IMPERATIVES FOR THE TRANSFER OF EXPERIENCE-BASED TRAINING Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 23, 1996 IMPERATIVES FOR THE TRANSFER OF EXPERIENCE-BASED TRAINING Kirk Hallowell, Northern Illinois University ABSTRACT The transfer of beneficial attitudes, beliefs, and skills to application in the workplace defines the success or failure experience-based training. Based on a review of organizational development and experience-based training literature, this paper proposes three, comprehensive imperatives supported as essential to successful of transfer of experience-based training. INTRODUCTION The field of experience-based training has been continually challenged to demonstrate its effectiveness as an organizational intervention. As organizations increase their awareness and sophistication In procuring training and development resources, experience-based training practitioners will have an increasing need to demonstrate the potential for transfer in their training designs (Wagner & Rowland, 1995). This paper presents three imperatives to enhance the rate and permanence of transfer from experience-based learning interventions to the workplace. Specific methodologies for which these concepts are relevant include, but are not limited to, wilderness experiential learning, adventure-based training, simulation, gaming, and action learning activities. LIMITATIONS OF TRANSFER RESEARCH The process of transfer has been specifically addressed in the field of experience-based training. Notable contributions in this area have been made by Priest and others (e.g., Priest & Lesperance, 1994) in the Corporate Adventure Training Institute outcome studies and Case, Priest, and others in the use of metaphor as a basis of enhancing transfer. The Importance of transfer of experience-based training has also been addressed from a systematic, organizational development perspective (Flor, 1991). Given the vital importance of transfer in experience-based training practice, there is less research related to the transfer process than might be expected. Priest and Lesperance (1994) point out the critical lack of empirical evidence to support the use of adventure-based training as successful methodology. While research-based evaluation studies have been conducted on experienced-based training interventions (Wagner & Rowland, 1992; Priest, Attarian, & Schubert, 1993), few reports address evaluation with this degree of rigor. The preponderance of evaluation reports for experience- based interventions are based on “smile sheets,” or other subjective evaluations of the training itself rather than transfer. Few experiential learning research efforts have been focused on specific, objectively measured transfer behaviors and still fewer on objective measures of performance. THREE IMPERATIVES FOR TRANSFER The research and writing that illuminates these shortcomings related to transfer also suggests new directions that experience-based training must take if the field is to continue to develop. These new directions have been organized under three comprehensive imperatives. Imperative One: A Systemic Approach The value of a systemic approach to organizational development has been well established. A systemic perspective places an emphasis on linking training initiatives to the guiding mission and objectives of the organization. At the same time, systemic training Interventions are designed to take Into account the needs and perspectives of the training participants and the demands of their organizational environment (Brinkerhoff & Gill, 1994). Broad and Newstrom (1992) have offered an effective, systemic model for the transfer of training which is well suited to experience-based training. This model divides the training process into three time frames (before, during, and after training) and three primary roles (trainee, trainer, and manager). Hallowell (1995) has adapted this model to fit the framework of the experience-based professional. This model points out the critically important nature of the relationship between the experience-based trainer and the principle contact for a given organization. A clear and mutual understanding of roles and responsibilities must be established early in this relationship. Important Issues defined Include the purpose and desired outcomes of the intervention, the connection with organizational mission or objectives, ongoing changes, and specific content areas targeted for transfer to the workplace. Imperative Two: Support Over Time Perhaps the greatest challenge for the experience-based trainer is managing the transition between the experience- based training and the return to the work place in a survey of trainers, Newstrom (1986) found that lack of reinforce- 165 Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 23, 1996 ment, interference at the work site, and a non-supportive organizational culture were seen as the top three barriers to the transfer of training. Action planning, learning logs, peer coaching, and scheduled one-day follow-up sessions have been cited as valuable techniques to promote transfer. The experience-based intervention may also serve as a springboard for more extensive strategic planning sessions. Transfer may also be supported by facilitating a model problem-solving or total quality Improvement session at the end of the experience- based intervention. Experience-based training professionals and leaders of the organization can reinforce experiential learning in several ways. One successful technique is to frame current work- related challenges as an experiential activity. For example, a group may be asked to think of a complex scheduling process as a maze activity. Following Priest and Glass nomenclature, this metaphor might be called a retro-morph.” Finally, It is critical that the intended outcomes of an experience-based Intervention be evaluated over time. End of session evaluations of a specific intervention are not sufficient to validate the effectiveness of an intervention. Priest, Attrain, arid Schubert (1993) have presented sound, research-based evaluation models for experience-based training programs. Imperative Three: Taking the Role of Consultant In a critique of experience-based training providers, Stoltz (1995) states that one of the “sins” of experience-based trainers is that they see “themselves as program providers rather than change consultants” (p.21). In general, a consultant’s involvement is seen as far more pervasive and time-Intensive than the role of a service provider. What Stoltz (1995) falls to address in his perspective Is the difference between a change consultant and a service provider. This involvement may be extended to include the multiple steps of traditional OD consultation models. For example, McLean and Sullivan (1989) suggest an eight-step consultation process Including: entry, start-up, assessment, action planning, intervention, evaluation, adoption, and separation. This is the kind of relationship that a successful experienced-based trainer must have in order to personally address the issues of transfer raised by this paper. CONCLUSION If the field of experience-based training is to gain credibility and demonstrate effectiveness in organizations, we must attend carefully to the transfer issue. Fully implemented, a systemic, time-Intensive, consultation-based intervention requires a great deal of practitioners and their programs. Selling, designing, and implementing this kind of comprehensive program will require substantially more preparation and resources than a simple, stock experience- based program. However, practitioners who seek to facilitate real and lasting change in their clients systems will find this investment worthwhile. REFERENCES Broad, M. L, & Newstrom, J. W. (1992). Transfer of training. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. Brinkerhoff, R. 0., & Gill, J. J. (1994) The learning alliance: Systems thinking in human resource development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Flor, R. (1991) building bridges between organizational development and experiential! Adventure education. Journal of Experiential Education, 14(3), 27-34 Hallowell, K. (1995) Transfer strategies for the transfer of experience-based training and development Proceeding of the 1995 International Conference of the Association for Experiential Education. McLean, G. N., & Sullivan, R. L (1993) Essential competencies for internal and external OD consultants in Ii T. Golembiewski (Ed.), Handbook of organizational consultation (pp. 573-578) New York: Marcell-Dekker. Newstrom, J. W. (1986) Leveraging management development through the management of transfer Journal of Management Development, 5(5), 33-45. Priest, S., Attrain, A., & Schubert, S. (1993) Conducting research in experience based training and development: Pass keys to locked doors. Journal of Experiential Education, 16(2), 11-20 Priest S. & Lesparence, M. A. (1994). Time series trends in corporate team development. Journal of Experiential Education, 17, (1), 34-39. Stoltz, P. (1995) Developing leaders experientially. In C. C. Roland, R. J. Wagner, & R. J. Welgand (Eds.), Do ft and understand: The bottom line on corporate experiential learning. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt. Wagner, R J., & Roland, C. C. (1995) Transfer issues and concerns, in In C. C. Roland, R. J. Wagner, & R. J. Weigand (Eds.), Do it and understand: The bottom line on corporate experiential learning (pp. 201-208). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt. Wagner, R.J., & Rowland, C.C. (1992) How effective Is outdoor training? Training & Development Journal, 46 (7), 61-66. 166 Table of Contents Volume 23, 1996 Modeling Advertising Effectiveness Simulation as an Aid to Learning: How Does Participation Influence the Process? Administering Business Simulations in Transitioning Economies: The Introduction of Simulation Gaming to Estonia Business Simulation Games: Current Usage Levels. A Ten Year Update The Relationship Between Interpersonal and Task Cohesiveness and Performance in a Business Simulation Game The Design of an ITS-Based Simulation: A New Epistemology for Learning Correlates of Learning in Simulations How Do We Know where we're going if we don't know where we have been: A Review of Business Simulation Research Making Cash Flow Come Alive and Sensible in the Classroom Enhancing Simulation Learning through Objectives and Decision Support Systems An Analysis of Deliberate and Emergent Strategies Relative to Porter's Generic Differentiator and Cost Leader: A Bias and Variance Modeling Approach Introducing Ethical Dilemmas into Computer-Based Simulation Exercises to Teach Business Ethics CEO Strategic Locus of Control Effects on Game Performance and Playing Behavior The Relational Database As a Link between Operations and Cost Accounting Goal Setting over Time in Simulations Computerized Business Simulations: A Workshop Exploring the Tutor's Role, Task & Needs Strategic Analysis of the Product Portfolio with the COMPLETE PPA Package: A Strategic Market Planning Tool Draft Standards and Registration Procedure for Assessment Instruments Perspectives on a New Generation of Business Games An Economic Multiple Regression Case In Experiential Learning Changing Institutional Norms and Behavior, Not Culture: Experiential Learning Comes to Myanmar Strategic Management and the Case Method: Survey and Evaluation Individual Differences in Internet Attitude and Use Long Live the Plan - or Should It? Examining the Impact of Detailed Strategic Plans on Organizational Performance Do Your Students Really Read the Manual? A Computerized Contextual Tool As A Surrogate for the Traditional Student Manual Pilot Analyses of Self-Peer Evaluations in an Experiential-Exercise Human Resources Management Course Leader Behavior Feedback: A Learning Exercise Dilemma-Dilemma: An Exercise for Teaching Significance Of Communication Computer Mediated Conferencing: Technology and Classroom Learning Multimedia in the Workplace: Who is really using it and where is it Headed? Using Experiential Exercises for Collecting Research Data: Integrating Teaching and Research Interactive Distance Learning as a Tool in a College's Theory and Practice The President's Decision: An Experiential Exercise in Decision Making Integrating Computer Literacy Skills in the Undergraduate Curriculum: The Advanced Accounting Experiment Imperatives for the Transfer of Experience-Based Training Deciding How to Decide The Internet as a Pedagogical Tool Internet Scavenger Hunt Two Management Exercises Based on Committee Work Multimedia in the Year 2000: How Will It Affect Our Lives? Bootstrap Benefit Segmentation: Finally A Way to Teach Benefit Segmentation without Primary Data or Those Fancy Statistical Methods Multimedia and Learning: Is There A Connection? A Changing Business Policy Collaborative Learning Through Real-Life Assignments in Accounting Classes The Necessity Of Incorporating Local Cultural Aspects Into International Business Experiential Exercises Utilizing Cultural and International Landmark Constructs to Assess Business Student's International Awareness Legal Issues related to the Use of Application Blanks: An Experiential Exercise The Family in the Classroom: An Experiential Exercise for Teaching Issues Related To Expatriate Assignments Using Internet Resources to Enhance Teaching of Information Systems Courses: A Demonstration Proposal Chalkboards to Chipboards for Teachers and Consultants How Do We Measure The Learning In Experiential Learning and How Do We Best Simulate It?