How to motivate people to learnMany

How to motivate people to learnMany

costly training initiatives fail to yield the desired outcomes. This isnot because of poor instructional design or weak facilitation, but becausemany people are reluctant to change their methods of working.

But, if theycan see how things could be better for them, they're more likely to committo learning. Here's five steps for encouraging your workforce to learn:

1. Go on the campaign trailCommunicate the importance of a training initiative in meeting businessobjectives. Research the practical difference it’ll make to employees'productivity and any perceived or genuine barriers.

2. Reinforce learnings via regular updatesBuild a linked series of learning installments to boost and reinforce eachlearning. Follow up with post-course assignments, action-learning projectsand sustain them with online tools for ad-hoc support.

3. Equip your managersLine managers have to be engaged in the learning process and given the rightskills and tools. Make sure managers know what their people will learnbefore they attend training and cascade development programs from the topdown, so managers model the required behavior to teams.

4. Make measurement visibleHelp managers see that the biggest contributor to achieving all of the otherobjectives is their ability to build teams of capable and engaged people.Gauge team members' engagement levels and performance ratings, and ensuremanagers know this data will be shared and used to evaluate their ownperformance as leaders.

5. Build communities, forge networksFoster loose networks by bringing the same group together several times overthe year and have them share challenges from different parts of theorganization. Celebrate career advancements publicly with stories of thedevelopment challenges individuals accomplished to get where they are.

Source: Lucy McGee, DDI. For the full article see the forthcomingMarch/April issue of Strategic HR Review.