Turning Learning into Action: A Proven Methodology for Effective Transfer of Learning

There are, I believe, five reasons why the missing link has remained missing for so long: no ownership; wrong objective; obsession with content; obsession with evaluation; focus on learning not on change.

Without proper engaged reflection and personalization of the material to the participants’ own situation – and the transference of those observations into a concrete action plan to put in motion as soon as the individual is back at work – nothing will change.

Threatening people with punishment or encouraging them with reward is not going to be much better when trying to motivate people to change. The most potent form of motivation is intrinsic motivation, which comes from within the individual and is fostered when that person can feel autonomous, competent and related to others.

The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning: How to turn training and development into business results (2010) by Calhoun Wick, Roy Pollock and Andy Jefferson.

To maximize learning transfer at this stage evaluation needs to be scheduled for two to three months after the programme so that the impact of the training can be accurately measured in terms of what benefits have been realized as a result of the training.

If the objective of training is to ensure that a certain number of people attend a particular learning solution over any given period then is it really any wonder that training is failing to deliver meaningful measureable results to business?

‘tangible rewards tend to have a substantially negative effect on intrinsic motivation’.

Beyond Learning Objectives

It is also very important to get instructional design right because it will affect the outcome of the training. If we wanted to bake a beautiful birthday cake we wouldn’t start with rotten eggs, out-of-date flour and a bashed-up baking tin. The same is true of instructional design, so getting the basic principles right is essential.