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 […]
Tag: performance consulting
If sustained workforce performance truly represents the universal brass ring, L&D…or some other corporate entity…must evolve tactically and adopt a performance mindset head downstream into the post-training environment where measurable outcomes and value are generated…or lost – Point-of-Work (PoW).
My core point here is straightforward – we have a mandate to treat workforce performance as a continuum from Point-of-Entry (onboarding and 1st learning) to Point-of-Work (sustained performance competency). Therefore, it makes sense to me that any assessment efforts undertaken should include the downstream, post-training PoW; hence, the need for a holistic Learning Performance Assessment (LPA).
We have no shortage of targets at which we can fire our L&D solution arrows. Too often just hitting the target with training is viewed as sufficient. I participated in that approach for many years before being exposed to the discipline of performance consulting. That new lens changed everything. The objective morphed from just hitting the target to hitting the right target…with the right arrow…at the right time…with the right amount of force…and for the right reasons.
We cannot begin the effort by looking through a “training solution lens”. I can always build training IF NECESSARY. BUT…if emphasis is not first laser-focused on what solution output closes the performance gap(s) at Point-of-Work, the traditional default training solution may well be the wrong output.
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What About the Other 95%?
As we speak there is a new technology rage about to enter the stage, Learning Experience Systems (LES). This new technology entrant is a good thing. Yes, we are headed in the right direction. And yes, we are bringing learning opportunities closer to the Learner at the Point-of-Work. But still…I have to ask, are we really addressing the Other 95% or are we just dragging the 5% closer to the Point of Work?
You’ll see it on their faces, and they’ll look up at you with questioning eyes and ask, “You mean this is not a training issue?”…and then you’ll dance like only a performance consultant can dance…right before spiking the folder full of verbatim interview responses like a wide receiver slamming a touchdown pass in the end zone.
In the event your brain immediately visualized training courses or learning events residing on your LMS…we have a potential disconnect here because “Training” in any form represents only the 10% in the 70:20:10 framework, and to make that even uglier, the 10% falls into the +/-5% of our 2,000 hour work year that Bersin’s research says we get each year in the form of formal learning. So what? That +/- 5% begs for what I felt was not researched…but leaves an obvious question – “What about the “OTHER 95%?”
You “train” a bear to ride a bike…and with enough bear treats and a Taser you can train a bear to ride just about anything. If that bear is “learning” anything at all, it’s how NOT to get shocked…and keep scoring bear treats.
A colleague of mine described adopting a Performance Paradigm where Performance Support is fully integrated as “the project that never dies” and that’s not a bad thing, because if the paradigm dies, so do the performance benefits…and those benefits are tied directly to tangible, measurable business results.