Principles for Implementing Effective Training – Part 2

In last month's article, I introduced the principles of Keeping the Goal in Mind and Transfer of Training to Practice (click here to see last month's article). This month I will discuss two additional principles for implementing effective training programs, Chunking and Accountability.

Principle 3: Chunking

The field of cognitive psychology has provided some very valuable insights into the human capacity for learning. It has been demonstrated, for example, that there are definite limits to short-term memory that govern the number of different pieces of information a person can remember. The principle of chunking acknowledges this limitation. Chunking refers to organizing the information to be learned in such a way as to not exceed the capacity of short-term memory.

In cognitive terms, this means that not as much short-term memory is required for the task so more energy can be used for remembering something else (like some discovery questions). It is analogous to remembering a phone number. The human mind can keep about 7 numbers in mind for a short period of time. However, phone number have ten digits if you include the area code. We can often remember entire phone numbers, however, because codes familiar to us are not treated as 3 individual digits, but as a single unit.

A top-notch training program will be designed with chunking in mind. The reality is, however, that most violate this principle. What does that mean for you, the consumer of training? Two things: (1) You should be as informed as possible regarding how a training program is organized, including how much material is covered in a lesson or other unit of instruction before you buy, and (2) you may need to impose your own organization and structure onto a training program as you implement it.

For example, The Furniture Training Company has a training course on sales skills. It has four main topic areas: (a) greeting the customer, (b) discovering the customer's needs, (c) presenting solutions, and (d) closing the sale. While it is designed as an individualized, self-paced course, they suggest that you implement it by focusing solely on one of the four areas for a week at a time. By spending a week working specifically on improving the way you greet customers, you are more likely to see positive results. After practicing this smaller set of skills over and over for a concentrated period of time, they become automatic.

Because of the limitations of short-term memory, we need to thoughtfully organize and implement training in a way that does not overwhelm employees and allows them to successfully master a set of skills and then move on to the next set.

Principle 4: Accountability

The principle of accountability refers to the responsibility that a manager has to facilitate the implementation of training and to help trainees be accountable for making behavior change. Hopefully the training has done a good job of clearly defining and demonstrating the skills the associates should be learning and using as they interact with customers. The manager's job is to provide supports that encourage and hold the associate accountable for making changes.

Regular reviews

You can encourage accountability by holding regular reviews where the associate reports to you on their progress. Ask them to take some time and do a self-evaluation of their effectiveness after each interaction with a customer, and then share these evaluations with you during the review. You could create a simple document for them to use as they self evaluate. One of the realities of learning is that the more you process the information in your mind, in different ways, the more likely you will master the information. Having them self-evaluate and then review their progress will greatly improve the likelihood that they improve.

Work with peers

One of the best ways to help facilitate change during training is to pair associates together and have them review each other's progress and provide encouragement. During the training, they can discuss ideas, and the challenges or questions they have about how to use particular skills. Following the training, they can provide each other with valuable feedback as each works to improve and apply the training to conversations with customers.

Some retail furniture managers have also found value in going through the self-guided portions of a training program as a group first, as the first exposure to the material. Then the individual sales associates go through it on their own. Some of the benefits of this approach include an assurance that all have seen the material, and it helps to build a sense of cohesion as a group, which you sometimes lose in the individual work.

The four principles of (1) Keep the goal in mind, (2) Transfer, (3) Chunking, and (4) Accountability can provide you with some guidelines to help you implement a training program that will increase furniture sales in your store.

Training is a necessity for creating a more professional staff, and thus providing a level of expertise to our customers that the large do-it-all retailers cannot. Training is a worthwhile investment for any retail furniture store. However, permanent change is difficult and takes sustained effort. A Chinese proverb states "Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back." Improving the professionalism of our industry and increasing furniture sales are goals worthy of the sustained efforts they take to achieve.