In our recent post, titled ‘Don’t invest in L&D’, I recommended that you shouldn’t invest in L&D for the Talent within your business (or for yourself), UNLESS you have a clear understanding of what you’re looking to achieve, with measurable objectives and key milestones that the training will deliver.
So, now with the clarity of these measurable objectives and key milestones, what can we do to achieve a greater impact and ROI from our L&D budget?
As Benjamin Franklin confirmed: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn”. I whole heartedly agree with him, that there are considerable and long-term benefits in interactive learning.
The key is for each of your team to ‘own’ and develop the changes to their existing practices, that you’re targeting from their training and for them to immediately apply these changes within their current workflows. The faster they can apply these changes directly to their role, the greater the knowledge retention and translation to success.
Deductive Training or ‘Top-Down Approach’ is the standard ‘classroom’ or now VC meeting training style, where the trainer explains the techniques and processes for the delegates to ‘learn’. Still an important method but should not be the only one used.
Inductive learning, also known as discovery learning, is a process where the learner discovers and develops their style and practices by interactive involvement in actual workflow situations.
This means applying techniques ‘at the coalface’ within the training / L&D process in practical live sessions engaging with Clients or Candidates.
This ‘Interactive’ approach is really only available within Bespoke training programs, tailored specifically to your business’ workflows, where the delegates are clear on the objectives of the training linked to the benefits to them, as well as to the business.
Your people can therefore be ‘involved’ in identifying the changes needed and the best practice techniques specific to them within a workshop forum, to then apply in live client and candidate contact sessions.
We use this structured combination of these two approaches within the bespoke training and coaching sessions that we work with our clients in delivering: which consistently result in effective targeted and accelerated learning, delivering impressive results and increased ROI.
Bespoke training sessions target operational objectives defined by the board or owners, then confirmed with the teams at the outset, to ensure they agree and thus own the benefits to them individually.
Only then will they fully commit to the ‘change’ (merely incremental in some cases) that will enable them to achieve their potential in the short and long term.
How interactive are your training programs to include this essential ‘engagement’ and maximise the ROI from your L&D spend?
