Andrew Kerin

Learning objectives are necessary, but not sufficient. Roy Pollock and Andy Jefferson discuss how to connect business results and learning objectives.

Want to Improve Your Batting Average? Understand the Business Objectives

 The reality is that training “events” don’t work. As learning professionals, it’s time we stopped delivering training events and started delivering performance improvement processes that have learning as a key component. As Linda Hudson, CEO of BAE Systems US Army, said in an interview in The Wall Street Journal, “You don’t go to a class and next week, everything changes.”Companies invest in training and development to enhance capability and improve performance. However to improve performance, employees have to do things differently and better when they return to work. If they don’t change their behaviors back on the job, then performance won’t change, no matter how much they learned. As Einstein supposedly quipped: “One definition of insanity is to continue doing the same thing and expect a different result.”People don’t change their behavior just because they learned something new. As we explained in our Infoline,  “Ensuring Learning Transfer,” people need to apply what they learned once they return to work if training is to produce business value. Whether or not they do so depends on how they answer two questions: “Can I?” and “Will I?” Unless they answer “yes” to both, they will slide back into old habits and the training will go to waste. Getting value from training requires both great learning and great learning transfer. That is why we have to think beyond events.The answer to the “Can I?” question is strongly influenced by the training itself. To say, “Yes, I can,” employees need to feel confident that they can competently perform the skills they were taught. The instructional design needs to include the right amount of content, and especially, adequate practice with feedback. However, the post-training environment also affects trainees’ belief that they can; their manager has to give them the opportunity, and they need job aids and other forms of performance support to boost their confidence.Even if employees can perform in a new and better way, they need to be motivated to make the effort; they have to also say, “Yes, I will.” Many factors affect participants’ willingness to apply what they have learned; almost all of these factors occur in the post-training “transfer climate.” Support from the participant’s manager is key.Indeed, a study at American Express concluded that “an immediate leader has the potential to either make or break any training effort.” Thus, learning professionals who ignore the post-training environment and see their jobs as simply putting on events are putting their jobs at risk. Getting a return on an investment in training is a process that needs to be managed as such and continuously improved—or as we like to say, “The real work begins when the training ends.”If you want your training efforts to earn greater respect and produce even greater impact, think “process” not “event.” Plan for and influence the whole process by which training becomes performance.If you want your training efforts to be rewarded with even greater impact, start with why. To learn more, join us at one of the upcoming ASTD Learning Transfer Certificate programs. The next program is online starting on September 22, 2014.

Stop Delivering Training Events

The blog book tour has started as ASTD and I kick-off a 25 stop blog book tour for the ASTD co-published book The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game-based Methods and Strategies for Training and Education. The book is available at the ASTD Book Store. The tour includes stops at several ASTD chapter web sites including Philadelphia, New York and Houston, Texas.You are welcome to join the tour, no...you are urged and encouraged to join the tour.Leave a comment on this posting linking to your blog and it will "officially" become part of the tour. The tour currently includes some well known bloggers and some bloggers you really need to know but we want to expand it with your input, ideas and concepts related to Gamification.Here are all the tour stop dates.The blog book tour is a virtual tour so you can just follow along stop by stop. If you don't have the book yet, stop by the ASTD book store a pick up a copy.The Twitter hashtag for the tour is #gamiLIThere is a Pinterest page for the tour.And a Facebook page for the tour, stop by and give it a LIKE:)Here are the tour stops, the day of the stop and a link to the stop are indicated below. You can follow along by going blog to blog and leaving a comment. If you stop at every stop and leave a comment, you will receive a free whitepaper "The First Five Steps to Gamification of Content, Curriculum and Courses."Also, on April 26th, Join Karl at the Houston ASTD Chapter's Webinar for a live chat and presentation by the author.Week One:April 16: Learning Circuits Blog.April 17: Gamification Facebook PageApril 18: Jane Bozarth's BozarthzoneApril 19: Judy Unrein OneHundred Forty Words Two Boggers are writing on this day, we also have Kevin Kruse, Keven Kruse Blog. He is NY Times bestselling author of We: How to Increase Performance and Profits through Full EngagementApril 20: Rich Mesch Performance PunctuatedWeek Two:April 23: Clark Quinn LearnletsApril 24: Karl Grieb ASTD Philadelphia ChapterApril 25: Webinar Presentation for Houston ASTD Chapter "What Research Tells Us about Games, Gamification and Learning" Join the webinar.April 26: Debbie Richards Take an e-Learning Break And a live appearance by Karl at the NY ASTD Chapters combined SIG Meeting. If you are in NY, you may want to register and attend.April 27L Connie Malamed The eLearning Coach.Week Three:April 30: Amy Lui Abel New York ASTD Chapter Blog.May 1: Cammy Bean Learning VisionsMay 2: Tom Kuhlmann Word of MouthMay 3: Koreen Olbrich Learning in TandemMay 4: "Surprise Blog Appearance"Week Four:May 7: Mike Qaissaunee Frequently Asked QMay 8: Larry Hiner drlarryhinerMay 9: Catherine Lombardozzi Learning JournalMay 10: Brent Schlenker Elearning DevelopmentMay 11: Zaid Ali Alsagoff Zaid LearnWeek Five:May 14: Andrew Hughes Designing DigitallyMay 15: John Rice Educational Games ResearchMay 16: Christy Tucker Experiencing E-LearningMay 17: Justin Brusino ASTD Learning Circuits Blog (we come full circle to discuss the tour and the gamification concept)May 18: Karl Kapp Kapp Notes. The author provides reflections and lessons learned from the tour.So join us for this exciting tour and social media event to discuss the pros and cons of Gamification and what it means to learning and development professionals. And follow us on Twitter at #gamiLI

Andrew Kerin

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