Performance Support 2.0
I’ve been reading Harold Jarche‘s posts on change in the L&D industry, the future of training and development, and proficiency-based training. Harold is right on target with his predictions and sensitivity to the industry as it is happening now. I have no doubts Harold has been saying this for years and people looked at him like he had a third eye. I’m right there with him and have been saying the same things for some time.
By and large, learning and development professionals fail to understand performance and so they spend time teaching things without linking them to job or company performance. Thus, as Harold wrote,
Training is seen by this group of CEO’s (and I would wager many others) as superfluous to the company’s bottom line.
Harold’s simple advice is to be relevant to the business. Linking training and development to individual, departmental, and/or organizational performance is key to keeping the department relevant. Harold wrote,
I have met too few L&D professionals who can actually analyze work performance and come up with something other than training as the solution. Well, it seems that the days of the one trick pony are over.
Training is only one arrow in a quiver of available solutions for companies. Using it as a silver bullet (or one trick pony) will only lead you to buying a lot of silver bullets and not really looking at the problems and solutions.
Harold pointed me to another blog, Gram Consulting’s Performance by Design blog, and it too has had me reading and thinking. Tom Gram discussed what learning and development departments can do to stave off cuts during hard times. Tom gives five points to help grow training and development into a real learning and performance organization:Go and read the post for the full details, it is intriguing and valuable.
- Expand your solutions: Break out of the training box
- Improve your business processes
- Consolidate your programs
- Introduce (or improve) performance consulting
- Develop a technology plan
Go and read the full post. It is intriguing and valuable but lengthy to copy directly into the Doc Blog.
Between Harold and Tom I found myself amongst kindred spirits of learning and performance. So much so that I took a hit list of posts and forwarded them to some folks I work with to get them thinking about what is possible. One person shouting for change is a lunatic on the corner, more people shouting for change is a movement to watch.
One post from Tom really got my juices flowing. I am working on developing a new model of learning and performance for an internal group that I serve. The group is unserved or underserved with regard to training and development but unlike a lot of companies, mine is investing. I was scooped up to lead the charge on this and thrilled for the chance. Still, this is an audience that is used to being in a classroom or flying for a seminar and cannot see how tools they use everyday for information can be altered to serve a real learning and performance need.
Tom’s post on Digital Performance Support: an alternative to e-learning captured just what I was thinking. The idea is that learning and performance professionals can be deploying digital tools that serve learning and job performance needs as they occur vs. scheduling a class or putting them through eLearning courses to no end. Tom’s point is simply that if we serve people with tools to help they will approach them at their own pace and eventually call on them less and less as they learn. Brillant! Give smart people smart information and they get smarter.
Part of my learning and performance model is just the thing Tom was writing about. If we create training and don’t support it or link it to performance we failed. As my fellow bloggers and industry colleagues have written, learning is changing and so should the services we offer.
As I continue to look into the impact of blogs, wikis, and podcasts on learning performance I am keeping an eye on how training is changing. Research will bear out some of the thinking here and hopefully move the industry into understanding what to adopt and how to use it more effectively.
Image Source: vito
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It’s been a slow process, moving from training to performance improvement and beyond, but I’m detecting much more interest lately. For example, our togetherlearn.com initiative is getting a lot of interest.
As you might know, Tom and I worked together about 10 years ago and he’s finally started blogging this year. I look forward to more of his writing.
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Glad you like the post Mike. In business, training is a means to an end (performance, output, productivity etc). As soon as you start thinking of it like that it leads to all sorts of creative solutions that are closer to real work than training (or elearning can ever be). The biggest challenge is finding and partnering with line managers who feel the same way. Good luck with your own efforts. The links i have on the post you mentioned have lots of great resources to learn more.
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Harold and Tom,
Thanks for coming by the Doc Blog! I’ve been going through both of your links and getting my mind back in the learning and performance game more formally. It was one thing to be on the outskirts of it, but I love being right back in the center of things.
Partnership with line managers and executives to do things differently is integral to success. In fact, ISPI made partnership one of the core values in their certification program. Hard to quantify but you definitely know when you are there.
I hope you both keep coming back to the Doc Blog.
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I have been to training and walked out thinking “Well, I won’t get that 8 hours back” because I didn’t see how I would use the info. To avoid this, I use practical examples in the training that I conduct on SharePoint 2003.
I also follow-up my training with more mini-sessions including one-on-one sessions as needed and regular webinars that I record and post for my former students to refer to. I am hopeful that we will be adding blogs and wikis to the mix next year.
Thanks for a great post!
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