Most of us who have been trainers have tried one or more methods of action planning—hoping to get our learners to apply what they've learned back on the job. The most common form of action planning goes something like this (at the end of a training program): 

"Okay, take a look at this action-planning handout. Think of three things from the course you'd like to take away and apply back on the job. This is critically important. If you feel you've learned something you'd like to use, you won't get the results you want if you forget what your goals are. On the handout, you'll see space to write down your three goals. I'm going to give you 20 minutes to do this—because it's so important!" 

Unfortunately, learner follow-through from this method is likely less than half than that of another—more research-based—method.  

When trainers perform action planning, we recognize that learning is not enough. We want to ensure that our passionate, exhaustive efforts do not go to waste. If we're honest with ourselves, we know that if our learners forget everything they've learned, we really haven't been effective. This goes for e-learning, as well. There's a lot of effort that goes into creating an e-learning course—and if we can maximize the benefits through effective action planning, then we ought to do it. 

Consider the following diagram. It shows that the human mind is subject to both conscious and sub-conscious messages. It also shows that the sub-conscious channel is using a broader bandwidth—and when humans process messages consciously, they often filter the messages in ways that limit the effectiveness of those messages. 

 One of the most important findings from psychological research in the past 10 years—I hate to call it "brain science" because that's an inaccurate tease—is that much of what controls human thinking comes from or is influenced by sub-conscious primes. Speed limit signs (conscious messages to slow down) are not as effective as narrowing streets, planting trees near streets, and other sub-conscious influencers. 

Workplace professionals tend to use the conscious communication channel almost exclusively. We think it's our job to compile content, make the best arguments for its usefulness, and share information so that our learners acknowledge its value and plan to use it. But if a large part of human cognition is sub-conscious, shouldn't we use that too? Don't we have a professional responsibility to be as effective as we can? 

Enter triggered action planning 

The following action-planning method does just that. It sets triggers that later create spontaneous sub-conscious prompts to action. Let's call this "Triggered Action Planning." It offers a reminder that we are TAP-ping into our learners' sub-conscious processing to help them remember what they've learned. 

The basic concept: We want learners, when they are back on the job, to be reminded of what they've learned. We should do this by aligning context—one of the Decisive Dozen research-based learning factors—in our training designs. We can do this by using more hands-on exercises, more real work, and more simulations. And we can extend this to action planning as well. 

The key is to set situation-action triggers. We want contextual situations to trigger certain actions. So for example, if we teach supervisors to bring their direct reports into the decision-making process, we want them to think about this when they are having team meetings, when they are discussing a decision with one of their direct reports, and so forth. The situation could be a team meeting; the action could be delegating a decision or asking for input, as appropriate. 

In action planning, it's even simpler. Instead of just asking our learners what their goals are for implementing what they've learned, we should also ask them to select situations when they will begin to carry out those goals. Here’s what it would look like:  

• GOAL: I will work with my team to identify a change initiative.

• SITUATION-ACTION: At our first staff meeting in October, I will work with my team to identify a change initiative. 

  Remarkably, this kind of intervention—what researchers call "implementation intentions"—has been found to create incredibly significant effects, often doubling compliance of actual performance. 

  I think this research finding is so important to workplace learning that I've devoted a whole section of my forthcoming book to considering how to use it. Instead of using the term "implementation intentions" (which is  such a mouthful), I just plan to call this “trigger-setting.” 

  Bottom line: We may be able to double the likelihood that our learners actually apply what they've learned simply by having our learners link situations and actions in their action planning. 

  Note: This blog post is excerpted from Will Thalheimer’s September issue of “ Will’s News .”  You can join Will’s mail list at www.work-learning.com , or read his blog at www.willatworklearning.com