STOP wasting money on corporate trainings by doing this...

Have you taken a professional training program only to have forgotten what you learned in the days / weeks after?

To get a pulse on this question, I created a LinkedIn poll. Here are the results out of 11 people:

• 82% said YES
• 18% said NO

In my professional career, I've attended trainings with varying degrees of quality (from great to absolute shit). You've likely experienced this yourself. Most companies I worked for did not have a mechanism for making trainings both meaningful (relevant) and sustainable (impactful).

In this article, I'll outline what YOU can do about it for your company or as an individual.

Why this matters

• You're providing training to your employees and you want there to be an ROI
• You enjoy learning new things and want to ensure that your insights make their way into your life, work, relationships, etc

What's the point of the learning something if we don't apply it in a meaningful way? ?????♂?

What to consider

"To many, training dollars are wasted on employees who don’t apply the lessons they learn on the job." (Bud to Boss article)

Here's the reality of this topic:

There is a disconnect between what senior executives want from learning and development, and what they actually see. In fact, 96 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs want to see a business connection, yet only 8 percent see it. And 74 percent want to see ROI, yet only 4 percent see it. (The Business Case for Learning: Using Design Thinking to Deliver Business Results and Increase the Investment in Talent Development)

?? No wonder L&D is one of the first items cut from the budget when times are tough.

According to Udemy’s 2021 Trends Report, lack of time is the biggest obstacle to achieving training goals. LinkedIn’s report supports this concern, stating that 49% of learners say they don’t have enough time to learn at work. If they had the time, “learners are craving a highly personalized learning experience that serves up the right learning at the right time, without having to dig for it” (p. 26).

?? Space is the birthplace of creation. Without space, things stay stagnant and sound like "I'm too busy". With space, new thing emerge and higher level thinking comes to the foreground. As an employer, you want people who have the ability to dive into the work and get things done AND who have the ability to come up for air so they can see things from other perspectives, think critically and strategically and make the necessary adjustments to perform at a higher level.

How to create a different outcome

Let me start by saying, unless you do something different, you're going to produce the same outcomes. We have to do things differently in order to produce different results. These are simple formulas:

• Doing the same things = Same results
• Doing things differently = Different results

In my experience as both a trainer and a coach, the difference that makes the difference that makes the difference is the actual integration if key learnings and insights.

Here are a few ways you could facilitate successful integration and achieve ROI:

#1: You have to create space for your people to improve personally and professionally (otherwise the won't do it given all their other to-do's). Leaders must model the behavior. Managers must hold their team accountable (just as they would any job responsibility). Make learning and development a responsibility of the role that people will be evaluated on during regular performance reviews. Performance reviews should be happening monthly or quarterly to actually make a difference. ?? Do not skip this recommendation ??

#2: At the end of a training, ask people: What was your greatest insight and how will you apply it this week? Tell people to right it down as well as share. They need to be specific (identify date, time, scenario, with whom, etc). If people are not specific, the likelihood of follow through decreases drastically. Coach people to specify.

You'll need a follow up mechanism...

#3: Coordinate training follow up experiences to ensure people are following through on how they said they'd apply their insight. Here are a few options for accountability:

• Accountabilibuddies: Pair people up and tell them to schedule a 30-minutes ' meeting where they share what their insight was, where they've applied it, what were the outcomes and how will they continue to apply it in the next week. During these calls, they can also help each other work through obstacles.
• Group Work: Facilitate a discussion between 4-5 people where they share what their insight was, where they've applied it, what were the outcomes and how will they continue to apply it in the next week. During these calls, they can also help each other work through obstacles. As a facilitator you help reinforce learnings from the training as well as provide any coaching around themes emerging in the specific group.
• 1:1 Coaching: Working with a coach creates an immediately safe space to explore insights and obstacles at a deeper level. The coach helps the client learn more about themselves, uncover deeper motivations and shine light on blind spots in order to facilitate the meaningful and sustainable changes that both individuals and companies are seeking in their training investments.

At Lucidly, we combine learning with group work and 1:1 coaching so individuals and companies get the most out of their time, energy and investment ($).

?? Email me at [email protected] if you want to learn more about how we might be able to help you create meaningful and sustainable training results inside of your company. ??