At the Job Level

I’ve written about one of the more interesting “Advanced Organizers” that I had the assignment to address. I spec’d it out in the Curriculum Architecture Design effort in 1986 and then oversaw the development, by friend Mark Bade, back in 1987.

While “Advanced Organizers” are useful for each “set of Learning/T&D/Instruction” – not necessarily for each module of content – they are also useful for those starting the Learning Curve of a new job.

Here are 3 examples for Jobs – and one for a Process.

The PM Novel

From a Post back in 2012 about an ISD project I had back in 1987…

If you were going to be starting a job as a Product Manager for a BIG firm, with over 500,000 products being managed closely or from afar (or on auto-pilot) – that are simple or very complex – that are priced between partial pennies – to multi-million dollars and tens of millions of dollars – that is organized into 5 Business Units each with many Product Families – that organize those 500k Products for their Originators and Re-Users – as that happened quite a bit … and made it even more complex … you’d have quite a complex story to tell in any Orientation or OnBoarding effort…

The “trigger” for me – that suggested the need for this – was during the Analysis interviews where I had Product Managers telling me that even after 3 years on the job they were unsure about whether or not they were doing it. That was a function of the varied assignments of PMs within that same Job Family.

There were 8 major functions of the PM job – and some would own them all but most would own a few, and some would own a partial sub-set of one of eight functions. Many that I interviewed were fearful – and I wanted to address that up front in the new T&D Path.

Note:

My inspiration for this (cough) “novel approach” to “Advanced Organizers” came from my reading of “The Soul of a New Machine” by Tracey Kidder – way back in 1981. It was about the coming of “the computer” into the world of work – and the story of the team bringing it all together. It was one of the books my internal clients were reading back in the day at Motorola. So I read what they read – to remain hip and relevant in their eyes.

I wrote a post about that – staying current with what your clients are reading – just over a year ago – here.

That effort was waaaaaay back in 1987 – when video wasn’t the best mode/media from the user’s standpoint.

The next two example are more current – and are in video – and very accessible on YouTube. A smart move IMO.

At Ozinga – a Day in the Life of a Corporate Safety Director

Note: One of Ozinga’s employees is the husband of one of my former office managers who was also a consultant for 2 of my consulting firms (SWI and CADDI) before that.

2 minute video

At Ozinga – a Day in the Life of a Mechanic

Another Ozinga example…

2 minute video

Advanced Organizer for those Involved in an ISD Effort

My client at General Motors did something similar in 1997 for their clients – and their ISD contractor staffs – who would be involved in their version of my ISD methodologies – they re-branded my PACT Processes for internal use as MC/MI:

12 minute video

Orienting a new person to what they’re getting into is a critical thing for them to learn – especially when the job is complex and/or outside of what one might safely assume they would understand.

When I joined the Inside Sales staff at Wickes Lumber in Lawrence Kansas in 1976 I didn’t need any “Advanced Organizer” as I had observed – through shopping at stores – that kind of job for years and years by that point in my life. I was 24.

But many jobs that people take are not so readily observed – and even if we had observed them we’d only have a partial picture/understanding of what the whole job entailed. In those cases – consider the value of an Advanced Organizer in the OnBoarding efforts if not in the recruiting/selection processes before OnBoarding.

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