Battling Boredom In Training Programs: 5 Missing Pieces For L&D

Every professional in learning and development (L&D) will tell you that the purpose of training is to change behavior. Ultimately, from initial onboarding to advanced leadership retreats, the objective is clear: driving new behaviors to create new results. For HR leaders, L&D pros and C-suite executives, it’s time to tackle the misconceptions that aren’t working and start building new results. Battling boredom—the uninvited guest in most training and leadership programs—is the first step in changing behavior. Because, without engagement, training won’t drive change. If new results are on your agenda, there are several new ways of approaching the behavioral change conversation.

That’s according to Christopher Lind, he’s responsible for Global Digital Learning at GE Healthcare—an $18 Billion organization with 54,000 employees. From his office in Milwaukee, he shared his perspective on how training—especially leadership training—can create powerful change.

“The challenge,” Lind explains, “is that we all went to school. We grew up thinking that a traditional academic setting is how education is handled. That’s where things go South.” The sage on the stage, lecturing and transferring information, isn’t the way to go—not for adults who need greater engagement. Here are five easy pieces that can complete the puzzle for L&D:

1. Knowledge Changes Behaviors: That’s false. Lind explains that knowledge transfer isn’t the same thing as behavioral change. The misunderstanding here is that just “telling people what they need to know will drive the behaviors that we’re looking for,” Lind says. My own experience echoes this observation. In the hundreds of workshops I’ve conducted for senior leaders, executives and entrepreneurs, there’s one thing I’ve learned: if I say it, but they don’t see it, it doesn’t exist. For example, consider the donut dilemma. Imagine, if you will, there are donuts in the room where I am, right now. Delicious donuts, sitting quietly on the shelf. You can smell the icing and the dough, if you just imagine it. But I know that donuts aren’t good for me. Too much sugar! Horrible glycemic index! Terrible for my girlish figure! I have the knowledge that informs me of everything I need to know about the behavior that will serve me best. But the question that comes up is: Am I going to have a donut? Being informed and doing what’s needed are two different things. What’s the objective in your L&D programs? Because smart people make dumb choices all the time. Believing that knowledge transfer is training is a lie that no organization can afford to believe in. Information is everywhere—just relaying knowledge is incomplete in an adult learning context. And that incomplete approach leads to boredom, as well as a lack of transfer. Today, training needs to be an experience, not just a lecture. What happens when we get close to the donuts and learn by doing - not just by getting lectured? What happens if I have a co-worker or partner who says, “Hey! I tried that pink donut and I felt awful afterwards. You really don’t need to eat that donut.” That instant human Yelp review helped me to change my behavior, and make a smarter choice.
2. More than What You’re Missing: The idea of the sage on the stage, lecturing, critiquing and directing students towards some artificial result (like a grade) is yesterday’s news. José Bowen, the former President of Goucher College and the author of Teaching Naked sees that even colleges are turning away from the traditional teaching model—because it’s out of step with the times. But for everyone who endured a four-year college (or longer) lecturing is the method that’s been in place for centuries. Lind advocates for more than what’s gone before: adaptive and social learning. Adaptive learning allows you to share what you think you know, contrasting it with the information you need to know, via a two-way dialogue. It’s the difference between and instructor saying, “Let me tell you what you’re missing. Open your book to Chapter One,” and discovering individual gaps together while helping people to fill them. “Let’s assess you along the way, using technology,” Lind explains, “and give you what’s relevant.” We taught to a textbook because it was easier—but is it safe to assume that everyone in the room needs Chapter 1? Apps and assessment tools make it easier than ever to assess and customize instruction around what’s really missing.
3. Personalization Is Possible: Technology allows for more personalization than ever before. The key to bringing that technology from a training tool into the realm of behavioral change? It requires a hard look in the mirror. “We’ve been making minor changes to what we’ve done in the past,” Lind says. But there’s a mindset shift that’s needed. “Technology is allowing us to put people in challenging and even unsafe situations without causing any real damage, via virtual reality and similar tools. That’s huge—because what we want people to get better at is actually doing the behavior in practice, not just in principle.” From experiential, peer-to-peer learning to interacting with online courses, input and dialogue reinforces both experience and behavior. That practical application, as part of a personal and tailored training journey, is the path to accelerated and repeatable new results.
4. Emphasizing the Emotional Connection: How can we break through the Dunning-Kruger effect, where people assess their ability as greater than it is? Adaptive learning and assessments can help. But it’s the emotional connection that really drives new learning. Robert Sylwester, from the University of Oregon, says that emotional connection drives attention, learning and memory. “Science has shown that how somebody feels about something has a dramatic impact on learning. And we’ve been thinking about how we are making people feel about this training.” In her book, Emotions, Learning and the Brain, author Mary Helen Immodorino-Yang compares emotions to shelves—supporting the fragile cognition (learning) inside our brains. From an upscaling or up-skilling standpoint, there’s more than just an understanding of the component parts of a task or job—emotional support has to be built into the system if you want ideas to stick. For example, do employees view training as an obligation? A requirement that’s one step above a punishment? There’s not much inspiration in those descriptions. Telling people what the new process is—or what the old requirements are—isn’t the whole story for a modern training program. L&D pros have to connect the human needs to the corporate rationale—what is it that matters here to the humans doing the role, and how can we tap into some kind of emotional connection? Understanding the why has got to be a part of the plan, if you are serious about designing a program that works.
5. Embracing the Possibilities: “If we could do anything,” Lind speculates, “what would it be?” That question is vital for L&D pros who experience a kind of Stockholm Syndrome—held captive by an outdated set of values for so long that anything outside of the prison cell of traditional training feels terrifying. Lind advocates for a different approach: “Just outside of that made-up ‘prison wall’ is a completely different world.” When people see that the prison wall isn’t made of bricks (it’s a flimsy papier-mâché box of past misconceptions) escape is the next logical outcome. Change your perspective and you change your approach.

It’s possible to stop wishing and start utilizing technology, creating emotional connection and social learning, right now. Boredom is crushed by social interaction, peer-to-peer learning and tailored innovative instruction. The tools and methods exist; do we have the courage to use them? A minor mindset shift could drive major results—and accelerate new behaviors. For HR pros and training departments, the battle against boredom begins with personalization—and a personal realization that training doesn’t have to be what it’s been before.

Adult learning requires innovation, especially if that’s the behavior you’re trying to drive in your employees. There’s some knowledge that’s needed, but information isn’t the thing that drives new behavior. It’s the experience of new skills in application, with reinforcement and perspective from the true experts in the classroom: your peers.