One of the challenges that faces all managers who sponsor learning and development is how to ensure that the learning derived from training programmes is integrated and sustained in the practises of people’s everyday work.

So often people come away fired up with enthusiasm for what they have learnt on a programme, but 6 months down the line they have slipped back into old ways. When faced with the option of changing lifelong habits or doing things the way they’ve always done them, the power of the status quo prevails, their resolve fades and they take comfort in justifying the value of their old ways.

It’s not surprising that a programme which may last one week per year, needs a bit of help if it is going to compete with 51 weeks of reinforcement of old habits.

At Corporate Alchemy, we understand and tackle this challenge. Our experience in coaching executives over a six or nine month period has shown us that new knowledge which is reflected upon, re-iterated and experienced, practised and re-practised leads to a sustained integration of learning which becomes automatic.

So, by making a training programme last six months instead of one week, it directly leads to longer term impact. So how do we make the programme ‘last longer’ without taking key people away from their jobs for a big chunk of the year?

To begin, we ensure that programme participants complete 360 degree feedbacks before they attend the programme. In this way they are confronted with direct evidence on how their performance is seen by others, often not as positively as they themselves. Participants will then engage more fully in the training, looking for ways to improve specific areas identified as weak, rather than defend the position that they know it all already. This then allows more time on the training course to be given over to embedding new behaviours.

And how do we extend the impact of the learning after the event? We provide coaching to each individual, or create ongoing forum or work groups to discuss the content of the training programme and how it may be applied directly into their working practises. Having created personal learning plans at the end of a programme participants are allocated a personal coach who will work with them at monthly intervals over the next six to nine months.

Capitalising on the energy generated from the programme coaches will help participants turn plans into actions and support them during the first few months when mistakes and a return to old habits are most likely to occur. This way, efforts to introduce new working practises, with sustained reflection and application ensures integration over the long term, changing habits and building sustainability.

Forum groups enable participants to work with each other, creating specific action plans based on their collective or individual objectives and drawing from the new content. They can support each other on the achievement of their goals and leveraging useful lessons different individuals will have gained by applying different strategies.

In this way, learning is sustained and performance levels for the individual and organisation are improved.

By Penny Sophocleous©

Chief Executive, Corporate Alchemy