Engage, Learn and Transfer
Although every one of our management and leadership development programmes is customised to meet our client’s specific needs, they are constructed on a consistent foundation – Engage, Learn and Transfer
Engage
Teaching is easy. Learning can be tough. But changing behaviour is extremely difficult: it takes courage, time and a lot of effort. Fewer than 4% of people succeed unaided. For the rest of us, whether we’re facing the challenge of giving up cigarettes, losing a little weight or being more skilful with our least favourite colleague, the personal costs of trying to do something differently and better loom large while the benefits appear distant and uncertain.
So why do we assume that learners will motivate themselves? And why then don’t we do more to help people to prepare for their change journey?
At the Engage stage we position the programme and prepare learners for their development journey. We believe the two principles for effective learning and development are motivation and accountability. At the Engage stage we connect to learners’ intrinsic motivation by using tools such as:
- launch webinars
- psychometric assessments
- 360 feedback
- teasers/games
- pre-work digital resources
By doing this participants will be encouraged to reflect on their leadership style and discover aspects of themselves of which they may not already be aware – but mostly we build excitement and set expectations for the programme.
Learn
The 70:20:10 organisational learnscape is more likely to feature on-demand digital delivery and informal workplace learning than it is traditional tutor-led training. But before the full benefits of this blended approach can be realised, two challenges must be overcome:
Formal training courses are subject to low levels of learning transfer. Less than 20% of training course content finds its way back to the workplace in the form of new and more effective behaviours. This learning transfer problem has been known to L&D professionals for over 60 years but little progress has been made: while well-researched solutions exist, they are mainly dependent for implementation on line managers.
Informal workplace learning currently fails to deliver on its promise because it is largely unmanaged. In many organisations, informal learning drops into the organisational gap between L&D and line management. Each expects the other to orchestrate such elements as mentoring, projects, assignments, secondments and volunteering experiences. And each expects the other to ensure that new capabilities are applied in a way that improves performance when the learning experience is over.
ASK® offers a seamless combination of formal and informal learning solutions.
Transfer
All too often, when the familiar world of learning comes to an end and the task of putting newly learned capabilities to work begins, learners find themselves abandoned: fellow participants melt away, trainers move on to new projects, and line managers have other priorities. It’s at this point that the supportive coalition created during the engagement activity can step up and really make a difference.
To encourage that participation, ASK® has developed a range of job aids and tools to guide the efforts of line managers, mentors and learning sets during the transfer period. We also provide a range of workplace-based services, such as Executive Coaching and our innovative Personal Development Mentoring package, to supplement the work of the coalition and help learners to plan, implement and extract the maximum benefit from their training.
There are many different and entirely legitimate reasons for investing in the development of your leaders, but ASK start with the assumption that the desire to improve some aspect of your organisation’s performance of is foremost. Evidence would suggest that the odds are stacked against such an outcome – unless you Engage, Learn, Transfer and Evaluate.
CLICK HERE to find out more about Learning Transfer