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Make Training Stick

Written by: Will Turner

Article Overview: To get retention and application out of sales training, you have to make sure you incorporate a process that will get you the right results.

Make Training Stick

Most training and development is a colossal waste of money. In fact, I would argue, without any empirical data to support my claim, that approximately 90% of all training and education dollars are wasted because there are no lasting and measurable results attained. And yet the fix is simple.

It’s just that the fix is not quick and easy. And most people and most organizations want the quick and easy solution. The problem is that quick and easy solutions won’t get you the best results.

So the question becomes “Do you want to put a band-aid on the problem or do you want to fix the problem?” With any type of training, it all comes down to understanding how people learn.

There are actually three primary ways that people learn. These ways or methods of learning apply to anything you want to learn whether it’s learning sales skills, learning a new language or learning how to ride a bike. The ways we learn are through inspiration, impact and repetition.

Inspiration – The first way that people learn is by inspiration. Have you ever read a book or heard a speaker that really inspired you? It was the words someone shared and how they shared them that really resonated with you. You got the message and you grabbed hold of it.

Learning by inspiration is great. The problem is that most of us are on information overload. Sometimes we’re jaded to a message or the messenger and sometimes we’re hearing a message that we already know. In any case, it simply takes a lot to inspire us these days.

And the sad truth is that for most of us, only 2% of our learning comes from inspiration. In other words, it’s great when it happens. It just doesn’t happen that often.

Impact – Impact is the second way we learn. Impact learning is usually tied into a dramatic or traumatic experience. A classic example is the guy that goes to his doctor and the doctor tells him that he is in danger of having a life-threatening heart attack or stroke.

Now it’s not like the patient didn’t realize that he was making poor lifestyle choices. He knew he shouldn’t smoke and that he should get more exercise. He also knew that his eating habits of chowing down on hamburgers and fries was negatively impacting his weight and cholesterol levels. Yet, it’s not until he gets the dire news from his doctor that he fully realizes that he can’t continue down his self-destructive path.

Impact learning is not the best way to learn. Let’s face it, who wants to learn from dramatic or traumatic events. Impact learning only represents about 2% of all learning.

Repetition – What’s 4 x 5? How about 6 x 8? And 9 x 5? When was the last time you learned your multiplication tables? Third grade? Fifth grade? Regardless, it was a long time ago. Yet, you still know the answers to your multiplication tables.

How did you learn your multiplication tables? It was through repetition. Repetition is by far the best way to learn, representing 96% of all learning.

So to recap, we learn three ways – through inspiration, impact and repetition. Beyond being the primary way we learn, repetition is also the only one of the three that is easily built into any learning process.

Despite this fact, most training and development doesn’t incorporate appropriate repetition into the learning process. In fact, most companies want a seminar, workshop or a one-on-one meeting to fix their people. And they’re not interested in doing what it will take to get permanent change.

To get a fuller understanding, let’s review the results from a typical seminar. First, it is important to note that it doesn’t matter how good the presenter is at training or how eager the students are to learn, a seminar (or any one-shot deal) by itself is going to have minimal impact on long-term behavior change. The research is actually pretty dismal for this type of training. If someone is exposed to information once, they will retain 50% after 24 hours, they will retain 25% after 48 hours and they will retain 2% after 16 days. Not a great return on your investment, huh?

So how do you make your investment in training and development pay dividends? It requires you to use a process with the appropriate amount of reinforcement and repetition. When done properly, the retention and application of the information will increase dramatically. In fact, that 2% retention rate after 16 days will soar to about 65% just through five to six repetitions within a week period. By adding exercises, accountability and interactive facilitation methods, you can enhance the learning experience even more.

An effective learning process is the same whether you are doing formal training for your team or teaching a co-worker one-on-one. Have you ever told an employee how to do something and then got frustrated because it wasn’t done correctly? Chances are you gave them instructions once or twice and you expected that they would get it. But that is clearly not enough to get them to retain, learn and master the information or skill sets required.

You have probably experienced the same thing when you’ve attended a seminar yourself. You may have received great information at the program. You left the seminar all pumped up and ready to go. But, you got back to your office, got busy and before you knew it you had fallen back into your old habits. And nothing ever changed. New behaviors were not practiced or learned. Training was wasted.

So before you attend or design training and development for yourself or your team, think about the process. How can you incorporate repetition into the learning process? How can you make sure that the training sticks? What’s your follow-through plan?

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