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Perception dynamics – Ian Robson

By changing the perception of participants concerning the ownership of
learning Robson increased transfer, initially by 30 per cent, and after
advice from the author by more than 90 per cent, as measured by quanti-
fied financial and non-financial measures.

n Who owns learning in this business?

n How do our people perceive the ownership of what they learn at
our expense – or their own?

n Why do people think that they are sent on training courses?

n How do we build a practical learning community based on life-long
learning – just-in-time and the enthusiastic and effective use of
what is learned?

Improving sales performance – Lambert, Miller et al.

Working with a major insurance company in the UK increased sales rev-
enues by 200 per cent within one year of the training of the sales teams.

The initial study involved three groups – one that received training plus
two controls. One control group were given extra cash incentives, the other
was given neither training nor potential higher earnings. For three
months following training the corporation’s external auditors measured
the sales performance of the three groups.

The untrained, “unincentivized” group’s sales revenues fell by 5 per
cent, the other control group increased their sales revenues, short term, by
16 per cent followed by a sharp decline toward the pre-incentive norm.

n The trained group increased sales by 180 per cent.

n After the positive experimental approach, all groups were trained,
leading to a year-on-year increase in revenues of 200 per cent.

n Training was limited in duration to one- to two-day programmes,
but the number of programmes was subsequently increased to
create a developing curriculum supported by “between courses”
reinforcement.

n Is it worthwhile for us to treat training initially as a “scientific
experiment” and measure the results before rolling out
programmes?

n Who, in our organization can produce reliable measures of training
effectiveness?

n Who has the capacity to do so without having a vested interest in
the outcome? (If you use trainers they are likely to suggest that
you have the best of outcomes in the best of all possible worlds. If
you look to external “experts” they will have every reason to
assure you that nothing is as it should be and that they and they

202 Key management questions