Learning That Changes Behavior

To build new behaviors for the long-haul, even great instructors and insightful material need the right support mechanisms: involved managers, a cohort of peers, and spaced learning.

Welcome back to Curiouser, our monthly newsletter with insights about leadership. This edition is about creating new behavior through learning.

Think back on a memorable learning experience you’ve had. Why do you think it left a mark?

Learning That Sticks Is OK...

There’s a fair chance you had an engaging instructor, learned interesting ideas, or participated in fun activities—possibly all three. When we speak with companies that are considering our training programs, they often point to these same elements when describing past investments with other learning providers. When we ask if they’ve seen the business impact they were hoping for, the answer is most often “no.”

…But Learning That Changes Behavior Is Better

Capable instructors, relevant material, fun classroom experiences—these certainly make learning more interesting and enjoyable. But if the goal is to change the way leaders work and lead—to change behaviors—learning must be more than fun. Effective learning that builds new behaviors for the long-haul requires support mechanisms in the classroom and beyond. And it needs to be designed with opportunities for practice, review, and reinforcement.

In our experience with adult learners, we’ve found the following best practices—coupled with the table stakes elements described above—drive more lasting behavior change:

1. Give Managers a Role. By involving managers in their employee’s learning journey, they are more likely to protect learning time, provide opportunities to practice, and ensure employees prioritize their own development.
2. Leverage the Power of Peers. Peers help ground learning in a real-world context, increase engagement in the classroom, and provide greater accountability and reinforcement—during and after training.
3. Space the Learning. Breaks between learning events gives learners time to process, practice, and apply concepts before they reconvene to review and learn something new.

1. Give Managers a Role

From discussing learning goals to protecting learning time, managers have a number of levers they can pull to help employees get the most out of training. More importantly, by expressing interest in an employee’s learning journey, managers signal that growth and development is a worthwhile investment—a signal their whole team will likely notice.

Here’s how managers can take a visible role in supporting an employee’s learning journey:

Protect Training Time

Avoid scheduling courses during busy work periods so employees aren’t forced to juggle competing demands on their time. Managers should also make sure scheduled training time is protected from interruption and distraction. That question on Slack or quick phone call may seem minimally intrusive, but they disrupt the learning—not just for the participant, but often for their fellow participants, as well. Managers can help by encouraging their learners to set an out of office message and by ensuring other team members are able to cover for the participant while they’re in class.

Discuss What They’re Learning

Managers don’t need to complete the same training in order to hold meaningful conversations about it. Setting aside 1:1 time with a learner—even if only 15 minutes—to ask questions and listen creates an invaluable opportunity for the learner to reflect. We recommend managers meet before, during, and after training, and we suggest they ask open-ended questions like the following:

• Before: What do you hope to get out of this training? When you complete the training, what skills do you hope to have improved?
• During: What is a key takeaway or action you want to take based on what you’ve learned so far? What’s something you’ve learned that surprises you?
• After: What are 2-3 actions you want to put into practice in the next month? What is one concept you learned that you think our team would benefit from learning?

Provide Opportunities for Practice

Managers are uniquely positioned to provide employees with opportunities to practice new skills after training, a critical step to reinforce learning. Managers can also provide platforms for employees to share their learning with the rest of the team, broadening the impact of the learning to others.

2. Leverage the Power of Peers

Our seasoned facilitators have decades of experience teaching leadership and business best practices. And yet, the most memorable moments rarely come from the front of the room. Instead, they’re when a participant tells a story about a real-world experience or program alumni return to share lessons learned.

It may seem obvious that peers make learning more fun—in fact, instructor-led learning in a cohort of peers is the most sought-after development opportunity. But it turns out that learning from peers is also surprisingly effective. Here’s why:

Better Context

Peer learning taps into a wealth of existing expertise, particularly expertise about your organization. While external training providers like Leadership & Co. are skilled at introducing best practice ideas, it’s through peer-to-peer conversations that those ideas find context and relevance.

More Collaboration and Networking

Being part of a cohort creates a safe space to ask questions and challenge ideas--safety in numbers, if you will. This group identity and solidarity can facilitate better collaboration and create a more positive workplace culture. In cohort-based learning, participants share experiences and learn from each other’s diverse backgrounds, providing endless opportunities to diversify and grow their network.

Increased Accountability and Reinforcement

Completing a learning experience in a cohort of peers fosters a sense of shared responsibility and culture building. In most cohorts, a healthy level of peer pressure develops, which helps participants stay engaged. And meaningful relationships forged through a training program often create accountability partners who support each other and help reinforce learning long after the training is over.

3. Spaced Learning

Spaced learning involves learning material over an extended period of time rather than cramming it in all at once. By building space in between learning sessions, participants form stronger connections between ideas and concepts, making it easier to recall information later when they need it.

Here are other benefits of designing training programs with spaced learning:

Fights the Forgetting Curve

Our brains tend to forget information over time if we don’t actively review it. The forgetting curve shows just how much knowledge is lost when we don’t make an effort to remember it. Simply learning something once isn’t enough; we need to revisit and review the material.

Allows “Almost Forgetting to Remember”

One of the most effective ways to improve the way we learn is to “interrupt the process of forgetting.” Here’s the counterintuitive part: almost forgetting is crucial for effective learning. When we’ve almost forgotten something, our brains work harder to recall that information. Spaced learning gives our brains a workout each time we revisit the material.

Moves Knowledge from Short-Term to Long-Term Memory

In a one-and done training event, information is stored in our short-term memory and is quickly forgotten. By contrast, practice that comes with spaced learning allows material to move into our long-term memory. As we revisit it, the brain strengthens those memory pathways and increases the likelihood we’ll recall and use the information we’ve learned.

The Bottom Line

Spaced learning isn’t always an option. Leadership & Co.'s own Core+ Workshops are often delivered in one or two-day events as part of a leadership summit or team-building retreat. They’re still valuable investments that build awareness and help teams connect through a shared learning experience. But for long-term, lasting behavior change—the goal of our Core Leadership Program as well as most corporate training investments—spaced learning, in a cohort of peers, actively supported by managers, are critical elements of design.

Stay curious!

- Leadership & Co.

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