Articles

RSS

By Steve Barkley & Terri Bianco

Learning is as natural as breathing. In the senses alone, the brain picks up over 50,000 bits of information per second, processes them, and makes decisions.

So if the brain is constantly absorbing data, why does learning seem so difficult at times? Why do some people learn quicker than others? And why can't we remember what we learn, particularly if we've just been trained? Why doesn't the training stick?

The fundamental flaw in traditional training is that trainers teach what they want to train rather than what the person wants to learn. Brain research shows that, unless there is relevance, meaning, and emotion attached to what is being taught, the learner will not learn. Period.

Training needs to be learner-centered and meaningful to the adult learner. Andragogy—the concept and theory of adult education—emphasizes techniques that assist adults with their own learning. It requires learning to be experiential with immediate application, consequence, and participation. And it underscores the need for the training to be self-directing and respectful of the learner.¹

While there are many training methods, there are only a few sound learning methods. Everyone can learn, but people learn in different ways. How people learn is as important as what they learn. Knowing the learning and working styles of learners provides a portal through which learning and long-term retention can occur for everyone.

Brain-based training is also a powerful technique. The brain needs knowledge to survive, and training according to how the brain receives information caters to that need. A good trainer or teacher can orchestrate the style and environment of the training so that learning will occur naturally, almost unconsciously. Research shows the brain comes alive in a stimulating environment and in an arena where the learner has choice, feedback, an absence of threat and, most importantly, time to reflect. These are not only powerful training techniques, they are also crucial for employee morale and retention.

TRAINING EFFICIENCY
A recent report from WR Hambrecht & Co. suggests corporate training is now a $66 billion industry. Companies not only want value from those dollars, they want efficiency. Today companies want training to accomplish specific goals and to do that within a specific timeframe. Even effective leadership training is now tied to specific company results and consequences.²

All the training techniques in the world will make no difference if the training does not affect the bottom line performance of managers and employees. Training has to be efficient—it has to accomplish the goals set by the client with outcomes that are achievable and measurable. Sound learning techniques allow these outcomes to be immediately demonstrated—this is what the trainee knows and is able to do, and he or she learned it and retained it in a time-efficient manner.

Efficiency is not an add-on. It needs to be embedded in the training. For optimum efficiency, the trainer needs to:

• employ a rotation of learning styles so that everyone can comprehend and internalize information quickly,
  
• train in a brain-based learning environment using techniques proven to promote retention and immediate use of the information on the job, and
  
• develop action plans and feedback that scaffolds this learning into place.

This is the blueprint for providing efficient training that sticks. And this means training dollars well spent.

LEARNER-CENTERED TRAINING
Training must be developed in ways that address questions such as: What relevance and meaning will the training hold for these people and why? What will compel them to learn this? How will it be used? By tailoring training to learning and working styles, it becomes instance-based, relying on the trainee's personal experiences. The trainer needs to model what is being trained, and the program should allow the trainees to practice and perfect or correct via the trainer's observation and coaching strategies.

Like all training, there are activities, exercises, materials, and instruments to create experiences and to develop what we call "memory hooks." For an employee or manager to recall what is learned, he or she must internalize, retain, and act on that knowledge. Here again, there needs to be meaning, a connection, and consequences for the learner. This is accomplished in multiple formats, substantially enhanced by brain-based teaching techniques that rely on the brain's natural hunger for knowledge.

A TRADITIONAL TRAINING EXAMPLE
A traditional corporate training design was geared to identify various leadership styles. Participants took the survey and learned from the trainer all the characteristics and ramifications of the styles. They then divided up to role-play a situation where they would be counseling an employee. The designated manager was assigned a set of circumstances and personality quirks. The other was the disgruntled employee, again described with a particular personality and set of circumstances. Using the leadership styles they just learned, they were to role play, then switch roles – the trainer monitoring the process and giving out different role plays until the participants seemed to understand the leadership styles enough to move on to its uses in customer relations.

This is pretty standard training. How could this same training situation be changed to enhance the learning and the retention? Here are some ideas:

• The participants would identify their own styles and then discuss them in small groups.
  
• They would partner up and role-play a real-life problem, either company-based or personal. They would thus have buy-in, and it would be relevant and real, particularly if they were both from the same company.
  
• They would consciously state first what skills or performance they would be using to deliver the counseling, perform them, then they would get coached by their partner while they were doing it, giving and getting immediate feedback as needed.
  
• The trainer would fade to gray, become available when needed to guide or advise, but otherwise back out of the process.

These are subtle differences that can produce profound results. Ownership of learning – like ownership of a job or a role in a company – is key to success. The jury is no longer out on the power of empowerment. Businesses across the country have experienced the surge that occurs in productivity, morale, motivation, and customer service when employees – and managers – are empowered to make choices, to initiate, to own their careers. The same thing is true of learning. No one learns anything he or she doesn't own. And the only way to own it is to make it count for the learner.

A "RADICAL" EXPERIMENT
Instead of offering yet another costly trainer-centered program, a company might decide on an approach that would stimulate learning in an entirely different way. In this experiment, the company would delegate decision-making and managing authority to an employee team for one time period, one segment of the company, or one project. Management would apprise employees of the outcomes desired from the project, provide resources to accomplish the tasks, and brief them on the purpose, goals, and company needs. Then they would leave the team to run the project. At the completion, management would debrief the team. What worked? What could you improve? What did you learn? What would you do differently next time? Where could we have helped you more?

If the team failed to deliver or perform, it could cost the company. But the cost may be less than the budget for trainer-centered training that is inefficient. The value of the training would be high. Regardless of their degree of success, these employees would learn for life what good management and decision-making was all about. As a bonus, management might be pleasantly surprised to find that, under the gun and with so much riding on it, the team achieved unprecedented success.

WHAT ABOUT ONLINE TRAINING?
Online training presents a challenge because people learn best when the material is live, relevant, and brain-based. They learn when they actively participate in a hands-on, interactive, relational environment. At best, typical online training incorporates few to none of these techniques. The risk of inefficiency is high. For example, someone with a kinesthetic, auditory, and "big picture" learning style could shut down while sitting before a computer for hours at a time, downloading sequential information into his or her brain.

There is a tremendous potential for e-learning. It can reach more people in less time and at lower cost. It also adds that brain-based aspect of giving subscribers a choice of when and what to learn. But learning is not a commodity, and training online without effective learning tools is just as impotent and inefficient as some traditional on-site training. Learning is individual, private, and critical to professional and personal growth.

To be successful, online learning needs to have a blend of other techniques that are proven to enhance learning. And it needs to have an instructor nearby – a warm body to back up, coach, give feedback and support the learning. Relationship, another brain-based element, is also crucial for effective learning.

In a world where products and information change quickly and employees need to constantly update their skills, it is essential for business success and survival that corporate training evolve. A hybrid of online and on-site training that relies on a brain-compatible environment geared to reach all learning styles and one that encompasses the need for learners to interact, develop relationships, receive feedback, and reflect is a formula that generates success. And it's one in which learning can occur naturally. Like breathing.

References
1. Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide by Sharan B. Merriam and Rosemary S. Caffarella. Copyright 1999 by Jossey-Bass, Inc., Publishers.

2 "The New Leadership Development" by Jack Zenger, Dave Ulrich, and Norm Smallwood. Training & Development, March 2000. Published by the American Society of Training Development,

About the authors
Steve Barkley is Executive Vice President of Performance Learning Systems, Inc., a comprehensive educational services company that delivers a full-spectrum of educational programs and services to clients throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia. Terri Bianco is a training designer of online and on-site training and currently serves as a communications consultant to the company. For more information contact www.plsweb.com