Michael Papay
Vice President
Fort Hill Company

My passion is to help companies and individuals maximize the impact of their learning and development efforts.

Over the past six years, we have discovered how much additional value can be created by supporting and encouraging follow-through during the critical transfer and application period.

These discoveries and new know-how are the result of working with great companies like Agilent, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Honeywell, Sony and others. Their desire to push the boundaries and improve on already-excellent programs challenges us to continually learn and innovate.

My greatest reward is when companies apply this know-how to learning and development programs in ways that help them deliver even better results.

Michael Papay is a Vice President of the Fort Hill Company. He focused on working with clients, associates and partners in the Western Region.

Michael has been with Fort Hill since its inception in 1999 and was instrumental in the initial design and creation of Fort Hill’s Follow-Through Tools®.

He has worked with over 60 client programs that have helped more than 15,000 managers to leverage follow-through processes and drive results from learning programs.

Michael earned his business degree from Babson College in Finance and Entrepreneurial Studies. He can be reached at: papay@forthillcompany.com

The purpose of the Learning Alert is to share best practices that help learners follow-through and improve their personal and business results.

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Recent Learning Alerts

 
Put Your Resources Where
The Impact Is

Michael Papay

Learning organizations are in the midst of planning for the coming year. But are they investing their resources where they will generate the greatest value?

Recent evidence suggests that the answer may be "no."

Learning and development initiatives can be divided into three phases:

• Phase I - Preparation


• Phase II - Formal instruction (classroom or e-learning)


• Phase III - Transfer and application on the job

In a recent article, Zenger and Folkman estimated that the typical budget for the learning process looks like this:

The vast majority of time, energy and resources are spent on instruction (Phase II); hardly anything is spent on Phase III ensuring follow-through. When they examined where value is created by the learning process, however, the distribution was very different:

Experts are increasingly recognizing the need to budget more in the follow-through, transfer and application period.

Ken Blanchard, co-author of the One Minute Manager® recently put it this way:

"Organizations should spend ten times more energy reinforcing the training they have just conducted instead of looking for the next great learning initiative."

Marshall Goldsmith (LearningAlert #13) did not equivocate: "Leaders Who Don't Follow-up, Don't Improve."

Zenger and Folkman concluded: "It's obvious that more attention and resources need to focus on Phase 3 of the learning process."

Ideas for Action

1. Ensure accountability

   Work with line management to be sure that there is accountability for follow-through on learning transfer objectives. Send a copy of each participant's objectives (electronically or by photocopy) to his/her manager. Set a specific time for individuals to report their progress and achievements.

2. Reconvene / reconnect the group

   Reconvening the group - in person or virtually - at set times, helps ensure follow-through and learning transfer. At Honeywell, for example, participants in the Strategic Marketing Program are expected to participate in teleconferences at 30, 60 and 90 days to report progress and results on their application objectives. A senior manager and coach participate in each call.

3. Use follow-through management systems

   Recent advances in Internet technology have made it possible for learning and development organizations to actively monitor, manage, and support the learning transfer process. More and more companies are recognizing the increased value they realize for a modest incremental investment in such systems. The Ken Blanchard Companies, for example, are using a tool called 5-Minute Follow-Through® to help ensure application of Situational Leadership II®.

4. Deploy active support

   Help learners as they start to apply what they have learned. Maximize the value of the learning program by budgeting some of the facilitator's time to Phase III, as Agilent does, or by making blended coaching available on-line as the Center for Creative Leadership and Coca-Cola do through the Friday5s® process.

Reference:

Zenger, J., Folkman, J., & Sherwin, R. (2005). The promise of phase 3. Training and Development, 59(1), 30-35.

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