Adopted from a Wall Street Journal article

• Organizations don’t rely on the science of learning and training. Many are ignorant about what it is know about learning and training and development.

• Organizations have myths about training. An unskilled employee attends training, when they return there is the expectation of an immediately changed, improved, skilled worker. That’s an incorrect expectation. Companies in general have simplistic views of training.

• Organizations don't take the time to analyze their training needs. Do a -needs analysis, figure out who needs training and what kind.

• Many organizations don't evaluate how well employees have learned. Companies believe if there is a positive reaction to the training, their people will learn. The correlation is weak between reaction to training and actual learning.

• Technology doesn’t solve all training problems. A simulation alone isn't enough. Clear and precise learning objectives, clear feedback, and a form of measurement or are required.

• When trainees go back to their job, they often don’t have the right supervisory support, the opportunity to practice and the conditions that allow them to apply the skills they learned.

• Many companies simply procure a vendor for a program and assume engagement follows. But often trainees to back to their jobs and ask, "What do I do now?"

• Sometimes people are sent to training because the company thinks that's what they need, and the trainees come back wondering, "So why did I go to that training? I won't be able to use that for another three years when we get the new procedure."

• You must use the skills acquired in training quickly. The American Society for Training and Development states by the time you go back to your job, you've lost 90% of what you've learned in training. You only retain 10%.

• If you are inundated with facts and concepts, you will forget 90% of it. Training should help you get access to information—databases, manuals, checklists—when you need it on the job. Trainees cannot memorize everything.

• If organizations do not signal that learning is important, employees will not see personal benefit to learning.

• Supervisors are influential. If the supervisor does not cares about your future, you are not going to be motivated to learn.