How quickly do we forget our training?
Quickly. Very quickly. You see the brain is programmed to forget. No, that’s not a bad thing. In fact, if we didn’t forget we would have no memory at all.
Let’s take a look at some statistics:
- Within one hour, people will have forgotten an average of 50 percent of the information you presented. Within 24 hours, they have forgotten an average of 70 percent of new information, and within a week, forgetting claims an average of 90 percent of it.
- when information is no longer useful, your brain manages to quickly forget it.
- Small bursts better
- when training is provided well in advance of the time it is going to be needed, we will forget.
- Deliver 10 minutes of training, within five minutes of need, to an audience of one.
- Short answer assessments combined with discussion forums open up additional possibilities.
- Furthermore, if you use a social forum to share these answers with everyone, you are transforming the learner into an additional teacher.
- Finally, if you give the learners the means to up-vote some of their peers’ answers, your learners will vet one another’s answers and later you can conveniently harvest their best ideas.
Assessments
- Immediate assessments are near to useless
- Want to predict long term assessment, delay for 1 hour or even a day
4 ways to create change
- Education will not elicit change
- Incentives will produce productive behaviours
- Remove obstacles that can stand in the way of your training – don’t know how, don’t want to, expensive
- Allow people to discuss and commit to your training
