Learning Reinforcement - Ways to Make it Stick in Business
Sarah A Scala, M. Ed & OD
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Wouldn't it be great if we could send people to a training workshop and have them finish with all the skills and knowledge that they need on the job? That rarely happens with a training course on its own. Retention of learning is optimized and increased when there are support tools and resources in place. The more that experiential learning methods can be included, the better.
Follow-up tools are as important as the actual course content. For many of my courses, workshops, coaching sessions, and interventions, I have designed follow-up resources to reinforce, remind, and hold learners accountable for using their new skills and behaviors.
Sometimes these are short emails that go out weekly for a few consecutive weeks after the course as a reminder of the lessons and ways to practice. Other times, this has included a simple email to the participant’s leader or manager reminding them of the course objectives, behaviors or skills they should now see on the job, and a few questions to ask or ways they can hold the learner accountable. Another follow-up tool I often use is to have participants select accountability partners to work with in class, and assign after-class meetings with partners as homework to promote accountability.
Many clients have shared that these follow-up processes have been very helpful in reinforcing and retention of learning when people return to work. Whether it's to follow up on Myers-Briggs, Situational Leadership II®, Train-the-Trainer, or Team Effectiveness programs, people need reminders and reinforcements.
What are some ways that you have successfully implemented follow-up strategies when it comes to your learning for leadership development programs? Please share in the comments. If you have specific questions, ask me. I'm happy to help.
Learn more about our Learning Design services.
Questions? Let’s connect. I would love to hear your success stories. Please send them to: hello@sarahscala.com or visit www.sarahscala.com
Check out our new Digital Course Optimism, Resilience and Grit: Sustaining Success at Work and Home.
Follow my blogs on Medium, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Sign up for our Newsletter for great articles, tools, and top blog posts
About the Author:
Sarah Scala is a senior talent management leader and executive coach with 20+ years of experience providing organization development, change management, and leadership development solutions for diverse global and local industries. She is a collaborative consultant, coach, and educator supporting performance transformation of executives, leaders, and teams. Sarah is a methodical, results-driven leader recognized for helping clients reach their highest potential, increase revenue, reduce turnover, elevate business profitability, build competencies, and improve performance.
Privacy policy: I do not rent, sell, trade or share your email address with anyone, ever.
©Sarah A Scala Consulting
All rights reserved. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sarah A. Scala Consulting with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.