Success in the Training Industry

While organizational leaders understand the importance of training, they often wrongly assume that training automatically results in improved performance. The training industry has struggled to demonstrate success in the past because organizations measure the quality of training and not the resulting impact on performance as the indicator of training's effectiveness.

The training industry borrowed its fundamental concepts from higher education. The industry boomed in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of corporations hiring externally to meet their growing training needs.

In response, training companies watered down their models to a "one-size-fits-all" approach. Training models fail when the training does not align with business goals, and misguided measurement processes do not represent return value--the primary benchmark for which training should be measured.

Measurement should focus not on the training itself but on the resulting impact on employee performance. True corporate learning can only occur when employees take ownership for their learning, an internalization that distinguishes learning from training.

In order to reach employees and influence such ownership, corporate trainers must connect with employees through experiential instructional methods, allowing trainers and employees to find a common ground. As a result, employees will feel ownership of their new skills and motivation for continued learning.

Malcolm Knowles, the father of adult learning theory, advocated for learner-centered instruction, where the instructor is a facilitator instead of a lecturer. He believed ownership of the learning process was central to learning, a departure from traditional instructional theories of "leading the learner."

Knowles's theory evolved into the action learning model, resulting in a learning system that begins with a shared experience, engages employees with corporate strategy, and leads to reflection, learning, and new application. The new application, which ends in a new experience for learners to share, completes the action model.

Trainers are called to recognize learning research, realize that adults have different learning styles, and adapt training models to interactively engage and motivate employees. Additionally, they are encouraged to take responsibility for transforming their traditional models of training into learner-centered models to extract a greater ROLI.

This article is based on the book "Corporate Learning Strategies." The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.