Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. I am the managing partner for a 8 attorney firm located in San Diego. During the past several years we have invested significantly in continuing education - primarily conferences and seminars - for our lawyers and staff. We have just completed a review of our expenses in this area and we are concerned that we are not getting a satisfactory return on this investment. Please advise as to your thoughts.
A. Training and skill development is not easy. Studies reveal that 90 percent of the people who attend seminars and training sessions see no improvement because they don't take the time to implement what they learn. Practices create habits and habits determine your future. Up to 90 percent of our normal behavior is based on habits.
The key to skill learning is to get the new skill to become a habit. Once the new habit is well developed it becomes your new normal behavior. This requires practice. Unfortunately, law firms do not give employees time to practice and experiment.
Research on memory and retention shows that upon completion of a training session, there is a precipitous drop in retention during the first few hours after exposure to the new information. We forget more than 60 percent of the information in less than nine hours. After seven days only 10 percent of the material is retained. Most memory loss occurs very rapidly after learning new information. Your employees can improve their memories:
- Engage in rehearsal/practice
- Schedule distributed practice
- Minimize interference
- Engage in deep mental processing
- Emphasize transfer
- Organize information
Skills become automated through practice. The more we do a set of actions, the more likely we are to link those actions into a complete, fluid movement that we do not have to think about. With enough practice, employees can become fluent in many different physical and mental skills.
Skill development involves behavioral change and changing many habits and practices on the part of the employee. In some situations, beliefs, attitudes, values and the actual structure of an employee's working environment are affected. Effective training and skill development cannot be achieved with one-shot training programs. Training programs should be considered by all involved to be a long-range effort.
In general, three elements drive human behavior and shape the habits we possess:
antecedents, competencies and consequences.
