Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2013 - (Page 17)

PERFORMANCE MATTERS | CONRAD GOTTFREDSON & BOB MOSHER ENABLE EFFECTIVE PERFORMANCE AT EVERY CHANGING MOMENT OF NEED IT’S TIME TO INVEST IN THE ‘PERFORMANCE ZONE’ Twenty-five years ago, performance support pioneer Gloria Gery rightly challenged how most organizations were addressing their corporate learning needs. She boldly pointed out that they were failing to intentionally address their performance zone. Here’s how she defined that zone: “The performance zone is the metaphorical area in which things come together. It is the place where people get it, where the right things happen, where the employee’s response exactly matches the requirements of the situation. It is the place where employees put together all the individual dance steps that they have mastered. The dance, the dancers, and the music are one.” The performance zone exists within the workflow whenever employees need to “apply” what they may or may not have learned, or “solve” a problem, unlearn and then relearn something because things have “changed.” We’ve spent billions on learning management systems and even more on e-learning. We’re spending more to make our classrooms virtual, and e-learning mobile. Wherever learners are, they have 24/7 accessibility to a vast array of learning solutions. line managers are reluctant to allocate time away from work to learn regardless of how available it is. And, the nature of learners has changed to where there is decreasing disposition to learn in a classroom. or plow through an Millennial learners want just enough, when they need it, in the form they prefer to address their learning needs. They want to learn in the performance zone. Gery believed an Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS) was the best way for organizations to “guarantee” effective performance in the performance zone. She defined an EPSS as: “An orchestrated set of technology-enabled services that provide on-demand access to integrated information, guidance, advice, assistance, training and tools to enable high-level job performance with a minimum of support from other people.” Now, here are three critical distinctions: • There are different types of vehicles for delivering performance support (e.g., job aids, websites, an EPSS); • They differ in capability and quality of their production; and, • As a result, they vary in their capacity to deliver effective performance in the performance zone. So, here’s a thought to consider: What benefit is all this investment, if employees ultimately fail in the performance zone? Do you have a defendable technology infrastructure in place to sustain effective performance in the performance zone? Or, does your current approach assume that learners will have the time and capacity to figure out on their own how to apply what they have learned in the classroom to what they do in their workflow? In all her groundbreaking work, Gery settled in on an EPSS as the embodiment of what she proposes performance support can, and needs to be, for organizations. She sets aside other performance support renditions, such as job aids and traditional help, because although they provide performance support, they don’t provide all the “technology-enabled services” that she determined a fully loaded performance support solution needs to provide. Gery believed, “As the number, complexity and interrelationships between the various threads of expertise increase, the chances of operating within the performance zone decreases; unless, of course, something is done to guarantee it.” As you consider your upcoming needs for learning technology, don’t stop short of the performance zone. Just as you wouldn’t consider developing e-learning without authoring software to help, you need the same for authoring EPSS solutions that will enable effective performance at every changing moment of need. We are certainly operating in an environment that threatens our capacity to be effective within the performance zone without something to help “guarantee it.” Markets are unstable and unpredictable. The formal training window has shrunk while our training scope has increased. In today’s pressured workflow, front- Dr. Conrad Gottfredson is chief learning strategist at Ontuitive with 30 years of experience in the learning and training industry. Bob Mosher is chief learning evangelist at Ontuitive with more than 25 years of experience. Email Conrad and Bob. Training Industry Quarterly, Fall 2013 / A Training Industry, Inc. magazine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ 17 http://www.ontuitive.com http://www.ontuitive.com http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2013

From Where I Sit: The Sustainability of MOOCs
Table of Contents
Ad Index
Guest Editor: Top Five Learning Technologies to Watch
We Need to Support Learning, Not Manage It
Supercharge Your Next Leadership Initiative
Boomers & the Technology Gap
Technologies to Manage Information Overload
It's Time to Invest in the 'Performance Zone'
Inroducing Simulation into Learning Technologies: Examining the Key Considerations
The Evolution of the LMS
Bringing Your Mojo to the Virtual Classroom
Merging Social Learning and Technology to Achieve Business Outcomes
Optimizing Workforce Learning and Performance
Badges: Bridging the Higher Education and Workforce Gap
Integrating Video into Training
Tools for Supporting Sales Coaching
Tweet Suite
Company News

Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2013