Plants grow on their own so do people!

Research tells us that we forget 80% of what we learn in 30 days. The US is investing $130 billion every year in work-based learning, two-thirds of which is useless a month after the course. It's crazy.

We also know that we learn best if we're exposed to a range of stimuli, such as sound and visuals. If we're able to practice it straightaway we're even more likely to remember it, this is called multi-model perception. And yet most of our courses are two- dimensional with minimal opportunity to interact and learn through doing.

Just suppose you were at home and needed some DIY information. Would you book yourself on a classroom-based course to learn about it? Of course not.

You'd look it up online, ask a friend, read a book, or find a youtube clip. We, humans, can be pretty resourceful when we want to be.

And yet when we're at work, somehow this all goes out of the window and we expect our managers to book us on a training day to learn how to do something new.

How do we learn to do our jobs more effectively?

Research shows we learn 70% experientially, 20% socially, and 10% formally, meaning 90% of how we grow and develop in our roles has nothing to do with being taught in the classic way. So we become better forklift truck drivers by driving forklifts, we become better receptionist by being receptionists and we become better lawyers by practising the law. We learn socially too, through our managers, peers, and work colleagues who help and mentor us, and explain how to do our jobs. This is how we get good at what we do.

What is the most effective way to train and develop?

The Do's

• Ask your people how they'd like to learn and what times suit them best
• Tailor how you deliver the training according to the topic and audience
• Think about how you can use all your people to help each other learn and pass on information rather than expecting it to come from a central source.
• Expecting your team to identify and satisfy their own learning neeeds means you're treating them as grown-ups
• Allowing them to control their training through the use of online modules involves trusting them to discover what's best for them
• Encouraging collaboration and mentorship between staff makes use of our innate social nature