Implementation

You’ve invested in learning. The team is on board. People are loving the content. Now what? It’s time to make sure the skills are applied in real life scenarios.

This guide is designed to help your people take what they’ve learned with Happiness Concierge and apply it.

In a world where the average human attention span has fallen to eight seconds, we have discovered that lessons need to have an immediate win, recognition or appreciation to see long term benefit. 

A combination of taking action, creating new memories and receiving feedback and recognition ensures learning ‘sticks’. We call this the 3R Framework:

reflect, reinforce, reward

Here’s how it works:

1. Reflect on what was learned through information retrieval.

2. Reinforce what is working well to demonstrate your expectation of what ‘good’ looks like.

3. Reward those taking action to build confidence.

The result? Greater retention, game changing results and positive outcomes. 

Let’s step through it.

Step one: Get the team to reflect

Education experts say that we don’t learn solely by doing, but also by reflecting. Studies have discovered creating mental distance from your reality lowers the perceived difficulty of a task, too. 

Reflection and discussion are two ways to retrieve a memory and keep it alive. A great way to do this is by distributing a short email (approximately 100 words) on one theme learned in training and asking people to reflect on it, and bring their discussion to your next meeting. 

Creating an internal deadline is a great way to frame it. Here’s an example:

Hi team,

It’s been three weeks since we learned about [programme] with Happiness Concierge. 

One of the themes we discussed was [topic]. How have you found using that tool? Have you needed it? What did you notice about it?

Ahead of our next connection, I’d love for you to prepare a 5 minute update about what you’ve noticed. Maybe you’ve used it and you have results. Perhaps you haven’t needed to because you’re doing something different. 

The objective is to share what works well as a team. If you want a refresher, revisit Happiness Concierge’s presentation (attached) and their great how to’s. 

Got a performance review or internal deadline coming up? Why not remind the team of the resources they have on file. Here’s an example:

Hi everyone,

It’s been [time] since we learned about [programme] with Happiness Concierge. With [upcoming deadline, performance review, goals, executive committee] coming up, I thought it’d be neat to revisit the concepts we learned:

# 1

# 2

# 3

You’ve also got access to their frameworks, too. I’ve attached the presentation and linking their great how to’s. 

Ever wondered why after teaching someone else something, you remember the details more? When you’re forced to translate it into your own ‘style’ and ‘language, you’re more likely to remember it. A study discovered that the role of ‘information retrieval’ provided higher rates of understanding and thereby application. 

Asking people who have attended training to share the skill or tool to their team, through a meeting update, an informal presentation or through an internal sharing tool such as a short informational video, are all examples of reinforcing the learning.  This also raises the confidence and competence of internal presentation skills of the wider team which is great for visibility, too.

Here’s an example:

Pro tip: 

Where possible, give people advance warning when you want them to present. We’ve noticed it helps people to consider what their perspective is on a matter (as opposed to saying what they think you want to say!) and gives people time to prepare, revisit materials and research further prior to the session, giving everyone an opportunity to bring their unique point of view. 

Inserting one reflection question into people leaders WIPs that are action focused is a great way to reinforce learnings, too. For example, a leader might ask: 

• Who wants to share their Elevator Pitch next session?

• Who here can share an example of communicating with a stakeholder differently?

• Let’s review the framework we learned last month - what have we noticed about this at work recently?

These are all ways to extend the investment and bring learnings to life and cost nothing. Win win!

Step two: Reinforce what is working well

The saying, ‘what gets rewarded gets repeated’ could not be more relevant. If someone reinforces a job well done, we’re more likely to continue that behaviour. 

We’ve noticed organisations that actively reinforce action people take as a result of training see more consistency in adoption. This can be as easy as thanking people for doing what you’d love to see ‘more’ of. Let’s look at some examples:

• A people leader ‘shouts out’ a team member in a meeting for showcasing behaviour aligned to the values.

• A leader asks a team member to calculate the amount of time they’ve saved as a result of implementing a new skill or behaving differently.

• A colleague uses another team member as a ‘case study’ to showcase how their behaviour shifted the dial at work.

• A colleague is asked to write down how they do what they do so it can be used as an example to new starters.

• A team member is asked to teach another colleague how they do a certain skill so everyone is base lined in that skill.

If it sounds a little too simple, ask yourself: How often do I tell people they’re doing exactly what I want them to do?

We are simple human beings and we love being told we’re doing a great job. Even for things we think are simple: it all adds up to being seen and validated. 

Step three: Actively reward those taking action

Moments of recognition make learning especially ‘sticky’. Research demonstrates recognising and empowering employees increases motivation and improves performance across the organisation. 

Recognition boosts employee satisfaction, and when employees are more satisfied with their organisation, they are more productive. In fact, 67% of people in a study conducted by McKinsey reported that praise or commendation by their manager was a bigger motivator than any other financial or non-financial recognition. 

We believe effective recognition is GREAT:

• Generous

• Regular

• Empowering

• Authentic

• Timely

When it’s generous, you go out of your way to do it. When it’s regular, it’s trusted. When it is empowering, it is linked to organisational goals and strategy. When it’s authentic, it sticks. And when it’s timely, it gives people an extra pep in their step.

Here are some examples:

• A managing director stops a project manager in the hallway, and thanks them for their excellent stakeholder management during a recent challenging project.

• An executive congratulates project team members for reaching an important milestone in their regular monthly round-up email and outlines how their visibility reporting metric enabled them to see the value.

• A people manager invites team members to present and showcase a recently learned skill at an industry conference.

• A peer receives a personal email from a leader outlining what an impact their communication skills made.

• A peer receives a LinkedIn ‘shout out’ that made an impact.

• The intranet highlights a skill used by a team which led to great business outcomes.

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, please contact us. We’d be delighted to help.

Further resources:

• 9 Secret Tools That Make Learning Stick

• Creating a Reflection Practice to give yourself feedback