In my last post, I mentioned the supplemental lab sessions in college that were a huge help in learning the material. Another area higher education has really gotten learning right has been having short, focused sessions.  Ideally the idea is that a student covers the material in class and then practices those concepts after class and has a chance to experience the subject matter before the next class where new information is added.  However in many corporate learning cultures the learning delivery style is more an intensive dump of information. I once signed up for a 2 day course that was, “An Introduction to Financial Markets.” How effective is it really to cover all of the complex financial instruments in order, non-stop over the course of two days.  If instead we were to focus on stocks for a couple hours, and then have the learners open stock trading accounts or do simulated trades for a week before we expanded on the material, the learners might benefit from happy a deep er understanding of a foundation concept.  I often see this in management and leadership training where business are hesitant to have managers away from the business for a day or more. There are times that because of either nature of the business or size of the organization, Long periods of training just isn’t practical.

While at RetailMeNot, Inc which is a Start-Up gone public business of a little more that 400 people, Bite-sized is a key component of the learning culture. People Development is powered by short 90 minute to 4 hour blocks of learning.  The idea is that people can learn a topic, practice it and then come back into the classroom (Virtual or Physical) and explore their experience or add to their knowledge. 2 examples illustrate how this delivery methodology work.  First there is the New Manager Training program.  In some organizations, I’ve seen programs where new managers are brought together for a week long retreat where they learn about all the fundamental skills needed to be a great manager. What was a better fit for RetailMeNot was to have manager attend a focused 2 hour training every two week for 6 months. Each month consisted of a session where new material was introduced and an action learning assignment was given based of the content covered. There was then a follow up discussion session held two weeks after that.  The discussion session would debrief what happened once the participant began to practise their new skills. An example is Giving Feedback. In the first session, the participants were given techniques and guidance on how give feedback to peers, managers, and direct reports.  During the discussion, they had a chance to discuss what worked, what didn’t, what else they could try. 24 hours of total classroom time equates to a three day course if done all at once. This methodology improves the transfer of learning as well as decreases the disruption to the business. The second example is relate to a more technical skill. Excel training. The