Behavior Change Without Impact Is Just Being Busy

By Patti P. Phillips, Ph.D., and Jack J. Phillips, Ph.D.

We have been collecting polling data from webinar participants in the last few years. To date, we’ve collected data from over 1,000 individuals. We placed several statements in front of our audiences and asked if they were mostly true or mostly false. The answers to these two questions are often interesting and at the same time, disturbing.

  • Most learning is wasted (not used) after the program is conducted.

78% of respondents said this is mostly true.

  • Most learning providers do not have data that shows they make a difference in the organization.

81% of respondents said this is mostly true.

The results are probably reflecting reality, since the responses are not connected to the names of individuals. The audiences for the polling are primarily L&D providers, managers, and coordinators. The first question focuses on a challenging issue, ensuring that individuals use what they have learned. Otherwise, we are suggesting it’s wasted because of a chain of value occurs as participants react, learn, apply, and have an impact and ROI. If there is no application, there is no impact. If there is no impact, the ROI is negative 100%. 

The second question brings up another issue, making a difference. You make a difference by not only having individuals do something (use the learning) but use it for a purpose, a consequence, and that is the impact. In the learning and development field, evaluation usually involves data collection for reaction and learning, simultaneously, because reaction affects learning, and learning will affect reaction. The same is true for application and impact. A participant won’t have an impact without application, and when there is impact success, it often motivates more application. These go together.

Now for the challenge. Recently, more effort is focused on learning transfer to ensure that participants use what was learned. For many programs, particularly those with soft skills, the focus is on behavior change. L&D teams seem quite comfortable suggesting that the evaluation is complete when you have behavior change. But this is not necessarily true. Behavior change without a corresponding impact is just being busy. If there is no consequence, why should you even need the behavior change? In reality, there is a consequence for most behavior change, although it’s often ignored. But it is there, and the time to think about it is in the beginning of the program.

In our model, the very first step is to start with why, connecting the program to business measures. It’s beginning with the end in mind. The end is not behavior, but the consequence of the behavior. It’s not that difficult. For example, a leadership program is being implemented with impressive competencies. You can clearly connect it to the business by just having the participants, who will be involved in the program, think about their important key performance indicators (KPIs), the business measures such as productivity, quality, time, accidents, incidents, retention, sales, and customer complaints. Then ask the question, can you improve these two KPIs using these competencies with your team? The answer is usually yes. This is the second step of the model, making sure you have the right solution. Starting with the end in mind with a clear impact measure that is important to the participants, and having them suggest that they can improve the measure using the content that you are offering, connects the proposed solution to the impact measure. Then you can set objectives for application and impact, moving beyond learning objectives. The design, focus, and delivery are aimed at the impact. The results will follow.

There are five important reasons why you need to focus on impact for learning and development. 

  1. Executives want it. Research constantly shows that business impact is the number one measure desired from learning and development by executives.
  2. Participants need it. With impact, participants ask, why are we taking this program? Why do I need this new behavior? The impact clearly shows them why.
  3. The designers, developers, facilitators, and implementors must have it. This approach lets them design for success at the application and impact levels.
  4. The managers of the learners will appreciate it. Impact connects the success of the learner to their manager’s KPIs, because the impact driven by the learner is a KPI of their manager. Now, they will support the program.
  5. Funding is much easier. When you connect your programs to the business, it’s much easier to obtain funding for new programs. If you focus just on application or behavior change without knowing why that behavior change is needed, you’re missing an important opportunity.

 Please connect your major programs to the business.

This article was originally published on July 20, 2022, on ChiefLearningOfficer.com