Elearning! Dec-Jan

DEC 2014 -JAN 2015

Elearning! Magazine: Building Smarter Companies via Learning & Workplace Technologies.

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18 December 2014 / January 2015 Elearning! continuous learning most to lose — because if they can't catch up with skills gaps, how will they possibly innovate and out think the competition? According to a Brandon Hall Group study, more than half of the organizations surveyed "felt that their employees needed to connect with learning resources on a weekly or daily basis to efectively perform their job." Yet there is ofen a disparity be- tween the opportunities employees have and what they need to perform their jobs and move the needle for their organization. Abraham Lincoln once said, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the frst four sharpening the axe." If Honest Abe knew that it was worth it to take time to sharpen the axe, why do we have such a hard time applying that to today's world once the formal learning years end? Ste- phen R. Covey talks about the same con- cept of "sharpening the saw" as Habit 7 of Te 7 Habits of Highly Efective People. He states that it's necessary to fnd balance to avoid burnout and that by taking the time to sharpen the saw, we will fnd better bal- ance. Imagine the results of an individual, a team, or a workforce that is better bal- anced. So, how does an organization create a culture of continuous learning ripe for growing individuals and the organization? Perhaps that is best answered by what not to do. RELYING SOLELY ON EVENT-BASED LEARNING IS RISKY BUSINESS Event-based learning conjures up images of classrooms, whiteboards, instructor-led training (ILT), and workshops. At some point in our professional lives, we have participated in event-based learning. We went to a great class or conference. We got a ton of incredible information. We may have even gotten motivated and charged up about everything we learned. Ten, we got back to our job, got sidetracked with day-to-day responsibilities and may have missed opportunities to reinforce what we learned while we were away. And because of that, we forgot. A lot. Tink about it; you probably have a stack of business cards, some handouts, and notes from the last event-based learning you attended. But how much have you actually retained since the event? Industry leaders question whether event- based learning programs are sticking and creating desired behavior changes. Rightly so, it's quite typical to forget. (See Te Forgetting Curve.) According to the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, without context, here is what we can expect: The Forgetting Curve Retention (%) Elapsed Days Since Event Immediate Recall 20 min 1 hour 9 hours 80% is forgotte n after 2 days 90% is forgotte n after 31 days Without context, 50% is forgotten in 1 hour 2 days 6 days 31 days 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 50% of what we learn is forgotten in one hour; 80% afer two days; 90% afer 31 days

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