What’s wrong with my current training?  

The vast majority of training consists mostly of content-focused presentation.  It is often combined with some charm, great formatted slides, and various spontaneous interrogatory or classroom conversation.  However, in my experience, the training design itself is mostly this: information the trainer knows, wrapped in various packages, and ultimately "told" to the learners.  In the end, this form of training is predominantly a "telling" process.  Harold Stolovitch, a world leader in adult learning and performance, will tell you simply that “Telling Ain’t Training" and the research bears this out. 

Trainers know a lot and want to be sure that learners get the information they need.  What’s wrong with that?  Well, imparting knowledge has little to do with improving on-the-job performance according to the research..

Hmmm, I still don't get it!  What's wrong with good information and a good presentation?

If you are having a hard time wrapping your head around this, here are two questions to think about:  What are most learners doing during your organizations training?  
If your answer is sitting and listening and reading slides–we'd say that's about 33% right and only about the sitting part!

Who is listening?
The 3 people that happily volunteer to respond to your questions are certainly listening. The others are likely not processing the words and messages though and may be nominally listening. Finally, even if they are listening, this action doesn't improve skills very well according to research. Sorry, listening isn't doing!
It’s what learners DO in training that matters!

I think my learners are engaged–they seem interested!

They may well be interested, and that’s a great start, but it doesn’t readily translate into better on the job performance. Most engagement I see is in the form of talking and asking questions. Trainers simply ask spontaneous questions in an effort (hope?!) to engage a class.  In fact, asking questions as a means of engagement is simply a form of illustrated lecture, and a poor substitute for meaningful engagement. This approach is usually for trainers who want the path of least resistance, planning, development!

My testing at the end of the session says the training worked!


Most evaluations and knowledge checks are ineffective at changing on the job performance, according to research.

Testing, or knowledge-checks and evaluations do verify that they retained some information and that they did/did not enjoy the session or trainer. A meaningful evaluation of effectiveness usually requires more than a pop quiz (declarative knowledge), and a reaction sheet at the end of the session.

And what about "learning styles"?  This concept is true, but relates to information and knowledge.  *Performance* on the other hand is not correlated to individual learning styles it turns out....ask me why!