Fixing Corporate Learning Programs

We look at the anatomy of corporate learning while highlighting the reason why most training programs fall short of their promise and how to bridge the gap

- Pavan Soni

I am sure you must have been through a training program, on the job or in anticipation of one. Regardless of your experience ‘during’ the program or the workshop, the question remains as to how much of the learning did you apply? Most numbers hover around 10 to 30 percent. And yet, year in and year out, organizations keep peddling on their learning programs, on an ever greater canvas and costlier settings. If the information doesn’t get translated into knowledge and then eventually into ‘ways of doing things’ aren’t we wasting people’s time and organizational resources? Perhaps, most trainers and managers alike know no better way.

Here, we look at the anatomy of corporate learning while highlighting the reason why most training programs fall short of their promise and how to bridge the gap.

The anatomy of a corporate learning program

Think of learning as a confluence of three components – skillsets, toolsets, and mindset.

Learning, especially for an adult and in a work context, happens only when the toolsets, skillsets and the mindset come together. Toolsets are the essential frameworks, models, methods, and scientific takeaways from the session that help solve a problem or achieve the desired results; the skills form the deftness of using those tools in the appropriate context; and finally, the mindset is the very overarching and guiding temperament which is less of a science than art.