Cal Wick
Founder and CEO
Fort Hill Company

I have focused my research and the work of the Fort Hill Company exclusively on learning transfer and application because, historically, it has been the weakest link in training and development.

We have developed tools and processes that have helped hundreds of companies ensure that training is put to work and increases the value of their investment in learning and development.

I am still puzzled by why so many companies invest so little in the critical transfer and application period. We have know for more than 20 years that what happens after the course is at least as important as what happens during the learning event.

It occurred to me (see the accompanying article) that perhaps we are blinded by our own paradigm about instructional design. I think it would be a great service to our profession to expand the definition of instructional design to include after-course learning, transfer and application.

Cal

Cal Wick is the Founder and Chairman of Fort Hill Company.

Cal is a nationally-recognized consultant, educator and researcher on improving the performance of managers and organizations and co-author of The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning: How to Turn Training and Development into Business Results.

Cal's research led to the concept of Follow-Through Management® and the development of web-based Follow-Through Tools® that improve results by increasing follow-through and learning transfer.

Cal graduated as a Rockefeller Fellow from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and continued his studies as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow at MIT's Sloan School of Management.

He can be reached at: wick@forthillcompany.com

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Why We Need A New Paradigm for Instructional Design

Cal Wick
Founder and CEO
Fort Hill Company

Not long ago, I had an outpatient procedure that required anesthesia. While I was waiting, I asked the anesthesiologist what kind of continuing education he did to stay current.

Dressed in his purple scrubs, he talked about the 20 years of classes he had taken (both instructor led and eLearning), but it was his final remark that caught my attention. He said, "Of course the real issue is whether you get to use your new learning. That is the real challenge!" And then he put me to sleep.

When I woke up, I kept thinking about his comment. Are we doing enough to ensure that people get to use their new learning while it is still fresh?

So I asked people who are currently attending leading Instructional Design programs what they were being taught about the transfer and application of learning. Their answers ranged from “nothing” to “not much”.

I found that hard to believe. So I reviewed various instructional design models including ADDIE, Dick and Carey, Kemp, ARCS, Gagne’s 9 Events, Kolb’s Learning Styles, Rapid Design, and others. I was struck that while each provides powerful insights into the learner, the learning situation, and the measurement of learning, none explicitly takes up the challenge of how to get people and institutions to apply what is being taught.

That struck me as a very serious issue, especially in light of the growing evidence that human expertise in all fields is directly related to the amount of practice (see for example, “What it Takes to be Great,” Fortune, Oct. 30, 2006, p. 88-96).

Incredibly, my anesthesiologist told me that often when he tried to apply new learning he had to overcome what was then “current practice” even when his new learning was clearly superior. “For instance,” he said, as he clipped a sensor on my finger, “I can’t believe how we had to fight to get to use continuous oxygen flow monitoring. Before we had this device, I had to ‘guesstimate’ oxygen levels.” As the anesthesia took effect, I was glad he persevered in his efforts to apply his continuing education.

But I wondered how many similar instances there are in corporate training. How often do we teach things that people do not use, either for lack of encouragement, or because the prevailing current practice prevents it? It made me think that perhaps our current instructional design models are incomplete. A significant amount of the potential value of training and development goes unrealized because we fail to include the transfer and application period as an integral component of instructional design.

• We need to extend the scope of Instructional Design models to include the transfer and application of learning.
  
• Instructional designs are incomplete that do not include the elements necessary for a learner to actually use what is taught.
  
• We need to shift the Learning and Development research focus to the relatively-unexplored questions of how to maximize on-the-job follow-through and results.

Ideas Into Action

1. Extend the Reach: Add the processes, principles, and tools needed to support learning transfer and application to whatever Instructional Design Models you are using.
   
2. Provide a Roadmap: Give participants guidance on how best to practice their new skills and knowledge until they achieve mastery.
   
3. Supply the Support: Make certain people can get assistance with application during the learning transfer period. A modest investment in support at this point will leverage the larger investment in the learning program itself and will produce better results than leaving people to figure it out on their own.

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