WHAT MAKES TRAINING REALLY WORK E-Book

Ina Weinbauer-Heidel

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 523

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Most seminars are useless – it's an open secret in HR circles. Less than 20 percent of what trainees supposedly learn is actually put into practice. Small wonder that training programs regularly fall victim to budget cuts. Summing up 100 years of transfer research, this book demonstrates that transfer success is manageable. The 12 levers of transfer effectiveness® represent the gist of scientific research for HR practitioners. Once familiar with them, you will know what determines transfer success and how to manage it. This book presents a conclusive framework based on a solid scientific foundation, along with more than 50 tools and interventions that HR developers, training providers and trainers can use to maximize the effectiveness of any training course or program. "A must-read for anyone who wants to make sure training investments will pay off." Robert O. Brinkerhoff "This book gives you the findings from a meticulous review of the transfer-of-training literature and turns these findings into practical steps, supported by wise advice on the truths and traps of transfer. After reading this book, you WILL want to make changes to your training courses, and the explanations from the research will give you the credibility you need to enlist others for help along the way." Paul Matthews

Leseprobe

WHAT MAKES TRAINING REALLY WORK

Dr. Ina Weinbauer-Heidelwith contributions from Masha Ibeschitz-Manderbach(English version by Ann Terry Gilman and Jutta Scherer)

WHAT MAKES TRAININGREALLY WORK

12 LEVERS OF TRANSFER EFFECTIVENESS

Institute for Transfer Effectiveness | www.transfereffectiveness.com

© 2018 Dr. Ina Weinbauer-Heidel

Institute for Transfer Effectiveness | www.transfereffectiveness.com

Cover Design: Antoneta Wotringer Cover

Image: 123rf.com – ekinyalgin

Illustration: Katharina Trnka

Layout and Design: PEHA Medien GmbH, peha.at

Published by tredition GmbH, Hamburg

978-3-7469-4299-5 (Paperback)

978-3-7469-4301-5 (e-Book)

The work, including its parts, is protected by copyright. Any use without the consent of the publisher and author is prohibited. This applies in particular to electronic or other duplication, translation, distribution and public readings.

Bibliographic information of the German National Library:

The German National Library lists this publication in the German National Bibliography; Detailed bibliographic data are available online at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

CONTENTS

The Essence of Transfer Research – An Introduction

Levers for Trainees

Lever 1 – Transfer Motivation

Lever 2 – Self-Efficacy

Lever 3 – Transfer Volition

Levers for Training Design

Lever 4 – Clarity of Expectations

Lever 5 – Content Relevance

Lever 6 – Active Practice

Lever 7 – Transfer Planning

Levers for the Organization

Lever 8 – Opportunities for Application

Lever 9 – Personal Transfer Capacity

Lever 10 – Support from Supervisors

Lever 11 – Support from Peers

Lever 12 – Transfer Expectations in the Organization

Make Transfer Happen

FOREWORD

by Robert O. Brinkerhoff and Paul Matthews

Robert O. Brinkerhoff

Training without transfer is like a car without an engine; it won’t get you anywhere. When performance matters (as it almost always should), learning and development professionals must be able to drive transfer – being sure that training participants actually apply their learning in worthy ways. Ina Weinbauer-Heidel’s clear and engaging prescriptions for managing the 12 transfer levers make this good book a must-read for anyone who wants to make sure training investments will pay off.

Robert O. Brinkerhoff, an internationally recognized expert in evaluation and learning effectiveness, is the creator of the Success Case Method; he consults widely on issues of program effectiveness and recently retired as professor, Western Michigan University, where he coordinated graduate programs in human resource development.

Paul Matthews

Apparently, elephants don’t like the sound of buzzing bees, and you can stop elephants from trampling your precious crop by setting up speakers to play the chorus from a swarm of bees. A simple solution, yet powerful and effective. I have long described ‘learning transfer’ as one of the elephants in the room that Learning & Development people habitually ignore, in part because they don’t know how to handle the elephant, and so the precious crop they sow with their training gets trampled. After reading this book, this is no longer an excuse. It is full of a buzzing chorus of simple and effective methods to manage the learning-transfer elephant.

Sustainable, competitive advantage is not so much based on what the organisation and its people know, but on what they do with what they know. Sure, training creates potential, but it does not drive performance until it is implemented. Josh Bersin, in a June 2018 article, states that globally, the corporate training market is worth over $200 billion, but how much of that actually ‘lands’ and makes a difference? If you are reading this book, you already know the answer: ‘Not nearly enough’.

One of the things I welcome most about this book is that it is based on research. It gives you the findings from a meticulous review of the transfer-of-training literature and turns these findings into practical steps, supported by wise advice on the truths and traps of transfer. Building this bridge – between scholarly studies and the ‘real’ world – is no mean feat, and Dr. Weinbauer-Heidel demystifies the transfer complex deftly and well. In effect, she leaves no room for claims of ‘not knowing what to do’ and avoiding the issue of learning transfer. After reading this book, you WILL want to make changes to your training courses, and the explanations from the research will give you the credibility you need to enlist others for help along the way. You’ll want to give them this book to read as well!

Thomas Edison said, ‘The value of an idea lies in the using of it’. So, get people using the ideas they gain in your training courses by using the ideas you gain from this book.

Paul Matthews, People Alchemy’s founder and managing director, is also a sought-after speaker and the author of Capability at Work and Informal Learning at Work.

LEVERS FOR TRAINEES

I want – I can – I willIn the end, transfer is a trainee’s decision

Lever 1Transfer Motivation

Lever 2Self-Efficacy

Lever 3Transfer Volition

In this section, you will learn:

• How to increase training participants’ transfer motivation,

• What the magical four-minute mile has to do with transfer,

• How our “willpower muscle” works,

• What you can do to set the three trainee levers to “transfer-effective.”

LEVER 1 – TRANSFER MOTIVATION

TWO REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES

A week ago, Christina and Martin each completed an in-house Leadership Excellence program. From reading their accounts, what do you think: who is more likely to have greater transfer success?

Martin, 38, manager in the automotive industry

When my boss nominated me for the Leadership Excellence program, I was proud. I had heard from my colleagues that the program would really help me get ahead. The top management team was even present at kick-off to tell us about the purpose of the program, and how it benefits both me and the business. Our company spends quite a bit of money to ensure we’ll be able to put into practice what we learn. During the program, I felt I was in the right place. The issues I raised were addressed, the coaches treated us all as equals, no one patronized us. We, the trainees, were actively involved most of the time, not just sitting and listening. With each exercise, we talked about benefits and possible applications. At the end of the program, I had very straightforward plans for how to implement what I have learned. I discussed them with my boss, who gave me some valuable advice. It’s so great to see how she takes an interest in my issues. Her appreciation is a real motivator. Plus, by achieving my own goals, I contribute to her success. I look forward to implementing more, to seeing the outcome – and, of course, to my next training!

Christina, 36, manager in the public sector

After three years, I could no longer avoid it. I had to sign up for our so-called “Leadership Excellence” program. I already knew that it wouldn’t help me get ahead – a waste of time, like most of our trainings. All that happens there is that people from outside tell you how management works. As if they knew how the wind blows or what I am dealing with. A big presentation and some run-of-the-mill group exercises. What they were good for, I still don’t know. What will I implement from the program? Well, nothing. But, of course, I can’t tell that to my boss when I get back. At first, I had hoped he’d forget about it, like all the other times – but no. This time there was an actual debrief because HR insisted on getting a report. I felt like a little kid during this conversation: “Do this, but don’t do that, it doesn’t work anyway!” – That’s my boss for you. Well, I sat through it all, then jotted down something for the record. I hope they’ll leave me alone now for the next few years with all that training hassle!

Well, what’s your take on transfer success? Who do you think will implement more? What’s the key difference between the two?

Christina considers training programs to be useless, a waste of time. Ditto for the Leadership Excellence program. The benefits of the overall program, its individual modules, and the exercises were not evident to her and did not seem relevant or applicable. As a result, she has zero motivation to apply what she’s learned. Unlike Martin. He feels honored to be nominated for the Leadership Excellence program ad appreciates the opportunity. The benefit of the program was clear to him, both personally and for his organization. There is no question he wants to implement what he has learned. Researchers refer to this strong desire to actively use and implement what one has learned in one’s everyday work as “transfer motivation.”1 Participants with a pronounced transfer motivation will leave their training with a strong feeling of commitment: “Yes, I want to put this into practice.” As we will discuss later, training design and organizational elements are additional key factors for transfer success. Here, I’m focusing on the “I want” of transfer motivation, which, as we will see in the next chapters, has to be reinforced by “I can” (self-efficacy) and “I will” (transfer volition).

For transfer effectiveness as a whole, it is the participants themselves who make a very crucial decision: whether they want to apply what they have learned or not. Quite obviously, this decision – this transfer motivation – plays a key role. If participants have no interest in applying what they have learned, transfer success is virtually impossible. If they are determined to put their new knowledge into practice, a great deal has been achieved. Not surprisingly, this is confirmed by empirical studies in transfer research: High transfer motivation is a key factor for successful training transfer.2

TRANSFER MOTIVATION – YES, I WANT IT!

Transfer motivation in a nutshell

Trainees say

“Yes, I want this!”

Definition

Transfer motivation is defined as the desire to implement what has been learned.

Guiding question

How can you ensure that trainees have a strong desire to put into practice what they have learned?

So, being motivated means wanting something very strongly. But when or why do we want something strongly? Generations of researchers have been looking into this question. Motivation research is a vast field with virtually inexhaustible amounts of publications, studies, and theories. I assume you’ve come across names such as Herzberg, Maslow, Murray, or Alderfer, as well as technical terms from motivational psychology such as motives, drives, need pyramids, motivators, hygiene factors, and extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. If someone decided to write just an overview of the theories and insights in the field of motivational research, the resulting book would probably run to 500 pages or more. Here, we will therefore focus on just a few motivational theories that provide a particularly good basis for developing measures to drive transfer.

Second-class motivation?

If you ask your three-year-old if and why she wants to play in the afternoon, she will probably answer, “Because I want to. Because it’s fun!” If you ask your twelve-year-old why he plans to study chemistry in the afternoon, he will give you the same answer – in an ideal world, mind you. It is much more likely that you will get very different replies, such as, “because I have a test on Monday” or “because you said I could play on my PlayStation if I do.”

So, it seems there’s a fundamental difference here. Your three-year-old is willing because the activity in itself is fun; your twelve-year-old is willing because he is hoping for a reward, something other than the activity itself. This difference even occurred to none other than Aristotle – perhaps because he, too, had two children. Much later, it was re-discovered, and, in 1918, Robert S. Woodworth, a renowned American psychologist, described this difference as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.3 Intrinsic means “on the inside” and describes the motivation to do something for its own sake (as your three-year-old wants to play). Extrinsic means “from the outside,” referring to the kind of motivation that occurs when people expect something desirable when the task is completed successfully (PlayStation as a reward for studying – yay!!).

All in all, both types of motivation seem useful and meaningful when it comes to motivating people to do something specific or act a certain way. It’s just that in the second case, we have the problem that the desired behavior quickly stops once the rewards are no longer there or can no longer be controlled. Consequently, there seems to be a “genuine, better, more sustainable” kind of motivation – the intrinsic one – and second-class kind that is “false, not quite so good, and less sustainable”: the extrinsic kind. Which comes back to the advice often found in guides to a happier life: Do what you enjoy doing! Meaning: only things for which you are intrinsically motivated. But let’s be honest – how realistic is it to expect that you can only do the things you enjoy doing every minute of your (working) life, and stop doing them when you stop enjoying them? And how realistic is that in terms of training transfer? Is it really false, second-class motivation when trainees apply what they’ve learned because they hope for good results, achievements, or rewards (extrinsic motivation), rather than simply enjoying the activity itself (intrinsic motivation)? Also, the solution can hardly be to offer rewards every time (for example, a promotion or salary increase) to motivate participants for training transfer. Or to have bosses threaten them with consequences if people don’t apply what they’ve learned. Somehow it seems this distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic isn’t quite enough …

What follows after extrinsic and intrinsic

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were long regarded as a pair of opposing, incompatible concepts. A common undertone in motivational literature has been that intrinsic motivation (doing what you enjoy doing) is better than extrinsic motivation. However, within the field of extrinsic motivation, there are important differences. For instance, while studying or tidying up the garage isn’t always fun, the result (passing an exam, looking at a clean and tidy garage) gives you a deeply satisfying feeling that makes the commitment worthwhile. It’s quite a different story when parents “force” their children to study, or your partner “tells you” to clean out of the garage. Instant reluctance sets in, an uneasy feeling. So, what makes the difference in motivation quality? It’s self-determination, according to Deci and Ryan, who have developed this into a proper theory.4 Their self-determination theory of motivation became popular through Daniel Pink, along with his TED talk and his bestseller.5 According to him, the self-determination theory is the treasure chest of motivational research; he claims that in forty years we will consider Deci and Ryan to be the most influential social scientists of our time. Have I kindled your curiosity? Then let’s take a closer look at the self-determination theory.

As the name implies, the lynchpin of their motivation theory is self-determination. At its core, the question “Is the act in itself fun or not?” is replaced by “Do I want it for myself, or do others want it?” This theory assumes that humans have an innate basic need for autonomy and self-determination. Like Maslow’s theory, which places self-realization at the top of the hierarchy of needs, this theory also holds that we humans pursue what we ourselves want to do; that it is conducive – but not essential – to this pursuit if the activity itself gives us pleasure (intrinsic motivation); and that we tend to tackle things with great (and sustainable) motivation if they have positive and desirable consequences for us.

Why are we discussing all of this? What are the benefits of this theory with regard to transfer motivation? The answer is: It increases our options for action and motivation. Let’s take, for example, a training in telephone marketing. One of the targets could be for participants to call five potential customers per week. So how could we promote transfer motivation? Or, put differently: How could we get the trainees to say, “Yes, I want to do that!”? Here are three possible approaches:

Promote extrinsic controlled motivation

Promote extrinsic autonomous motivation

Promote intrinsic autonomous motivation

Show that others want this to be done

Show how desirable the results and consequences will be

Show how much fun it is to do this

Trainees will say: I’ll call five customers a week because that’s what my boss wants me to do

Trainees will say: I’ll call five customers a week because I’ll sell more – which I think is great

Trainees will say: I’ll call five customers a week because I enjoy making phone calls

We know from empirical studies that all three versions of both autonomous and controlled transfer motivation increase transfer success.6 In other words, transfer success also increases when external pressure is exerted (e.g., by supervisors, by the organization, by the coach, etc.). However, gut instincts and common sense tell us – and so does the self-determination theory – that controlled motivation is not necessarily optimal, appropriate for adults, and sustainable. Which is why I recommend placing greater emphasis on the autonomous forms of motivation.

Motivate trainees by offering clear, tangible benefits. Even if it isn’t always fun to apply what has been learned, this approach will enable them to develop sustainable transfer motivation. Make sure you keep stressing the benefits and desired outcome of putting things into practice.

What does this mean in practice? How can you promote and enhance autonomous motivation? Here are some examples you might want to explore further.

You promote autonomous transfer motivation by …

Examples

Giving reasons for decisions instead of making them without explanation

• Discuss with people why they were chosen to undergo a training

Communicating benefits and purposes rather than taking them for granted

• Communicate the benefits of the training to trainees (e.g., in the training description, during kick-off, in the pre-training talk, etc.)

• In the training itself, communicate the benefits of each topic and each exercise

Letting people choose instead of imposing things on them

• Before the training, let participants have a say in determining the content and methods

• During the training, give people options (e.g., offer a choice of thematic areas from which they can choose what to work on)

Promoting explorative/ discovery learning instead of passive receptive learning

• During the training, focus on active, problembased learning methods rather than “lecturing” people classroom-style (also see Lever 6 – Active Practice)

Using language that implies autonomy rather than control

• Before, during and after the training, make sure you replace control-related phrases (“You must …” or “It has been decided that…” or “It’s not done that way!”) with wording that expresses autonomy (“I encourage you to …” or “It’s been my experience that …” or “Another option would be to …” etc.).

• As a trainer and supervisor, support people by expressing your recognition, giving positive feedback, and assuming a coaching attitude, rather than acting as an authority who exerts control (for more on this, see Lever 10 – Support from Supervisors).

Strengthening people’s sense of responsibility instead of making others responsible for transfer

• Point out before, during, and after training that trainees – not trainers or other people – are responsible for their learning and transfer success.

This approach to interacting with learners, promoting their self-determination, has become quite common. It is a basic attitude that is also a key factor for successful transfer.

“Hands up or I’ll shoot!” – Transfer under pressure

“Basic attitude” is a key word that has gotten us to a very intriguing and basic issue of transfer promotion. Let’s summarize what we’ve said so far. Transfer motivation exists when trainees say, “I want to do this.” After having talked about controlled and autonomous motivation, we can get more precise now. What we want is trainees who say, “I want to do this (apply what I’ve learned) because it is my will” rather than “I want to do this because others want me to.” This insight illustrates something fundamental and important. Transfer interventions should never be controlling or coercive, but always take the form of offering support and fostering self-determined learners. In other words, promoting transfer doesn’t mean making people apply what they’ve learned, but enabling them and making it as easy as possible for them to apply it. The purpose of every transfer intervention is to pave the way for transfer success and remove barriers wherever possible. This way, we enable both the organization and the trainees themselves to get the most out of the training investment (money, time, commitment, etc.) and benefit sustainably. This is in the interest of both the organization and the trainees.

What follows from this basic attitude is that all other levers in this book, and the ideas to promote transfer that are derived from them, support not only transfer success but transfer motivation as well. It’s a natural consequence. Transfer interventions are offers of support and enablement, not pressure. Offers of support and enablement require and ensure that self-determined learners want both the offer (the intervention) and the result (the transfer success). Transfer successes and all transfer interventions are always based on a high degree of transfer motivation, of “I want to apply this.” Unfortunately, the reverse doesn’t work: Transfer motivation is not a guarantee for transfer success.

Transfer motivation - the individual will – is necessary but not sufficient – a key requirement but not a guarantee for transfer success.

Wanting to do something is not enough to really do it. We will discuss this in more detail when we talk about the other levers. The key message here is that transfer interventions are always offers of support and enablement, paving the way for transfer success – and that we should keep that in mind when designing our transfer interventions and finding the right words.

Transfer-promoting measures make the development and application of what is learned easy, attractive, and barrier-free for trainees. Such steps are offers of support and enablement for self-determined, benefit-oriented adult learners.

So, are only volunteers motivated?

What about self-determination and the pressure to participate in a training? Following the logic of autonomous motivation, should training always be offered on a voluntary basis? After all, it is quite a common phenomenon for trainers and HR developers to be faced with participants who’ve been “sent” to a training and clearly appear bored. Even worse, some openly vent their frustration, which sometimes affects the mood of the whole group. So, are trainees who’ve been sent to or “nominated” for a training generally less motivated? A good question that is well worth discussing, in particular as research confirms that transfer motivation is significantly influenced by the level of motivation before and during training.7 So, should there only be voluntary training from now on? Several studies have shown that voluntary participation results in higher motivation8 – but there have also been other studies that failed to confirm this point,9 and even proved the opposite: trainees who were obliged to attend were the most motivated.10 So, which of the findings are true? What’s the explanation for these contradictory results?

As a matter of fact, the two factors that make the difference are (1) participants’ subjective assessment of the importance and significance of the training and (2) their previous training experiences. Let’s explore this in a thought experiment: Imagine a trainee who’s had very positive experiences with past training programs in your organization. The training programs he has attended so far have been extremely meaningful and useful, applying what he learned has helped him advance in his career. How will this person react to the news that he is to attend yet another training? Obviously, he’ll view this as yet another opportunity, and tend to feel chosen or “nominated” rather than obligated or “pressured” to attend. Rather than an obligation, it will be an opportunity, a reward, an honor to him. So, in this case, the nomination will tend to increase motivation. If, on the other hand, someone is nominated (and thus obliged) whose past experiences have made her feel that training was ineffective and meaningless – a waste of time, the opposite will be true: Upon being nominated, that person’s motivation will decrease further. In short, our motivation strongly depends upon our past experiences.

Another key factor is the importance we attach to the training. Imagine you’re a member of the HR development team in an organization. Every three years there’s this major conference in Washington, D.C., where the world’s most renowned experts present the latest insights from employee research. Everyone in your team wants to go, because every time someone returns from that conference, they bring back innovative ideas that are very valuable for the HR teams’ work. The boss is deeply interested in these ideas and highly committed to supporting their introduction and implementation. Then, at the next jour-fixe, the announcement: This year, the boss is going to send you to that conference! You will go to Washington, you will learn exciting new things, and come back with brilliant new ideas. What do you think that will do to your motivation? How high will it be? Pretty high, right? Although – or because – you were nominated to go. Well, the same is true for the attendees of a training: If they consider that training to be significant and important, being “sent” will increase their motivation. If it is just another one of those trainings that they need to attend because that is the rule, being sent is likely to lower their motivation. Past experiences and perceived importance make all the difference.

Even trainees who’ve been selected or nominated for training can be highly motivated for transfer. Key factors are (1) what previous experience participants have had with training, and (2) how significant and valuable they consider the training to be (“honor and opportunity” versus “onerous duty”).

Imagine at the next human resource development conference you meet a colleague who’s struggling with the issue of voluntary attendance. “Our executive development program is mandatory,” she says. “Everyone has to attend. But that’s demotivating! So, what am I supposed to do? I’d like people to be motivated for this, but my boss insists that all managers must attend that training.” What advice would you give her? Correct: Asking “How can I push voluntary attendance?” is not the right question. Instead, she should ask herself, “How can we make our training program more meaningful and attractive for candidates?” and “How can we make it so that trainees will gain positive experiences, so they’ll find our training effective and useful?” When employees see a training as an opportunity they are grateful for and eager to take, they will perceive their nomination (or being “sent”) as a sign of appreciation, which will motivate them even more.

Work on the image you want your trainings to have. Make sure your training programs are perceived in the organization as significant, desirable, useful, and effective.

A critical look at voluminous educational programs

The issue of significance, value, and exclusiveness brings us to another interesting point: What makes training meaningful, desirable, and exclusive? Let me give you two extreme examples.

Company No. 1 offers its employees a comprehensive development program. Those interested can choose courses from a voluminous 100-page training catalog, in line with what new recruits ask for in job interviews. This educational program is sent out to all employees every year. Key figures for the company’s HR development team are “training days per employee per year” and “number of training courses offered.” In HR, these figures are used as performance metrics. Let’s forget for the moment that physical presence is, of course, not an indicator of either transfer success or training effectiveness (we will go into more detail on that when we get to Lever No. 12, “Transfer Expectations of the Organization”). Instead, let’s focus on what this company’s huge training catalog and its focus on the number of training days achieve. In some cases, trainings are well attended; for others, the HR development team wonders how to fill the slots. As a consequence, the HR team uses every opportunity to advertise those trainings: They send out emails encouraging people to sign up; they emphasize making full use of the training allotment available to each employee; they remind managers to send their people to attend. Due to the number of free slots, it may then happen that, for instance, secretaries are sent to a training on “visualizing concepts on flipchart” – fully aware that they’ve never used a flipchart in their lives and probably never will. But since the training is about “general presentation skills” and those slots need to be filled, they follow HR’s recommendation. In this company, employees are faced with an oversupply of training offers. So, rather than feeling elated because they get the chance to attend a training, they feel they should/must use up two more training days this year. Do you realize what this means in terms of significance, value, and, above all, motivation? They all drop! “Training fatigue” is a phenomenon known all too well to the extremely dedicated HR development team, especially when it comes to leadership training.

Here’s the other extreme. A distribution company has a very compact employee training program in place. To qualify, employees must achieve certain goals (for example, with a certain annual sales figure you are entitled to attend a training called “Active Selling II”). Or if you have been nominated for the next career step, you’re eligible to participate in “Leadership I.” In order to attend, you need to apply for a training slot by submitting a letter of motivation. Key figures for the HR development team are “transfer rate” and “number of transfer projects implemented.” These figures are published in the half-yearly employee magazine, together with interviews with participants talking about the training and their implementation success and experiences. In addition to the fact that this organization has a much lower training budget, the term “training fatigue” is virtually unheard of there.

What’s the difference? It lies in a proven economic principle: the principle of scarcity. Oversupply reduces value. And when training is not considered valuable or meaningful, trainee motivation decreases. Mind you, this does not mean that all educational programs should be radically trimmed down. Rather, I want to encourage you to do as you would with your rosebush: prune individual shoots so the overall plant can grow better. From a transfer perspective, neither a comprehensive educational program nor the number of trainings held are quality criteria for successful HR development. Fewer offers, clearly tailored to company, employee, and transfer needs – this will help you not only free up some of your budget but also to enhance motivation and thus increase transfer success. Plus, the experience of effectiveness in a previously completed training fosters a positive attitude towards the next training.

A comprehensive training program and the number of training days completed are no indicators of transfer-effective HR work. Have the courage to offer less training. Focus on transfer quality not the quantity of training.

Summary

Transfer motivation is a key factor for transfer success. There are different types of motivation. A less sustainable kind is extrinsic, controlled motivation (such as a supervisor or HR department who monitor implementation through reports and evaluations). This form of motivation usually only exists as long as there is strict control. A much more sustainable form is autonomous motivation – the kind that we feel when applying the new knowledge is fun (intrinsic) or the consequences of applying it are desirable and positive (extrinsic). We can promote this kind of motivation by highlighting the individual benefits of a training and each individual exercise, by providing choices and opportunities to co-decide, by facilitating selfdetermined learning, and by enhancing transfer through praise and feedback. Selfdetermination should become the key principle in all transfer interventions. Transfer interventions should always be offers of support and enablement, never pressure or control. Therefore, effective transfer interventions addressed to adults increase both transfer success and transfer motivation. This does not mean, however, that voluntary participation is mandatory for motivation. If trainees consider a training to be attractive and meaningful and have also gained positive experiences with effective training in the past, their nomination or selection for training will further increase their motivation. To enhance the importance of a training, it is advisable to leverage the economic principle of scarcity: offer less training rather than more, but make sure it is tailored to existing needs and supported by appropriate interventions to promote transfer.

HOW TO PROMOTE TRANSFER MOTIVATION

At a glance:Ideas for reflection and implementation

Frame transfer interventions as useful and beneficial

• Real-life examples for benefit-oriented versus controlling wording

Enhance the importance and reputation of your training offers

• Signals from management to reinforce performance

• Testimonials from those who have successfully completed courses

• Reports on transfer successes and interventions

• “Formal” application for programs branded as “transfer-level” trainings

Highlight the purpose and benefits

• Define and communicate transfer goals

• Use transfer goals as a starting point for the training concept

• Explain the benefits of each training component (exercise, input)

Encourage self-initiative and self-responsibility

• Ask the trainees what benefit they want to gain from the training

• Evaluate the self-responsibility trainees take on

• Work with real-life case studies and active learning

• Address theory separately to provide enough time for practical work and realistic learning experiences

Frame transfer interventions as useful and beneficial

Trainees tend to embrace transfer measures (such as trainer hotlines, pre- and posttraining discussions, follow-ups, focus groups, practice assignments, etc.) when they find them useful and meaningful. Signs of reluctance or even boycotting of transfer interventions usually indicate that people do not see the point or feel controlled in inappropriate ways. Actually, it’s completely logical and under standable, don’t you think? What this means for us is that, whenever we plan and implement transfer interventions, we need to pay attention to how we frame and communicate them to the participants. Our communication about the transfer and our transfer-promoting efforts determine how committed people will be and how successful and effective the transfer will be. The rule of thumb, in line with self-determination theory, is: Avoid control-based wording – use supportive and benefit-oriented wording.

Examples: Control-based wording

Examples: supportive, benefit-oriented wording

Management has decided that we need to ensure effective transfer through the following measures …

It is a key concern of management that you get the most out of this training – both for the company and for yourself. The purpose of these activities is to support your implementation and increase your success.

As of today, we’ll have pre-training meetings for everyone delegated to X. Please use the following form …

In a meeting with your supervisor, you will jointly define how you can optimally use what you have learned. Enclosed is a discussion guide for use as support for a brief pre-training meeting.

We have reached the end of our training. I’ll distribute this test sheet so you can review what you have learned …

We have reached the end of our training. It has been a long and intense day. I now want to invite you to review what we have discussed in a relaxed setting, using this quiz …

To ensure that the content of the training is effectively transferred into your work, there will be a two-day follow-up meeting. Please bring a presentation on your key implementation successes and difficulties.

Implementation is the most important phase of the training. This is where you will see whether your time investment pays off. We’ll therefore have a follow-up meeting to discuss our successes and some aspects of failing, clarify open questions, and jointly tackle implementation challenges. I’d like you to share your experiences and tell us about them in a brief presentation.

Three months ago, you attended my training XY and set yourself the following transfer objectives. […] This is to remind you about the implementation of your plans. You haven’t started yet? Then this is the time to start! Make your first call, enter an appointment in your calendar, …

Three months have passed since our joint training. I am very curious to learn how you have experienced the implementation so far. Among the many ideas and points discussed, there was one that ended up on your notepad as your key objective: […].So, have you been able to put that plan into action? Then I’m very happy for you and congratulate you on your transfer success.Or haven’t you had an opportunity to implement it yet? Then I’d encourage you to take the first step right now – make that first phone call, make the first appointment in your calendar, or collect some initial thoughts on your personal division of work time and leisure time.Don’t wait for opportunities to arise – create them yourself!

Transfer success is critical to the overall success of our company. We therefore take this opportunity to evaluate it for the training you completed three months ago …

It is our key concern to offer you top-quality education opportunities with a maximum of practical value. We are therefore interested in knowing how well you have been able to apply what you have learned in your daily work. By participating in this survey, you will help us continuously improve our services to you.

You may wonder, “Is this window dressing, deception, manipulative marketing?” Well, the answer depends on your overall attitude towards promoting transfer. The answer is yes, if you perceive transfer interventions as mere control mechanisms to ensure that trainees will put into practice what they have learned. An attitude from which I firmly distance myself. The above phrases express quite precisely the attitude I prefer: understanding efforts to increase transfer success as a form of support and enablement for self-determined, adult learners. We should never forget that in our communication.

Strengthen the significance and reputation of your training

When participants perceive and experience training as meaningful, their motivation increases. What exactly can we do to make training desirable, valuable, and meaningful? A proven tip from marketing: let opinion-leaders and influential decision-makers contribute their words. How about if, at your next kick-off for your leadership program, the CEO explains why this program is critical and meaningful for the company? How about if the invitation e-mail for the internal sales training is sent by the Head of Sales? Let the board and/or managers express for themselves why this training program is important and useful – whether it be live, via video message, or in written form. Invite managers and/or board members to join the training group in a fireside chat or invite them to the trainees’ implementation presentations. Their willingness to do so is usually high – especially for major, more expensive training programs – and will have an impressive effect, as it signals to participants: “Wow! This training (program) is really about something important!”

But what can we do for smaller training programs? The board can hardly be expected to personally get involved in each and every single-day training. No problem. Graduates can be wonderful ambassadors, too. Let participants of a previous training talk about its benefits for them personally and about their implementation successes – at kickoff, in the training description, on the intranet, in your invitation mail, wherever. Let them describe how valuable the training was for them and their work. Personalized experiences like these are especially credible to future trainees, as they will find it easy to identify with former participants (see also pages 56 ff.).

What works for certain training courses obviously also works for certain transfer tools and methods. Use the channels you have at your disposal to communicate over and over again how important, valuable, and useful certain transfer tools are; for example, the pre- and post-training discussions with the supervisor, the transfer book, a follow-up, and all the other tools you’ll learn about in this book. What the proven principle “Do good and talk it up” means here is this: promote and achieve transfer success and talk about it over and over again!

What can you do if training fatigue or training inertia has begun to spread in an organization? What if training is considered to be “nice, but not really changing anything,” or, worse still, a “waste of time”? How can you make sure people see a difference between the “new” training and the less effective previous trainings? The answer is: let the trainees feel the difference. How? There are countless ways to highlight this uniqueness. Perhaps participants never received personal invitations by e-mail before, with clearly defined goals? Why not start now and take that opportunity to point out that this training will be different? Why not – as mentioned above – have the board or management communicate that very specific expectations are attached to this training? Why not request applications from participants? You may even want to combine all of these elements and, within your training program, introduce a special brand for this new type of training, such as “Transfer-Level Training.” Similar to other labels or quality seals, this label could indicate that this training includes transfer-enhancing modules. On a separate page in the training program, you could explain what “Transfer-Level Training” means. The label then signals to attendees that this is something new and different, which can help reduce the negative impact that previous training experiences have had on the general attitude towards this training. In addition, the label would indicate to trainees that there will be additional tasks and developmental steps (a preparatory task, pre- and post-training discussions, a follow-up, a transfer presentation, etc.). Step by step, more and more trainings can be raised to the “transfer level”: a good way to gradually and continuously establish transfer interventions.

Make benefits and meaning the focus

Value and purpose are the keywords in transfer promotion. Make sure to place the value for the trainee – the transfer goal – at the center of each training. The transfer goal clearly defines what is supposed to be different in practice after the training and what behavior the training is supposed to achieve. A clearly defined transfer goal provides the basis for a transfer-effective training – both on the conceptual side and on the part of the trainee. Clarifying and sharpening the transfer goals is a challenging task and, at the same time, one of the first and most important ones in the context of clarifying requirements and orders (see also pages 15 ff.).

My advice is to communicate the transfer goals – the value and purpose – to your trainees. Make it a standard part of your training descriptions and also of your introductions to the training sessions. Trainees can only learn with motivation if they know why and what for. While at a younger age, it may still suffice to study to pass an exam or obtain a degree, adult learners become more critical and demanding with age, as far as the “why” is concerned. A certificate or a vague notion of “might come in handy some time” is typically not enough to motivate. Increasingly, it’s the content that should be enriching, exciting, and useful in people’s work environment. For our training context, this means you should make sure from the start that your trainees have a clear idea of precisely what benefits they will derive from this training, why making the effort will pay off, and what the transfer goals are (see also Lever 4 – Clarity of Expectations).

On the trainer’s side, clear transfer goals with significance for the trainees form the key starting point, the logical basis for every transfer-oriented training concept for adult trainees. Unfortunately, it often happens in practice that trainers begin designing a training by determining the content. For example, they begin by listing all the content elements that come to mind with regard to a broadly defined training topic, or with which they have gained experience. They often do this in the form of a “mindmap,” placing the training topic at the center and a collection of models, facts, and concepts around it. The result is a content- and trainer-focused concept that, unfortunately, often hardly intersects with participants’ needs – in short, a disaster for transfer success and trainee motivation. What should be placed at the center instead is the transfer goal, that is, the specific benefits the training is to offer for participants. If you are a trainer and you work with mindmaps, give it a try! You will come up with completely different results and a much more benefit- and learner-focused concept.