This post is an attempt to make the point that while performance data can now be exploited beyond our wildest expectations, there are tactical disadvantages that accompany decisions related to pursuing an aggressive analytics implementation without a well-thought out battle plan firmly in hand. And yes, I learned these things at the 32nd level of Destiny during a Crucible mission.
Author: Gary G. Wise - Author - Grief Coach
Unsupervised, unfiltered, and occasionally undisciplined Writer of Things that thrill readers with engaging stories created by a seasoned storyteller.
Many organizations are locked into long-held beliefs that training is the default solution to overcoming performance challenges. While training can certainly contribute to closing performance gaps, sadly, the only outcome that can be consistently proven is the creation of potential. Is potential enough?
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Death By Demo
You know what really torques my frame? Product demonstrations, especially when the demo is feature – function – benefit (FFB) “spewage”. I’d rather be stabbed repeatedly with something dull.
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Define the “DO” First
When you consider how quickly business is moving, and the need for an agile and resilient workforce represents minimum criteria for creating sustained capability, the rules of engagement have clearly changed. Training cannot keep pace; scope and charter just do not match up when our new ground zero is located downstream in the post-training world…at the point of work…at the moment of need.
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Turn Loose the MOOCs
Consider the point of work as the new classroom if you like, but recognizing the application of assets at the point of work represents new kinds of assets…a.k.a. Performance Support [PS]. Courses no longer fit. When your hair is on fire there is no time to log into the LMS and take a course on fire safety. You need immediate access to an intentionally designed asset that is task-specific and often role-centric…and business relevant…and effective at the point of work…and accessible at the moment of need. That ain’t training!
This is the challenge in front of us when we are trying to successfully position the added value and positive business impacts of Performance Support to an organization comfortably fed by a Training paradigm. It is that Training paradigm that blocks even considering there are other options to drive performance outcomes. Henry Ford nailed it when he said, “If I’d asked them what they wanted; they would’ve said faster horses!”
I have never met ANYONE on the operational side of the business who is satisfied with “potential”. No one on the operational side of the business gets compensated for “potential”. They don’t want a training graduate who knows that they need to use a shovel to dig a hole…they want somebody coming out of training who can dig a freaking hole…and more perfect the hole, the better.
Training tactics are slowly changing. Events are shrinking in size. MOOCs are unhooking linearity as a design concept. Learning is being “bursted” and “microed” in more granular chunks. More video is being embedded. Things are getting more social and collaborative, but the “T” word still seems to be central to the mission. We are still Training. Knowledge retention is still the enemy.
They say that even a blind squirrel will find a nut eventually, and I am living proof of that concept. So there I was at DevLearn 2014 locked in to speak at a couple of breakout sessions and facilitate a tabletop discussion at the crack of dawn on day one. I’m on a Performance Support mission of “seek and learn” and purely by accident I stumbled over a pre-conference session Tuesday afternoon before the conference ever started called the xAPI Hyperdrive. Yup…maybe not the squirrel metaphor but I found a nut I was not even looking for…and it changed my entire conference agenda.
We all experience hair on fire moments every single day and our ability to execute a quick action like Stop, Drop & Roll effectively and efficiently translates into effective loss prevention; saved accounts; business liability averted; employee churn prevented; redundant effort and rework minimized, competitive sales closed, material waste minimized…and…and…and. None of these tangible business impacts manifest during Training, and yet we continue to posture Training as the primary driver behind the business outcomes we seek.