value realized? It is because the current level of transfer is so low. In most programs, 75% or more of the potential value goes unrealized (Figure 2 below). We only need to capture a small portion of the unrealized value to dramatically improve the overall outcome.

Don’t take our word for it. Prove it to yourself by plugging numbers for your own training program into our free online Impact Calculator.

The bottom line is this: There is a strong business case for investing some of next year’s budget and time in support for learning transfer. The investment will be repaid many times over in superior results. Indeed, if business managers appreciated how much value was being “left on the table,” they would want to know why you aren’t investing in learning transfer.

Want to learn more?

Attend ASTD’s Learning Transfer Conference in November, where you will have the opportunity to do a deep dive into creating a healthy transfer climate and exchange best practices with learning professionals around the country. To learn more about using the learning transfer management system ResultsEngine®, click here.

Article Published on - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 7:34 am Click here to Comment!

As part of our commitment to help advance the learning profession, Fort Hill Company is pleased to offer the following educational webinars at no cost to you. Two new webinars introducing the 6Ds® have just been added. Click on the below titles to learn more and register:

September 13, 2011: The Business Case for Learning Transfer- Dr. Roy Pollock
In this engaging and interactive webinar, Dr. Roy Pollock, Chief Learning Officer of Fort Hill Company, will make the business case for learning transfer. He will explain why learning professionals should be very concerned about the lack of learning transfer and how they can improve the ROI of programs without changing the content.

September 28, 2011: On Beyond ADDIE: Introduction to The 6Ds® of Breakthrough Learning- Dr. Roy Pollock
Hear from the authors of the best-selling The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning why more and more organizations are adopting the 6Ds® as the model for designing and executing training and development programs. Find out why we need to “move the finish line” for training and how to ensure that all your hard work pays off in real business impact.

October 7, 2011: Using an Achievement Roadmap™ to Create Valuable Business Results- Cal Wick
In this fun and thought-provoking webinar, Cal Wick, one of ISA’s Thought Leaders of the Year, will introduce the Achievement Roadmap™ and how you can use it to help participants visualize—and complete— the journey from learning to business results. He’ll explain how to get participants on the “Achievement Highway” and prevent them from using the “Same Old Way,” which leads only to the “Opportunity Scrap Yard.”

October 28, 2011: On Beyond ADDIE: Introduction to The 6Ds® of Breakthrough Learning- Dr. Roy Pollock
A repeat of the September 28 webinar for those who missed it or had scheduling conflicts. Hear from the authors of the best-selling The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning why more and more organizations are adopting the 6Ds® as the model for designing and executing training and development programs. Find out why we need to “move the finish line” for training and how to ensure that all your hard work pays off in real business impact.

November 8, 2011: How To Make Learning Transfer a Priority for Participants- Cal Wick
Cal Wick, Fort Hill’s Chairman and Founder, will show why Learning and Development needs to do more than just teach content. We also need to engage, equip, and energize our participants to make learning transfer a personal priority. Otherwise, as one Learning Leader said, “If participants are not going to apply what they learn, it would be cheaper just to send them the bagels!”

December 7, 2011: Turn on the Results; Plug the all new ResultsEngine® into your Training Programs- Michael Papay
In this interactive webinar, Michael Papay, Fort Hill Company’s Chief Innovation Officer, will demonstrate ResultsEngine® and discuss the recent Bersin Research Report on learning transfer. He’ll review case studies that show how leading organizations got significantly better results from the same training when they added support for learning transfer.

We look forward to sharing our insights with you during these webinars and, as always, welcome your suggestions on topics you’d like us to present.