At the recent Learning Solutions 2014 conference in Orlando, the Guild added another concurrent conference to the venue – Ecosystems 2014. Amazingly, at an additional cost there were over 200 participants attend the extra breakout sessions. While there were most questions surfaced than answers, it was clear that the concept of address the Learning & Performance environment as an ecosystem was a hit…and more questions than answers.
Tag: EPSS
Question: If flawed performance was a jet airliner with a broken engine how far would it fly?
Answer: All the way to the scene of the crash.
And the scene of the crash is precisely where Training should show up to investigate the potential for building learning and performance solutions…after they find the black box.
We know everyone leaving our class on “Digging the Perfect Hole” knows which end of a shovel to hold and the finer conceptual points of digging a very fine hole. With confidence we can say they have the potential to actually dig one. Heck, we have proof; they loved the course per our smile sheets, and they passed the test with flying colors. Houston, we have the promise of potential! We also have a high degree of false competency.
Embedded Performer Support [EPS] is the discipline we so desperately need to integrate into our Training efforts. Notice that I did NOT say we should walk away from or stop Training. We still have a need to train our people, and always will, but when training only serves as the primer, we have to consider there are still coats of paint that must be applied after the primer has dried.
Building competency is a journey. It is a journey that extends well beyond the formal learning event [Training] and into the post-training work context where there is no longer any safety net. Mistakes at this level cost money. Mistakes are part of learning. How much learning can one afford at the hands of mistakes?
Categories
AGILE Is As AGILE Does
As with earlier conferences that I’ve spoken at this year, there is once again a lot of buzz around the concept of AGILE. AGILE what? That is a key question to ask because from what I’m seeing, not all AGILE approaches are scoped equally when it comes to learning and performance solutions.
MOOCs came from an academic birthright, and they are structured to accomplish the transfer of knowledge in some very innovative “flipped classroom” approaches that are less structured and open to participants to discover and learn through multiple forms of content delivery, media and venues. Perfect. This will work in the corporate world as well. My question is why stop there? Let’s flip the whole dynamic learning and support ecosystem, not just the classroom.
Implementing Embedded Performer Support [EPS] can be as daunting a task as eating an entire elephant. Not sure I’d ever want to eat an elephant, but if I did, it would be one bite at a time versus scarfing down the whole thing. One bite at a time rings true for implementing EPS as well. Keep in mind that EPS is not a technology [though technology may well be part of the effort]; EPS is a discipline.
In my current role, I work in a virtual environment that is strategically located between corn and soy beans in the rolling hills of southeastern Indiana. Driving narrow, rural country roads to breakfast at the local truck stop this morning, I encountered numerous other pick-up trucks. Yes, I drive one too, but no rifle rack, nor is there a confederate flag in the back window. You might be asking yourself what any of this has to do with performer support. Answer: Plenty
We were eating lunch on a Wednesday when the elevator music was disrupted with an urgent announcement, “This is a code yellow alert – Repeat – This is a code yellow alert!” My colleagues all went to the laminated cards that hung around our necks The appropriate response needed to be timely; needed to trigger agility, and needed to be acted upon flawlessly. Or, as in my example…some knucklehead just spilled something that could kill us all…so run like hell…NOW! That was perfect EPS.