17 Jun How to Help People Remember What You Teach

How to Help People Remember What You Teach

Simon Wallace | 17th June 2014

Learning retention is fascinating and quite simple to understand and appreciate. The opportunity to help people remember what you teach during training intervention can be quite simply explained by considering the ‘How’, ‘Who’ and ‘Where’ of learning.

How do we learn most?

Statistics confirm that a certain action results in certain retention (%):

• Tell (5%)
• Show (10%)
• Discuss (50%)
• Experience (75%)
• Teach (>90%)

Sharing knowledge through a combination of discussion (story-telling), experiencing real world challenges, and by allowing the trainee to teach others will help people remember most.

Who do we learn most from?

Our own experiences confirm that we learnt most from the teachers we liked most.

To impart knowledge for impact the individual sharing knowledge (the trainer) has to be charismatic, practical, devoted, and determined to make a difference to everyone attending their class – exciting and helping all to learn most.

Where do we learn most after we’ve been taught?

Learning is a process not an event; 80% of learning happens outside the classroom!

The workplace environment can make or break individual learning and change following training.

The organisation investing in development must first invest in the management and their work environment so that the workplace leads, guides, and challenges the learner to: safely practice new knowledge learnt; keep going; give and receive feedback for correction or praise. This type of organisation will help people remember most.

Help people to remember what you teach!

‘How’, ‘Who’ and ‘Where’ is your training intervention?

About the Author

Simon Wallace is founder of The Whole Thing Group and passionate about performance improvement. Creative entrepreneur and trusted advisor to some great companies that are achieving great things.