Your learning project hasn't failed (until you check it)
Schrödinger's cat and the fear of learning measurement.
In 1935, the physicist Erwin Schrödinger devised a thought experiment: Suppose you placed a cat in a sealed container with a flask of poison and a radioactive element. If radiation were detected, the flask of poison would be smashed, and the cat would die.
The chances of this happening within an hour would be 50/50. So, to the outside observer, is the cat alive or dead?
For Schrödinger, the answer was ‘both’.
And, of course, ‘either’.
Schrödinger wasn’t arguing that the cat was actually alive and dead at the same time. Instead, he was pointing out a problem with the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics (when applied at the macroscopic level): that an object which seems to exist in two states simultaneously collapses into a definitive state when measured.
So it is with your workplace learning interventions. Have they been successful or not? Until you measure them, the answer is (reassuringly) ‘both’.
The Schrödinger’s cat parallel came to mind when I was listening to last week’s episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, with South Western Railway’s Becky Eason.
Becky was discussing our award-winning blended learning programme for SWR managers, when she made this frank admission:
‘I saw the value [of measurement], and I really wanted to show that measure to take that back to our Exec team and say, “Look at the success of this program”. But there was a moment where I said to you all, “If it isn't a success then I'm gonna look like a failure!”’
Becky didn’t need to worry. Here are the results of the program, comparing before-and-after scores for those who went on the program (the test group) and a similar set of managers who didn’t attend (the control group).
But I understand the concern.
Workplace learning takes time, effort and budget, both for learning professionals and for participants on your program.
Without a robust measurement strategy, results tend to be subjective at best, or completely ambiguous at worst.
Why take the risk and measure the impact, when you could just ask people if they liked it?
Here’s three reasons to do so:
⚠️ You can avoid repeated failures
Our program for South Western Railway improved manager capability by 12% on average, based on validated measures of six key behaviors. For one of those behaviors, ‘managing expectations’, participants on the program improved 21%. Managers who didn’t attend the program got almost 6% worse on this measure.
But suppose the people on our program got worse after taking part? If we’re not measuring, we have no way of identifying this. Instead, we could run our program year-after-year, with a constant ongoing decline in management capability as a result of our efforts.
📈 You can make iterative improvements
Results are rarely black-and-white when we measure a learning intervention. In the SWR example, while participants got much better at ‘managing expectations’, they showed no improvement at all in ‘absent management’ (also known as ‘laissez-faire management’).
With this information, Becky and the Mindtools team were able to revisit this part of the program and improve it for next time.
Just as an aside, managers who did not attend the program got almost 8% worse in the same period. ‘Doing nothing’ also comes with a risk.
💪 You can reduce the risk dramatically
Finally, I think this is where the Schrödinger’s cat metaphor breaks down.
In his thought experiment, there’s a 50/50 chance of the cat dying within an hour. At any moment, the atom could decay and the poison could be released.
But we could make changes, upfront, to reduce the risk to kitty. For example, if we removed the poison and added a bed, food bowl, litter tray and water fountain, how much more likely is the cat to survive the hour?
So it is with your learning intervention. Suppose you do the following:
Complete a robust discovery process
Involve learners in your design
Leverage insights from learning science
Factor in what’s worked before in other contexts
The chance of your learning project having no impact whatsoever will be dramatically reduced, and the perceived risk of measurement is nowhere near as high.
If you want our help to design and measure your leadership and management programs, get in touch! You can email custom@mindtools.com or reply to this newsletter from your inbox.
🎧 On the podcast
Want to know more about how Mindtools and South Western Railway created a management program that won the Gold at the Learning Technologies Awards?
In last wee'k’s podcast, Becky joined Ross D and Claire to discuss:
the context in which the program was developed, and the problems it was designed to solve;
how we used focus groups, semi-structured interviews, and a valid and reliable behavioral survey to test assumptions and prove impact;
the results of the program and the changes we've made to it in response to evaluation of the pilot.
Check out the episode below. 👇
You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify or the podcast page of our website. Want to share your thoughts? Get in touch @RossDickieMT, @RossGarnerMT or #MindToolsPodcast
📖 Deep dive
Though we might complain that work is a grind, it’s also (for most people) a source of pleasure.
That’s the key finding for me from Emotion at Work’s 2024 Emotional Wellbeing Survey.
81% of respondents said they found pleasure in their work, even as 50% reported experiencing regular stress.
The key findings are:
We’re Not Scared To Express Frustration at Work: 66% of respondents feel comfortable expressing frustration and annoyance at work.
We’re Getting Better At Admitting Overwhelm: The number of people who feel okay expressing upset and overwhelm at work has risen by 10% since 2021.
We’re Walking A Fine Line Between Work Stress, and Work Pleasure: While 80% of us find pleasure in our work, 50% still experience stress regularly.
Emotion at Work (2024). The Emotional Wellbeing Survey.
👹 Missing links
🤖 Digital skills are the future of work
In this year’s ‘Future of Work’ report, from The World Economic Forum, a summary of perspectives from 1,000 employers shows clear trends. Good news for us nerds, physical ability is out (robots can do that). Cognitive tasks like quality control, attention to detail and resource management are de-prioritized (an AI can do that). Relational skills like leadership, talent management and curiosity are on the rise. And, at the very top, anything related to AI and technology is going to be key.
🗺️ Your behavior change roadmap
If you work in the world of workplace learning, then you’re interested in helping people change their behavior. This collection of free tools from Robert Meza is excellent. Some, like ‘Five Whys’, ‘Empathy Mapping’ and ‘COM-B’ are already part of our team’s toolkit, but there are others here that I’ll be exploring in more detail! Check it out, and thanks Robert for sharing.
🤠 Are your online friends really human?
In the TV show Westworld, humans are invited to a Western-themed amusement park where they can play out their fantasies with a bunch of robots. Humans being humans, those fantasies get pretty dark pretty fast. And for Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, that fantasy isn’t so far away. Advancements in AI make it easier for social media platforms to provide AI accounts that pander to our whims and, perhaps, give us more than we get more our real human connections.
👋 And finally…
The problem with “adult education”.
👍 Thanks!
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