Why Effective Learning is Essential to Performance Improvement

VALUE = Participants X Learning X Transfer X Impact

First, we need to agree on what performance improvement, which often includes learning, is intended to achieve in the workplace.

Purpose of Learning and Performance Improvement in the Workplace

Facilitate the transition from an undesirable current state, where a problem exists to a desirable future state, where the problem is minimized sufficiently or does not exist.

From here it is clear that success can be relatively easily defined, if time is invested in clearly labeling and understanding the problem, the undesirable current state. Success is the achievement of the desired state.

Ineffective learning will not deliver or move people towards the desired future state. Ineffective learning only produces waste.

While the term “learning” is commonly used, it is generally poorly understood. Learning is the acquisition of cognitive, psychomotor and affective abilities (knowledge, skills and attitudes). The evidence that learning has occurred is a measurable demonstration by the participant. Recall doing single digit addition in grade 2? You demonstrated learning, the cognitive ability to do addition by answering a minimum number of correct answers on a test. The test was a measurable demonstration of learning.

Exposure to information isn’t learning.

Attendance at a learning experience can’t be treated as a proxy indicator that learning has occurred.

For a learning intervention to deliver value to an organization, it first must produce learning with the participants. Next, those participants must apply the learning in the workplace. Lastly, this application of learning must resolve the problem that is trying to be addressed.

VALUE = Participants X Learning (1) X Transfer (2) X Impact (4)

V = P x L x T x I

I’ve weighted Learning as one, Transfer as two and Impact as four to reflect their importance.

For this example, let’s explore what happens with a group of 100 learners. This is a progressive model, Impact requires Transfer and Transfer requires Learning. There is no situation where there is no Learn but there is Transfer and Impact. The three levels build on one another. Each preceding level must be successful for there to be potential success at the next level.

Impact requires:

• The problem to be well understood and the correct solution to the problem identified.
• The learning experience includes the cognitive, psychomotor and affective abilities (knowledge, skills and attitudes) to empower the learners to act and manifest the behaviour to create the new desired state (problem is minimized or removed).
• Learning must occur
• Learning transfer support is present. This can be as simple as being encouraged to attend the learning, being un-distracted during the learning (the supervisor not sending the employee messages asking for help) and having opportunities to practice and develop the new abilities after the learning experience.
• Transfer, the application of the learning.

SCENARIO 1

V = 100 x 0 x 0 x 0 = 0 ( No Learning, No Transfer, No Impact)

Likely Explanation: Poor instructional design and or poor facilitation delivery

SCENARIO 2

V = 100 x 1 x 0 x 0 = 0 (Learning, No Transfer, No Impact)

Likely Explanation: Lack of learning transfer support and or motivation and or relevance

SCENARIO 3

V = 100 x 1 x 2 x 0 = 0 (Learning, Transfer, No Impact)

Likely Explanation: Misalignment between the problem, solution (content) and learning provided (instructional design and or facilitation)

SCENARIO 4

V = 100 x 1 x 2 x 4 = 800 (Learning, Transfer, Impact)

Likely Explanation: Alignment between the problem, solution (content), learning provided (instructional design and facilitation) and learning transfer support?

The learning design needs to be informed by the desired future state (desired Impact) and desired future behaviour (Transfer, desired behaviour applied).

This is what effective learning looks like. Multiple, carefully crafted elements, working in synergy, to address an objective.

For those of you who love a bit more complexity, you are likely asking, what about individuals? Some may learn, others not, some may transfer, others not, some may achieve impact, others not.

Any scenario where some participants Learn, Transfer and achieve Impact is always going to be significantly more valuable than scenarios that fail to provide any value.

For example, let’s explore if only 50% of the participants graduate from Learning to Transfer to Impact. 100/2 = 50, 50/2 = 25, 25/2 = 12.5

This means 12.5% of participants Transfer the Learning effectively to achieve the desired Impact.

V = 100 x 0.5 x 1 x 2 = 100

If a learning experience only has 50% of the participants demonstrating Learning, there is something that needs to be adjusted with regard to the content, the instructional design or the facilitation. Learning is intended to be a form of enablement, not a filtering or selection tool. Regarding Transfer and Impact, it is common to see significant drop off in these two areas.

Summary - Effective and efficient performance improvement using learning interventions requires:

• Well understood problems and the selection of effective solutions
• Effective instructional design, facilitation and content to enable learning
• Learning transfer support and the application of the learning by the participants
• Alignment between the problem, solution (content), learning provided (instructional design and facilitation)
• Transfer or application of the learning

When all of these elements function in coordination, the efforts can produce positive results for an organization and achieve the desired impact. Only when impact is achieved is the learning intervention delivering value.

If all of these elements fail to function in coordination, waste is all that is generated. In this scenario, the investment in the learning design, delivery, participation time and the possible application of the incorrect or non required abilities, is all waste. In addition to very significant amounts of time, this can easily add up to hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars wasted, depending on the investment to create the learning product and the number of participants.

Effective learning, used as a performance improvement intervention, can produce positive results and be a key element in positive change, but it needs to be executed well to deliver meaningful, useful results. Qualified and experienced learning specialists can help create and deliver meaningful and effective learning experiences and evaluate them to provide evidence of success.?