What I Learned – About Instructional Guidance – From Rummler & Gilbert in 1979

From their September-October 1970 Praxis Reports – here. And how I operationalized that back in the day – in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Video is 9:42 minutes in length. Note that the September 1979 date should read August 1979. PDF: The 1970 PRAXIS Reports – 1970 Praxis Report – Guidance vs Training From the PRAXIS Reports… Basically, there are three levels of guidance. In ascending order of complexity they are:

The Directory, the Ensampler and the Query

The Directory is the simplest and the most familiar form of guidance. Designed to tell a worker how to do a job, step by step, a directory can be a checklist; worksheets; a list of instruction or even a tape recorder strapped to the worker’s belt, telling him exactly what to do. Guidance, is also used when a job requires judgment rather than structured procedures. The Ensampler, in most cases, gives the user a number of examples that he can refer to when making decisions about the task at hand. The Query is used when judgments are so complex or so subtle that instructions and examples will not suffice. Also, the query is helpful for introducing new techniques to people who might be offended by more rudimentary types of guidance.

GUIDANCE OR TRAINING?

Use Guidance for: 1. Tasks that involve many simple steps. 2. Tasks that allow instructions to be read during performance. 3. Tasks where small errors in performance can produce significant negative consequences. 4. Tasks that are performed only infrequently. 5. Tasks where accuracy generally more important than speed. 6. Tasks that are assigned small instructional budgets. Use Training for: 1. Tasks where speed is generally more important than accuracy. 2. Tasks where reading instructions would interfere with performance. 3. Tasks where small errors are not usually costly.

How I Operationalized This

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

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