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Performance support is anything that enables and/or accelerates speed-to-sustainable-performance, or speed-to-impact, or speed-to-productivity, or speed-to-competence, or speed-to-actionable-insight, or speed-to-any-damn-thing-that-drives-measurable-business-value.
How much curated content never reaches the point (or the right person) to deliver knowledge, wisdom, and insights essential for critical-thinking and informed decision-making to drive productivity forward? How much productivity is diverted to non-productive activities despite being tasked to ultimately accelerate productivity?
The blind spot as I see all too often involves designing solutions to fit the existing learning architecture and development tools. Status quo solutions can be a greater source of un-sustained workforce performance given the scope of performance restrainers extends well beyond what training can impact.
If L&D cannot show impact at the bottom-line, L&D remains exposed as a cost center…and the bottom-line contribution can only be seen as an expense. Don’t be an expense when the budget belt gets pulled in a couple notches.
I’m convinced it all comes down to the intentions behind the design decisions we make…and if those intentions are not in lock-step with accelerating and sustaining workforce productivity first and foremost, we are left short…delivering potential at the hands of training solutions versus measurable performance outcomes at Point-of-Work.
The diversity of optimizing an ecosystem with multiple, interdependent microsystems with training solutions will not sustain workforce performance at Point-of-Work. An initiative to evolve L&D strategy, tactics, and technology represents an entry point for optimizing the convergence already on the table. This “new information” represents different conversations within L&D, from leadership to individual contributor roles, as well as operational stakeholders.
There is another aspect of intentional design I refuse to put into just another bullet because it is foundational to successful and sustainable adoption of a performance paradigm. I could argue it’s the longer lens I mentioned in the beginning of this post, but it’s more than that. It’s the motivation…the commitment…the willingness…the readiness…to shift from a Culture of Learning to a holistic Culture of Performance.
We talk a lot about boosting employee engagement and making learning more engaging. Let’s shift our engagement focus to where the workforce works; enabling successful performance in the workflow lifts up employee satisfaction through job satisfaction…and accelerates productivity.
IT will do an outstanding job of testing, validating, fine-tuning, and deployment of the transitioned systems. My question is this, “Is L&D equipped to invest that kind of pre-launch rigor and…more importantly…to post-launch support to the knowledge worker’s in their respective workflows and moments of need?”
Our field of play has shifted closer to…if not converged directly into…Point-of-Work. This shift has disruption written all over it. Rules of engagement are being disrupted by increasing velocity of business demand and continuous change. If the rules change, so too must our game plan, and adoption of a Point-of-Work Solution Discipline represents a new game plan.