TetraLD workshop demonstrates effective Learning Transfer at Annual EBBF Conference in Lisbon, October 2011
Do you like to learn? Are you eager to learn? How do you learn?
We have to learn new things every day, it’s a never ending game. A new toaster, a new iPhone or a new behaviour… learning is still learning.
I’ve spent 17 years on my education and will spend the rest of my life learning. Learning has become a life long responsibility. However, I always felt that something was missing. That incredible feeling of doors opening within you, of discovery and creation! The ‘Sticky Learning’ workshop at this year’s EBBF Conference in Lisbon answered these questions.
And how does this relate to your everyday private and professional life?
As a learner you can consciously increase your motivation by trying out what you’ve learned; and by requesting the support you need on your learning path. As a leader you can create an understanding of, and actively manage, the learning landscape in your organization – for more employee engagement, higher productivity and more fun during work – thereby achieving both individual and organizational targets without compromise.
There are three areas to get right if you want learning to stick: learners must be enabled and feel motivated in a work environment that supports using new learning. Practical learning together in a motivational environment creates a significantly higher engagement and eventually leads to a higher productivity of participants. All these critical dimensions need to be understood and actively managed in an organization.
We ran a workshop in Lisbon at the EBBF annual conference in October 2011 (www.ebbf.org) to illustrate this: About 20 people with different professional and cultural backgrounds were keen to find out about what makes learning stick. In an interactive way we presented ideas and facilitated a discussion about what the success factors are that either support or prevent learning transfer.
In two groups with different learning environments, they experienced what it takes to step out of your comfort zone and to learn something they had never done before: folding origami frogs. Something remarkable must have happened in the first group as 90% of the students managed to become brilliant self-confident performers, while in the second group only 25% were able to learn it.
What is behind this sizable difference? It is learning transfer: faster change is possible if you are feeling encouraged, involved, motivated and successful, while being supported by the trainer and by your team.
The first group enjoyed an active learning teamwork and a facilitator who shared her knowledge with everyone, without judging their abilities: they were learning and practicing together. Every student had the opportunity to experiment, make mistakes and learn from them. It was the supportive, caring learning culture that made a significant difference.
In the second group, the facilitator only gave instructions which the participants needed to memorize. This kind of learning is highly theoretical, based on self-discipline rather than learning through doing and positive motivation. The situation reminds us of many of our past trainings: theoretical lectures with limited opportunity to apply things learnt in our work.
While the first training round was more focussed on enablement and motivation, the second round aimed at experiencing how the work environment can support or prevent applying new learning.
The task of this second round was to fold as many frogs as possible by applying the newly gained skill. As in the previous round, the instructions for both groups of how to achieve this were different. The participants were mixed to have two groups with a similar level of expertise.
The first group was allowed to work as a team, to support each other and to train participants that had previously not learned how to fold a frog. The result was that every participant had learned the new skill by the end of this round. They felt successful as individuals and as a team. They did not even ask the question if they were able to learn it, because their facilitator and they themselves were sure they could do it.
The members of the other group were supposed to fold frogs on their own without communicating amongst each other. The participants who did not learn to fold a frog in the first round were even more frustrated, they felt left alone with their learning responsibilities. Their motivation was not supported and decreased even more when their expectations for positive feedback or support from the facilitator were not met.
It is shown that not only should you as a learner be enabled through training to learn a new skill or behavior, but you need to get the opportunity, support and encouragement to turn learning into doing after the training. If you don’t use it, you lose it.
Have you ever wondered why you were able to learn some skills faster than others? Was it the training that made the difference? What if the training was great and you were still not able to turn your learning into doing? What if it is not only yourself that needs to learn, but you as a leader need to transform your whole organization? Let us look at your specific questions around Learning Transfer, start indulging in ‘Sticky Learning’ by getting in touch with us.
Please contact:
Monique Blokzyl – monique.blokzyl@tetrald.com Tel. +32 473 66 88 24 or
Anna Kaldeneker – anna.kaldeneker@gmail.com
