“Practice, practice, practice.” 

“Practice makes perfect.” 

“We become what we repeatedly do.”

You have probably heard at least one of these sayings throughout your life, but is there any truth to them?

The answer is an emphatic yes, and for more than one reason. In fact, practice is the foundation of how humans learn and remember. 

Reading, watching videos, or listening to lectures are all useful ways to gain knowledge and understanding. In order to become proficient in a given skill or topic, however, it is critical to actively (and repeatedly) engage with the material at hand. 

Practice based learning offers the active, repeated engagement needed to create lasting change in behavior. When individuals engage in a particular behavior repeatedly, their brains create new neural pathways. This helps make that behavior more automatic and easier to perform. We know this as “habit formation”. By regularly practicing a desired behavior in different contexts and situations, individuals can create new habits and become more likely to maintain them over time.

When incorporated into corporate learning programs, practice can boost corporate upskilling and reskilling efforts. Creating a more robust learning ecosystem yields positive benefits for your people and business. 

L&D needs a transformation to fuel the future of work

The typical L&D approach, however, has not yet evolved to encompass the challenges of post-pandemic working life. 

Often executed in a siloed, ad hoc or rushed manner, the average onboarding program today expects new hires to learn complicated job-related skills in just 30 minutes or less. Human skills, such as leadership, empathy, and providing constructive criticism, are rarely part of the lesson plan. When human skills are addressed, it is often in a cursory, secondary training — such as a solitary workshop with no follow-up or practice.

Later in the employee journey, employees rarely get opportunities to upskill even as their changing roles demand it. A study by the Harvard Business Journal found that 75% of 1,500 managers surveyed from across 50 organizations were dissatisfied with their company’s Learning & Development (L&D) function. 

Because there is a disconnect between what employees need and what trainings are available, employee attitudes about L&D are generally negative. Just 12% of employees claim they use the knowledge acquired through training to do their jobs. In a study on the drivers of L&D impact, the Harvard Business Review identified additional gaps:

• Training typically takes place outside of the organization, making it difficult to translate what is learned in the classroom into real workplace applications.
• Trainings tends to require the learner to invest a substantial amount of their own time, while still needing to fulfill all their regular work duties.
• The onus for applying the learning is typically placed on the learner, with minimal follow-up from the instructor once the training has concluded.
• There is little support or accountability to ensure that employees completed the training and applied new learnings

New approaches, such as immersive training, strongly support proficiency. However, to truly upskill a team and build a cohesive, collaborative working group, those approaches need to incorporate lots of practice. Regardless of your training approach, including strategic opportunities for practice can help clear the path toward a far higher return on training investments. Rooting your programs in a strategic practice agenda supported by data-driven insights supports the continuous optimization you’ll need as the demand for new skills grows. 

Making the business case for practice based learning

Investing in learning & development drives better business outcomes. If you’re an HR or Learning professional, you’ve seen the supporting data: Companies that invest in learning & development see a 24% higher profit margin and increase retention by 30-50%. There’s a direct correlation between L&D and increased employee engagement, better teamwork, improved communication, better decision-making, and more productive collaboration. And conversely, a lack of effective training can lead to lower morale, high turnover, and even legal consequences.

The financial cost of ineffective L&D is enormous. A recent Harvard Business Review survey found that only 10% of the 200 billion spent on corporate training and development every year delivers real results. That means ineffective training costs companies $13.5 million per 1000 employees annually.

So where is the disconnect? As today’s workplace evolves to meet the demands of the modern consumer, and hybrid work becomes the not-so-new normal, employee training needs to change as well. 

Practice is the key to transformative learning

While traditional approaches to corporate leadership and manager training often fall short, integrating continuous, practical engagement into L&D strategies promises a brighter future. This method supports the formation of habits through neural pathway development. It also catalyzes the upskilling and reskilling efforts necessary for thriving in a post-pandemic work environment.

As we witness a dynamic shift in workplace demands, it becomes crucial for organizations to reinvent their training programs to include strategic, hands-on practice opportunities that align with real-world applications. By committing to these transformative learning practices, companies can not only enhance employee performance and satisfaction but also achieve substantial business growth and sustainability. The potential returns—increased profit margins, higher employee retention, and a more collaborative and skilled workforce—underscore the indispensable value of practice-based learning in today’s ever-evolving corporate landscape