What is Zero Memorization Training?
If you are in charge of training employees at your company, and you're tired of how long it takes for new-hires to independently do their job, then you're going to love the Zero Memorization Training approach.
Take this free self-assessment to see how you could improve training using the Zero-Memorization method.
Check out the video What does Zero-Memorization Training Look Like?
What's an example of Zero-Memorization Training?
Let's pretend that you are the head chef at a restaurant and you need to train 20 new cooks on how to prepare your special dishes (you have over 50 items on your menu). Everything from appetizers to desserts, right on down to your special way of preparing coffee.
Which training approach would you use to get your new cooks up and running:
- Focus on memorizing all of the dishes, all of the ingredients, all of the steps, and all of the techniques, or
- Allow the cooks to use your recipe book when preparing a dish?
If you chose option B, then you're thinking just like we are – and that's the essence of No-Memorization Training.
Why spend the time making employees memorize a bunch of details when they can simply look them up and follow directions? It doesn't make sense to require cooks to memorize all of the ingredients and all of the steps when they could simply reference a recipe while preparing a dish. Sure, over time they may memorize everything. But by using a recipe, your new cooks could begin making meals at a high level of proficiency a lot sooner.
Show employees how to use your "recipes"
No matter what business you are in, you have a set of "recipes" that employees are expected to follow. Whether that's generating a Purchase Order, scheduling an appointment, or running payroll. And as long as you have your "recipes" documented as guides and job aids, then there's no need for your employees to memorize all of the steps.
That's why we call it Zero-Memorization Training.
With Zero-Memorization Training, the focus is on teaching your employees how to use your guides and your job aids to:
- Perform operational tasks,
- Use technology,
- Know how to respond to customer inquiries, and
- Anything else that goes on in your organization
When a situation comes up, employees can reference your guides so they know what to say, what to do, and how to do it.
What kind of results can you expect?
For many businesses, the biggest perk of doing Zero-Memorization Training is that they don’t spend as long training employees on how to perform operational tasks. With the Zero-Memorization approach, you simply spend a few days teaching employees how to use your guides. Once they are able to use them to perform tasks and jobs, employees immediately begin contributing without needing to shadow other employees for weeks.
You also get fewer post-training emails asking follow-up questions because everything is in your guides.
This approach also:
- Decreases the time it takes employees to become proficient at their jobs
- Increases the quality of your employee’s work
- Improves how your employees adapt to change
Overall, you get employees doing their jobs correctly without so much hand-holding from you.
What's next?
Now that you know what Zero-Memorization Training is and how it could impact your business, download our self-assessment to see whether Zero-Memorization Training could improve your training metrics.
Also, check out our video What does Zero-Memorization Training Look Like? to see how you could incorporate this approach in your organization.