The problem with corporate training today is that companies teach employees what to learn, not how to learn. And, the training teaching is done with methods that were “in vogue” over 100 years ago. Minimal attention is paid to how the brain and mind work to create learning, even though we’ve learned more in the last 20 years about how the brain works than in all the preceding years combined. More attention is paid to how trainers can best train rather than how they can best help people learn.

Take a look at the inordinate amounts of time and money spent on program or curriculum design and redesign. If something is not working in a company, training specialists are brought in to improve or upgrade the courses. New programs are sought, written and bought in hopes that this will improve the quality of training for the employees.

All this is well and good. But, has anyone asked the employees what and how they want to learn? Has anyone taken into consideration the best ways for the employees to acquire, absorb and retain the material? More often than not, the answer is a resounding NO! You’d think that with all the information available on how people learn, and people do learn differently from one another, how they retain and recall information, how they perform best and under what conditions, training programs all over the world would be frantically making the appropriate changes. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Just take a look at the tests used after a training program, if any are used at all. The implication is that passing these tests indicates the employees possess a certain level of intellectual competency and should be able to implement what they were taught back on the job. Plus, trainers are often rewarded and evaluated based on the number of employees who like the class. What do you think trainers then do? They teach to and for the positive evaluations, with little or no regard for actual learning or transfer of training. After all, the behavior that is being rewarded is likeability through “smiley sheets” that form the basis for training evaluation. So, what would you expect trainers to do? Teach employees how to think and learn? Probably not!

This problem exists at all levels of corporate training where companies tell their employees what types of training or further education they need. The company decides that employees need training in job‑specific skills, management skills, finance, customer service, quality improvement, leadership, and the like. Actually, these are the educational areas the

company needs, not necessarily the people. And, when these courses are taught, there is very rarely any noticeable behavioral change or improvement in the workplace.

That’s because what was taught were facts, figures and information. There’s little or no real world application to these facts, figures and information, even if the program includes experiential activities. Furthermore, no one in any setting takes the time to teach people how to learn, which is more motivating and longer lasting. Then they wonder why adults and children, alike, have so many learning and performance difficulties.

Consider these startling statistics gleaned from a variety of sources. According to various reports from professional organizations like the American Society of Training and Development, surveys conducted by private research firms, and popular responses to magazine surveys, corporate America spends close to $30 billion a year on training programs. That’s right, 30 billion dollars. And, up to one‑third of it is spent on remedial programs in reading, writing and communicating. I don’t know about you, but to me, that’s a scary thought.

We spend all this money educating children throughout their school years so that when they grow up and enter the workforce, we can re‑do all over again what the schools failed to do in the first place. We can teach them how to read and write; how to communicate with others; how to let other people know and understand what they’re thinking. This is not very effective, especially when you consider how much information is available to make teaching and learning easy, fun, and last a lifetime. And then, we make the same mistakes in corporate training that teachers did in school. We teach information and material, and hope for good evaluations, instead of teaching employees how to learn and then how to best apply what they learned.

Richard Gerson, Ph.D. is President of Gerson Goodson, Inc., a management consulting and training firm specializing in helping individuals and organizations achieve higher performance and measurable results. The company services clients in the areas of sales, marketing, customer service, CRM, strategic planning and management, leadership development, human resources and talent/performance management. More information is available at http://www.richgerson.com