The forgetting curve: why long-term learning sticks

When you’re looking for ways to invest in your team’s development, you’ll see all sorts of courses and workshops of varying lengths. And you might well wonder why you would spend the time and money on, say, a 12-week training course rather than a one-off session that claims to do the same thing. 

Well, if you think the learning curve is steep, it’s got nothing on what we call the forgetting curve. Research shows that if we don’t use new information in the first few days or even hours after we learn it, it literally goes in one ear and out the other (potentially wasting time, energy and money on learning something that won’t stick). With long-term learning, you have the benefit of being able to revisit key information to keep it at the forefront of your team’s minds. 

The forgetting curve

The brain’s a busy place, meaning it just doesn’t have the capacity to hold onto every piece of information we learn. Instead, it uses a nice system for deciding what’s useful, and getting rid of anything that’s not. 

That means that, if we don’t use new information in the first hours, days and weeks of learning it, the brain decides it’s not worth remembering and throws it out. Research has shown that we forget roughly 50% of new information within the hour, 70% within the first day and 90% within the first week if it’s not being used (1). 

By understanding the forgetting curve, we can put things in place to prevent the downward trajectory and help that new information stay put to make a real difference in daily habits. 

Getting ahead of the curve

Ideally, to avoid this steep drop-off in memory, you need a structure to make sure you keep using newly learned information at the right intervals.

The most effective training is built around psychological principles of learning and memory to embed habits that stick.

Here’s an example of how that can look:

• In the first hour: Consolidate the information you’ve just learned. That can be as simple as talking through the information and re-explaining it in your own words. Group training can be great for this, as it offers more opportunities for discussion.
• In the first week: Make a plan to apply the new knowledge. Information sticks when we actually put it into practice, but it’s easy to forget about it when you get busy, so an actionable plan can be really helpful. 
• After the first week: Review how you used the information. Did it go to plan? What difference did it make to your work? What would you do differently next time? Revisiting the information and revising your plans to apply it keeps it alive and kicking in your brain.  

You can see how, if you really want to embed new skills and information, it often takes more than a one-off session. That might give you the right tools, but unless you put in a whole lot of work yourself, that knowledge can quickly slide away.

With a strong training framework built on psychological principles of learning and memory, you can get the most out of the information that’s delivered and start to embed meaningful change. 

Get in touch to learn about my 12-week Management MasterCLASS, built to help managers do exactly that. 

1. Murre JMJ, Dros J (2015) Replication and Analysis of Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve. PLoS ONE10(7): e0120644. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0120644