SPECIAL OFFER: For my LinkedIn family and blog followers, I would love to have you with me on this journey as I write this book. I would be honored to have you offer feedback on short pieces I write. This short piece today is the second draft of a Foreword. In return for your time […]
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 […]
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!
At
the top of my bucket list I’d like to facilitate a discussion in the deep
carpet of the board room addressing an organization’s senior leadership and ask
the “culture in two or three words
question” with instructions to write the words on a sheet of paper…fold the
sheet and hand to the person on their right…then go around the table and read
them aloud.
What do you think would happen? How closely would their two or three-word descriptions match? Would anyone around the table even agree to the exercise? Or would I receive an invitation to leave? Not sure I’ll ever get to check this adventure off my bucket list, but methinks it would reveal an interesting dynamic at the top, and if the definition of culture varies at that level, what definition and realities exist downstream? I’m certainly not an expert on culture, but am pretty sure asking, “So…what’s it like to work here?” at multiple levels may paint an interesting abstract.
“How many times have we (L&D) built awesome training solutions to solve symptoms…and miss the root cause(s) behind productivity restrainers in our process?” and ”How many times have we ignored the Ripple Effects influencing or being influenced by our solution decisions?”
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.
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.