Training tools for instructors | workplace trainers | operators | trainees
Rapidly correct persistent errors in performance | understanding | operating procedures | work routines | techniques | habit patterns

Habit patterns

Workplace trainers try to get it right the first time with their operators and trainees but invariably end up spending time trying to correct errors, misconceptions, non-compliance, technique faults and bad habits that somehow develop.

Because these errors were not corrected early, and were inadvertently repeated over and over, i.e., practiced, many error patterns are actually learned, habitual and automatic and therefore much harder to eradicate.

For example, Mike always has to be reminded to wear his safety goggles and John always follow cars too closely when driving his truck.

We all know that old habits die hard and many habit patterns are resistant to conventional change methods.

These limitations of traditional teaching, coaching and training programs are apparent in all settings including sport, workplace training, education, therapy and personal development.

Re-training or re-education, the typical solution to these problems, improves things only slowly, if at all.

Although operators may appear to pay attention during instruction and practice their new, correct, skills and knowledge over and over, the next day when placed under performance pressure or when unsupervised and left to their own devices, they seem to have forgotten what they’ve learned and the same habit pattern errors, e.g., old entrenched attitudes, beliefs, misunderstandings, work practices and routines, faulty procedures, poor techniques and unsafe behaviours, resurface.

A prolonged adjustment period and poor transfer of learning are the typical outcomes of education, training and coaching efforts worldwide.

All this wastes talent and resources and makes change and transition programs so much less cost-effective. There has to be a better way.

Fortunately, a cognitive science discovery called Old Way New Way^® Learning offers:

• A new perspective on the transfer of training problem.

• A cost-effective and user-friendly method for rapid skill and technique correction and habit eradication.

• A fast and practical method of transition and conversion training.

This page tells the story of habit forces; how and why habits develop; the crucial role habits play in our lives; why old habits die hard; and what you can do to change that for manual handling using the Old Way New Way^® change tool.

Training options

Training in Old Way New Way^® Learning is available in an online course, either with or without email support, or in a training workshop for small groups.

Online course

Online courses are designed by professional educators and follow modern instructional design principles. The Flash based courses can be downloaded and are self-paced, interactive and self contained. Step by step instructions, examples and case studies teach you all about Old Way New Way^® Learning and how to apply it to a wide range of human performance problems in your field of interest. Most courses include at least one video segment that shows Old Way New Way being used; some courses contain four video segments. Online courses that come with with email support cost more but are tailor made and provide step by step solutions for your own selection of specific performance problems.

Workshop

The one-day training workshop provides face-to-face instruction and follow up support for small groups of practitioners, e.g., workplace trainers, supervisors, operators, nurse educators, physiotherapists, behaviour change specialists, and so on.

Workplace training

Workplace safety

Manual handling

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manual handling rapid correction of bad work habits using Old Way New Way^® Learning

Use this manual handling training program to:

greatly improve manual handling compliance
achieve 80% to 100% correction of a bad manual handling habit after one 15 minute training session, with no falling back to old ways
speed up transition and conversion training
greatly improve transfer of learning and eliminate negative transfer in manual handling
eliminate long and repetitive classroom training sessions - you only need one session lasting one hour
eliminate costly participant booklets or other expensive consumables/training materials
correct a bad manual handling or other work habit you've spotted, on the spot and with minimal interruption to work flow
correct the manual handling habits of a group of operators or a whole work team who share the same bad work habit, either on the spot during work or in a brief one-hour classroom training session
reduce the need for ongoing supervision of manual handling and other work practices and eliminate nagging because operators remember what they were taught
increase employee flexibility and adaptability to change.

manual handling training program:

a professional development program for qualified, experienced manual handling trainers. This is not a program that trains and certifies people to become manual handling trainers
uses a learning method proven in manual handling workplace trials at ALCOA and published in Safety News, the OHS journal of the National Safety Council of Australia
backed by Australian National Training Authority funded research published in the Journal of Vocational Education and Training
readily adopted by trainers, instructors, workplace coaches and supervisors as part of their professional toolkit
used in-house by both large and small corporations, government departments and small businesses
generic manual handling training tool suitable for all workplace trainers, supervisors, instructors, coaches, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, training consultants.

manual handling non-compliance—people just keep falling back to old ways

One of the most time consuming and costly aspects of manual handling training is that, despite quality training, employees keep falling back to old ways. Old habits die hard. For example, Mike's supervisor always spots him lifting incorrectly, despite frequent reminders.

Why is it so? The poor transfer of learning from the training setting to the work setting is due to force of habit, also known as habit pattern interference.

An experienced flight instructor summarised the habit pattern problem this way, "The problem is not learning the new; it's forgetting (unlearning) the old!"

To fully understand and appreciate how old knowledge and skills can interfere with and slow down the learning of new knowledge and skills, you should do the manual handling words in colour activity which demonstrates this powerful, universal and involuntary obstacle to learning. When you have completed the demonstration, proceed to the explanation of your scores and then return to this page via the Manual Handling link.

You have now experienced proactive habit interference, also known as the proactive inhibition (PI) effect, through the colour chart activity and therefore better understand the powerful effects of prior learning on new learning.

From the point of view of the operator who is trying to change his or her established way of lifting a load, the explanation of how proactive habit interference blocks or slows down learning and change is like this:

Employees are not a blank slate; not even beginners. Self-teaching attempts and observation of others have taught them at least some ideas, some basic manual handling skills. Unfortunately, these manual handling concepts and skills may be incorrect or incomplete. New employees sometimes "get it wrong".
Experienced employees' manual handling skills can also become incorrect, incomplete or outdated over time, making them less effective performers as bad technique creeps in, leading to injuries. They then face having to change.
If not corrected early, their outdated or faulty knowledge and skills soon develop into learned errors, misconceptions and ingrained bad habits, e.g., unsafe or inefficient manual handling practices.
Habits are automatic, reflex-like acts and behaviours that are not under conscious control - by the time you realise what you've done wrong, its too late to stop.
In training sessions the trainer points out errors, shows employees a better way to lift a load and then they copy and practice this.
During training they appear to catch on and can actually do the right thing and lift properly, at least while the trainer is nearby and therefore serving as a cue for the correct performance.
They may do the right thing afterwards, too, at least for a while, but they have to concentrate hard each time on exactly what to do.
The new correct way of lifting the load feels strange having done it the other way for so long.
Because the new way of lifting differs from the old way there is a conflict or tension between them.
The brain detects this conflict and instantly activates proactive inhibition (PI for short) or proactive habit interference, a well researched knowledge protection mechanism.
PI protects and preserves all your learned knowledge and skills, right and wrong, and strongly resists and slows down any attempt to change your prior knowledge and skills.
We all have this knowledge protection mechanism but it is stronger in some people. It is an unconscious mechanism and we have little or no control over it.
The level of PI a person has is not associated with their intellectual ability or "IQ"
PI is why old ideas, attitudes, beliefs, skills, habits and techniques die hard and why self-improvement is so difficult, slow and frustrating under conventional training methods.
PI causes accelerated forgetting (within minutes or hours) of the new way of lifting and this is why the operator reverts to his old incorrect understanding and way of working when he returns to the workplace.
He knows what he's doing wrong and what he should do and he's highly motivated to improve but his brain (force of habit, i.e., PI) won't let him change.
Problems in adapting to change, then, are caused by what you already know, not by what you don't know.
It is a sobering fact that with conventional methods it can take you up to 2,000 repetitions of the new way of lifting before the operator is comfortable and competent with the new way and it replaces his "old" way.

Proactive habit interference is a major cause of a wide range of workplace change management problems including:

incorrect or unsafe manual handling by operators
non-compliance with SOP's
poor or unsafe work habits
problems of skill development
poor transfer of learning from training and coaching to on-the-job performance
transitioning or conversion problems
slow and low uptake of new technology by management and others
problems with goal setting, focusing and coping with distractions
many team problems.

PI is the real reason why a lot of manual handling training programs fail, i.e., why employees go back to their "old" incorrect ways of manual handling. PI explains why it takes a long time to have a lasting effect on employee work habits, procedures, methods and techniques.

Now you know what the problem is and what it feels like, you are ready for the solution. Being aware of PI and it's effects, however, is not enough to overcome it.

Simply re-teaching a skill or procedure to fix non-compliance, even when supported by specific videotaped feedback to improve awareness, is unlikely to work quickly if at all.

You need an alternative workplace coaching method that bypasses habit interference altogether in order to accelerate learning and skill development. This coaching method is called Old Way New Way^®.

Old Way New Way^® can overcome workplace performance difficulties permanently and more quickly than conventional, i.e., currently available, workplace coaching methods.

manual handling training with Old Way New Way^®

Old Way New Way^® Learning is an innovative metacognitive learning strategy that has been used successfully at ALCOA in workplace trials with manual handling training and work habit change.

Old Way New Way^® enables an employee to mediate change, i.e., to stand between the old and the new and sort out their differences so that learning is greatly accelerated and employees become more flexible and adaptable and empowered to take personal control of the change process. Old Way New Way is a unique synthesis of past and emerging psychological research into learning, sport psychology, coaching science and training science.

Personal Best Academy uses and teaches Old Way New Way^® to workplace educators, trainers and coaches, occupational medicine practitioners, physiotherapists, Alexander Technique practitioners and other individuals seeking to improve safety and performance at work.

Old Way New Way^® has been taught to workplace trainers and coaches at KAAL Pty., Ltd, a joint venture of Kobe Steel and the Aluminum Company of America, in Geelong, Victoria.

Old Way New Way^® is not like behaviour modification, NLP, brainwashing or hypnosis, nor is it psychological conditioning.

It is readily incorporated into what workplace coaches and trainers normally do and is well-accepted by employees and management - it is very user-friendly as well as cost-effective.

Based on a novel interpretation and synthesis of well researched and accepted learning principles, Old Way New Way^® is far superior to conventional approaches to facilitating and managing transition problems, changing work habits and and developing new skills.

Old Way New Way^® is done in practical, hands-on situations where the facilitator works with the employees and their workplace trainer or coach.

With Old Way New Way^® there is no need for special equipment, although the use of video feedback, stop-motion analysis and kinaesthetic feedback can be helpful with complicated performance skills.

Old Way New Way^® works with the brain, not against it, to accelerate the natural process of change.

manual handling program—proof of concept

Learn more about Old Way New Way.^®

manual handling and Old Way New Way^® research publications

Read the published research reports, workplace trials and evaluations.

Changing Work Habits: More Gain, Less Pain, Australian Safety News, October 2000, pages 58-59. National Safety Council of Australia Ltd. By Graham Weaver, Training Coordinator, KAAL Pty Ltd., Point Henry, Geelong, Victoria. Paul Baxter, Mediational Learning Consultant, Department of Training & Industrial Relations, Brisbane, Queensland and Harry Lyndon, Department of Education, Training & Employment, Adelaide, South Australia. "KAAL Australia (a joint venture of Kobe Steel and ALCOA) writes about a new process of Skill Mediation (Old Way New Way^®) which aims to change behaviour at work in the name of good OHS."

The Education Boom. Jarek Czechowicz. Management Today. November-December 2000. Pages 12 and 13. Australian Institute of Management. Knowledge is an enterprise's greatest resource. Online management development is fast and cheap. By 2002, more than half of all training will be technology based, with the remainder taking place in the classroom. This article discusses the proactive habit interference mechanism that slows down change and continuous improvement in knowledge and skills. The solution, Old Way New Way^®, accelerates human learning and allows the rapid uptake of new knowledge and skills.

The Airline Training Pilot. Second edition. Tony Smallwood. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. 2000. Chapter 6, pages 113-130. This chapter on the process of learning contains an in depth discussion of the theoretical background to Old Way New Way^® and its application to pilot training. Section headings include:

Behaviour change
What do we do about non-compliance or non-achievement?
Why do people keep falling back to old ways?
Error analysis: diagnosing non-compliance and performance difficulties
Unlearning of misconceptions
Your old (prior) learning can interfere with new learning
The "attitude problem" fallacy
The "employee education is what's needed" fallacy
Accelerated forgetting
A new way of changing and improving: Old Way New Way^®.

manual handling—new model for workplace learning and safety training

Old Way New Way^® offers an entirely new approach to changing manual handling and other work habits and procedures, skill development, technique correction, performance slump recovery and other workplace learning difficulties, whether these be physical or mental. Although highly innovative, this methodology is readily integrated into what workplace trainers and employees normally do in their quest for skill development and continuous improvement.

Old Way New Way^® is a unique example of successful collaboration between researchers and practitioners to design the most effective training protocols.
Old Way New Way^® is basically a Neo-Constructivist model - the employee is the one who is responsible for learning, understanding and changing
The coach's ability to identify and diagnose the change problem is critical, as is his or her ability to identify, explain and demonstrate to the employee the "correct" way. This befits the trainer's and coach's role as the expert
The employee can be empowered through Old Way New Way^® to take on personal responsibility for improving
The employee's prior knowledge and skills (incorrect as well as correct) must be incorporated into any change strategy
If no conflict is likely between new and pre-existing knowledge and skills, then a conventional training/coaching strategy is OK and new knowledge and skills will consolidate and build on old
However, when prior knowledge and skills are likely to conflict with the new, the employee needs to follow prescribed Old Way New Way procedures and not just attempt to practice the new while ignoring pre-existing knowledge and skills.

manual handling and other workplace learning case studies

Old Way New Way^® is being used in many industries to accelerate skill development and correction, unlearn bad habits, increase compliance with safety procedures and improve flexibility and adaptability to change, e.g., hazardous materials handling; manual handling; crew resource management (CRM); helicopter pilot training, customer relations and communication, workplace literacy and numeracy. Old Way New Way^® also makes health professionals' treatments more effective by accelerating the patient's adoption of the therapist's recommended treatment.

TO READ THESE CASE STUDIES: Click on the hyperlink to read details of some of these case studies. After reading them, click the "Back" button on your browser to return to this section.

We have successfully changed work habits, corrected errors and faulty technique and developed skills in a wide range of training and workplace situations, for example:

Handling hazardous materials safely: Learning to handle a synthetic mineral fibre safely.
Adjusting to new equipment or new procedures: Quickly learning to correctly use controls on new equipment that appear to be similar to the controls on the old equipment, but perform different functions.
Occupational health and safety: Manual handling. Handling sheet glass and cutting glass safely. Increasing personal use of protective safety equipment. Increasing personal compliance with safety regulations. Developing good work habits.
Pilot safety awareness training: Quickly developing instinctive and correct reactions to hazardous situations, e.g., helicopter pilot rotor stall recovery technique in response to low rrpm warning horn (Robinson R22). Simulator flight training.
Crew resource management (CRM) training: Read how Old Way New Way^® can be applied to CRM by visiting the CRM-Developers web site.
Laboratory techniques: Safety procedures, e.g., needlestick injury prevention. Correcting poor technique in microscopy or pipetting.
Occupational literacy and numeracy: Reading, spelling, reversals, handwriting. Correcting misconceptions in knowledge of maths concepts, e.g., percentage, fractions.
Assertiveness training: Developing assertive skills.
Improving sales performance / customer relations: Accelerating development of interpersonal skills, e.g., eye contact, voice, etc., that improve customer relations and salesmanship.
Fork truck driver training and retraining: Correcting habitual driving behaviour that increases wear and tear or reduces driving safety margins.
Physiotherapy: Correcting a long-established injury-causing gait

Second language acquisition: Overcoming mother-tongue interference and fossilisation
Musical performance: Controlling stress and performance anxiety; keying, bowing and fingering technique
Vocational training: Soldering, carpentry, handling and cutting glass, drafting, animal science
Speech pathology: Articulation, language, stuttering.

manual handling training program for workplace trainers

Option 1. Manual handling rapid work habit correction module including video segment

Flash based online course including a ten-minute video demonstration. Order form

Option 2. Manual handling online course

Flash based online workplace trainer development course that is customised just for you. Order form.

Option 3. Manual handling trainer development workshop

One-day manual handling training workshop tailor made for workplace trainers and supervisors from beginner to experienced level. Email us for more details.

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Training tools for instructors | workplace trainers | operators | trainees Rapidly correct persistent errors in performance | understanding | operating procedures | work routines | techniques | habit patterns