Perishable skills and use by dates

this is NOT Paul - his kids always have the remote!

I was watching an obscure satellite channel last night (Don’t ask. Bad night for TV… nothing recorded… flicking through Sky… you get the picture) Anyway,  my mind must have been really open because I wasn’t really watching or listening but my attention was suddenly grabbed.

I had a documentary on about the American Airborne Division when I heard one of the soldiers use the expression “perishable skill”.

Now I was focused.

The thing about the American Airborne is that they pride themselves on being able to mobilise anywhere on the planet at a moments notice. This means they have to be prepared for any eventuality all of the time. And what that means is that if they are not on active duty, they are training. There is nothing else in their lives – fight or train. For them a perishable skill is one which decays quickly if not constantly updated – like their reaction speed to a particular circumstance, their ability to respond automatically when there is no time to think.

It got me thinking. What does a “perishable skill” mean for us?

After giving this some thought overnight I think it means the same as “if you don’t use it, you lose it”.

All of the skills that we train people in are perishable to some extent. When we train people we get them to a point where they can go and start using their new skills but without proper support and  without the prospect of using these skills they decay and become less potent.

So – training them isn’t enough.

We have to set systems in place to ensure that learners get the chance to practice and refine their new skills otherwise they loose them.

It isn’t enough to be brilliant in the training room. It doesn’t matter how good a facilitator you are. Without the chance to practice, it could all be a bit of a waste of time (and money!).

How many of you learned French at school and haven’t said a word in French since?

Can you remember what the word for door is?

Yes -  well how about an open door?

Gotcha!

Anything we do in the training room is perishable. The degree of degradation is, of course dependant on delivery style  as well as method (See e-learning and myth busting) but it will degrade.

Remember what Confucius says:

What I hear, I forget

what I see, I understand

what I do, I remember.

All learning has a “use by” date if it’s not practiced. The trouble is, we never know when it will be.

What we do know is perishable skills wont wait and because we can’t predict the “use by” date we should design in opportunities to practice right at the start.  In fact you could easily argue that the way new skills are integrated back into the organisation should form part of the TNA.

And if it’s an existing programme, it’s not too late to design some practice in now.

• work based challenges
• regular e-mailed or intranet reminders
• quick hit refreshers
• regular coaching
• … … I’ll bet you can come up with more

We need  to explain to our sponsors about what happens to skills if you don’t get to use them. Perhaps we should even insist that our clients/bosses/internal customers allocate time for practice and reflection.

And if you should get some resistance ask:

“OK, what “use by” date would you like me to put on these people’s learnings?”

That should get some attention.

 
stack of grass image by radioflyer007
TV remote image by Vu Bui

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