Skill decay is real thing.

Ruth Harrowfield – BA/BSc, MSc Hons, PGDip I/O Psych, PGDip Science (Cl. Psych)

In the words of Rocky from Paw Patrol – Don’t lose it, reuse it! 🐾 ♻

Skill decay is a problem to take seriously in the preparation of any training.

As early as the late 1800s, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus demonstrated with his “Forgetting Curve” that, if information isn’t applied, we’ll forget around 75% of it after just six days.

A meta-analysis from 1998 on skill decay also concluded that trainees have generally lost 90% of what they learned only 1 year after training if no repetition of training content occurs.

The takeout?
🐾 ♻ Before training, set expectations and make plans for people to revisit the material and start to activate what they have learned.
🐾 ♻ Make it soon after the main event, booking reinforcement sessions in at the same time you book the main event.

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We’re in the training business – human skills to be precise. We help people to understand themselves, understand others and therefore communicate in a more effective, meaningful way.

I’m Ruth Harrowfield, and together with my partner Sam, we run Harrowfield People Development, a strategic learning agency based in Auckland, New Zealand.

We draw on the disciplines of organisational and behavioural psychology to provide fit-for-purpose experiences that build capability and confidence.

We help business leaders to bring out the potential that they see in their people by shaping habits of thinking, communication and action in the workplace. Talk to us today.