Training Industry Quarterly - Winter 2009 - (Page 21) nance 101. It’s an entirely different set of questions to ask as part of your requirements gathering and assessment process; the answers allow you to leverage existing content, identify new requirements and produce new job aides and content in direct support of an employee’s tasks. Right Size, Right Content, Right Context Much of training’s bad rap comes from the manner in which training is delivered. Scarce employee resources are pulled from their day-to-day job responsibilities and ramrodded with hours upon hours of content. Staff is tested; they pass and are released back to their jobs. But this misses the point. Employees don’t just need a wellstructured, well-executed training program (there is a place and time for this), they also require reinforcement of what’s been learned through smaller, more digestible chunks of information and content delivered at precisely the point in time when they need it. A great deal of the best learning content is wrapped in the wrong package. Course design and learning sensibilities focus a tremendous amount of resources (according to Brandon Hall Research, anywhere from 34 to 750 hours to create a one-hour course depending on the delivery mechanism) on creating the complete training package. But when you’re in the middle of performing a task or a job activity, you don’t have time to navigate through the LMS to review a one-hour online course when all you might really need is just a few moments of very specific content to help perform the task at hand. Timing of delivery is key, but often ignored. The fully trained employee goes back to the job anxious to put newly learned skills to use. A few weeks later, that time arrives and already much is forgotten. Should he or she reach for a manual on the shelf? In a performance support environment, a trainer’s sensibility has to be a bit different. Instead of asking, “How should I design and deliver a specific course?” they should ask, “What relevant content can I deliver to the employee at a specific point in time, associated with a specific task?” It’s not easy to change years of institutionalized approaches to training, but as new mandates are placed on learning professionals they’ll encounter new requirements for instant access to only the information their stakeholders need to accomplish their jobs. A Prescription for Technology Very simply, performance support is about making the connection between the job at hand to the how-to. In the broadest sense, how-to includes the instructions for getting things done and knowledge of the stuff that helps people to perform specific tasks. Technology plays an obvious if not pivotal role in the ability to make that connection. Knowledge of technology does not require that you be a technologist – that’s the good news. The bad news is that new technologies are proliferating faster than ever and in many cases it’s difficult to marry business requirements to them. Take for instance Business 2.0 technologies. There’s significant momentum around incorporation of 2.0 into the enterprise and that’s fine, but in many cases, content created via wiki, blog and communities of practice lacks context (and in many cases accuracy and usefulness). So what is the prescription? Probably a dose of knowledge on the possibilities created offered by new technology and a dash of experimentation. The rapid movement of established technology companies toward new approaches combined with burgeoning startups presents training professionals with no shortage of white papers, presentations and an endless parade of consultants to help you get it right – at least from their perspective and on their dime. Conclusion Senior management will continue to invest in human capital initiatives but with a growing requirement that those initiatives be measured for their direct impact on business objectives. This requirement is driven by a need to associate an ROI with training initiatives and by the need to determine the best investment of limited dollars for the improvement of the workforce. The challenge to change traditional training approaches is compounded by the fierce battle for talent and a growing awareness in the executive ranks that convention doesn’t fully meet the needs of the organization. As those of us focused on training and learning begin to respond to management’s challenge, success will come to those who connect what they deliver to how work is performed. In this new work environment, employees must have access to support, information, content and tools as they are performing increasingly complex and higher-value tasks and not just when in training mode. David Austin is president & COO of Contextware, Inc., an award-winning technology company in the business process and performance support space. He can be reached at david.austin@contextware.com. Takeaways Training Effectiveness: Training and learning leaders are coming under increased pressure to justify their cost to the corporation and to prove their positive impact on the top and bottom lines. Aligning with the Business: Alignment is less about understanding training requirements and more about understanding the levers that drive the specific operation you’re impacting. Delivering Content in Context: The value of learning content and training is significantly more valuable when delivered in the context of someone performing their job. The Role of Technology: Changes to the way technology is developed and delivered present training professionals with a massive opportunity to experiment and reach beyond so-called learning technologies with very little cost or risk. Training Industry Quarterly, Winter 2009 / A Training Industry, Inc. ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ 21 http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.