A month before I turned 71, in July 2023, I retired after 44 years in L&D and 41 years as a Performance Analyst & Instructional Architect – ISD Consultant – to 80+ clients, mostly F500 firms.

Regardless, I remain somewhat active on Social Media – at least as of early 2024.

I owe my many mentors and my many fellow travelers to continue, for we all have miles to go to have the traction across the practice of Performance Based Instruction to have Enterprise Process Performance Impact.

we all have miles to go

Keeping Busy

As I inched into full retirement – which I might not really ever get to – back in 2023 – I wrote a memoir about my 3 years as a Journalist in the US Navy – 1972-1975. I had chosen the title for it back in late 1972 and early 1973 while in boot camp, listening to all the stories from my fellow recruits about the jobs, cars, and girls they left behind back home.

Here it is at Amazon: Sea Stories And Other Lies: A Personal Memoir About My Learning Experience in the US Navy December 27, 1972 – October 10, 1975

Other PBI Stuff

I’m also doing invited Podcasts with others, as I continue to push the “Measurable Performance Back On the Job” notion, as I learned from many, including my first guru/mentors: Geary A. Rummler, Thomas (Tom) F. Gilbert, Robert (Bob) F. Mager, and Joe H. Harless.

Note, Gilbert was a student of Skinner, and Harless was a student of Gilbert, Rummler and Gilbert were business partners (at Praxis) from the late 60s until the late 70s.

Mager and these other three were some of the leading thought leaders at NSPI – the National Society for Performance & Instruction – which is now ISPI – the International Society for Performance Improvement – an organization I joined in September 1979 – and later served as a Director (1999-2001), and then as President (2003-2004).

It was at NSPI/ISPI that I first saw “sharing” modeled by all of the top thought leaders. As Rummler told me in 1999, “You can’t pay me back. You’ll have to do what I had to do, as I couldn’t pay back my mentors either. You’ll just have to pay it forward.”

I started in August 1979 oriented to Performance and continued over the decades to learn from others – many others – and always trying my best:

Adopting What Made Sense and Perhaps Adapting Some of the Rest

Post-Retirement

Otherwise, I continue to promote Performance Based Instruction – with a default to Performance Guides before Learning Experiences – and to avoid L&D when it doesn’t contribute enough back in measurably improving Process Performance to be better, faster, and cheaper.

Just because one can find a valid Learning Need, does not of itself warrant meeting that need. That’s a Business Decision with financial obligations and implications.

My Books

My first book, co-authored with Ray Svenson, Karen Wallace, myself, and employing a professional writer, Bruce Wexler, was titled The Quality Roadmap (1994). It was based on our consulting services and practices in the 1980s and early 1990s, which focused on T&D/L&D functions with a combo TQM and HPT bent.

See all 35+ of my books on my Amazon Author’s Page – here.

All of my books, except for that first one, have been self-published, because, as my co-authors of The Quality Roadmap found out too late that we no longer had control/ownership over that content, as the publisher now owned “that” version published.

See my latest business book, The L&D Pivot Point, 2023, published by the LDA – The Learning & Development Accelerator – here.

My Blog Posting/ Sharing Continues Elsewhere

1- And please see all of my Blog Posts since October 2022 – Over Here.

2- And see my new – as of January 2024 – Archive site, where I offer hundreds of Free Resources for those on the Learning & Performance Curves in Enterprise L&D.

And I have a new Guy W. Wallace Professional Archive Site.

###

Does your Instructional Analysis uncover the Physical Attributes required to meet the needs of the standard and the anticipatable, non-standard Process Performance?

Of course, if you’re just shoveling Content to them on Topics, then it doesn’t really matter anyway, does it?

###

INFOs are informed in Lesson Mapping… by the Knowledge & Skills Analysis data which captures and reports out the K/S as linked to the Ideal Performance Data regarding Outputs and Tasks and the Measures for both – as well as the Performance Gap Data. The goal is always to minimize the Information provided, and exclude extraneous information while including what is truly necessary.

Effective Lesson Maps are informed by Performance & K/S Analysis data. Efficient Lesson Maps are informed by Target Audience & Existing Content Analysis Data.

Go for Performance – in your Design of Instruction and Learning Experiences – to add value for your stakeholders rather than potentially subtract value.

###

pb-ISD: In my view… Instructional Analysis should “Always Establish” – what the Probable or Root Causes are for each of the Performance Gaps, rooted in the Process Design or Execution itself, or from Gaps in the required Environmental Enablers, and/or Human Enablers.

###

Volatility of Knowledge & Skills Required Analysis Data informs Lesson Mapping… and guides the Instructional content configuration to reduce the overall life cycle costs for content development and maintenance, by segregating volatile content from non-volatile content in the design. Too often little to no thought is given to the need to keep critical content evergreen, or current.

Effective Lesson Maps are informed by Performance & K/S Analysis data. Efficient Lesson Maps are informed by Target Audience & Existing Content Analysis Data.

Go for Performance – in your Design of Instruction and Learning Experiences – to add value for your stakeholders rather than potentially subtract value.

###

Mirjam Neelen, Matt Richter, and I did this series of 6 videos for LDA’s (Learning & Development Accelerator) 2021 Conference. Here is Bev and Etienne High:

This video is 27:25 minutes in length.

LDA – A global membership community to support professionals in L&D! The Learning Development Accelerator, known colloquially as LDA, brings professionals together to support and learn from each other, explores research-aligned practices, builds professional standing for the field, and advocates for all professionals in L&D.

Note: Mirjam and I are both on the Executive Advisory Board, and Matt is one of the owners.

Check them out here.

###