What is Transfer of Learning?

You spend days vetting a training program. You pay the invoice. You rearrange schedules so your team can attend. They come back on Monday morning full of energy and new ideas. But two weeks later you look around the office and realize that absolutely nothing has changed. The binders are on the shelf and everyone has reverted to their old habits.

This is one of the most frustrating experiences for a business owner. You want to build a team that is constantly improving and you are willing to invest in their growth. Yet there is a disconnect between the classroom and the daily grind. This disconnect is not necessarily a failure of the employee or a failure of the course material. It is usually a breakdown in a concept called Transfer of Learning.

Understanding this mechanism is vital for any leader who wants to stop burning cash on development that goes nowhere. It helps us move from simply consuming information to actually changing how your business operates.

Understanding Transfer of Learning

Transfer of Learning refers to the dependency of human conduct, learning, or performance on prior experience. In a workplace context it is the ability of an employee to take knowledge or skills acquired in one context, such as a training workshop or an online course, and successfully apply them in a different context, specifically their daily job.

It sounds simple but it is chemically difficult for the brain to do. Learning something in a safe, theoretical environment creates one set of neural pathways. Applying that same concept under stress, with deadlines looming and phones ringing, requires a different level of cognitive processing. If the transfer does not happen then the training was merely an entertaining event rather than a business investment.

Near Transfer and Far Transfer

When evaluating what your team needs to learn it is helpful to distinguish between two specific types of transfer.

• Near Transfer: This happens when the training context and the application context are very similar. This applies to procedural tasks. If you train someone on how to use a specific piece of software they will likely experience near transfer because the screen looks the same during training as it does during work.
• Far Transfer: This is much harder to achieve. This involves applying general principles to totally different situations. Leadership training usually requires far transfer. You learn a principle about conflict resolution in a classroom but you have to apply it weeks later in a chaotic warehouse when two employees are shouting at each other.

Knowing the difference helps you adjust your expectations. Far transfer takes longer and requires more support than near transfer.

Why Transfer of Learning Fails

We often assume that if someone understands a concept intellectually they will naturally use it. The science suggests otherwise. There are several specific barriers that block this process.

• Lack of opportunity: The employee returns to work but has no immediate project requiring the new skill. By the time the need arises the knowledge has faded.
• Environmental pushback: The employee tries to use a new method but their peers or supervisors are used to the old way. Peer pressure forces them to revert to the baseline.
• Missing feedback loops: In training an instructor corrects mistakes immediately. In the real world mistakes might not be caught for weeks. Without immediate feedback the brain struggles to codify the new behavior.

The Manager Role in Transfer of Learning

This is where your role becomes the deciding factor. The manager is the bridge between the training environment and the work environment . You can increase the rate of transfer by changing how you frame the experience.

Before the training begins you can set specific expectations about what behavioral changes you hope to see. This primes the brain to look for relevance. After the training you can schedule a debriefing session. Ask your team member to teach you one concept they learned. This forces them to process the information deeply.

Most importantly you must create a safe space for clumsy application. When someone tries to apply new learning they will be slower and less efficient at first. If you penalize that initial dip in productivity you signal that you prefer speed over growth. If you encourage the attempt you signal that you value the long term capability of the team.

Questions to Ask Your Team

We do not always know why a specific training initiative succeeded or failed. However we can start to uncover the variables by asking the right questions. As you look at your own organization consider these unknowns.

• Does our current workflow allow time for people to practice new skills or are we running too lean to allow for experimentation?
• Are we sending people to training that solves a problem they do not actually believe they have?
• Do we have a culture that celebrates the attempt to improve or do we only reward the final outcome?

By focusing on the transfer rather than just the training event you can begin to build a learning organization that actually retains value.

Related Reading

• What is Learning Transfer?
• What is Near Transfer in Workplace Training?
• What is Far Transfer in Team Management?
• Transfer of Learning: Moving Beyond Rote Memorization to Professional Mastery
• Solving the Transfer Problem: Why Training Fails at the Desk