It’s the $100 billion question; “What was the return on the investment in training?”
Whether it’s technical training, leadership training, or sales training, an executive decision maker authorized a budget and is expecting some sort of return on that investment much like an executive decision maker demands a return on R&D investments, marketing investments, or capital investments like property, plant, and equipment.
In most scenarios like I just mentioned – R&D, Marketing, and Capital Investments – it is standard operating procedure within most organizations for the people responsible for requesting and then using the money to be held accountable for their actions and ultimately the return on their investment. If they aren’t able to document their return or if the investments don’t work out, it could mean their jobs and quite possible their careers if the bets are big enough.
So why not in training and development? I’d say developing the talent of the present and the future is a pretty big bet! Why not hold learners accountable for their learning? After all, they are taking the same money and spending it on something that should yield some of the highest returns in the business; years of productive talent.
In my opinion one of the reasons learners aren’t held accountable for their learning is that Talent Development functions are afraid to do it. This opinion may upset some of my many Talent Development readers, but every once in a while I need to challenge you and challenge the way we all think about training.
In today’s world, we coddle and handhold learners in fear they aren’t going to like a training program and reflect poorly on us when they fill out the dreaded evaluation sheets. And if learners give us bad marks, then we are out of our jobs. So unfortunately, that system is set up to fail the learner, and fail ourselves because the metric of success has nothing to do with well-trained learners who are making better leadership decisions or doing their job better… thus giving a return on the investment. Think about it; the harder the training, the more we push people out of their comfort zones, and the more we make them work, the lower the potential “scores” are. It’s crazy.
So why? What’s the motivation behind this? Is it as simple as we just are just fearful for our jobs and take the path of least resistance by not holding learners accountable for applying new skills? No. I think the reason is deeper. Again, in my opinion, I think the reason Talent Development functions don’t hold learners accountable for their learning is they don’t know how.
Learning and applying skills in today’s complex global environment is more than just showing up, throwing up, and hoping people remember something from a single training class. Today, developing new skills and competencies is about empowering learners to embrace their new skills and the process of learning. That’s why tools such as Leadership Business Simulations provide the empowerment for learners to learn-by-doing instead of watching a boring video or reading an article that is not applicable.
One thing we have learned is that in order to build empowerment and accountability, you must give learners that chance to practice and get better and better. After a typical training event, learners lose 90% of the new knowledge within a month if they don’t use it and refine it.
There are many new and exciting learning tools that can help empower learners and we have seen platforms such as our own Praction™ physically transform learners through practice and reinforcement.
But, the process of holding learners accountable can’t stop there. To truly create accountability, learners must have a plan of learning action. Some sort of mechanism that makes them commit to doing things differently. For example, if someone is having difficulties coaching others, then they need a plan of action to document and assess any and all coaching opportunities. But practicing and documenting has to be just the start. Having learners create SMART Action Plans that must be submitted and shared with the Talent Development function and their supervisor creates true accountability. Having learners illustrate return on investment through documented better business decisions is the best way to create a culture of both empowered learners and accountable learners as well.
