Evaluation is NOT hard…

… but it is essential

A couple of weeks ago Ally and I spent an extremely enjoyable day with the Brain Friendly Learning Group, a UK networking group for brain friendly trainers set up by Stella Collins.

In the morning we ran a session about music in the training room (there will be much more on this soon!!) and after lunch, we participated in the groups normal practice of supporting each other in a number of ‘clinics’.

This was a kind of action learning set where we harnessed the awesome power of the group to help individuals to address issues, overcome barriers or get alternative views.

One of our group explained that their organisation still held very traditional views about training.

I was instantly transported back to an organisation that I had started working with a few years ago. All the training was  class room style with loads of front led content and lots of slides. I really wanted to press ahead with spreading the brain friendly message in the organisation. And there were others who felt the same way but we were feeling like a lone voices in the wilderness. And, to make matters worse, the feedback sheets from the training sessions were almost universally good. Whenever the training methodologies were challenged both training managers and trainers all said:

Look at our feedback. It’s always good. Why should we change?

I asked to see the feedback sheets and it quickly became clear that the feedback was taken at the end of the course and was therefore only recording peoples reactions to the session. It said nothing about how much people had learned, what they were going to do differently or how this would benefit the performance of the business.

In fact they could have been getting great feedback for loads of reasons.

• maybe the venue was really nice
• maybe the food was excellent
• maybe people really valued a day away from their desks.

It may have been a combination of any or all of these or none of them.

The fact was, we just didn’t know. We had no idea at all about how good and more importantly how effective, all the hard work was being.

You have probably recognised by now that we are talking about Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation and this organisation was basing all it’s success measurement on level one only.

In our experience this is still not uncommon (sadly)

It seems that there are still a lot of trainers, and probably training managers as well,  out there who still don’t know or use Kirkpatrick’s model (or something equivalent)

And this included a couple of like-minded trainers in this particular training department who, while quite well informed about brain friendly learning principles, was not aware of the different levels of evaluation.

This means a lot of training is being measured on how happy people are afterward and not what is changed as a result of the intervention. This cannot be good for our industry, particularly right now while we have to compete for funds with other departments and justify our place in the world.

So our call to action this week is this:

1) If you are not using anything other than level one happy sheets you must change. If you don’t know about Kirkpatrick, find out today and then follow the mantra below. And if you do know about the four levels and you are still only using level one – hang you head in shame and repeat after me

I will have implemented measures up to a minimum of level three by the end of this year.

2)  If you run “train the trainer” courses insert a section on Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation. It is , and will become even more so, vital that as training professionals we can justify our place in the world and argue our case for proper facilities, effective budgets and properly targeted interventions.

Next time – ROI and two double standards – Paul is having a rant!!

feedback folders image by criterion

Paul and Ally are working on an exciting 6-part (online) course to help your learners fully engage with your training - sign up for the 'early bird' list for advanced notification and more info

If you liked this, you may also like these:

1. Kirkpartick re-writes Level 1 evaluation Jim Kirkpatrick, son of Don (creator of Kirkpatricks 4-levels of Evaluation), is calling for “a radical...
2. ROI and double standards Last time we talked about Kirkpatrick’s model for evaluation and how important it is to use...
3. One way to break through corporate inertia A couple of postings ago Paul mentioned working with a very traditional organisation trying to promote the...
4. If you use surveys or quizzes this is just for you. Whether it is Evaluation Forms (happy sheets?), learning reviews or Needs Analysis surveys – we’ve all...
5. Feedback and the X-Factor In April, Annabel shared how her experience of restoring an old, WW2 Jeep  helped her learners...