Unsupervised, unfiltered, and occasionally undisciplined Writer of Things that thrill readers with engaging stories created by a seasoned storyteller.
This is a call-to-action to see beyond the prevailing myth that Training Drives Performance to the accepting the reality of Potential as the only provable training outcome until our Performers graduate to their respective Points-of-Work where they actually generate measurable value and business outcomes. Sadly, we do not fail during Training…we fail at Point-of-Work. Should we not build solutions that zero in on performance challenges at Point-of-Work and Moment of Need?
Yes, I tend to take a hard line on “performance” in the flow of work versus “learning” in the flow or work, but isn’t performance the ultimate outcome we seek? Learning is not the end game…it’s a by-product of enabling performance…while learning at the Point-of-Work and during moments of need. If I’m mistaken on this bent of mine, why is there a “70” in 70:20:10?
I was honored to kick off 2020 with David James. This post is a replay of the 48 minute podcast. With the recent frequency of posts on the Point-of-Work topic, the podcast may help fill in the gaps. As always, David James did a superb job of interviewing…I just tried to keep up. It must […]
Is it time to create an organizational entity scoped and chartered to ensure sustained workforce capability? Is it time to enable performance IN Workflows at Moments of Need found at Point-of-Work? Ask the operational stakeholders if they are after knowledge…or the capability to execute at Point-of-Work to add measurable value to the bottom line. They […]
Downsized three times in seven years. Why? Because we could not show bottom line value creation and productivity impact. Why? Because Point-of-Work was not assessed to determine what was restraining performance. In other words, no performance benchmarks were established at current state. Instead, solutions were automagically defaulted to training-based and focused on skill profiles, learning […]
If I had the opportunity to be CEO for a day, I’d blow the doors off the existing Learning/Training paradigm and shift my CLO out from under the HR umbrella or create a role and align them as a direct report…with the title of Chief Capability Officer (CCO). Place the CCO over the Office of […]
The mission for L&D carries a primary objective not too dissimilar to that of “eating an elephant”; a daunting proposition to say the least. The “elephant” I’m referring to here is “Optimization of a dynamic learning performance ecosystem”. This represents the Tactical aspects critical successfully impacting and sustaining workforce capability at numerous Points-of-Work. The key point here is “Training solutions are not enough!” and plays into perpetuating the myth that Training Drives Performance when in fact, it only enables potential. Want to transfer results and track measurable impact…go to Point-of-Work where performance really happens…or not.
The Point-of-Work Assessment (PWA) methodology is agile enough to handle unique iterations of a mix of core discovery questions consistent as common denominators with additional unique questions defined by the gap(s) between Perceptions in a Top-Down discovery cascade to Realities only found at the Individual Contributor level at the Bottom. Training may be the routine, default solution…but what if the performance restrainers pit Perceptions of Training as the default solution against the Realities that Training will NOT deliver the impact required?
The Point-of-Work Assessment (PWA) is a discovery discipline designed to examine sources of performance and productivity restrainers in the Workflow. The outcome delivers findings across six categories of attributes limiting optimization of workforce capability. Traditional Training Needs Assessments typically only cover one – People/Capability – in search of training solutions. That’s great…but not enough!
I submit to you that we (L&D) need to shift thinking within the ranks of our stakeholders (and ourselves) to enable a different conversation. I’m not suggesting we back off Training; rather, I’m suggesting we confirm what restrainers behind the performance deficiencies are going to be resolved by Training. I firmly believe L&D’s role should be to confirm what knowledge and skills are appropriate to include in a solution and what performance restrainers are present that do not. We need the ability to do both. Does L&D own Process Improvement challenges…or access rights to critical resources…or missing online apps…or…or…or? No, but I believe we should play a liaison role to facilitate hand-offs in a collaborative solution role with the business partners who do own those kinds of interventions.