If Only We Were Kids

January 27, 2009 by JoAnn Corley
Filed under Employee Training

Effective Employee Training – Using the 4 Principles of Adult Learning

Ever wondered what it takes to effectively help adults learn and translate what they’ve learned into meaningful behavior? It’s been said many times that kids learn quicker and easier than adults and in my experience I’ve seen that to be true. They are sponges, absorbing everything around them – good or bad! They model and imitate behavior fluidly with little filtering…they haven’t developed those yet.

As adults, we develop filters or biases from previous learning and experiences. Anything new we are exposed to actually goes through those filters both on a conscious and unconscious level. Those filters can be both useful and not so useful, depending on the outcomes we desire.

For example, let’s say an employee has been working for a company for some time that discourages creative thinking to the point that he/she is penalized when they present an idea. On a subconscious level, the message they are receiving is creative thinking is not useful or it is bad.

This employee now has recently moved into new employment with a progressive, forward thinking company, committed to using the intellectual capital of its employees and encourages creative thinking. How will this new employee behave? Well, I suggest this employee may have some initial struggles allowing himself to be creative. Why? Because he has an internal, subconscious filter that tells him coming up with and offering ideas is bad.

In addition to filters, as we age, unless there is a concerted effort to keep our brains alive and functioning at a decent capacity, (ever heard of the phrase “we only use 10% of our brains?”), our brains go flat…they actually under function. Critical thinking skills go by the wayside, generating ideas become almost nonexistent: in essence developing new neuropathways, which needs to happen to keep our brains vibrant, ceases to occur.
WHY DOES THIS MATTER IN STAFF DEVELOPMENT?
Hopefully, you are already answering this question. If you look at the most common approaches to how employees are trained (if they are at all….believe it or not, there are still some companies that have NOT made the connection between staff training and development and profits), you’ll see that in most cases the “throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks approach” is being used. Another way I look at is the “band-aid approach” – we’ve got a problem, so let’s do a training class and that’ll fix it!

IF ANYONE IS YOUR OGRANIZATION thinks this way….THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND what it takes for adults to not only learn, but fully integrate new principles that create new behaviors or habits.

SO WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR AN ADULT TO CHANGE A BEHAVIOR?
There are several different approaches to adult behavior change, both from a conscious level and a subconscious. To go from conscious competence, meaning I have to purposefully think and act out this new behavior I’m trying to create, to I don’t have to think about it anymore because its become so automatic, takes at its optimum, the incorporating of the 4 Adult Learning Principles in ALL staff training and development planning!

So….here they are… and as you read through these, apply them to your current staff training experience.

1. REPETITION
An adult needs to hear something 6-8 times to get it…(and you thought that was just your kids!) That’s right – there has to be REPETITION OF THE CONCEPTS A MINIMUM of 6-8 times. This helps the concept to be integrated or installed on a subconscious level….so the principle can “come to mind” in situations where is can be applied.
Of course most of you have already experienced this….how many of you as you read the following can actually hear the tunes in your head or see the picture:
–“plop, plop, fizz, fizz – oh what a relief it is….”
–“Where’s the beef?”
–“have it your way”
–“I’m loving it”
–“just do it”
I bet you could name the commercial or company those sayings or slogans represent …why? REPETITION!!!

In order to accommodate this need, adults must have ready, easy, and ongoing access to the information.

2. REAL FELT PRESSURE TO CHANGE
The reality is that people are MORE LIKELY to move away from PAIN… FASTER than they will move towards gain. So, in order for people to be motivated to actually learn – that is take on and accept the concept – there has to be a COMPELLING REASON which creates the DESIRE to learn and apply it.

Please know that the level of pressure to change is directly related to the desire or motivation for learning and implementation!!

3. REAL–TIME APPLICATION
Once someone learns a principle to apply, so a new behavior can be created, there has to be a real situation in which they can apply it to – over and over again – until they understand it, get it, see the value in it’s use AND continue to apply until it becomes automatic translating in to a habit.

4. There’s got to be a strong W.I.I.F.M.
Ever heard of that acronym? It’s everyone’s favorite broadcast radio station, “what’s in it for me”….or in the lyrics of singing legend James Brown, “THE BIG PAY BACK!” For adults to be truly motivated to learn, the other necessary component that absolutely needs to be present is a strong sense that SOMETHING IS IN IT FOR THEM…..that in fact there will be a BIG PAY OFF! For sure the bigger the payoff – the stronger the motivation to learn and apply.

Think for a moment about all the training done in corporate America where employees are “forced” to go to trainings. Think of the money wasted.

When making a decision about the use of training dollar, whether for yourself or your team, please keep these 4 principles in mind.

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