(2-day and 3-day versions available)

Training is an indispensable function in most organizations because it is the only way to ensure that people keep pace with changes in a competitive environment. However, there is a tendency to over-rely on training as a cure-all for deficient performance. If someone does not work effectively, it is often assumed that he or she “needs more training.”

This program begins by grappling with the problem of knowing when you have a training problem (the person doesn’t know how to do it), as opposed to a motivational problem (the person is not receiving the necessary incentives and reinforcement to carry out the task well). A second set of issues relates to what learning is and what it is not. Research shows that human learning is not a single process, but a whole constellation of related associative processes, each having its own domain of applicability, requisites, and relationships to the development of work skills. Third, research shows that “fluency,” or “speed plus accuracy,” rather than accuracy alone, should be the goal of all learning. Fluency development requires repeatedly practicing quick responses, with immediate feedback and reinforcement. Fluency yields not only better performance on “standard problems” where there is only one correct answer that is already known or calculable by specifiable methods; it also yields better performance on creative tasks involving discovery and invention of that which was previously unknown.

Participants will learn about how to use these and other modern concepts, principles and processes of learning to improve the quality of individual performance. A final set of issues relates to the concept of “learning organizations.” In what sense do organizations really learn? How can organizations best preserve and distribute “lessons learned?” As in all Ivy Faculty programs, this Seminar will use a mix of lecture, exercises, case studies and simulations, and will provide time for participants to sketch out a plan for implementing the insights gained.