Are we accounting for the entire training process? Or just the course?

2020 is the year of a renewed focus on the entire learning process for our team, and a year of bringing the full picture of what "training plans" are into focus.

In the last year, as I've researched new strategies and resources for improving our learning process, the Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning has been, no pun intended, a breakthrough in our approach to training. (Thank you to Tara Kuipers Consulting for this amazing recommendation!) If you get nothing else from that approach, a truly transformational takeaway is that historically the focus on "training" and building "training plans" has been on simply the course or activities an individual completes to learn specific behaviors, skillsets, or tools as needed. 

When we forget or do not account for the activities and phases leading up to and following the training activities, what happens?

There is a high likelihood that our participants "attend it and forget it." Our trainees may have received the best instruction and learning experience we can develop, but unfortunately cannot retain, continue their learning, or apply what they have learned in action.

As part of our initiative to improve the entire process, I've introduced a few thought questions into the conversations with our business divisions on training plans:

• How are we preparing our individuals for training? Has their manager practiced the "Tell them what you're going to do, then do it, then tell them what you just did?" Can we better prepare them for the learning process to increase our return on that investment?
• Does our "training plan" only account for the training activities (in-person training, virtual workshops, online self-guided courses)?
• Once the individual closes the video, leaves the room, how will they retain what they have learned and continue that process?
• What supporting material and communication do we provide to them? Is that designed and delivered in a way that is engaging and useful?
• How will their manager support and hold them accountable for what they have learned and will apply?
• Are we defining training "success" as passing an assessment, or when the individual actually applies what they have learned and helps contribute to a business objective?
• What does life look like for our trainees once they have "left?"

I would love to learn more about how your teams are accounting for the entire process and helping support training activities "after the fact," and what questions help you develop a robust experience that does not simply begin and end when they are in the classroom - virtual or in-person.

What does life look like for your participants after they have "left" training?