Creating a Culture of Behavioral Learning in Your Organization
Behavior-based training is a highly effective learning model that allows individuals to develop individualized responses to different stimuli. This type of training does not require a correct or incorrect answer, rather it relies on the behavior of the individual in response to the given task or situation. By allowing learners to form their own personal responses based on their own experiences and values, this approach encourages deeper reflection and creative problem-solving. The solutions rely on the individual’s capacity to recognize patterns and make decisions based on their internalized understanding of the situation. This approach emphasizes experiential learning, allowing learners to draw upon their own experiences and interpretations of events to guide them towards a final solution or conclusion.
Here are some tips for creating behavior-based training content with open-ended questions:
Identify the behavior or skill you want to teach:
- Before you can create your training content, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the specific behavior or skill you want to teach. This will help you to create targeted, relevant questions and activities. For example – If a company wants to teach its employees about customer service, they need to first identify the behavior or skill they want to teach. This could include topics such as greeting customers, understanding customer needs, problem solving, or understanding body language. Once identified, these behaviors can be groomed through relevant case studies and simulations.
Use scenario-based questions to assess personality and pivot:
- One effective way to engage learners and encourage them to think critically is through the use of scenario-based questions. These types of questions present learners with a specific situation and ask them to come up with a solution. Continuing the last example – During a customer service training, the instructor could ask the trainees to respond to a hypothetical scenario where they work in a call center and speak with an irate customer. The instructor could ask the trainees how they would respond to the situation and use the responses for personality assessment, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and use the results to tailor scenarios to their personality type. For example, a learner who is identified as a “feeler” might be given a scenario that involves dealing with an emotional customer, while a learner who is identified as a “thinker” might be given a scenario involving a problem that requires logical analysis.
Encourage discussion and collaboration:
- Open-ended questions are a great way to encourage discussion and collaboration among learners. Encourage learners to share their ideas and thoughts with each other, and facilitate a dialogue around the topic after the training and note how people come up with different ideas to the same problem and how their behavior towards a particular situation differ from each other. It is important for employees to understand the different behavior traits due to their significant impact on an organization’s overall productivity and success. The ability to effectively recognize and manage individual personality differences is imperative for effective communication, collaboration, motivation, and decision-making processes. These traits are also vital to ensure that team dynamics remain healthy, as well as the ability to anticipate potential conflicts or problems that may arise among employees. Consider adding a debatable scenario to the course, for example share this scenario with learners where a customer calls your company and is unhappy with a product they recently purchased. They are demanding a full refund, but the company’s policy only allows for exchanges or store credit. As the customer service representative handling the call, you would need to listen to the customer’s concerns, apologize for their dissatisfaction, and explain the company’s refund policy. Some questions that could be used to encourage debate among trainees might include:
- Should the company make an exception to their refund policy in this case? Why or why not?
- Is it possible to find a resolution that will satisfy both the customer and the company? If so, what might that look like?
- How can the company balance the needs of the customer with the need to uphold their policies?
Add some real examples and use response based branching:
- Some learning management systems (LMS) include adaptive learning technology that can personalize the learning experience further based on a learner’s responses to scenarios and questions. These types of scenarios can then be personalized by including different outcomes depending on the learner’s choices, none of which is wrong. To make the training more relevant and engaging, consider using examples and real-life situations in your questions from your organisation. This will help learners to better understand the concepts and apply them in a practical setting. Share all the possible outcomes of a situation and ask open-ended questions. While open-ended questions encourage learners to think for themselves, it’s still important to provide feedback and guidance where necessary. This will help learners to understand the correct way to perform tasks and make decisions in critical situations.
- Let’s understand how branching in courses really work with a scenario –
Mr. Smith, calling to complain about a product he recently purchased. Sarah must choose how to respond to Mr. Smith’s complaint. She has the following options:
Option 1: Sarah apologizes and offers to exchange the product for a new one.
Option 2: Sarah apologizes and offers a partial refund.
Option 3: Sarah apologizes and offers a store credit.
Option 4: Sarah tells Mr. Smith that there is nothing she can do and ends the call.
Depending on which option Sarah chooses, the scenario will branch off in different directions. If Sarah chooses Option 1, for example, the scenario might continue with Mr. Smith accepting the exchange and thanking Sarah for her help. If Sarah chooses Option 4, the scenario might continue with Mr. Smith becoming angry and threatening to never do business with the company again.
As Sarah progresses through the scenario, she is presented with different challenges and must make additional choices to resolve the issue. At the end of the scenario, Sarah is given feedback on her performance and is provided with tips and best practices for handling difficult customers in the future.
Overall, branching scenarios allow learners to practice their skills in a realistic and interactive way, while also allowing for personalized learning based on their responses to different situations.
Summary – By using open-ended questions in your behavior-based training content, you can help learners to think critically and come up with their own solutions to problems. This approach is an effective way to teach important skills and behaviors that will be useful in the workplace. Happy learning!
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