Even seen travelers who stuff EVERY possible item into their backpack –
‘just in case’ they need it? The backpack ends up bursting and spilling out its
contents on the way.
Ma
ny trainers too, suffer from this ‘stuffing the backpack’ syndrome.
When creating the agenda for training, they stuff it with EVERY possible topic
‘just in case’ the participants need to know.
But, do participants really benefit from such crowded agenda?
To answer this question, let us look at the results of two landmark scientific studies on human memory.
1: Short-term memory: Human memory has limits on its capacity to process
information. In the short-term, people can remember and process only about 7 things (give or take 2 items)*1.
This means that in a training environment when faced with too much information,
participants simply stop processing information!
What is even worse is that this magic number “7” reduces if:
- the topic being covered is not familiar to the participants
- they do not use tricks like repeating items or grouping items together.
If participants manage to understand and process what they learnt in the classroom,
what happens later? Do they retain what they learnt?
2. Storage capacity: The storage capacity of the mind over time is a mere 3-4
things.*2 That is, post the training, participants remember only 3 to 4 aspects of what
they have learnt!
The implications from these studies for a trainer are clear:
- Do not overstuff the training agenda. Cover no more than 3 to 5 topics
- For better retention there should be time for repetition
References:
*1 George A. Miller,
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
*2 Study by Cowan, Rouder, Morey of
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