Overcome the Forgetting Curve – Make Training Presentations More Memorable
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, April 19th, 2009
Are you throwing your time and money away with training presentations that are quickly forgotten? Check out this video on making training presentations more effective for your team. You’ll learn:
- How fast we forget.
- What it takes to retain knowledge.
- How to stop wasting time and money on training.
- How just 10 minutes of review can help your team “overcome the forgetting curve” and boost your ROI.
There’s a strong ROI case for making time to review presentation material after the fact. According to the Ebbinghaus Curve + Article: University of Waterloo, within 24 hours of getting new information, participants who spend 10 minutes reviewing it will raise the curve almost to 100% again. A week later, it only takes 5 minutes to “reactivate” the same material and again raise the curve. By day 30, your brain will only need 2-4 minutes to give you the feedback, “Yes, I know that…”
What do you think?
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Comments: 8 Responses so far
Good stats.
Amazing isn’t it!
A good reminder that repetition creates alignment and improved productivity.
Renee Safrata
renee@reneevations.com
Victoria January 21st, 2010
the numbers are amazing, true.
i think it’s important to make sure that you’ve prepped your team or group to understand why you send so many reviews though, would you say that’s true Renee? or would you just dive in with sending information out multiple times.
i have a prime opportunity coming up to try this out and i’m wondering strategy-wise how to approach it, how much prep work i should invest ahead of time.
Hi Victoria – yes, communication is key to success here. If I were in your shoes, I would share my learnings of the forgetting curve. I would suggest to the group or team that for this reason I will be sending out regular reminders. Of course, the reminders will be situational depending on the content and length of the presentation. I find, like yourself, when people understand the statistics they are more than motivated to change their presentation and review process for improved retention.
Let me know how it goes!
Renée
renee@reneevations.com
I like your suggestions on sending out review. In my former life we would give a “pop quiz” at the end of presentation and follow-up with questions for sales to answer at their next district meeting. Then when I did worked within each reps folder we would review past meetings, so important to keep the reminder going.
Bruce Beckett January 23rd, 2010
Hmm…I have often wondered if powerpoint is/can be counterproductive. Instead of focusing on the verbal messages being discussed, the audience focuses on a screen and not the presentors message. Thank you.
Hi.
Powerpoint is not counterproductive – actually now, more than ever we need to provide the audience with verbal, visual and interactive messaging.
Consider these key points when preparing a presentation:
1. 87% of all of us are visual learners – providing visuals in powerpoint and other formats increases learner retention.
2. Gen X and Gen Y’s – the younger workforce learn best when giving large amounts of data to sort through and problem solve. Their internet upbringing has trained their brains to retain differently than those of us boomers and traditionalists.
Renée Safrata
renee@reneevations.com
Fantastic – you decreased the forgetting curve with two very different formats for review.
Pop quiz followed by a face-to-face discussion. Great idea – everyone can learn from this. Thank you.
Renée Safrata
renee@reneevations.com
January 18th, 2010