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Evaluating Training Effectivenes

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    2 min read

    Kaizen for learning and development

    By Andrew Jackson on Thu, Jul 18,2024

    You may not have heard of Rob Brinkerhoff but you really should have. ( You can google him, naturally). His main focus is on moving away from solving workplace performance issues through a single 'hit' of training.

    Brinkerhoff is interesting because he's both a practitioner and a researcher. His focus has primarily been about looking at how best to follow up with and support learners after training to improve overall learning outcomes.

    You may not be surprised to hear that placing less emphasis on a single event and more on following up and supporting learners after an event sees massive improvements in workplace performance and application of learning.

    You'll notice there are two parts to this. First, having actual support in place (more on this is a minute). Second, doing some follow-up with a sample of learners to see how they are getting on, what's working and what's not. The important point being that the intelligence gathered from this follow-up is used to evolve the learning event and the support so it's more effective still for the next group of learners.

    It's a sort of 'kaizen' for learning and development. In case you are not familiar with 'kaizen', it's a concept that started life in Japanese manufacturing as a method to continuously improve the quality of a product.

    In a learning and development context, this approach feels problematic. Will you get people not involved with training to give of their time and expertise willingly? Possibly not, or only up to a point.

    So, while you might not get non-L&D people to coach and mentor their colleagues repeatedly, there are some relatively simple things that they might be willing to once.

    • You might persuade them to record a video talking about their expertise. You can edit and package this up into bite-sized nuggets of learning.
    • You might get people to write a short blog post or contribute to a wiki that you can direct learners to at a pre-determined point after their training. 
    • You might get people to record a brief webinar where they walk learners through a worked example of a complex task or skill-based scenario.

    Perhaps you can begin to see the picture.

    It's about being a bit smart and savvy in the ways you provide that follow-on learner support, using technology to help create the kind of success scenario Rob Brinkenhoff's research highlights.

    Interested in finding out more about this alternative approach to designing, delivering learning? Take a look at our free guide to Evaluating Training Effectiveness.

     

     

    Topics: Measurement and evaluation Performance Support
    2 min read

    When a piece of learning isn't the solution

    By Pacific Blue on Mon, Apr 17,2023

    If you are an L&D manager or L&D team member, you’ll probably get bombarded with requests for training week in and week out.

    If your L&D function is well-positioned and well-respected, then you’ll almost certainly be in a position to do some analysis before you simply acquiesce to the training request ‘as is’.

    And there’s a good reason for wanting to be in the position to do that analysis. Because in many cases when a request for training is received, a little digging reveals that a new piece of training is not the solution at all.

    Here's an interesting situation that we encountered quite a while ago that neatly illustrates the point. 

    An airline wanted some e-learning to cover pre-flight safety checks and procedures for its cabin crew. They wanted the e-learning to be engaging, they said.

    A little digging in the early stages of the project revealed the following.

    The checks and procedures were slightly different for each type of plane the airline used. As cabin crew would fly on a variety of planes and might not be on a particular model of plane for several months at a time, it was unlikely they’d recall all the variations without a prompt. 

    Nothing in the checks or procedures was particularly complicated. Everything the cabin crew needed to know and do was clearly and throughly documented already in a paper-based manual. They were supposed to carry this with them whenever they were on a flight.

    Turns out many of them didn't. It was heavy. People didn't like carrying it. Some supervisors had stopped carrying theirs. So subordinates took their cue from their supervisors and stopped carrying theirs, too.

    Over time, with no manual to refer to and to jog their memory, the checks and procedures were being carried out from memory and were not always being completed fully or accurately. 

    The procedures within the existing manual were clear, concise and easy to follow. But the existing means of delivery (a big heavy manual) was clearly not working. However, the proposed solution was not much better. Starting up a laptop or tablet, firing up an e-learning programme and navigating to the correct place in the course to find the information you needed is hardly a frictionless approach.

    In reality, this was a performance support issue. The solution lay in finding the simplest and least cumbersome way to provide those existing procedure steps to the cabin crew, in the moment of need.

    Topics: Instructional Design Performance Support