The Forgetting Curve illustrates the case that new knowledge must be continuously reinforced over a period of time, using mnemonic techniques and meaningful material. But focusing on knowledge isn’t enough.

When I was training in Poland, my coach and I had countless coaching sessions in hotel rooms that never varied, no matter what hotel we were staying in. My coach always sat in the chair with his small black notebook, and I always sat on one of the beds. We would evaluate my performance after a training or tournament.

In the beginning of my career, we spent many hours on one specific question: “I know how to do it, so why did I not do it?”

My coach helped me to find out what was blocking me from doing what I knew how to do. He challenged me over and over again and slowly repeated, “You don’t win medals by remembering how to do it, but by doing it when it’s needed.”

My frustrated reaction was either, “I know how to do it!” or “Of course I remember what I need to do!”

Eventually my coach would leave the room, and I would look at the ceiling, trying to find an answer and hearing his words: “You don’t win medals by remembering how to do it, but by doing it when it’s needed.”

Knowing and remembering are not enough to achieve results, although learners must start by gaining knowledge and skills and being able to retrieve information. But they need to do more.

Since my coaching sessions in those small hotel rooms, I have been looking for answers and am convinced that there must be something more important than Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve. But what? The answer: If you want to overcome the Forgetting Curve, you must focus on behavioral change.

Without teaching behavioral change, you are merely reminding your learners of what they were taught. Achieving behavior change through your training program is the same as winning a gold medal. The focus must be on “doing it when it’s needed.” For example, you can train your learners on the importance of wearing a safety helmet while on a construction site. You can follow up on that training by sending reminders to them daily, weekly, or monthly. However, this does not mean they will wear their helmets. If you want all learners to wear their helmets, they must change their behavior. Knowing helmets are necessary is not enough.

PHASES OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE

Successful behavior change always requires 3 phases. No exceptions! Each phase has a specific role in a successful change. You cannot skip one or use a different order. Of course, each phase will vary in length and design, depending on the learner.

The phases are:

1. The Awareness phase.
2. The Knowledge/Skills phase.
3. The Apply phase.

If you want to change your learners’ behavior, remember how the brain works. Based on the Prospect Theory (discussed in Chapter 2), you know that your learners place more value on any potential losses in their current situations than on any benefits they may get from the unknown future. So, a balanced, step-by-step process is needed to help your learners understand why and how they can change their behavior. If you mess up this process, you will not achieve behavior change and not win your “gold medal.”

MEANINGFUL INFORMATION

If you want to achieve behavior change, you must use meaningful materials. What is meaningful information for behavior change? Do you know?

When you design your reinforcement program and select meaningful information, consider the different characteristic of each phase. For example, in the Awareness phase, it’s meaningful to use facts, figures, or graphs that help the learners understand why change is important. To check whether information is meaningful, consider whether the information helps answer the learners’ questions, summarized in Table 3.1.

If you use only the Forgetting Curve as the basis of your reinforcement program, you won’t achieve behavior change within your organization. According to Ebbinghaus, you should remind your learners of the material you want them to know five times before they retain the knowledge. Wouldn’t it be amazing if your learners could remember everything you taught them after only five repetitions?

Unfortunately, in daily practice, five repetitions are not enough. Some research shows that meaningful material must be repeated at least 20 times before it sticks.

To master my Judo moves, a 10,000-hour rule was more realistic. Let’s have a closer look at these 10,000 hours of training. Kees and I always trained very hard. We left little puddles of sweat wherever we performed our moves, and every time we left the gym or the dojo (Japanese for training room), we could barely walk. We enjoyed the feeling of working hard and the feeling that our efforts got us somewhere.

In the summer of 1989, I heard that the Russian team changed their approach and spent much more time in specific 14-day training camps. I told my coach I wanted to train more. In my mind, it was not an option to lose to the Russian guy just because he trained more. If they trained more, I would train more, too.

The coach started the conversation with some questions: “Anthonie, do you have a clear goal?”

“Yes, coach.”

“Anthonie, is your training schedule clear, and do you have just enough direction?”

“Yes, coach”

“Anthonie, is your problem a lack of effort?”

“No, coach”

“Anthonie, do you know what creates results?”

“Yes, a clear goal, good training program, and hard work.”

My coach looked at me and paused before he said, “It’s not the intensity but the consistency that creates results.”

He explained that you achieved fewer results if you went to a 14-day training camp and trained for eight hours per day instead of training two hours every week for a whole year.

My coach said, “Anthonie, winning gold and creating results is a marathon, not a sprint. All your effort and intensity are nothing without consistency.” As he walked away, he added, “Trust me and follow your schedule. Every day, every week for the next three years.”

Later that summer, my coach explained that my whole training program was based on my personal minimum effective dose. What was the minimum effort at a specific training in a specific period? I never spent a lot of time trying to understand all these details. My training team figured out the best minimum effective dose and the consistency I needed. I trusted my team and did what I had to do. This well-thought-out program consisting of all kinds of training over a period of time would create results.

SPACED REPETITION

Ebbinghaus introduced one more technique: spaced training or spaced repetition. Spaced repetition suggests that your learners learn better when they space out studying over a long period of time. It would be better for a learner to review training materials once a week for five weeks than to cram in five short review periods over the course of one or two days. Isn’t that exactly what my coach told me in 1989?

Additionally, Peter C. Brown, Mark A. McDaniel, and Henry L. Roediger III explain the key neurological principle of retention in their book Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. As they state, the key neurological principle of retention is purposeful recollection over set intervals of time. Spaced repetition, then, is one of the tactics that can be used to create retention.

If you are convinced that a reinforcement program consists of a series of well-balanced communication moments strategically designed, delivered, and timed to drive business impact and lasting behavior change, you are ready for the next step.

STARTING WITH GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

To set up your messages properly and create behavior change, it’s important to have a clear starting point. What do you use to determine your messages? Training goals or reinforcement objectives?

If you take a closer look at training goals and at how many companies describe these in their workbooks or on their websites, you will find lots of similar descriptions. Virtually no exceptions. I have seen many training goals in the last 12 years, and I bet you recognize them: “After the training the learner will be able to. . . .”

Imagine if my coach had used the same description for my Olympic program: “Anthonie, after the program you will be able to throw the Japanese Judo player on his back to win the fight.”

If you focus on the verb in this training goal, you will find something strange. “You will be able to.” It doesn’t matter whether you do it or not, but at least after the program you will be able to do it! There is no Olympic program with this training goal. You don’t win a gold medal just by “being able to.” You must do it, use it, apply it.

After many discussions with people who are responsible for the design of training, I understood the use of the verb “be able to.” They told me repeatedly that they cannot control what happens after the training. It’s the responsibility of the learner, the manager, and the organization. “We did our part and brought them to the level of being able to.” Is that the difference between a training program and a reinforcement program?

The difference between a training goal and a reinforcement objective is the verb. A reinforcement objective needs an active verb to determine your series of messages. A reinforcement objective focuses on the behavior you would like to observe in your learners. What specific behavior do you want to see that creates impact in your organization? I’ll bet it’s more than “the learner will be able to.”

At the end of this chapter, I have included a 10-step approach for how to determine your reinforcement objectives based on your training goals.