Training Industry Magazine - Fall 2023 - 27

W
hy is it that people can learn,
pass tests and demonstrate
their knowledge, yet still
not change their behavior?
It's an age-old question and one with a
lot of potential answers. One of those
answers is that we possess knowledge
but lack experience. We sometimes call
it the knowing/doing gap. Even though
people know what to do, they are not
able to execute.
Leadership development is a great
example of this challenge. Leadership
behaviors are often not hard to
understand; they are focused on basic
human motivation and psychology.
Leadership books are read by millions.
Many say they are inspirational and
motivational. And there's certainly
no shortage of them: A search for
" leadership " on Amazon.com yields
more than 50,000 titles.
So, why are there still so few truly
effective leaders?
Because leadership behaviors may be
easy to understand, but they're hard to
execute. We learn the rules, but we haven't
yet experienced the ramifications. Why is
leadership difficult? Because leaders are
people who doubt their own decisions.
Because it's fairly easy to internalize
the rule of effective feedback but can
be difficult to look someone in the eye
as they sit across from you. Because as
human beings, we can find it difficult to
provide both praise and criticism. So, it's
not because leaders don't know how
to act; it's because there's an emotional
reason they don't want to. And until we
address those emotions, we aren't going
to see behavior change. Good learning
experiences make you feel the same
emotions that you'll feel when you do it
in real life.
We don't learn to drive exclusively
by sitting in a classroom; we get
in the car and drive. And who
wants to fly with a pilot who
passed all the written tests,
but never demonstrated
that they can
actually fly
an aircraft?
TRAINING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE - FALL 2023 I WWW.TRAININGINDUSTRY.COM/MAGAZINE
27
WHY EXPERIENCE
MATTERS
Aircraft pilots aren't the only profession
that requires experience to do the job.
There are several professions that
have experiential learning " baked into "
the qualification process:
* Trades typically require apprenticeships
before certification.
* The military engages in simulated
missions.
* The medical field has several tiers of
experiential requirements.
What is the common thread in all these
professions? They are all jobs where
the impact of failure is profound. And
they all require a certain " muscle
memory " to make decisions quickly
and with confidence.
A MODEL FOR
EXPERIENTIAL
LEARNING
There's a reason why learning from
experience is effective. Learning
focuses strongly on the what, while
experience focuses on the how:
" How will I actually do this? " , " How
will it feel to me? " , " How will it
impact others? "
How does experience bridge the
knowing/doing gap? The CAPE model
is a simple way of expressing the
benefits of learning from experience,
by helping you gain:
* CONTEXT: How does my behavior
impact my role and the roles I
interact with?
* APPLICATION: When and where
do I use this behavior on the job?
* PRACTICE: Try the behavior in
a low-risk environment to gain
confidence and perspective.
* EXAMPLE: What does it look like
when I do it right? What does it look
like when I do it wrong?
DELIBERATE
PRACTICE AND
EXPERIENTIAL
LEARNING
Role-play is one of the most common
practice methods in jobs with high
interpersonal skills requirements,
such as sales. Ask most salespeople,
and they'll tell you how much they
dread role-play exercises. And it's
understandable why; role-play can
be uncomfortable and require quick
creative thinking. And these are
exactly the elements that make the
job difficult. So, the discomfort of
role-play can help prepare you for the
discomfort of a real selling situation.
Role-play is a type of systemic,
deliberate practice that focuses
entirely on honing and performing
improvement. Deliberate practice can
be difficult and uncomfortable because
it is focused on testing the limits of
your capability until you improve.

https://trainingindustry.com/glossary/role-play/ http://www.Amazon.com https://trainingindustry.com/magazine/summer-2023/from-criticism-to-catalyst-5-steps-to-empower-your-feedback/ https://trainingindustry.com/magazine/summer-2023/from-criticism-to-catalyst-5-steps-to-empower-your-feedback/ https://www.trainingindustry.com/magazine

Training Industry Magazine - Fall 2023

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