This blog is excerpted from the Performance Matters Podcast episode where Bob and co-host, Conrad Gottfredson, discuss the five principles of workflow learning that they feel allows this approach to stand apart from the training-first mindset and methodology.
Bob Mosher (BM): Welcome back to yet another Performance Matters podcast episode. Today,
I am honored to be joined by co-host, Dr. Con Gottfredson to pull out the five
fundamental discussion areas, principles, and themes that distinguish workflow
learning.
These can be used for when you're standing in front of those you
serve and say, “Look, we really should shift to the Five Moments of Need
approach, or workflow learning, as a way in which we fundamentally design and
work here.”
This is the list you can pull out to separate what you want to do—from
the training-first mindset.
Con Gottfredson (CG): Yes, these principles also inform how we look at technology to
support workflow learning; they inform everything that we do with workflow
learning.
Bob Mosher (BM): Absolutely. So, let's start at what is probably the most
fundamental difference, and that is the mindset shift; it really impacts the
focus of our deliverables. We talk about a performance-first mindset, Con, you
are the man, do you want to give us a quick overview?
CG: When I entered the real world of work out of graduate school, I
had a training mindset, it was all about building a training solution, but what
I found in the real world was that it was all about performance. At that time,
I read a book that influenced me, it was all about analyzing performance
problems and it triggered this idea that, you know, we ought to be thinking
about performance. Because ultimately, Bob, at the end of the day, if people
can't perform in the workplace, what have we done? I mean, what has our
solution brought? And how is it contributed to the organization?
BM: Exactly. So, the 5 Moments of Need, give them to us.
CG: Well, there's the moment of apply, that's the big moment.
And then within apply, there's the moment of change and the moment
of solve, which are very unique at the moment of apply and
require some unique treatment. And then there's the moment of learning new,
which we have always worked with, and the moment of learning more. And
there's a difference between those two, learning more is when I have a
lot of contextual experience so I can move to learning more and more
quickly with the help of performance support. Most L&D folks start with the
learn new and learn more side of things, rather than the moment
of apply and then cascade that to the level of change and solve.
BM: And by starting with learn new and more, that gives
us that training mindset and predisposes us to a training deliverable.
CG: You know, at one point in my transition from a learning mindset to
a performance mindset, I asked an important question, “Training and instruction
is a means to what end? What is it that I do? What do I deliver to the
organization?” And if it's not effective performance in the flow of work, which
requires knowledge, certainly, but that knowledge has to be acted upon for
organizations to be able to do their job. Then what are we doing?
BM: Expertly said, and we hear this all the time, "I'm sick of
being an order taker. I wish I was seen more strategically in the organization;
I wish I could get a seat at the table." Well, here's the thing, if you're
an order taker, what's on your menu? If people only know you for training then they
are going to walk in your office and say, “I want five days of training on
leadership.” They're not going to walk in your offices and say, "We have a
leadership issue and I want to talk to you as a partner about how we better
enable leaders in this company. And then from there, we'll figure out the
deliverable.”
This is the fundamental shift to performance-first and being seen
as a performance-first enabling organization versus acting, or seeming like, a
service organization that delivers a product called training.
CG: I once introduced myself as a performance engineer. I was tired of
being viewed as a trainer.
Just think what would happen if the leadership of an organization
looked to us to help them solve the challenges of effective performance in the
flow of work?
BM: Well, that takes us to our second principle, we have to analyze
something very different, we have to start at the moment of apply, not new
and more.
And to understand apply, you have to do this remarkable
thing, that transformed my design, called rapid workflow analysis. Here is
where we understand what the true workflow of a leader, a manager, a frontline
worker, etc. is and does. This analysis does a remarkable thing for
organizations, it makes the workflow transparent. Let's talk a little bit more
about that.
CG: Well, many years ago, I was involved in some major organizational
transformations. And I participated in these work process redesigns. What I
found was that the methodology didn't take, it didn’t move down to the tactical
level of work. They were mapping workflow processes at such a high-level and
really were blind to the tactical work they were doing.
Many leaders are blind, they are really blind to that work. And
the minute that we open that up, and really identify what they do, it's this
awakening, right? They go, "Yeah, that is what I do!" and we're able
to have conversations around, “Should you really be doing that?”
And as you’ll recall, we've had many of those moments where a
leader will respond to that a-ha moment with, "I don't want you doing
that, I want you to be doing this." Well, how do you do that if you can't
see the workflow for what it truly is?
And maybe even more importantly, when the learner finishes a
training course they have to be able to then step into their work. And if that
training isn't aligned to the workflow, then it's going to be tough to make
that transition.
BM: Notice in these first two principles Con, we still haven't
discussed a deliverable. We're still trying to figure that out. And we're not
using the words “course”, “trainer”, or even “digital coach” at this point,
because we just don't know.
Now, principle number three, there has always been this journey
called train, transfer, sustain. But what this shift to workflow learning
design through the five moments does, is it dramatically shifts that journey.
So, let's step back and review the original journey. Do you want to walk us
through those three stages and how they historically have been treated?
CG: Yeah, well, we do the train thing well. I mean, that's where we
spend our time, in the training, and then we say, “Thank you for coming and thank
you for the scores on this evaluation.” The learner then leaves that rich
training experience and must figure out, “How do I apply this to my work?”
That's called transfer. How do I take this and move this into my own world?
So, they most likely will fight their way through, and figure it
out, because they’ve got to perform, right? And then once they get there, they have
to sustain it in a world that changes and is always changing.
So, with the old model, we just throw them over the fence. We kiss
him goodbye, and thank them for coming and, and then they move into the real
world unprepared to transfer and manage the sustainment of that on their own
with little to no formal guidance.
BM: So, what we've learned Con is that no matter what design approach
you apply, including the five moments workflow learning design, those three
stages of the journey are always there.
But when you focus on performance-first, we find three remarkable
things happen over and over and over. Training, on average, is reduced by half.
If you shift to an apply first design approach you don't have to train
everything; it's not the responsibility of the trainer to wake up every day and
feel the burden of having to teach everything. So, on average, we see training
reduced by half.
The more important thing is that we're in the business of
competency, like you said earlier, if in the end, people can't perform better,
we have not done our job. In the performance-first design we see time to
competency reduced on average by half because it is an enablement model. It is
a journey of transfer and sustain, not a “dump model” which is what the
training-first mindset tends to be.
CG: Yeah.
I had heart surgery a couple of years ago. And my first question
to that heart surgeon was, how much experience have you and the team had, and
how successful has that experience been? I wasn't interested in his training; I
wanted to know how competent the team was.
And that time to competency is what is really important for all
organizations.
Listen to the full
episode for the remaining two fundamental principles of workflow learning in
the 5 Moments of Need, and subscribe to The Performance Matters Podcast to stay up-to-date on all the latest conversations
and guests in The 5 Moments space.
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