The Dark Secret of HRD - Why Training Doesn't Stick

I recently wrote a 57-page ebook to explain to top managers why their training programs usually don't change people's behavior. Since changing behavior is the whole point, they're wasting most of their investment. I call this horrible situation "The Dark Secret of HRD."

The thrust of the ebook is to explain in plain English four shocking facts that most top managers don't know - and how I came to learn about these things.

Here are the four facts...

1. Only a fraction of what you spend on training actually changes behavior.

Without months of follow-through reinforcement, application, feedback, encouragement and accountability, as much as 90% of all classroom instruction doesn’t “stick” in the workplace. Because of the failure to follow through, $50 billion to $100 billion are wasted every year in the U.S. alone.

2. Because people won’t use a skill consistently until it’s ingrained.

Until a new skill has been ingrained, people have to concentrate to do it right. In a busy workplace, conscious awareness is quickly filled to capacity. So until a new skill becomes an unconscious work habit, old habits will prevail most of the time. Repeated failures to apply the new skill can be discouraging, and people typically go back to their old, previously ingrained patterns.

3. And a skill won’t be ingrained without quite a lot of follow-through repetition.

To ingrain any skill, routine, habit or behavior pattern, you have to perform the correct action again and again to stimulate the brain cells involved to interconnect. Only after the new neural network is established will someone consistently perform the skill on the job. Because of the time involved, this repetition can’t happen in the classroom. It has to happen in the workplace.

4. In addition, people can’t achieve high levels of performance without people skills and personal strengths.

Ingrained business, management and technical skills aren’t enough. To succeed in life and work, people skills and personal strengths are at the core.

If you'd like to know more about this, you can watch the 3-minute video and download the ebook free.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2010. Building Personal Strength .