In previous posts we have put forward the idea that leadership and management development providers deliver on one of 4 levels:
1. Reaction
2. Learning
3. Short term behavioural change
4. Long term behavioural change
This article covers both short and long-term behavioural change….
What Results will Providers Operating at this Level Provide?
The results of behavioural change can include: process improvements, bottom line contribution, increased levels of motivation, enhanced reputation, more effective use of time, higher levels of influence, greater creativity, stronger decision making, and better sales results.
“What happens when trainees leave the classroom and return to their jobs? How much transfer of knowledge, skills and attitudes occurs?” Kirkpatrick
This is the reason why most learning and development initiatives are undertaken – to change behaviour in the workplace. But surprisingly it is only once we reach this third level that we encounter any deliberate attempt to facilitate the transfer of what has happened in the seminar room back into the real world.
Clues that providers operate on this level:
- Testimonials focus on the delegate rather than the training
- Testimonials focus on how delegates applied the material at work and what the result was
- Provider is happy to cite individual examples of how delegates approached workplace challenges differently as a result of attending a program
- Testimonials from MDs and senior executives are evident, which talk about how the course benefitted them in their work
- Line manager support of programs is a routine part of any initiative
- Content of programs is robust and directly useful to delegates
- Structure of the training is a day a month over 5 or 6 months, allowing time for behavioural change to take place
- Provider uses full time employees, rather than trainers hired on a day by day basis
How easy is it to create behavioural change? Kirkpatrick identifies a number of challenges:
- An opportunity to do something different may not present itself to the delegate
- The person might not take that opportunity when it does present itself
- They might change their behaviour but not feel sufficiently rewarded for doing so to make this new behaviour a permanent feature of their style, and go back to old ways of doing things
Click here to read what is required to overcome these obstacles.
