Beyond Implementation

When the euphoria of a learning event is over, it is often only then that individuals really start to take stock of what they have actually learnt, how they will put their learning into practice, as well as identify current gaps in their knowledge. Yet many evaluations rarely get beyond the first level in the Kirkpatrick evaluation model, i.e. the reaction level.

I was reminded of this recently when as a novice sailor I attended a three-day yacht sailing course and then immediately went off flotilla sailing with my family. While the yacht course gave me a good theoretical base for sailing it wasn’t until we were out on our own boat that I really started to apply what I had learnt on the course. I quickly learnt that the instructor had lots of tacit knowledge that she hadn’t been able to pass on to me given the type of training course that I had participated in. Had I had the opportunity to give feedback to the instructor after the flotilla holiday, it would have been of more value than that given immediately after completing the course.

So what can we learn from this particular experience? As learners we need time, beyond the learning event itself, to assimilate and put into practice what we have learnt. It makes sense then for the evaluation process to extend beyond the delivery stage. But we already send out evaluation sheets three months after a training course I hear you say, and the response rate is always very low. If this is the case, perhaps it is time to adopt a different approach.

We need to consider which stakeholders are likely to benefit most from the evaluation process at this point? Very often it is the individual learners as ongoing feedback, following a learning programme, is crucial to the learning process. One approach that could be incorporated into the evaluation process is to utilise a tool that enables individual learners to gain regular ongoing feedback on the development areas that they have chosen to work on. A new tool that I have recently come across that makes this a simpler process for both individuals and HR is Pulse Feedback^[6].

This tool enables individual learners to receive regular feedback, in an electronic format, on the progress that others see them making against their defined development areas. Although centrally administered, the individual learner is in control of the feedback that is most relevant to them.

In viewing evaluation as a learning process in its own right, it can be a valuable tool in HR’s toolkit. From a knowledge management perspective developing the skills in learning how to learn, as well as facilitating the transfer of knowledge, is as important as what is actually learnt. Any evaluation process needs to acknowledge and capture this difference.

^[6]For further details about Pulse Feedback™ see www.psymmetry.com