When creating training events, instructional designers need to consider how their targeted audience will use what they learn in their work performance. Without learning transfer, training fails.

1. The learning transfer problem
Three techniques to improve it
13 October 2009
Learning transfer

2. Quotation
“We spend a lot of money to train our
people on customer service, but we still get
several customer complaints. I think that
the fault is with the training department.”
— The Boss
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3. Quotation
“When I became a
supervisor, no one
trained me. I just don’t
understand why
workers expect to be
trained. Nobody has
time for that. You need
to roll up your sleeves
and learn as you go.
That’s how I did it.”
A Great
Supporter?
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4. Training results
In a federal government training study, researchers found:
 Training interventions:
 Did not always relate to performance needs
 Did not help employees perform their jobs
 Rarely linked to organization’s business goals
 Instructional designers used inadequate needs assessment
procedures
 Trainers did not have the knowledge and skills needed to
support management and meet organizational needs
1995 study by the Merit Systems Protection Board on Human Resource
Development in the federal government
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5. Praise the training (Scenario 1)
 A business analyst returns from training and reports:
 Training on the new application was great
 The application cannot work in this culture
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6. Praise the training (Scenario 2)
 A supervisor reports that training was excellent
 The supervisor isn’t sure how the new knowledge will
help with performance
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7. Praise the training (Scenario 3)
 A director wants to apply a leadership technique that she
learned from training
 The VP discourages her from trying
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8. Praise the training
 In these three scenarios, the learners did not complain
about the training
 However, learning most likely will not transfer to
performance
 Learners’ experience: Possible frustration, confusion, or a
diminished opportunity to apply what they learned to
improve the ways of doing their work
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9. Do you agree?
— Dugan Laird, Shanon Naquin, & Elwood Holton III,
Approaches to training and development (2003)
The transfer of learning into job
performance is just as important, if not
more important, than learning
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10. Do you agree?
Without attention to transfer, good
learning often results in no return to the
organization
— Dugan Laird, Shanon Naquin, & Elwood Holton III,
Approaches to training and development (2003)
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11. Do you agree?
— Dugan Laird, Shanon Naquin, & Elwood Holton III,
Approaches to training and development (2003)
Without transfer, training fails
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12. The problem
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13. Transfer systems
 Transfer systems: All factors that influence the learning
transfer to job performance
 Includes things that training organization can control:
 Training materials
 Instruction
 Learning environment
 Includes the work environment where employees try to
apply learning
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14. Learning objects > Performance
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15. Three ways you can help
1. Engage Managers
2. Involve learners before and after a
learning event
3. Shift from content-centered to learner-
centered

16. 1: Engage managers
Managers should set the environment for learning. They
need to create a learning roadmap for their employees
and groups. Specifically, they need to:
 Identify performance needs
 Develop learning strategies for individuals and groups
 Align learning to business goals
 Support learning before, during, and after a learning
intervention
 Eliminate learning barriers
 Reward learning and improved performance
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17. 1: Engage managers
As learning & development professionals, engage
managers in the learning process
 Identify managers who may be willing to accept this role
 Coach the managers on how to engage their employees
(using the ideas in the previous slide)
 Measure manager successes
 Determine a forum for marketing manager successes so
that other managers can learn from their successes
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18. 2: Engage learners: before & after
 Stop thinking of training as a single event
 Need to design activities before and after a training
event
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19. 2: Engage learners: timeline
Before During After
• Performance
needs
• Benefits /
intended
impact
• Support
network
• Prerequisites
• Assessments
• Goals &
objectives
• Online
resources
• What’s in it for
me?
• Learning
objectives
• Content
• Experience
• Practice
• Feedback /
Rewards
• Consultations
• Action plans
• “After” Prep
• Community of
Practice
• Assessments
• Coaching
• Feedback
• Online
resources
• Environmental
adjustments
• Performance
reviews
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20. 3: Content-centered vs. learner-centered
These are traditional, content-centered action items
1. Review documents for key concepts
2. Logically sequence content
3. Study so that you can answer questions
4. Rehearse to appear credible
5. Build exercises to reinforce learning objectives
6. Verify that your content is accurate
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21. These are learner-centered action items
1. Gather information about learners
2. Discover problems that they encounter
3. Analyze performance barriers
4. Determine expectations around their performance
5. Create realistic tools, templates, and job aids to help
learners perform
6. Determine the benefits for learners and the organization
when they successfully perform
3: Content-centered vs. learner-centered
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22. About Gary A. DePaul, PhD, CPT
I help people build safe, relevant, ​and
unified work environments.
Gary A. DePaul is a speaker, author,
and leadership advisor. He has two
decades of experience as a practitioner
and scholar of leadership, has worked
as a manager in fortune 500 companies, and consults with
organizations to improve leadership practices.
For more: https://www.garyadepaul.com
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