In this post, I touch upon a few cognitive bias that are often manifest in the customer during the training analysis phase. Again, this is not a comprehensive list, but brings to notice that we must always be aware of cognitive bias, and either to remove it or use it to advantage.
Cognitive Biases to be aware of during Training Needs Analysis
1. Anchoring: Relying heavily, or “anchoring”, on selective information when making decisions and ignoring other, equally important, information.
Why this bias should be identified during training needs analysis: This bias can crop up in customers and SMEs alike, for e.g: a desire to design “compliant”, page-turner, training, without realizing the cognitive load it might put on the Learner.
2. Hyperbolic Discounting: Tendency for people to have a stronger preference for more immediate payoffs relative to later payoffs.
Why this bias should be identified during training needs analysis: The customer needs to show the value of the budget spent on designing the training, and usually wants to do this as fast as possible. This makes customers less agreeable to leaving aside budget for downstream activities like evaluation, maintenance, etc. They also want to reduce budget and expedite timelines. If you identify a hyperbolic discounting bias, explain the need for implementing a long-term training strategy for maximum and sustained benefit.
3. Parkinson’s Law of Triviality: This is a specific type of Anchoring and refers to the tendency to give disproportionate weight to trivial issues, for e.g: instead of finalizing which competencies should be addressed by a training program, the customer may be obsessed with selecting the colors to be used for the visual design.
Why this bias should be identified during training needs analysis: This bias is quite common, especially in customers who are uncomfortable to change how things are currently done. This might have to do with an absence of competency analyses, an outdated LMS, or training topics that are critically needed, but for which there are no internal SMEs, etc. If this bias is in motion, gently bring the customer back to the big problems, and explain how solving them will take care of the smaller challenges as well.
4. Not Invented Here Syndrome: Aversion to contact with or use of products, research, standards, or knowledge developed outside a group.
Why this bias should be identified during training needs analysis: I often find this bias in compliance driven industries like healthcare, manufacturing, aviation, etc. The customer is so dominated by compliance restrictions that they are afraid to look beyond their competitors in the industry. This is an unfortunate situation. How much their training might be improved if they borrowed training metaphors from the retail, BPO, or entertainment industries!
5. Pro-innovation Bias: The tendency to have an excessive optimism towards an invention or innovation’s usefulness throughout society, while often failing to identify its limitations and weaknesses.
Why this bias should be identified during training needs analysis: If you identify this bias in the customer, explain what technology can and cannot do for them. Sometimes, the customer feels that technology will resolve long-standing institutional problems like absence of business processes, low employee motivation, falling sales, increasing operational costs, etc. Sure, technology can help reduce these challenges, but organizational change and improvement are the critical requirements here. Also, wishing to use all the ‘cool’ new technology available in the market is usually not feasible for any organization, as it implies that team members will have to learn how to use multiple, similar applications, there will be no economies to realize from a few consistent applications. Employees will also increasingly work in silos (small groups of employees preferring to use a specific application), ultimately leading to reduced portability.
6. Mood-congruent Memory Bias: The improved recall of information congruent with one’s current mood.
Why this bias should be identified during training needs analysis: This bias is perhaps not so apparent in the customer as it is in the end-user, i.e: in the Learner. This is why it is so important to interview a sample group of the end-users without the customer project lead being present. During the interview, it will become apparent if there are organizational barriers to learning, for e.g: low pay-scale, frequent lay-offs, unclear role definition, weak line management, etc. If these barriers are indeed identified, rest assured that there is a moon-congruent bias working against the proposed training program. As the Training Lead, it is your responsibility to share your observations from the interview with the customer, and explain why and how this bias needs to be addressed for the success of the training.
The second part in this series is here, where I talk about cognitive bias during the training design and development phases.
