Creating real behavior change

- Real behavior change is what we're all after and most behaviors in the workplace are habits. We all have habits around how we communicate, how we use technology and even how we manage others. So it's imperative that learning professionals get really crisp on what the habit is that you want to instill in your learners. If you can identify the words and actions they need to be using out on their jobs and you know what they're doing today, you can design a powerful learning solution that moves them from here to there. The good news is that every skill is learnable. Brain science has proven that definitively. Then the next critical step is to help your talent practice those optimal behaviors enough times so that the right habit is formed and this is where most of the training I observe falls down. The biggest mistake learning professionals make is thinking that talking about a behavior is the same thing as doing the behavior. It's not, which is why many learning events are ineffective in the long run. A habit has three key elements. There's a cue that signals that a behavior should start then there's the behavior or routine and when we complete it, we get some kind of reward. Here's some common examples. You wake up, cue, you make coffee, routine, and you get a reward, the delicious boost of caffeine. You turn on your computer, cue, you log in to your email, routine, and you get the reward of information and productivity. So let's look at some typical and costly learning events. For example, let's say you're changing your email client or your sales software. You need to get your employees up and running as quickly as possible to avoid expensive dips in productivity but the only thing that is really going to help them, is repetitions, about 40 to be exact. If it's something they use once per day, then it will take about 40 work days before it gets easier and the basal ganglia can run it on autopilot. If it's weekly, it could take 10 months. Until you get to enough repetitions, the new behavior takes effort and concentration which can be very frustrating to employees who see the change as a roadblock to doing their work quickly. In other words it's the opposite of a reward but you could still really help employees by holding trainings where they practice using the software. You can also build accessible learning aides like videos and guides so that help is at their fingertips when they need it most. Let's also consider management training. Managing is a habit like anything else and while we can ask managers to attend training, they can still do their old behaviors or habits when they get back to their desks. In fact they're very likely to because the pressure of the job is going to make them default to their well-grooved habits. The only real way you can drive behavior change is to have them practice better management behaviors. This means that instead of just talking about what makes a good one-on-one meeting or good performance feedback, they need to actually practice the words and actions in real time with another person. Each practice starts grooving the new neural pathway and the closer they get to 40 repetitions, the more likely you are to see real behavior change. This is why I encourage learning professionals to rethink how they approach learning. You need to really focus in on instruction and practice and the the time you have with learners is best spent on developing new habits rather than imparting new information.