I had posted this on LinkedIn on November 1st – on the 39th anniversary of me becoming an ISD consultant back in 1982.

Susan Guest on LinkedIn on 2021-11-13 in response to my November 1^st post:

Hi Guy, these are the experts who built the foundations for our work over the last forty years. Who do you think is doing that for the next generation? Including you and Bob Mosher, of course.

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After thinking about this yesterday evening before and throughout the Kansas Football win over Texas, and then even waking up to it this morning, I decided that I had to separate the many professionals continuing the foundation building in Instructional/Learning Experience Design, from those building foundations in approaches to Performance Analysis that informs Design – which is what 8 people listed in my graphic, celebrating my 39^th year as an ISD consultant.

The former list is much longer than the latter list.

The strenuous Thought Exercise I put myself through also had me thinking of some lines from a piece written by Geary Rummler, back in 2003 in response to a Performance Improvement Journal article by Tony O’Driscoll…

I was the President of ISPI when this was written and I got dragged into the fray, as they say.

The implication to me in answering Susan’s question is that it is fraught with the possibility that what is out there may be hidden, even in today’s world of social media and sharing, as the specifics for some/many practitioners, who are developing others, might not be so public about HOW as perhaps they are about the WHAT and WHY of ISD/LXD Analysis with a Performance bent.

Also – this was a personal list – while I knew that there were dozens and dozens more who espoused a Performance Orientation to Instruction/Training back in the day – which for me was a period from 1979 to the mid-1980s – my formative years – and I did most likely learn from them – their impact was, in my estimation, much less that the eight people I named.  

Call for Others to Name Names and identify the Resources

So my apologies – and a “Call for others to name Names and identify the Resources” – as to who should be added to my undoubtedly incomplete, and very short list, that follows.

My criterion is: “Who is currently sharing their Performance Analysis HOW TO methods, tools, and techniques – and examples of their Analysis Outputs, publically?”

This means I should be able to pick up their writings and see example outputs,
and then follow their instructions step-by-step,
to conduct a Performance Analysis effort
for Instructional Systems Design and/or Learning Experience Design uses.

They are the bricklayers adding to the foundations of performance-based ISD/LXD for the Enterprise Learning Context (versus the contexts of Educational Learning and Personal Learning).

And while there are many (or maybe just a few) who promote a Performance Orientation, I’ve not seen The Goods, as in “How They Do It and Examples of What that Looks Like” as often that’s the IP – Intellectual Property of somebody who would rather not share that so freely when it’s central to their business and may be one of their key differentiators in the marketplace.

As Rummler wrote, they too may be slowly being made public, and coming to market via workshops and books and conference sessions that are “for sale” rather than “for free” via social media that goes beyond the marketing tease.

I turned 69 this past August, and have been semi-retired for a few years now – and I haven’t attended a major conference since 2012 (after attending two or more annually for almost 30 years). So I am pretty confident that I am not current.

So, knowing the risks of making and publishing an incomplete list (guaranteed, as they say), here I go. I hope it spurs people to add others to my list.

The New Foundation Bricks of Performance Analysts in ISD/LXD

The starter list of Performance Foundation Bricklayers in ISD/LXD who are currently (or still) at it – and not retired – sharing their PPE – Processes and Practices and Examples – of what they produce Analysis-wise – for others to adopt or adapt:

• Roger Addison
• Clark Aldrich
• Carl Binder
• Dick Clark
• Paul Elliott
• Conrad Gottfredson
• Judy Hale
• David James
• Danny Langdon
• Kathleen (Lee) Langdon
• Bob Mosher
• Rick Rummler
• Steve Villachica
• Ryan Watkins
• Ken Yates

Note: I am amending this list as those I have neglected come to mind,
and I have or am sure that I can find their shared PPE – Processes, Practices, and Examples.

So, with all apologies to Pink Floyd, who would you add, as another brick in the wall, so that this starter list isn’t just Guy’s Partial List?

Expand my view, please.

Someone “still kicking” and sharing their models, methods, tools, and techniques to Performance Analysis. Not just espousing that value of doing so – but showing others the/a way.

Maybe I need a second list of those no longer alive, or who, like me, are semi-or-fully retired.

Name them and why in the comments and please include links to resources available (articles, books, podcasts, videos, workshops, etc.) that meet the criterion:

“Who is currently sharing their Performance Analysis HOW TO
models, methods, tools, and techniques – and examples of their Analysis Outputs – publically?”

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