Why Training Doesn't Stick: Who Is to Blame?

THIS ARTICLE, “Why Training Doesn’t Stick,” presupposes that it does not, and that, as a matter of course, it is a waste of precious dollars to send someone to a workshop or a seminar for training. Soon after training goes the assumption that the trainee will be doing things the old way. While acknowledging that at least sometimes that training does stick, the author has come to understand that the conditions under which training is successful are so specific and so rarely met that when it happens it is the exception rather than the rule. “Who is to blame?” The author answers that question by explaining how we can turn the tables and make “training that sticks” the rule rather than the exception. TRAINING AND CHANGE For over two years now, this author has been trying to understand change-what causes it, who causes it, why it is resisted, and what can be done to help assist with moving with change and aiding to help shape it. These are the questions that come with the territory as a developer of in-service training programs that keep the staff up to date with the fast-changing times. In her book, Effectiue On-the- Job Training,Sheila Creth (1986), director of the University of Iowa Libraries, explicitly draws the link between training and change: “First and foremost, training should be seen as a change agent” (p. 5). That is, most of the programs developed or arranged for should ask people to change their ways, to do things differently or think differently from the way they are accustomed, in order to be effective in today’s library and in order that the library be effective in today’s world. One