Why do we often barely remember expensive training courses that we completed only months ago? Much of the time and money we invest in learning remains without long-term effect. Kolja Wohlleben explains why this is the case and how sustainable learning actually works. He takes a critical look at the learning culture in companies and shows how it works: Learning only really makes a difference if we learn the right thing, it is taught in a didactically valuable way and we take responsibility for applying it ourselves.
The problem with learning is that it usually doesn’t happen.
2014, Foreign Policy magazine published the viral article “How to Get a B.A. in International Relations in 5 Minutes”. In the subheader, a professor of international relations promised “Skip the seminars and the student debt: Here's everything you'd actually remember after four years.”
International relations were part of my university degree, and reality is even more dire: I remember even less than the article suggests. Even my teacher’s name and the topic of my term paper have escaped my memory.
We quickly forget most of what we learn.
We all know what it feels like to read a book or take a course, only to barely retain any knowledge for more than a few months. But if I take a class, and just a few months after, I cannot recall its content anymore, why did I attend it in the first place?
The Purpose of Training
At least, a university degree serves many purposes that go beyond merely reciting curricula: Expanding intellectual horizons and, quite pragmatically, a valuable network. Above all, a degree also serves as an outsourced assessment center that signals to employers: This person can execute complex intellectual tasks according to rules and expectations, and has the stamina to do this for several years.
We should forgive companies if expanding their staff’s general intellectual horizon is not their top priority – even if it helps with employee retention. Nor do they send their people to trainings to build personal networks - even if that might be a welcome side effect. And training’s purpose certainly isn’t to determine if employees can do their jobs. That is what, well, the job is for.
Job training has a much narrower objective than a university degree: Employees should learn tangible things, making them more productive – better – employees.
However, the fact that we so quickly forget much of what we learn, means that companies need to ask themselves: Should we invest money in something that our employees will forget within a few months.
The correct answer is, of course, no.
If training is designed in a way that leaves no lasting impact, money is better spent elsewhere. Parking people in a room for a few hours of PowerPoint karaoke might save money compared to a genuinely well-planned workshop. But if nothing sticks in the long run, it was still overpriced.
Many trainings are only cheap if we assume that our time has no value.
How Do Employees Learn Best?
At the same time, trainings can be so impactful that even years later, we still apply what we learned. Truly well thought-out learning initiatives have changed the fate of organizations. But this only happens if specific conditions are met, namely a thorough needs analysis, thoughtful instructional design, and learners taking responsibility for their own development.
1. Learning Must Be Really Worthwhile
First, companies need to think about what’s actually necessary.
We all know what it feels like if that doesn’t happen. We sit in a class and think: “What do I need this for?”, “I already know all of this”, or both.
Training always comes with opportunity costs. We should be sure that a training is more important than whatever else participants would be doing instead. We should also be sure that the content of the training is more important than whatever else participants could be learning instead. Quite simply, our investment should be worth its return (see Return on Learning)
A training about, say, non-violent communication might sometimes be exactly what’s needed - but are unresolved conflicts and power dynamics actually our biggest problem? Or did we go for the topic because, well, it can’t hurt to know?
2. Illustrative Images Instead of Abstract Art
Second, even if training is covering the right topics, they need to be conveyed so that the content actually finds its way into our brains.
Even if content is relevant for us, this doesn’t happen automatically. Some of the most common mistakes that trainers make:
They design training so that they overwhelm participants (convinced that it’s beneficial to have “at least heard of it once”). They present content in ways that are too abstract (convinced that stories, analogies, and humor make them appear less professional). And often, lacking methodological skills, they give participants too few opportunities to apply and discuss what they’ve learned.
Good trainers give the key content of their sessions the space it deserves, use vivid explanations, and, when in doubt, prioritize application over more explanation.
3. Finish Learning? Better Not!
But no matter how well a training is designed or how well a trainer delivers it, real learning only happens if , thirdly, we take learning seriously.
If we think that learning ends as soon as the seminar room door closes, then that’s exactly when it will end. Without repeated application, even the best training won’t stick for long.
Learning Must Make a Difference
Ideally — see point one — learning content so closely aligns with our reality that we constantly have opportunities to apply it. But even then, it’s our responsibility to actually do so – and this only works if we actively engage with what we learned. Revisiting and skimming course materials at some arbitrary time won’t do much. But actively recalling what we learned about de-escalation techniques before we go into a tough conversation, where we can consciously apply it, can make all the difference.
And that should be our standard for training and our own learning: it needs to make a difference. Because if we compromise and try to save too much on learning, we risk making it worthless altogether.
Kolja Wohlleben
