Jan 17 2013

How I Smoke Out the Performance Gaps for Improvement Targeting in ISD Efforts

I Don’t.

I facilitate a team of Master Performers, related Subject Matter Experts, and other Stakeholders to do that for themselves.

I always want to know what the other likely inhibitors of Performance Competence there are in my ISD efforts.

For even if I cannot make them go away, I can provide a heads up and even the strategies and the tactics of other Master Performers to the novice, to help them climb that learning curve and deal with the rocks in the road, missing bridges, lack of refueling stations, etc. I can provide them with a path that guides as loosely or as rigorously as appropriate.

Then I Facilitate Them in a Structured Design Meeting Process

So that the Learning design is linked back and or derived from the models of Performance created back in Analysis.

NS 1251 Game Board

Or your Learning practice exercise and feedback – which are ALMOST always necessary to real learning – are gonna be bogus. and the abbreviation of bogus is, well, never-mind.

BTW – Your Games and Simulations Should Simply Reek of Performance Context Authenticity to the Player/ Learner/ Performer

Reek.

Unless you are just in it for the entertainment factor. Which is cool, man, I guess.

If they – your Games/Simulations – don’t have that authenticity ring to it – so to speak – then not much is going to transfer, according to research.

Only 5 to 15% of people can learn out of context and then transfer to another context – think generic training and transfer back to the job for the learner. #FAIL. #WASTE.

Wasted opportunity, wasted ROI, waste, waste, and more waste.

Every dollar not spent on that would have fallen directly to the bottom line.

Yet, it could be really fun, man.

While You Cannot Teach Everything and Every Nuance

… you can prepare the Performer/learner for what they will need to learn about their job. Immediately – think immediate survival skills.

And over time as one segues from On-Boarding deeper into On-Going Development.

Development of Performance Competence that is.

Or, why would you bother?

As I approach then end of my 75th Curriculum Architecture Design efforts, I am again reminded the importance of Formal Learning, as unlike it’s much older sibling, Informal Learning, it is not guaranteed to occur.

And while Informal Learning is guaranteed to occur, as you cannot stop it, it may not ultimately be effective and most certainly isn’t efficient, which are not two sides of the same coin, as the latter is a leverage fulcrum of the former, that also is not guaranteed, to leverage anything of real value left to its own.

Formal Learning For Performance Competence Ain’t Easy

It’s just sometimes necessary. Very.

CAD Path Supervisors

Guiding a Learner into their personal needs for Performance Competence as we mostly know that people with the same job title seldom have the exact jobs in terms of output and measurement requirements, associated tasks, environmental supports and demand profiles. Let alone that most significant variable of almost all Performance Contexts – all those other People.

Yikes.

And then there is that variable about the Incoming Knowledge/ Skills and Experiences.

However…

So much un-learning typically needs to occur when dealing with incumbent target audiences.

In my experience.

Best wishes to you in this new year of finding the right approach to Performance Improvement for your Context, via whatever Intervention-set and/or Tool/Methodology-set you need bring to the party.