LSA Transfer of Training™ Methodology

Transfer of Training at work

How to Make Training Work.

A proven approach to transfer training.

Share:
Facebook Twitter Email

“We engaged LSA Global to help facilitate a group of L&D professionals (a challenge in and of itself) around a curriculum redesign we were embarking on.

Not only did LSA provide masterful facilitation, but they consistently grounded and connected our thinking back to the business relevance, the transfer of training, and impact — providing a powerful and meaningful foundation for us to work from.

The results were innovative, thought provoking and exciting — exactly what we needed. I can’t thank them enough.”

Amanda Garrett | Associate Director, Learning & Development | Gilead Sciences

Like most business leaders, we believe that training should “make sense” from a business, budget, and cultural perspective.  Unfortunately too many learning initiatives (up to 90% by some accounts) fail, are over budget, or provide no lasting or tangible business outcome.

How can you be different?  Based upon over 800 training measurement projects, we use three simple, yet powerful, transfer of training frameworks to make a meaningful impact on the people and the business:

    1. LSA Global Learning Maturity Continuum™ to set and manage expectations
    2. LSA Training RAI™ to create relevance, adoption and impact
    3. LSA 5Ri™ to make learning stick

1. LSA Global Learning Maturity Continuum™
We customize our approach to fully align with each client’s specific objectives and level of learning maturity.  This flexible and client-centric approach allows us to help clients manage expectations and move up the Learning Maturity Continuum at a pace that works for their culture, their budget and their business.  We start by asking a few key questions related to the transfer of training:

  • Current
    Where are you on the Learning Maturity Continuum™?
  • Desired
    Where would you like to be on the Learning Maturity Continuum™?
  • Outcomes
    If you achieved your desired level of learning maturity, how would that manifest itself for your people and your business?
  • Transfer of Training™
    Are you willing to do what it takes to connect the Adoption and Alignment disconnects that occur for most training initiatives?

                                                                                                                                                                    

Learning-Maturity-Continuum

                                                                                                                                                                    

When designed and implemented correctly, we believe that value can be achieved at all 5 levels. We also believe that each stage has unique challenges that must be carefully and correctly managed to succeed.

  1. Improvised – Stage 1
    Unintentional, informal, and inconsistent learning that is decentralized, autonomous, and unpredictable.
  2. Foundational – Stage 2
    Formal, basic, and consistent learning using common language, approaches, and tools across the entire organization.
  3. Capable – Stage 3
    Consistent, comprehensive performance-based approach focused on job specific performance.
  4. Targeted – Stage 4
    Explicitly institutionalized, integrated, and driven by key business priorities and results.
  5. Aligned – Stage 5
    Embedded and explicit alignment of strategy, culture, talent, learning, performance, and results.

Are you doing what it takes to avoid the two most common pitfalls?  Download Transfer of Connecting the Disconnects — Achieving the Real ROI of Learning to learn more.


2. LSA Training RAI™
Once you know where you are and where you want to be on the Learning Maturity Continuum™, we use a simple, yet powerful, framework to set our clients up for success. It is called Training RAI™. The model has three core transfer of training principles:

  1. Training should be Relevant enough
  2. Training should be Adopted enough
  3. Training should make enough of an Impact

                                                                                                                                                                    

Training-RAI-1

                                                                                                                                                                    

These principles are based upon the concept that training should be treated as a change initiative, not an event if you want to change behavior, performance and business results.

Relevance
First, each learning solution should be highly relevant to three key stakeholders (1) The Target Audience, (2) Their Bosses, and (3) The Business/Executive Team. We call this 3×3 Relevance – without it learning leaders often struggle to get initiatives off the ground or fully implemented.

Adoption
Second, the new skills, knowledge, and behaviors must be consistently adopted by at least 50% of your target population. Without on-the-job application, a disconnect will occur between learning objectives (skills and knowledge) and performance objectives (desired results).  Without skill adoption, behavior change and performance improvement will languish.

Impact
Third, the impact on the people and the business needs to be measured to create accountability for execution and to provide actionable feedback for coaching.  Contrary to popular belief, this can be done without breaking the bank or the spreadsheet.  If it is unclear whether your learning solution is making a difference, it is difficult to get meaningful behavior change or performance improvement.

Overall, the greater the 3×3 Relevance, the more you need to invest in Adoption and Impact to get the desired results for your people and your business. The lower the 3×3 Relevance, the more you need to challenge the value of fully investing in a systemic learning solution.  To learn more, download, How to Increase the Adoption and Impact of Training Using RAI.


3. LSA 5Ri™
We define Transfer of Training as the process by which you ensure that the desired knowledge, skills, and attitudes transfer from the simulated workshop environment to predefined on-the-job behavior and performance changes.  Ideally, the desired changes should be directly linked to key business initiatives or objectives and have high 3×3 Relevance as discussed above.

Our experience and research tell us that most training initiatives consistently fall short for two reasons.  (1) They are not fully implemented or executed and (2) They do not show measurable improvements in performance or in business results.

These two factors have rightfully created ambiguity and cynicism around training as a strategic investment. After all, why would an organization want to invest in something without clearly understanding how it will impact their people or their business?

In order to ensure the Transfer of Training, we know that organizations need to focus on 5 key elements to drive measurable and sustainable results for their people and their business:

                                                                                                                                                                    

5Ri-Performance-1

                                                                                                                                                                     

  1. Relevance
    How does the skill development apply directly to an individual’s role and the group’s purpose?
  2. Resources
    How are the necessary time, information, tools, technology, supporting processes, and structures being made available to help produce the desired result?
  3. Reinforcement
    How is your environment supporting (incentives, consequences, recognition, etc.) the application of the new skills?
  4. Renewal
    How is the organization ensuring continuous improvement through coaching, mentoring, follow-up, and refreshers?
  5. Review
    How are you evaluating the efficacy of the intervention at individual and group levels?

While many companies philosophically believe in “investing in people” through skill building, most are content with allowing the results to “take care of themselves.” From our experience, the probability of this approach succeeding and having a tangible impact on the people or the business is slim.

We believe that every learning investment must be managed appropriately if you expect a benefit.  To learn more about the transfer of training, download The Number 1 Reason Training Initiatives Fail According to Executives

LSA’s action-learning leadership approach has been very beneficial to me, our leadership team, and the entire organization.

The balance of development and results has been excellent.

We have made huge progress, and I was also able to identify 2-3 high potentials while having the extra benefit of people stepping up to carry key strategic projects forward.

The experience was better than anticipated.  I could not be more pleased.

Heather Feltman
President & CEO

LSS

I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed working with LSA on the design and delivery of the experiential new employee on-boarding training.

I’ve been getting tons of positive unsolicited feedback.

You truly exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Steven Gray
US Enterprise Services

Congratulations on your pro-activity in establishing this program and developing such an effective New Employee Orientation course.

Farhat Ali
President and Chief Executive Office

Fujitsu

We partnered with LSA to help custom design, deliver, and measure an advanced new employee on-boarding process. It was well thought out and bought into by sales leadership.  The combination of targeted sales tools, technology, coaching, performance plans, training, and reinforcement made all the difference.  The solution quantifiably improved new employee and hiring manager satisfaction and increased the speed to sales quota for new hires.

I would highly recommend LSA Global for any sales enablement team looking to increase the engagement and speed to productivity of their sales force. We are excited to implement the program globally as we continue to scale.

Rochana Golani
Director, Global Sales & Technical Field Enablement

We looked to LSA Global as a consulting partner to help us explore innovative and scholarly approaches to promote employee engagement and sustain the unique culture we’ve built over the last decade.  LSA helped us perpetuate coaching as a discipline across the organization by integrating our core values, goal setting, and performance management.

We appreciate LSA’s commitment to cutting-edge practices to help keep us a step ahead during this time of rapid change.

Rosalyn Chan
Vice President, Human Resources

Redwood Trust

LSA Global has been a great partner in helping us move toward being “the leading developer of talent in the service performance management industry.”

I have engaged LSA to help develop best-in-class programs in the areas of: Executive On-boarding, Manager Training, Sales Training and Coaching, Employee Engagement, and Instructional Design.

They have consistently met or exceeded my (very) high expectations and are always responsive to my needs to increase performance, engagement, customer satisfaction, and sales growth.

Mike Normant
Senior Director, Training & Development

Service Source

We turned to LSA Global to help take our behavioral interviewing process to the next level in terms of both efficiency and effectiveness. LSA quickly understood our unique culture and challenging requirements.

They immediately helped us to improve our ability to continue to hire top talent that fits our culture and talent management strategy as we rapidly scale.  Thank you!

Julie Pearl
Technical Program Manager

Google

LSA Global brought a fresh perspective to our behavioral based interviewing strategy for key executive positions that we needed to fill.  They helped us to develop questions that produced a much deeper understanding of candidates’ capabilities.

Throughout the process LSA was also very responsive in dealing with short lead time requests.  Thank you!

SPO Partners & Co
Kim Silva, CFO

LSA is an instrumental training outsourcing partner helping us to build leadership and management capacity while strategically investing in our people.

LSA’s flexibility, depth, and breadth of expertise allows us to deliver top quality solutions that are directly tied to key business plans and talent management strategies.

Their ability to custom design, deliver, and evaluate high impact Management Training Programs has been excellent. They are true business partners and a pleasure to work with.

Margaret M. Mader
Vice President, Human Resources

Hyperion

The refreshing thing about LSA is that they focus on understanding our business situation and helping me succeed instead of selling stuff. Their experts are an invaluable resource that help me deliver higher quality results faster. I recommend them to anyone looking to improve the performance of their workforce.

Stacie Rodgers
VP of Human Resources

Cutera

Having a training outsourcing partner like LSA to support our talent management needs has been a real blessing. In an emerging company where typically you can’t afford the infrastructure necessary to provide a full range of offerings, having an external partner like LSA has been a blessing.

They deeply understand our business and our culture.   They do a great job on a wide range of customized training, consulting, and coaching solutions for us.

For us, they are definitely better than having our own internal Training and Organizational Development function.  They always do what it takes to hit the mark.

Chris Wells
Vice President, HR and IT

We hired LSA Global to design and deliver a customized outdoor experiential new employee orientation program for our recent group of MBA new hires.

The program reinforced WIPRO core values, helped to build relationships with fellow associates, and enhanced the group’s ability to operate successfully in the global world.

I definitely recommend LSA for effective employee onboarding of top talent.

Vishu Venkat, PHR
Talent Acquisition

I’m not sure if I’ve run across a company that can match the depth and quality of LSA’s consultants and facilitators.

I highly recommend LSA to anyone seeking a trusted training, coaching, and consulting partner to improve performance – at both a tactical and strategic level.

They really get talent, learning, and performance.

Jeff Coon
VP Human Resources

Exelixis

We have had a very beneficial partnership with LSA. Their recent Leadership Development Program helped us to identify, develop, and retain top leaders. It was instrumental in helping take our company and our key people to the next level. I would recommend them to anyone looking to truly develop and retain top talent.

Steve Janowsky
Vice President of Operations

Proxicom

LSA’s ability to assess needs and develop targeted  leadership training has been a critical resource for me to help our teams to perform at their peak. 

I love that LSA focuses on training that truly makes a meaningful impact on the people and the business.

Noelle VanVlierbergen
Sr. HR Business Partner

apple client logo LSA Global

Evaluate your Performance

Toolkits

Get key strategy, culture, and talent tools from industry experts that work

More

Health Checks

Assess how you stack up against leading organizations in areas matter most

More

Whitepapers

Download published articles from experts to stay ahead of the competition

More

Methodologies

Review proven research-backed approaches to get aligned

More

Blogs

Stay up to do date on the latest best practices that drive higher performance

More

Client Case Studies

Explore real world results for clients like you striving to create higher performance

More