Making learning stick: what memory tells us

Why is training forgotten?

Learning that is not reactivated decays. This is neither a failure of motivation nor a problem with the teaching: it is how memory normally works. A memory trace that is never recalled weakens over time.

That is why a two-day offsite, however good, leaves little behind six weeks later. The content was sound. It simply was never picked up again.

The whole question of whether training works is therefore decided after the training. That is what the fourth stage of the JUMP@ method, Permanence, addresses explicitly, and it is the reason the app exists.

The three mechanisms at play

Anchoring is written about endlessly, almost always as “5 tips”. It actually rests on three documented mechanisms.

Consolidation. Learning only becomes stable after a delay, during which it is rebuilt and integrated with existing knowledge. Sleep plays an established part in this. In practice: what was understood on a Thursday is not yet acquired on the Friday.

Spaced repetition. Recalling information at widening intervals produces markedly better retention than the same amount of work packed into one sitting. It is one of the most robust effects in the psychology of learning.

Active recall. Bringing information back to mind without support strengthens its trace more than rereading it. That is why the app offers short applied exercises rather than videos to watch again.

The practical consequence is simple: five minutes a week for six months beats two solid days with nothing after.

What the JUMP app does

The app, available on iOS and Android, carries the JUMP@ method and serves one purpose: reactivating what was learnt between the group sessions and after the programme ends.

Individual pathways. Each member of the executive board is not working on the same points. The initial audit and each person’s progress determine what is offered.

Short exercises. Doable within a company director’s day, which is to say in a few minutes, not an hour.

Spaced reactivation. Content returns at widening intervals rather than sitting in a self-service library: a catalogue nobody opens is of no use.

A view of actual use. This is not a monitoring tool but an indicator: if the app is not used, the programme will not produce its effects, and it is better to know that after three weeks than after six months.

The app does not replace being in the room

This matters, and we would rather say it plainly.

What happens in a room with an executive board, the difficult conversations, the misunderstandings that get untangled, the thing that finally gets said after eighteen months, does not happen in an app. No digital tool replaces that moment.

The app does one thing, and it does it well: it stops that moment from leading nowhere.

Internal leads

Alongside the app, the programme provides for leads within your company, or supplied externally if you prefer.

Their role is to keep the momentum going day to day: prompting, running the internal challenges, reporting back what is getting stuck. It is a light role in terms of workload, but a decisive one: momentum with nobody carrying it internally dies the moment the outside trainer leaves.

Training your own leads costs less than outsourcing them, but means freeing up their time. That is a trade-off we put on the table at the audit.

How do you measure the return on training?

The reference framework here is the Kirkpatrick model, which distinguishes four levels of evaluation. Applied to an executive board programme, that gives:

Level	What is measured	How, at JUMP
1. Reaction	Participant satisfaction	Collected after each group session
2. Learning	What was acquired	Self-assessments in the app, before and after
3. Behaviour	What changes in practice	Actual use of the app, feedback from the leads, review points
4. Results	Effect on the organisation	Indicators set at the audit: absenteeism, management turnover, engagement, decision lead times

Level 4 is the one a company director cares about, and it is the hardest to isolate. A fall in absenteeism can have ten causes. We do not claim to demonstrate an exclusive causal link.

What we do: set the indicators at the audit, before the programme begins, so that there is an honest point of comparison. Training that only defines its indicators at the end measures nothing.

What we do not promise

We do not announce a percentage improvement, nor a multiple on return. Figures of that kind circulating in the coaching sector, returns of 400%, 700%, sometimes more, rest on what beneficiaries say, not on independent measurement.

What we have observed over ten years: a fall in absenteeism and stress, a rise in engagement, better productivity and cohesion, stronger leadership, and growth in revenue and margins. These are observations from companies we have worked with, not a contractual guarantee.

Getting started

The indicators for your programme are set at the audit.

The training programme for executive boards

References

This research addresses general mechanisms, not the JUMP@ method itself.

1. Murre, J. M. J., & Dros, J. (2015). Replication and analysis of Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve. PLOS ONE, 10(7), e0120644. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0120644
2. Diekelmann, S., & Born, J. (2010). The memory function of sleep. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), 114–126. doi:10.1038/nrn2762
3. Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.354
4. Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x