Gone are the days of the paper dairy and watch – which is great news for those looking to improve learning transfer levels after a training course. The ‘humble’, or should I say ‘super powerhouse’ Smart phone can true be your ally in getting great results from your programs. Which of these Smart phone features are you currently using after your training courses to help learning transfer?
1. Camera: Perfect for photographing action plans at the end of a training program. These plans can then be directly emailed to the manager, cc learning and development from the recipient. It saves setting up an online system for collating the data.
2. Reminders: What better than a self generated reminder rather than an external one set by the Learning and Development team. With a self generated reminder the individual will feel they have more control over the review process and can set a time which suits them and there action plan. How about getting everyone there and then at the end of the training program to set up a reminder in their calendar for when they will review their progress? You might even want them to invite L and D to the ‘meeting’, with a view to you knowing when the review is scheduled to happen rather than necessarily attend yourself.
3. Voice memo: Have you ever left yourself a voice mail reminding you to do something? Voice can be a powerful medium. What about getting people to record a 5 minute audio for themselves of the key takeaways from the training program specifying how they would use each point. They could record directly into there Smartphone and then play it back to themselves to remind them of what they have learnt and what they intend to do. You could create a culture where people share the audios on return to the workplace with other colleagues. This might work particular well on programs with remote attendance or where audio is an accepted medium – i.e. telephone based or radio.
4. Wallpaper / Screensaver: Some programs have very strong visual messages. You might have a photo or an image that captures the program or have a photo of a group of attendees if they have bonded well as a group. Encouraging people to change there screensavers to the new picture of image that reminds then of the course could be a good way to trigger the memory of the program and there commitment to the outcomes from the program. An alternative to this is to get people linking into the why the actions they are putting into place are important to them and to get them to choose an image that this represents for them and to choose this as a screensaver. (We have done the same in our team for our values and have pictures on the office walls for the values we most want to be developing for this quarter – note to self add it to my mobile as a screensaver..)
5. Notes: We encourage participants to jot down insights and actions as they go through a training program but often these notes remain in the workbooks rather than easily useable after the training program. With a Smartphone it is with you constantly so if a participant has used a Notes function to record actions or ideas it easy for them to refer back to it at anytime they choose.
6. As a window on your habits: If you haven’t come the ‘Do something differently diet’ before it’s well worth taking a look at it. The idea is that through changing our habits – any habits – we will loose weight. From a behavioural change point of view it’s really fascinating read and challenges our thinking about behaviours. Implying that getting into the habit of just changing our habits brings benefits. Building on from this you could challenge the participants to observe what habits do they have around there Smartphone that they want to change? How often they check them? When they check them? Where they check them? The more we can take control of our habits the greater the level of learning transfer.
7. To celebrate with! One of the actions I’m always encouraging clients to do is celebrate there wins and achievements. What better what than a blast from a stadium cheer app…. Never fails to make me smile.
I’d love to hear what ideas from this article could work for you or any other ideas that you have. I’m sure we are just scratching the surface. Get your thinking caps on. Whatever we can do to improve learning transfer let’s go for it!