Which would you rather do: spend a lot of money and not get a lot for it or spend much less and gain quite bit? Obviously, not a difficult a question to answer but let’s put it in perspective. What Makes Peer Learning so Effective?
What do You Learn in Peer Learning Groups?
Let’s start with what people learn. Peer Learning Groups provide an amount of content that is easy to learn and retain because the participants practice and reflect on what they learn while doing their jobs.
Traditional training programs provide more content than managers can absorb. In fact, participants are usually told to select just one or two action items from a day’s worth of materials. Wouldn’t it be better if the training only took 90 minutes (instead of 8 hours) and provided one to two action items?
And they have 90 management topic areas in 21 different categories from which to choose. Topics cover a wide range of management challenges, such as: Coaching Employees for Success, Catching Conflict Before It Begins, Helping Employees Buy-in to Change, User-Friendly Performance Management, Making Meetings Work, Feeling Comfortable with Delegation, and Managing Your Stress Before It Manages You!
How Much Can You Learn in Peer Learning Groups?
Training and learning are wasted if managers do not retain what they have learned and they cannot apply it to their jobs. There is no waste of time or content in Peer Learning Groups because the peer learning group model involves a month of conscious practice of new skills before the second and final 90-minute session. Since learning retention requires repetition, retention of the content in Peer Learning Groups is guaranteed. In contrast, research has shown that 90% of the content in traditional classroom training programs is not retained.
What About the Cost?
For the price of one day of traditional classroom training program, companies can train all of their managers in 10 different peer learning group topics. As opposed to the one-shot deal that one day of traditional classroom training provides, peer learning group topics can be repeated as new managers are hired.
In addition, Peer Learning Groups take place in the workplace, in your organization, where your managers meet face-to-face without accruing traveling costs and lost time being absent from work for an extended period of time.
And one more benefit: L&D professionals do not need to spend time and effort on researching off-site training options and scheduling the training programs for their managers. With little effort, they can organize the Peer Learning Groups which, once started, can continue meeting and learning as much and as often they need and want to.
Numbers speak for themselves and so do the results. If you want to make your management development relevant and useful for your organization, and you do not want to spend a fortune on expensive but ineffective programs, introduce Peer Learning Groups into the menu of your L&D options.
For more information, please contact us at http://www. peerlearninginstitute.com
Deborah Laurel Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer The Peer Learning Institute
