Liftology 19: The role of asking about application in life

Most of what we do in instruction, whether education or training, is get people ready to start. Yet, our ultimate desire usually is that learners persist beyond the learning experience, applying what they know and gradually developing their own capabilities, steadily improving. Why do we fall down so often on supporting this transition, and what can we do?

It’s all too easy to fall back on the explanation that we have no more contact with learners once ‘the course’ is over. And, in the past, that was partly true. Certainly schools lose contact with learners as they graduate, and training providers may not have access to learners once their engagement ends. Yet, there are two factors that need to be accounted for.

First, at least in organizations, once learners have completed training their presence is still available. They’re there. Which is why organizations have instituted coaching and apprenticeships. While those can be costly, for any substantive shift these steps are necessary. They’re a tacit concurrence that learning doesn’t stop at the end of instruction. I still recall the individual who told me that they didn’t consider a course ready to release until they’d also addressed how the learning would continue, frequently through manager training as an adjunct.

We now also have technology. Folks are almost certain to have personal information devices, e.g. phones. It’s easy to contact them (ok, if we have their agreement). When and if we make it clear what we’re doing, why, and the limits to what we’ll do with the information, and that’s ethical and appropriate, we likely will achieve their approval.

What we can do, then, is start to ask, post the experience and nearing the end of initial reactivation, is about their plans and successes or barriers in applying the information in real life. How do they intend? What happened when they tried? Did it go as expected, or what will they change? What barriers did they encounter? What we’re doing is facilitating the transition from applying in practice scenarios to real life, and working to ensure that the information is reactivated at least, and applied as intended. That’s what coaching does, but here we’re working in a scalable way that’s efficient and still effective. Which is what we should be looking to do.