December's a great time to reinforce what you know and do best

By William Seidman Change initiatives tend to lose steam at this time of year. For most retail, it’s the primary selling season, so little else gets attention. Companies with annual vacation policies with “use it or lose it” provisions see a lot of people taking time off. For many companies it’s the 4^th fiscal quarter and ending the year well is everything. The neuroscience of learning tells us that continuous practice and reinforcement is critical for sustained learning. Without it, much can be lost. In fact, this is a good part of why some school systems are moving more to year-round learning: the research has shown a huge drop-off during the summer. All isn’t lost, though. Practice and reinforcement really help. Here’s what you can do:

• take 5 minutes from a busy day to write a note about the performance improvement program 
• take a few minutes to talk with someone about ways in which new learning could be applied

Reinforcement is vitally important. For January:  plan something to re-focus attention and re-energize, because many of the  factors that make December a tough time for change initiatives make January a great time.]]>