Learning professionals can leverage motivation theory to reduce learners' intention-action gap and achieve stronger post-training outcomes. But first they must make learner motivation a core competency - for themselves and their teams.
by Site Staff
June 27, 2010
Learning professionals can leverage motivation theory to reduce learners’ intention-action gap and achieve stronger post-training outcomes. But first they must make learner motivation a core competency — for themselves and their teams.
Many organizations needlessly leave learner motivation to chance. As a result, some training solutions fail spectacularly. Often, learners find ways to do anything but learn. However, there’s a more subtle problem that plagues even the most popular courses: After training, learners may report that they loved the course; they may even demonstrate that they have mastered the content. Still, these seemingly satisfied learners never apply their new knowledge and skills. They soon fall back into old habits, often because they lack motivation.
Therefore, chief learning officers often ask, “What makes training sticky?” It’s the million-dollar question that distinguishes successful learning programs from ineffective training boondoggles. Certainly, learner motivation plummets whenever the training deploys weak instructional design or ineffective delivery methods. However, neither strong design nor cutting-edge delivery methods can guarantee learner motivation.
Therefore, learning professionals must simultaneously understand the dynamics behind learner motivation and manage them for both formal and informal learning. Learner motivation cannot be an afterthought that receives a hasty plan just before the implementation phase.
Learner motivation requires a coherent strategy at every phase of the learning process. Whenever an organization identifies a learning need, one of the first questions should be, “How will we motivate our learners to change?” The answers to this question must shape the entire training solution — its design, development, rollout and post-training support strategy.
Many organizations lack precise ways to define, manage and measure motivation. Worse yet, organizations often rely on imprecise or antiquated theories of motivation. One model, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, introduced in 1943, offers an interesting way to think about individual needs and behaviors, but it fails to provide a reliable predictive model of human motivation. As an example, a 2007 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics study showed that the poorest Americans (lowest quintile) donated 4.3 percent of their income to charity while the richest (highest quintile) donated 2.1 percent. Maslow’s model would predict the opposite behaviors.
Evidence-based research on motivation has advanced substantially within the past few decades. Here, we examine two distinct questions within the sphere of learning:
1. How can we currently define motivation?
2. How can we manage motivation within the learning function?
These two questions are critical to improve the quality of training programs. Learning professionals need, but currently lack, a common language to discuss motivation. This language must align with current research on motivation and, most important, it must provide effective ways to motivate learners.
Defining Motivation
Piers Steel, an associate professor at the University of Calgary, has extensively researched the concept of motivation and its destructive counterpart, procrastination. Steel has determined individuals struggle to understand and manage their own motivation, let alone that of others. According to Steel, “Procrastination is our natural state of being; however, when you understand motivation, you can consciously choose to close the intention-action gap.”
Steel has identified four key factors that influence an individual’s degree of motivation:
- Outcomes: All of the rewards and losses associated with a choice.
- Probability: The likelihood that those rewards and losses will occur.
- Delay: How long an individual will have to wait for the outcomes to occur.
- Impulsiveness: The individual’s natural degree of distractibility toward other options.
According to Steel, these four factors explain why we put off actions, such as important changes, even when we know they will benefit us. We often underestimate the power of our impulsiveness. We delay important actions because the rewards or losses seem distant, and we are naturally wired to prefer choices that deliver instant gratification.
When learners return from training, they face a tough choice. If they follow the old process, they will rely on their well-developed skills to complete the task. They may complete the task quickly and have a few minutes to spare to chat with a colleague or grab a cup of coffee. On the other hand, the new process will improve their proficiency in the long term, but it will take a lot of time to achieve mastery. In the interim, they expect the task will take longer to complete and may generate errors or delays — both of which would irritate their bosses. More important, they would be sacrificing their chance to chat or grab that cup of coffee.
Unless learners make a conscious choice to change, they may default to old habits because they value immediate rewards more than long-term benefits. They tell themselves they will try the new approach tomorrow, when they have more time. However, they never seem to have more time.
How can we move these learners from a state of procrastination to a highly motivated state? Let’s take a look at what Steel calls The Motivation Equation.
While this model may initially seem complex, it gives learning professionals several ways to influence motivation within an individual or within the organization:
- Increase the outcomes by making rewards or losses larger.
- Increase probability by making outcomes seem more likely to the learner.
- Reduce delay by making goals more proximate and outcomes more immediate.
- Recognize if someone has a high degree of impulsiveness, meaning he or she is highly distractable, frequently giving in to temptation for short-term gain and having trouble prioritizing tasks.
These four factors shift motivation from a vague abstraction to a definable, manageable process. This allows organizations to plan a motivation strategy proactively before launching a training intervention, and it also allows learning professionals to respond when they detect a motivation gap within an individual or a group of learners.
Motivation Before Training
If we look at pre-training through the motivation equation, then the organization must perform three tasks. It must clearly communicate the training program’s outcomes, explain the probability of success and demonstrate that effort will produce proximate benefits.
Here are two ways organizations can improve how they frame the course and communicate value before the course starts.
In the world of formal training, the pre-training communication is often a woefully underutilized tool. Some organizations enroll learners into a course without explaining the “why” behind the course. Other organizations provide a laundry list of learning objectives that will confuse most learners. However, the realistic course preview (RCP) provides a learner-focused preview of the course. It clearly explains the course’s content and the relevance to both the learner and the organization. Often a well-designed RCP will be supported by statements from learners who have already gone through the process and experienced the post-training benefits. Learners tend to believe their peers, especially when they speak candidly. The RCP also strengthens the psychological contract between the learners and the organization. When learners experience a difficult learning challenge, it’s easier for them to say, “Hey, this is hard right now, but you told us to expect it to get tough here; we’ll work through it because we want the reward.”
Research published in 2003 by C. L. Holladay also has shown that clever course titles can sometimes make it much harder for learners to predict the course content and understand the course’s relevance. Therefore, when selecting a course title, share the proposed title with a few sample learners. Ask them what the title tells them about the course. Then ask them to rate the course’s apparent relevance to their role. You may be surprised by the results.
Motivation During Training
Steel, in his forthcoming book The Procrastination Equation: The Science of Getting Things Done, describes several strategies that can be used by organizations during training to improve long-term motivation within individuals.
First, be sure to explain the immediate benefits. Individuals need concrete benefits that seem tangible and attainable. Help learners see value by linking the outcomes with one of their already established needs. Tap into the desire to achieve results; attain power or status; develop social ties; or increase their utility to others, such as colleagues or clients.
In addition to communicating value, be sure to leverage the power of probability. Tell stories about others who mastered these skills and achieved success. Humans learn through powerful narratives: “If that person can do it, then so can I.” Make a clear connection between the rewards, or outcomes, and stories of success. If possible, consider asking the successful person to tell his or her story firsthand — either live or through a recorded video. Your goal is to create a strategy that works the entire top half of the motivation equation.
Often, training initiatives don’t give much guidance to learners about what to do post-training. Therefore, Steel recommends that courses encourage learners to set concrete goals tied to both a time and place:
- Introducing a new process: “When I boot my computer tomorrow morning, I will …”
- Teaching customer service: “When a customer complains to me in the store, I will …”
This if/then or when/then trigger seems simple. However, recent studies have been able to raise performance behaviors fivefold — from 10 percent to more than 50 percent — by guiding learners through a specially designed exercise that established concrete implementation intentions.
These short-term goals help learners overcome the inertia and background noise. According to Steel, “Choosing to act, rather than procrastinate, is an artificial choice; therefore, we must use every advantage we can to stack the deck towards action.”
Motivation in Action
Recently, a national motorcycle distributor had to guide change through its entire retailer network. The change would impact the behavior of the independent retail owners, their managers and even front-line employees. These individuals were asked to perform additional tasks where the outcomes, or rewards, would only appear at year-end, after a significant delay. Procrastination would be easy and instinctive.
Because of the relationship between the distributor and its retailers, change could be encouraged but not directly required. Therefore, the training solution incorporated an extensive learner motivation strategy that included pre-training, training and one full year of post-training support. Learners also received direct training about the motivation equation. The learner motivation strategy has been critical to producing lasting change. One year later, more than 90 percent of the retailers that participated still organically embrace these procedural changes.
Next Steps
Learning professionals can leverage motivation theory to reduce learners’ intention-action gap and achieve stronger post-training outcomes. But first they must make learner motivation a core competency for themselves and their team:
- Establish a common language of motivation within the team.
- Require that all new learning initiatives include a learner motivation strategy.
- Analyze current learning programs to identify reasons that produce motivation gaps.
Will you make these changes? The motivation equation suggests that you are probably tempted to turn the page right now. The next article appeals to your impulsiveness. If you’re genuinely serious about managing learner motivation, then set an implementation intention for yourself.
Complete this sentence: “When I next meet with my team, then I will …” Envision yourself in that space and acting.
OK, now turn the page.