Tuesday (yesterday) evening I participated in a panel discussion with my “home/original” chapter of ISPI – the International Society for Performance Improvement. It was my 39th presentation to an ISPI (and NSPI) chapter since my first in November 1982, and my 7th presentation to this chapter since the first back in January 1996.

Here is the video on YouTube – it is 56:39 minutes in length…

There were 3 questions posed to the 3 panelists, Nancy Burns, Sushil Gyanwali, and me – and I was given the 3rd set of questions to take the lead on responding.

1. Concretely, which emerging, new practices are working well?
2. Which behaviors, habits and culture do we need to change?
3. What do we learn from 2020, how will our discipline evolve in 2021? What do we all need to start, stop, continue doing?

Here, from my “Job Aid” – prepared in advance so that I might give thoughtful answers…

What do we learn from 2020, how will our discipline evolve in 2021?

• In 2020 we learned (again) that we still don’t collectively share a deep enough knowledge about what works, under what conditions, and how to ensure success – transfer and positive impact back on the job for the target audiences. As well as what doesn’t work.

• We moved from F2F ILT to Virtual ILT means, without enough consideration of Coached and Self-Paced modes of deployment – and the benefits to the target audiences and their management.

What do we all need to start, stop, continue doing?

• Start: looking beyond Learning Content Creation and start defaulting to providing “Guidance/ Job Aids/ EPSS/Performance Support/ Workflow Learning” (although Learning isn’t always necessary) unless what needs to be learned absolutely needs to be memorized for immediate recall and application – back-on-the-job – in the Workflow – which is simply a new name for Process.

• Stop: creating Instruction without an Analysis of the authentic Performance Competence Requirements from Back-on-the-Job; quit focusing on Topics and instead focus on both Tasks and Outputs – and the Stakeholder Requirements for each; always include enough Practice w/ Feedback – unless the prior knowledge of the Target Audience suggests it isn’t required – and then use Job Aids – or why bother investing in Instructional Content in the first place?

• Continue: not sure this can be generalized across the entire profession – but we should all strive to: Continue Learning about Evidence-Based Practices for Performance Improvement – beyond but including performance-based Instruction, where we leverage Job Aids as much as possible and save Training – F2F or Virtual for situations where knowledge and skills need to be memorized and at the ready instantaneously, and/or when skills need to be honed via a series of authentic Practices w/ Feedback to guide development.

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