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The New Must-Read:
Telling Training’s Story
"Training today yields about an ounce of value for every pound of resources invested. The goal of the Success Case Evaluation Method® is to reverse this recipe—to get a pound of value for an ounce of investment."
— Robert O. Brinkerhoff, EdD
Robert O. Brinkerhoff, EdD is the premier global thought leader in training evaluation. His Success Case Evaluation Method® (SCM) has been heralded as the simplest, most convincing way yet to measure the business impact of training.
Brinkerhoff’s new Berrett-Koehler release, Telling Training’s Story: Evaluation Made Simple, Credible, and Effective is a must-read. The book provides an in-depth look at the SCM process for uncovering factors that make or break training success, and then effectively managing those factors so that more learning turns into worthwhile performance. The process is based on years of research, rigorous testing, and proven results from global organizations. Early adopters include dozens of top-tier companies including Bank of America, Steelcase, Motorola, and Allstate Insurance. Advocates include industry thought leaders Scott Blanchard, Dana Gaines Robinson, and Geary Rummler.
Before the SCM, there was no good way for L&D departments to measure the impact of training investments, or for managers to help direct performers’ learning toward specific business impacts. Brinkerhoff explains that early attempts, “were too elaborate, too complex, too costly, took too much time, or took a PhD level of knowledge to understand or use.”
The SCM process is just the opposite. It is cost-effective and easy for over-taxed L&D departments to conduct—based on simple, structured interviews with learners, at both extremes of the success scale, that identify the factors most associated with high-performance outcomes. It yields understandable and practical information that senior (and line) managers can use to make business decisions. Most importantly, the SCM enables organizations to develop compelling evidence of training impact, complete with results-related measurements that would stand up in a court of law.
Easy Measurement; Rock-Solid Results
"No messy statistics, no complicated formulae, no squishy metrics. Brinkerhoff's Success Case Method is a robust and elegant approach."
— Marguerite Foxon, PhD,
Principal Performance Technologist, Motorola
Brinkerhoff based the SCM design on learning professionals’ request for a training measurement process that was:
- credible and persuasive to senior management
- valid, measuring the true business impact of training
- simple to implement
- actionable, providing insights about ways to improve training
Telling Training’s Story demonstrates how Brinkerhoff met the mark. This insightful and practical, “how-to” manual includes a detailed, five-step plan for performing a SCM study. Case studies demonstrate how the SCM is helping leading companies maximize their training investment payoff—not only via monetary impacts but also by developing insights that will reap additional benefits down the line.
One case study describes how Advantage Performance helped Allstate conduct a SCM study of its business acumen program for leaders. Among other things, the study revealed:
- evidence that the training was helping to increase revenues, add new customers, increase productivity, and reduce costs
- how participants were applying new learning back on the job, insights that were included in subsequent training classes
- that participant successes were creating a “ripple effect” with other employees who were beginning to initiate similar projects
- factors in the Allstate work environment that were either contributing to (such as supportive leadership) or impeding (such as failing to hold learners accountable for planned business outcomes) training success
The Allstate SCM team also provided recommendations for maximizing short-term and long-term payoff from the training investment — such as helping participants identify ways and places to apply their new knowledge, and helping managers nominate the right leadership candidates for the training.
One of Telling Training’s Story’s fascinating conclusions is that the greatest barriers to achieving business results from training often aren’t due to the training program, but rather to the performance environment of the trainees. The SCM process helps organizations capture and understand the non-training factors that may be contributing to training’s impact, thereby increasing their company’s “learning capacity.”
This need to address the entire performance environment led to the Advantage/Brinkerhoff collaboration, the Learning-to-Performance Process. The three aspects of this process—creating learner focus, providing quality learning interventions, and supporting performance improvement—work together to produce the specific business impact from training that is sought by each organization. Learning-to-Performance is a key aspect of the SCM and is an integral part of every Advantage Performance client intervention.
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