Knowledge or Behavior Change
David Freund

Have you ever stopped to think: why do we send people to training?

It’s a relatively simple question, but it’s one that needs to be answered. Do we send people to training to increase their knowledge, or because we want to see a behavior change?

Think about the difference between a motivational speaker and an inspirational teacher. A motivational speaker gets people excited, energized, and inspired in the moment. But after people leave the session, they may not fully understand why they were inspired — and before long, that inspiration begins to fade. An inspirational teacher does something different. They help people understand why they’re inspired and then connect that inspiration to specific actions they can take after class is over.

Inspiration may create a moment, but learning should create movement.

Knowledge is wonderful, and we should always be trying to learn new things and grow intellectually. I try to spend an hour a day, Monday through Friday, intentionally growing my knowledge. Unless that knowledge is bearing fruit in my life — and ultimately benefiting others — is there a point?

The question then becomes: How do we move beyond simply gaining knowledge to changing behavior?

Active Practice
One of the first things that comes to mind is active practice. We need to take what we’re learning and do something with it. The knowledge needs to produce a result.

Let me give you an example:

My boat is a vintage 1970 boat with a 307 Chevy engine — a small-block V8 with a four-barrel carburetor and a distributor with points and a condenser. I recently watched someone fine-tune that engine, and she runs great. He explained everything he was doing, and I watched the entire process with my own eyes.

But here’s the problem: I didn’t actually do it.

I didn’t adjust the dwell. I didn’t advance the timing. So even though I watched him do it and understood what he was telling me, I’m not sure I could do it myself.

Now, as I write this, I realize I’d better learn soon, before the people who know how to work on engines of that vintage are no longer around to teach me!

Watching gave me knowledge. Doing it myself would give me a skill.

That’s the power of active practice. It takes the knowledge we acquire and turns it into changed behavior.

Implementation
Another important step is implementation.

I have a Post-it note next to my desk on my vision board with three questions:

1. Where can I use this?
2. When can I use this?
3. Who needs to know this?

Those three questions remind me that learning shouldn’t end when I close a book, finish a podcast, or walk out of a training session. I need to determine how I can implement what I’ve learned — or help someone else implement it.

Every time we learn something valuable, we should be asking ourselves, “Now what am I going to do with it?”

Reinforcement
The last critical piece is post-training reinforcement.

One of our member companies surprised me when the CEO asked for an extra copy of the training materials. He wanted to understand what his employee was learning so he could reinforce those concepts back on the job.

Think about the power of that.

The CEO wasn’t simply sending someone to training and checking a box. He was taking responsibility for helping turn that training into changed behavior.

That’s leadership.

So, as you read this post, spend some time reflecting.

Are you simply gaining knowledge, or are you getting better?

When your people attend training, ask yourself: Are they coming back with notebooks full of information? Are you seeing something different in the workplace? Are conversations changing? Are decisions improving? Are new skills being practiced? Are behaviors changing?

The real measure of training isn’t what we know when we leave the classroom. It’s what we do differently when we get back to work.

Knowledge is great, and learning is important — but what we really want is to get better.