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Simulations Offer Learning Up and Down the Ladder by Brian Knudson

Simulations Offer Learning Up and Down the Ladder
by Brian Knudson

Everyone makes mistakes, and letting employees experience failure is a successful way to ensure a lesson sticks. Unfortunately, simulation training typically is reserved for senior management. Whether the task at hand is physically or mentally complex, simulations can serve as a learning safety net wherever behavior change is needed to boost the bottom line.

Companies such as McDonald's are increasingly using simulations to train frontline workers. The traditional approach to training this type of audience has been through single-communicatio n e-learning or think videos, possibly with some questions to test whether or not employees have memorized the 10 steps to cook a particular item. A day-in-the-life cooking simulation offering expert advice enables employees to flop in a fail-safe environment and prepare for hands-on training. As a result, McDonald's reduces time to competency and increases the quality of the customer experience.

Pick a topic, any topic, any audience and any content domain. Now, consider one thing a person should be able to do differently after taking the course. Once the talent manager has established that critical behavior or competency, he or she has essentially designed a stimulation. Although the devil is in the details, approaching training and education with this mindset will go a long way to improve outcomes.

Hibernia National Bank needed to transform its customer-service representatives into financial consultants to drive sales. A custom-designed module guided trainees through simulated conversations with a number of customers facing a variety of challenges that required spontaneous reactions. To gauge the module's success, mystery shoppers pretended to be real customers inside the bank and outside of the module. The time to competency for customer-service representatives was reduced from four months to 60-75 days. Knowledge of products and service increased 21 percent, and sales of payment-protection plans jumped 37 percent. Sales of retail checking accounts increased 6 percent, as well.

A study was completed in November 2008 by Behavioral Tech Research, a group that tests new training methods to advance the practice of psychology. In this study, members in a community of 150 mental-health workers were randomly assigned to one of three training methods: online training, text-based treatment manuals and instructor-led training to learn dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). The research found participants in the online training group demonstrated significantly greater knowledge during post-training and follow-up compared to instructor-led training and text.

What made the difference? The module designed as part of the study enabled therapists to lead a group therapy session without the physical and emotional risks of backlash from patients.

What if surgeons could practice on patients without the risk of anyone dying? What if firefighters in training could storm a building without getting burned? Simulations have the potential to take learning to a new level, up and down the ladder.

[About the Author: Brian Knudson is CEO of NogginLabs, an e-learning firm.]