Business Intelligence: Training That Sticks
November 28, 2006
From the Inside Training newsletter
By Margery Weinstein
 Wondering why the legend of the worker so disgruntled he pulled the cords out of his computer and hoisted the machine out the third floor window has gained traction, but your new memo on corporate culture following the acquisition hasn't gained speed? Well, it's more complex than you think. According to Dan Heath, co-author (along with brother, Chip) of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, messages with sticking power have some key traits in common.
Your employees will be more likely to remember information that's unexpected, says Heath, also a consultant at Durham, N.C.-based Duke Corporate Education. "To have an impact on people, you've got to show them what's the news in what you're telling them," he explains. If it's already consistent with the audience's view of the world, they're unlikely to exert any energy remembering it. "Common sense doesn't stick because it's essentially things that have stuck in the past."
In your next leadership development seminar, instead of telling participants they'll have to spend more time as leaders motivating their team, try pointing out something they never thought of before, like what they'll have to give up to do so. "I think what would be a much more effective training is to put some teeth into this, and say, 'Yes, leadership involves more time motivating and communicating, and guess what that means? It means you've got to give something up. It means you may have to give things up that are satisfying to you as a manager.'" There's a greater chance they'll remember this message more because you're telling them what's changed, or what's new, about the new role you're preparing them for.
Your message should also be highly focused. "Training six things is training nothing," Heath says. Make sure it's simple enough to be easily remembered. Instead of feeling compelled to barrage learners with a laundry list of training messages, scale down until you're focused. "It's more respectful of our own learning patterns. You don't learn to ride a bike and ride a tricycle and drive a car all in the same day," he says. "How quickly can you change the human mind and human behavior? The answer is not that quick."
All that unexpectedness and focus, though, won't have the impact you're hoping for unless it's presented with concrete examples. "It's important to train at the level of the action, not the abstraction," Heath points out. "Listening to someone talk about business with a PowerPoint presentation is kind of like listening to someone talk about tennis with a PowerPoint presentation. It?s interesting, but it?s not that useful. Business is fundamentally about actions and behaviors." So, don't say, "a solid cash position is important for a company," Heath says. "What you want to say is, 'Here's a cash flow statement, look at it, tell me what?s wrong and tell me what you would do to fix it.'"
Illustrate your points with stories that paint a picture of your words. Too often, says Heath, trainers start with the moral or lesson, and forget about the story. If you're training photocopy machine repair associates, then, just telling them not to overlook the obvious when making service calls won't cut it. They'll remember it a lot better if an experienced employee talks about working for over an hour to figure out a problem, and only then discovering the cord wasn't plugged in the wall. "As trainers we feel too much burden to pull out the overarching lessons," he says. "We feel this need to synthesize for people, and to pull out the statements that summarize a broad range of experience, and actually, we're better off just telling stories, and giving specifics. Our trainees are smart, and they'll distill the lessons on their own."
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