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alone have the answer that you need. Honest brokers are a rarity
in a world where too many “experts” have an axe to grind.)

n How much did we waste on training in the last twelve months?
(Another “Killer Question” that I have asked business leaders in
Europe and the USA. Invariably the first response is one of
shocked silence that is followed by at first a trickle, then a torrent
as senior managers catalogue wasted investment and opportunity.)

Mary Broad

The main thrust of Broad’s research is into why individuals lose what they
have learned and how to reduce the problem. She suggests that there is a
normal plateauing of any learning and when participants are not pre-
warned that this is a normal part of the learning process they become dis-
couraged and stop using what they have learned.

n Do we permit anyone in our organization at any level to discourage
the application of learning?

n Do we give new learning sufficient time to bear fruit or do we pile
learning on learning just as some organizations pile change on
change?

n Do we ensure that all learners and their management understand
the dynamics of applying what is learned and are not pushed off
course by a temporary fall in performance?

n Is learning seen as being a practical tool at every level?

n Are we ready to implement a practical policy of “Life-long
Learning – Just in Time” so that our people learn what they need
when the organization needs it, apply it immediately after
learning, share it with their colleagues and persevere until new
learning is easier to apply than the old way of doing things?

A final review of research

In an extended area of organizational rather than student research Lam-
bert also found that:

n Organizations frequently insist on speed rather than quality of
actions so that individuals are driven to continue to apply old ideas
and behaviours that enable quick, though sub-optimal,
performance.

n Individuals at every organizational level, overvalue behaviour that
has led to past successes and considerably underestimate the
changes in the situation that indicate the need for new behaviours
as circumstances change. With the acceleration of the business
cycle, changes will become more frequent, increasingly diverse and

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