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Training is not successful because we covered the material.
It is successful when people remember what they learned, make sense of it, and actually do something differently afterward.
Katrina Kennedy returns to Lessons from Learning Leaders for a conversation about what trainers can do inside the learning experience to make that more likely.
Katrina describes herself as an accidental trainer. She entered learning and development because a manager noticed she could communicate, then built a career spanning nearly three decades helping subject matter experts, facilitators, and trainers design and deliver better learning.
A major focus of our conversation is reflection, but Katrina makes an important distinction between reflection, retrieval, and the traditional review that trainers often use.
A review usually means the trainer repeats the important points.
Retrieval makes the learner do the work of pulling the information back out of memory.
Reflection then asks the learner to move forward with it.
What does this mean for me?
What am I going to do?
How will I apply this when I return to work?
That distinction led us into a conversation about one of my favorite Bob Pike activities, Give One, Get One. Participants retrieve the most important ideas from the session, get up and share them with other people, add useful ideas they hear, and then return to their seats.
After talking with Katrina, I realized the activity needed one more step: ask participants to choose one of those ideas and identify exactly how they are going to use it.
Now the activity combines retrieval, reflection, movement, social learning, and application.
Katrina also shares some of the thinking behind her upcoming ATD Core 4 session, “Your Training Is Missing This and You Don’t Even Know It.”
She has created a 16-card diagnostic that helps trainers examine whether important elements of effective learning are missing from their sessions. Some of the questions are deceptively simple:
Do participants move?
Do they have opportunities to reflect?
Are they given breaks from cognitive load?
Are they connecting with one another?
The point is not to add activities simply to make training more entertaining. Each element serves a learning purpose.
Movement can help reset attention. Reflection gives people time to process what they have learned. Retrieval strengthens memory. Connection allows participants to learn from the experience already present in the room.
That last point led us somewhere I think trainers sometimes overlook.
When participants interact with each other during training, we may be creating value that extends beyond the course itself.
Someone discovers that a colleague has expertise they did not know about. A relationship develops. Months later, when a problem appears on the job, that participant now knows someone they can call.
Training can strengthen the informal network inside an organization while it develops individual capability.
We also talk about doing this virtually. Connection does not disappear simply because the training happens through a screen. Chat, breakout rooms, questions, introductions, and opportunities for participants to contribute can all make a webinar feel more like a learning experience and less like watching someone talk through slides.
Underlying the entire conversation is a larger challenge for our profession.
Too much training is still judged by whether people attended, completed the course, or enjoyed the experience. Those measures may be useful, but they do not tell us whether people changed their behavior or whether organizational performance improved.
If learning and development wants to be viewed as an investment rather than an expense, trainers have to think beyond delivery.
We need to create the conditions that help learning survive after participants leave the room.
That means giving people time to retrieve, reflect, connect, practice, and decide what they are going to do next.
Katrina’s Book: Learning That Lasts
Katrina is also the author of Learning That Lasts: Reflection Activities for Trainers and Designers, a practical collection of more than 45 reflection activities designed to help trainers intentionally build reflection into learning before, during, and after the session. Katrina organizes the activities around eight outcomes, including stronger motivation, connection, memory, critical thinking, and improved performance.
Get Learning That Lasts on Amazon
Connect with Katrina Kennedy
You can learn more about Katrina’s work, workshops, resources, and newsletter at her website.
You can also connect with Katrina on LinkedIn.
Connect with Katrina Kennedy on LinkedIn
Bring This Conversation to Your Organization
If this episode has you thinking about what happens between delivering information and actually changing performance, that is a conversation worth having with your training team.
Better learning does not necessarily require more content. Sometimes it means creating more opportunities for people to retrieve what they know, reflect on what it means, learn from one another, and leave with a clear idea of what they will do differently.
If you would like help creating learning experiences that produce more participation, stronger transfer, and better performance, I’d be glad to talk.
Learn more at DuaneLester.com.
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