Overcoming the Forgetting Curve: Turning Training into Learning

I recently attended the HR Symposium. There are many good reasons to attend a professional conference. For me, it’s mostly about the excitement of great conversations and the sharing of perspectives, ideas, and insights. This year the focus was on the importance of the employee experience. One comment that inspired this post came from Uber’s CHRO, Liane Hornsey, addressing employee training on the HR panel. She jokingly compared training to shooting heroin – a quick fix that doesn’t last very long.

In today’s hectic work environment, short-term fixes are often favored over long-term solutions. Training is frequently just another band-aid fix, which rarely produces long-term improvements. Anyone who’s ever attended training could attest to the fact that as soon as employee training is successfully completed, the forgetting begins. In today’s knowledge-centered jobs, the learning curve is steep, yet forgetting is inevitable and quick. It is a painful fact that employees quickly forget most of what they learn in training. In fact, it was scientifically proven. Dr. Hermann Ebbinghaus in the late 19th century was the first to plot the forgetting curve. This curve predicts that we lose most of the information we learn in training within just a few short days afterward, and thus, the new knowledge never gets applied to the job. If the goal of training is long-term retention of knowledge and skills and significant behavior change over the long haul, then what is done after training is delivered is much more important than the training itself.

Most companies invest in training programs, yet despite great efforts and best of intentions, most training programs fail to produce long-term behavioral changes or a sustainable performance improvement. In my experience, this is due to lack of follow-up strategies to implement continuous support as learners apply the new skills and knowledge into their daily work. Most training programs are designed as a single intervention whereas behavior changes require repetition, practice, and continued support within the context of the job function. There’s a huge difference between delivering training and creating a learning culture. Learning is not a newspaper, it cannot be delivered. It’s more like baking a chocolate soufflé. It’s like magic. You give the same recipe to 10 different bakers, and some transform the eggs into a mouth-watering work of art while others produce an unappealing flat pancake. Learning takes time, practice, and commitment. And ultimately, the proof is in the pudding. Knowledge has to be put into practice.

So why aren’t employers making the investment? Individual talent moves incredibly fast. It seems churning and burning through employees may be the preferred investment strategy of many tech companies adopting a very short-term attitude to retention and learning. A culture of “disposable” employees may offer exciting jobs and high compensation to get employees in the door but then fails to invest in long-term employee retention programs. Long-term retention requires a focused investment in employee development and a culture that nurtures continuous learning. This means formally establishing a mechanism to capture and disseminate knowledge.

Most people don’t like change, which means they’d like to work for a company where they can grow professionally and advance along their desired career path. The majority of professionals want to improve their craft, be more effective, implement new skills, and master new competencies. This can happen when organizations take a more structured approach to individual learning and growth. In “Outliers”, Malcolm Gladwell estimates it takes ten thousand hours of deliberate practice to master a complex skill. This translates into roughly seven years on the job. Whenever people go through a specific training program, they need further practice and support. Learning happens following the training event. Training helps deliver the content, but the challenge is in putting the training into action. Knowledge is not enough. The ability to translate learning into action rapidly is the ultimate competitive advantage. The key is to ensure that the knowledge and skills acquired in training are applied in practice to impact the achievement of the organization’s strategic goals. It’s less about output and more about the difference that learning makes for individuals, teams, and the entire organization. 

Here’s how:

The first step is to facilitate learning communities. Practice is the hardest part of learning. Learners need to be given opportunities to connect and network long after the initial training session. There should be follow-up interactive workshops to supplement and enhance the training curriculum. These meetings should be structured as a series of interactive training sessions with a cohort of peers who can share their experiences, gain new insights, and form an internal network of support.  These are designed to the cohort’s specific needs such as functional area, experience level, and learning objectives. Participants are expected to incorporate the new skills taught into their daily behavioral repertoire and to continue to refine and master the skills over time.

The second is to invest in individual coaching and mentoring. Mentoring offers the benefit of learning from someone else’s experience whereas coaching empowers the person to implement the knowledge and use the ideas in unique new ways. Coaching is the essence of transformation, which is an essential component of an effective professional development program. Coaching focuses on outcomes. A coach creates a safe space in which deep reflection and learning can take place with the goal of creating an individual action plan to implement the newly acquired knowledge and skills to enhance performance. Organizations can utilize professional coaches, or train internal coaches, who although not professional coaches would be able to apply coaching principles into the company’s work environment. Internal coaches are trained in coaching skills to support the specific needs of the business. The main benefit is the in-depth knowledge of the business and the job. It is also the most cost-effective long-term strategy to help a large number of employees reach their full performance potential.

In a knowledge economy, companies with the best talent win. Thus, developing that talent should be top priority. In a learning culture, the responsibility for employee learning is shared by each employee, each team, and all leaders. Professional development efforts should have a great impact and ROI beyond the individuals trained. Embedding learning into the organization on all levels will enhance communication and teamwork, improve execution, and increase employee morale and engagement. This should be a continuous process; the more people learn, the more value they bring.

And final word of advice from Brian Tracy: “Take all the training you can get; one good idea is all you need to save yourself years of hard work.”