Most of what decides whether people use what they learned happens before the session and after it. Here are 100 things you can do about it, starting on your next programme. Each one comes with a script or template and how long it takes.
Free guide
100 ways to make training stick
Before, during and after the session
BeforeDuringAfter
Multiply Transfer
What’s inside
Before, during and after the session
Most advice on making training stick is about the session itself. This guide covers that too, and the weeks either side, where the manager conversation and the first days back at work tend to decide what happens.
Before
Before you say yes to the request
Tie it to a number the business tracks
Get the manager on side
Prime the learners
During
Design for Monday, not the room
Practice over content
End the session with a plan
After
The first two weeks back
Make the manager the coach
Clear what's getting in the way
Show what changed
Three of the 100
Every tip is something you can do this week
Every tip works on its own. At the end of each stage, a short section shows how Multiply takes several of them off your hands.
Tip 19 · Before · Get the manager on side
Get the manager to name one thing they'll look for afterwards
People tend to do what their manager notices. If the manager can't say what they'll be looking for, the learner will likely come back to the same week they left.
What to do: Two weeks before the session, send each manager one question: “After this training, what's one thing you'd like to see [name] doing that they aren't doing now?” Share the answer with the learner before day one.
5 minutes per manager
Tip 58 · During · End the session with a plan
Finish with an if-then plan, not a list of good intentions
“I'll give more feedback” tends to fade by Wednesday. “When a one-to-one reaches its last five minutes, I'll give one specific piece of feedback before we close” names the moment, so there's a better chance it happens.
What to do: In the last 10 minutes, every learner writes one plan in the form “When [situation], I will [action].” Then they read it to the person next to them.
10 minutes of session time
Tip 35 · During · Design for Monday, not the room
Practise on the learner's real work, not a case study
A made-up case is easy to agree with and easy to forget. Working on something they'll face next week gives people a first attempt they can repeat.
What to do: Ask attendees in advance to bring one real situation, like a conversation they're dreading or a report they have to write. Build one exercise around it instead of the generic scenario.
20 minutes of redesign
Is it for you?
Written for people who run training for a living
You run or lead L&D and your programmes get good feedback, but you can't always say what changed.
You've been asked “what did that training actually achieve?” and didn't like your answer.
You suspect managers decide more of the result than the course does.
You want ideas you can use on the programme you're running now, not a theory.
Is it really free?
Yes. You give your work email, the guide opens straight away, and a copy lands in your inbox.
What format is it?
A 17-page PDF, grouped into before, during and after, with a tick box per tip so you can track what you've tried.
Is this a sales pitch for Multiply?
Every tip works on its own. At the end of each stage, a short section shows how Multiply takes several of those tips off your hands, so you can decide whether that's worth it.
Who wrote it?
Fergal Connolly, founder of Multiply Transfer and a Senior Transfer Enabler with the Institute for Transfer Effectiveness. He has spent more than ten years in L&D.
Start with one tip on your next programme
100 ideas for before, during and after the session, each with a script and a time.