Evaluating Training 2: Wear the Red Pants with Pride

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.

If you are struggling with a 'red pants' problem of your own and are not getting effective application of learning after learners attend a training event, check out our learning impact strategy scorecard to help you do a bit of benchmarking around that. It only takes a couple of minutes to complete and it's entirely free.