JULY 2008

Kirkpatrick's Column
The 'missing link'—
transferring training to results

It is easy to say, “Get the managers and supervisors to do this or that,” but the real challenge is to find the triggers that will actually make it happen. I have found that the best way to do this is to show them what their investment will do as the “missing link” between training and results.

“The big “punch line” here is that if those mission-critical behaviors do not become business as usual, in all probability the expected results will never materialize.”

Explain to them that training in and of itself is of limited value. Also, emphasize that the learning of knowledge and skills is of equally limited value unless ways are found to get participants to transfer those learnings to key behavior. And that is where the managers need to come front and center.

It is highly unlikely that even a small percentage of participants of any program will, on their own, find the time and motivation to implement new behaviors successfully. Only through application of targeted support and accountability by supervisors and managers will that actually happen. The big “punch line” here is that if those mission-critical behaviors do not become business as usual, in all probability the expected results will never materialize.

Another way to get them on board is to ask them to participate in determining the training content. For example, most organizations have training programs for supervisors. The program content is usually prepared by curriculum designers and the trainers with little or no input from the supervisors and their bosses. The curriculum designers may have informally asked for their input but not in a specific way. In some organizations, they survey supervisors and ask such questions as, “What types of programs do you want to attend that will help you do your job better?” They do not do it in a way that the responses could be tabulated and analyzed.

I suggest the following approach to get those attending as well as their bosses involved:

• Develop a list of all the possible subjects you are able to offer supervisors.
• Design a form and get their input by reacting to each possible topic.
• Tabulate the responses and rank them in order.
• Get responses from their bosses regarding the benefit of each topic to their subordinates, the supervisors.
• Tabulate the responses and rank them in order.
• Compare the two rank orders.
• Tentatively plan the curriculum, considering the results of the surveys as well as the input from the training professionals.
• Select a Training Advisory Committee of middle and upper-level managers.
• Show this committee the results of your survey and the tentative program you have designed. Get their input and consider it.
• Finalize the curriculum.

Donald L. Kirkpatrick
From Chapter 2 of Implementing the Four Levels,
published in 2007 by Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.