Last time, I shared Jim Kirkpatrick's story of 'red pants (trousers) syndrome' to illustrate how difficult it can be to get people to change the way they do things if they are unsupported after a training event.

The Kirkpatrick four levels are all about minimising outbreaks of 'red trousers syndrome'. They encourage you to start at the end of the learning process, identify the results you want to achieve and figure out what kind of learning needs to take place to make that happen.

Key to all this is not taking the 'sheep dip' approach to learning. In other words, the 'figuring out' of what you need has to take account of the fact that traditional approaches to designing learning are not necessarily the most effective.

This is borne out by some astonishing results Jim shared with us. They are from long-term research carried out by Rob Brinkerhoff, comparing the benefits of a fairly traditional approach to training (emphasis on a one-off event) with a more collaborative approach (more balance between a training event and follow up activities). Here's a summary of the results.

In a traditional approach to training design, 90% of the time is spent on design and development of the training event and only 10% on pre and post development activity. In this approach, typically the following happens to learners:

• 15% do not try the new skills
• 70% try to implement the learning but fail
• 15% achieve and sustain the new learning

In a more collaborative approach, the training designers work very closely with the client and 25% of time is devoted to pre-training prep and 50% to post-training follow-up. (Note: only 25% of the time is devoted to the training event itself). In this approach, typically the following happens to learners:

• 5% do not try the new skills
• 10% try to implement the learning but fail
• 85% achieve and sustain the new learning

This is one of the most compelling pieces of research-based evidence I have seen for a long time. It has made me realise that here at Pacific Blue we should make much greater efforts than we currently do to encourage, you, our clients to engage in this kind of collaborative approach.

There's no question this is a more complex approach. It involves the co-operation of colleagues and managers who may not be taking part in the training event. But look at the results.

The good news, (as I've mentioned in previous emails) - we think some of the pain of getting colleagues involved can be minimised through some aspects of mobile learning. This has the potential to provide quite personalised follow-up for learners and to enable virtual support networks and communities without taking up vast amounts of colleagues' time.

If you are interested in discovering more about effectively evaluating your learning, check out our courses and services.

I had a great day recently at the Training Zone Live event. The highlight of the day for me was Jim Kirkpatrick's session on his (and his Dad's) four levels for evaluating the effectiveness of training.

Jim was feeling a little jet-lagged, having just flown in from Australia the day before - but he ran an inspiring session, nevertheless.

At one point, he explained to us that his Australian audience had introduced him to 'red pants syndrome' (that's pants in the American sense, by the way, so 'red trousers syndrome' for us Brits).

So 'red trousers syndrome' is where you go on a training course and learn to do something in a particular way, then go back on the job and start implementing what you've learned. Only to discover that no one else much is bothering.

In other words, it's a bit like wearing a pair of red trousers to work everyday, when everyone else wears black ones. You come in on the first day, feeling pretty pleased with your new look. But you quickly realise people are staring at your new trousers. Maybe over time they start to comment negatively on your appearance. Perhaps they even start avoiding you.

In that situation, how long are you going to hold out? How long will it be before you start wearing black trousers, too?

A nice metaphor to highlight the big problem that exists in many organisations. The one where the training happens, everyone feels enthused, but within a relatively short time they all go back to doing things in the same old way.

Jim is pretty clear on what the consequences of not addressing this problem will be: training departments as we know them will eventually become obsolete.

But as Jim explained, if you start at the end and identify the results you want to achieve and work back to work out exactly what you need to achieve those results, you can greatly minimise an outbreak of 'red trousers syndrome'.

Next time, I'd like to share the results of some long-term research carried out by one of Jim's colleagues. This shows how avoiding 'sheep dip' training can have a massive impact on changing behaviours and embedding learning.

 

If you are interested in discovering more about effectively evaluating your learning, check out our courses and services.