Why your learning initiatives are falling short?

Can you learn to play cricket just by reading a book or watching a video? What about driving a car — can you master switching gears and avoiding those jerky stops just from a video or a simulation? The theoretical part is an important piece in the learning jigsaw but definitely not the only one that can put the puzzle together.

My boy is 5, he is learning to skate these days, and I’ve noticed his coach constantly reminding him to bend his body forward and move his arms. But all that theory means nothing until he puts on those skates and practices for real rather than just sitting on the stairway to the rink.

Do you notice anything common in these learning curves? Whether it’s learning cricket, driving, skating or anything new, the pattern is the same. If you don’t practice the skill, you don’t learn it, and you don’t get any better at it. Worst part, over a few days you would have even forgotten it.

Take Microsoft Excel, for example — trying to master formulas, pivot tables, or lookups. Can you become an expert just by reading about them? completing an online course and posting the accomplishment on social media? No, you can’t. No one can. The change happens only when you practice what you’ve learnt on the spreadsheet. You’ll make errors, get baffled initially but as you practice you’ll get better at it.

In Learning science, we refer to this as the 70:20:10 principle. Cracking the code; 10% of learning happens in formal training sessions, 20% through networks, peers, and mentors, and a full 70% through practical hands-on experience.

And this is one very common reason why many learning projects fail to make the impact they’re designed for — because the practical application gets overlooked in the journey design. Remember learning does not end in the training room with Kirkpatrick’s L2 (Reaction) but continues outside of it, on real ground with L3 and L4 i.e. Behavior change and Result impact. So when you design your learning journey, ensure you have reinforcement measures that follow up with the theoretical gyan to improve retention and scale adoption and implementation.

I’ve always believed that while learning is sparked in the training room, it truly matures and solidifies outside of it.

In this article I write about how you can include the 70:20:10 principle in your learning journey design to drive the change, move the needle, make the impact, and measure it too.

Practicality is one of the key elements of the Adult Learning Principle. According to Andragogy, adult learners value practical knowledge that directly improves their skills, enhances their work, and boosts their confidence.

Have you heard about; The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, also known as the “curve of forgetting,” It illustrates how quickly people forget newly acquired information without conscious effort to retain it. For instance, individuals may lose up to 50% of new knowledge within the first hour and as much as 70% after 24 hours. By the end of a week, only about 25% of the knowledge or skill may be remembered, and half knowledge is more harmful than no knowledge. This makes it extremely critical for learning partners to include interventions that connect with learners and continue the learning even after the formal session has happened.

This comes in at the Design phase in the ADDIE model.

Here are a few tips in line with adult learning that will help you drive your learning journey and deliver magical results to your business partners.

1. Executive Sponsorship: For an L&D initiative to succeed, it’s essential to align all stakeholders, including executives and business leaders, with the learning objectives and outcomes. This alignment builds trust and confidence among leaders while ensuring that the learning strategy is in sync with overall business goals. Regularly involve leaders in key meetings and decision-making processes to keep them informed. Implementing a RACI matrix can help clarify responsibilities, keep stakeholders updated, and hold teams accountable. Additionally, periodic advocacy and encouragement from leaders can motivate learners and reinforce engagement after your formal session in the room is over. That’s where the 10% learning happened.
2. Offer the right environment: When you first complete a classroom or an online MS Excel programme, your confidence is sky-high, you feel like an expert already, eager to assist others even those who don’t need help. However, as time passes by, you get buried in meetings, timelines, and presentations. In all of this, your follow-up learning practice from Excel training gets lost somewhere. And then one fine day, when you need to use a Pivot Table, you’re scrambling for help. This highlights the importance of creating and offering an environment where learners can consistently practice their skills without fear of failure to retain and get better at it. Ongoing support and practice opportunities are essential to ensure knowledge retention and boost long-term confidence. To foster shared responsibility and accountability, work closely with business partners. Encourage line managers to hold regular weekly or fortnight check-ins with their teams, motivating members to discuss what they’ve learnt, how they implemented it, and what has been the impact or how it benefited their work. Sharing knowledge not only strengthens understanding but also improves overall team performance and growth.
3. Observation drives change: Have you read or heard about the famous series of Hawthorne experiments? These experiments were conducted at Western Electric Company’s Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois between 1924 and 1932. The researchers were trying to understand what increases employees productivity. They would change the variables at the workplace but with every change the productivity would also change. This led to the discovery of the Hawthorne effect, a phenomenon that says people perform better when they feel watched. To integrate this concept into the 70:20:10 learning model, I recommend involving business leaders and managers in conducting periodic structured discussions and feedback sessions with their team members who participated in the learning session. Discussion and feedback should be based on the follow-up journey post formal session and how the learners have been implementing the learnt skill. Using a structured model, like SBI (Situation, Behavior, and Impact) to navigate these discussions ensures focus. These sessions should emphasize the practical application of learned skills. This approach can spark widespread engagement and motivation, much like the Indian cricket team’s dressing room recognition of top fielders during a recent tournament. Public appreciation leads to a ripple effect of high performance and enthusiasm across the organization. Build processes that nurtures learning environment.

In any learning journey, four key stages unfold:

a. Unconscious Incompetence: You are unaware of what you don’t know.

b. Conscious Incompetence: You realize there’s a gap in your knowledge or skills.

c. Conscious Competence: You understand the skill but need deliberate effort to perform it.

d. Unconscious Competence: The skill becomes second nature, like automatically braking when you see danger. This action was not instinctive at first, but over time, it became your muscle memory.

Learners often feel most nervous when transitioning from Conscious Incompetence to Conscious Competence. I still remember when I was learning to ride a bicycle as a child — I was terrified to pedal without my dad holding the cycle steady.

Not only this, I remember he would run holding the cycle from behind as I pedaled. Without the supporting wheels on the side, I was scared of falling, and this made the early stages of learning a bit intimidating. My son went through something similar while learning to skate. He was hesitant, always wanting his coach or my wife nearby so he could hold their arm as he cautiously moved forward. In both cases, confidence came with time and practice as we both mastered the skill. The common keyword here “practice”.

Mistakes and anxiety are natural when learning new skill. As a learning partner, it’s crucial to collaborate with stakeholders to create a supportive environment that encourages learning adoption. Processes and initiatives, such as SME (Subject Matter Expert) Support, mentor-mentee or buddy programs, can be invaluable in guiding new learners, helping them practice and build confidence. These efforts can significantly improve outcomes and will reflect in Kirkpatrick’s Level 4 and 5 evaluations — Behavior and Result.

To ensure successful learning journeys, you should work closely with business leaders to design and implement these initiatives. While instructor-led or self-paced learning builds a strong foundation (10% of the learning), about 20% comes from formal and informal networks, and the remaining 70% happens on-the-job as learners apply their knowledge.

So, In the Design phase of ADDIE, it’s important to incorporate systems that foster a safe environment for failure and encourage learning. By doing so, you can better support your teams in gaining confidence and competence.

Let’s create safer places for learning, and growth. Thank you!