Leadership Revolution

CHAPTER 9Why Context Is Key

I know how to solve this problem. I did it when I was a junior manager at my last company.

Coach: Maybe. But you might want to think twice.

What? Why?

Coach: You're now a senior leader at a different company. Everything has changed.

Back when I worked for a training firm, we would follow up sessions by subsequently asking participants to evaluate the experience they'd had. In part we referenced what's known as the Kirkpatrick Model. To simplify, we asked which of the following responses applied:

1. I liked the training.
2. I learned somcething from it.
3. I could use what I learned in my work.
4. I have already put what I learned into practice.

The vast majority of evaluations stopped at “I liked it.” Many said they'd learned something, a few said it was something they could imagine using. Almost nobody arrived at the final stage, having actually applied what they'd learned.

That's the problem with traditional training. All this useful information is shared, all manner of genuinely helpful skills are taught, but often it is prepackaged with the same skill set applied to every person on the whole planet. It lacks context. Without the contextual element, people frequently can't apply it.

From the start—even before I became a coach—I was fixated on that last category. The training firm I worked for had an award for the trainer whose evaluations showed they could translate the skills training to actual usage. I won that award, because actual usage was always ...