Learning Transfer at Work

Book excerpt: How to make sure your training gets results Learning, and the hoped-for subsequent behaviour change is a process, and yet we focus on the training event thinking that if we can only get that right, everything else will be wonderful. This is no more true for training than it is for a wedding. The quality of the wedding ceremony does not predict the quality of the subsequent marriage. There is a lot more to do after the ceremony, and there is also a lot more to do after the training event to get to 'happily ever after'. Sadly, very few people do what it takes to get even reasonable results from their training events. As Robin Hoyle puts it, "Learning transfer has been L&D's dirty little secret for too long. Too much of what learning teams do is well-intentioned but ultimately underwhelming." Sustainable, competitive advantage is not so much based on what an organisation and its people know, but what they do with what they know. The global training market is worth well over $200 billion, but how much of that 'lands' and makes a difference? If you are reading this page, you already know the answer: 'Not nearly enough'. Learning transfer is the elephant in the room for many in L&D, and this elephant is BIG! The case for proactively driving the learning transfer process is self-evident, and yet so many people choose to behave as if the elephant is not there. How can people keep ignoring it? This book is full of practical ideas you can use to do two things: 1. Convince those around you that the learning transfer elephant is real 2. Introduce processes and activities that deal with this elephant Doing this will get you better returns on your L&D budget, so seize the opportunity! Contents - Foreword by Andy Lancaster - What is learning transfer? - Why do we avoid it? - Where does it start? - Informal learning - The Learning Stack - Triggers that work - Mindset - Near and far transfer - Creating new habits - Support - Measurement - The brand of L&D - The practical stuff - 168 tips, ideas and tools - Companion reading - Index Note: Amazon provides a print on demand paperback. If you want the higher quality paperback, you can get it from us at www.peoplealchemy.co.uk/paul-matthews/author/learning-transfer-book/