The King Is Dead! Long Live the King!

WARNING: THIS IS AN OPINION PIECE!

As things pass from one "King" to another "King" - we Westerners (thank you England!) - need to celebrate the passing of the crown.

Recently the Blogosphere - and the Twitterverse - has been abuzz about some online writing by Saul Carliner about "Long Live Instructor-Led Learning (or "Training" as this greybeard refers to it still). Thank you Tony - and thank you more Don!!! And thank you Saul! For starting the fire! Time to turn the heat down.

Me? Long live PERFORMANCE! That's the King. The rest are the Court Jesters.

Training/Learning is "simply" a means to "that end." 

And I see 3 "contexts" for Learning/ Training: 

• Enterprise Learning
  
• Educational Learning
  
• Personal Learning
  

So let me also weigh in on this topic/controversy...in my typical round-about way...

When an organization "does not" INVEST in Formal Learning - the default is now called Informal Learning - me the greybeard always referred to it as U-OJT: Unstructured OJT (On-the-Job-Training). 

That may not always be a conscious "business decision" - but if they don't invest in it because of perceived low ROI - well there you go.  Default: Informal Learning.

People would have to learn it some way, one way or another. Or performance would suffer and the issue/problem/opportunity would likely be revisited and resolved. IF the "cost-of-non-conformance" was large enough to warrant investing in something more Formal. 

We are Social Animals - according to Sociologists - and in our high tech world we often crave high touch - due to our being social beings. Thus we sometimes would "like" Instructor-led Training - ILT better. Even if it coulda/shoulda been deployed some other way. 

But sometimes the better business decision is to let 'em LEARN via non-ILT. Read a book, or an article. Or a "page-turner" that's a PDF downloaded from a Wiki. Or a Blog Post. Or to dialogue on a Social Network with those there - and are those the really right people dialogue-ing at the right time with those seeking their wisdom right then? Hmmm.

Or watch that video clip with high or low "production values." Or link to someone tagged as an expert. Talk with them or leave them a voice-mail or an email. 

And sometimes the best way to learn something is Informally. Due to the need for "localization" and/or "adaptation."  Sometimes it is fairly simple - and volatile. The costs to keep it EVERGREEN are prohibitive - and the R just isn't worth the continuous I's.

Informal Learning leaves it to chance. Formal Learning does not.

Unless of course the Formal Learning is poor...and we've all experienced enough poor Formal Learning to tempt us to throw "it" out with the bath water. So to speak.

How many "Formal Learning Courses" ILT and E-Learning don't follow BEST PRACTICES, research-proven Valid Practices - and more often follow common-practices? Poor common practices. 

How often have we read that that rapid authoring tool can be used by the SME!?! But the research shows that experts miss a large % of the steps they actually do. Hmmm. Chancy.

How often is rapid development sans prior "design" - and/or sans prior "analysis?"

Brother Joe Harless tried to teach us a long time ago about "an ounce of analysis is worth a pound of objectives." 

What happened? Tools from the Internet! PowerPoint! Took our eye off the ball! The point is not to tell 'em. It is to Train 'em. (Or learn 'em.) To do what exactly? Exactly! Know stuff - or to do stuff?

How often are ISD efforts "instructional one-offs!" Where WBT after WBT adds up to a gapped/overlapped collection of content? Poor practices overlayed with the power of Web 2.0. 

Technology (Web 2.0 and then 3.0 and then 4.0....) are enablers. They too will pass. Blogs will become passe. Social networks will become passe. Someday. When? Don't know. But I've been around long enough to know that "this too shall pass."

But Instructor-led Training/Learning/Knowledge Management/Etc./Etc.? 

Soon to die? No. 

I think it's here to stay. Even if used synchronously over the Internet - or whatever replaces that!

It's just safer I think to be "for" PERFORMANCE.

Figure that out - and then enable that. However. Whatever. Invest for the Returns - or leave it more to chance or totally to chance.

And web 2.0? I see that as communications tools and collaboration tools - EPSS - that have unfortunately been tagged as Learning Tools. Hmmm.

Who gave us the keys to hijack Web 2.0 for learning? What gives us the right?

I learn using power tools like the router, the power-washer, my 24' cuddy cabin boat out on Lake Norman. 

Ah! That's the ticket! Boat-Learning. Hmmm. Mobile water learning. Hmmm.

Hmmm indeed!

Wait! 

Boat Performance! Yes! That's the ticket! Where are my keys?

# # #

Anybody Have Any Geary Rummler Artifacts For the Rememberance at ISPI?

One of my early mentors in the field of performance-based Training and Human Performance Technology was the late Geary A. Rummler. I was as they say, lucky. And I am thnkful for that luck.

If you have anything you can copy - as a J-Peg or PDF of anything/everything RUMMLER - please send them to me and I'll make sure that the folks at ISPI who are putting together a Memorial Service - actually a celebration of Geary's life and work - put your items to good use.

If you have any stories to share - please send those as well!

I know many cannot make it to the conference this year - in Orlando - due to the economy and the need to scale back. I wish the Society was in a place technology-wise to meet your needs for professional development and refreshment via a distance learning strategy.

What are your ideas in that regard?

Could I entice you to join LinkedIN and join the ISPI-Global group to provide your suggestions?

Here is the link to LinkedIn - then check out Groups by searching for ISPI-Global. That group has about 750 members - and beware the "other group" has only 75 members and is named: "International Society for Performance Improvement" and was created second - and is causing some confusion with folks on LinkedIn.

I've recently asked the second group to disband and join the first - not that anyone has to follow my lead or my suggestions!!! I just hate the confusion. You don't have to be a dues paying member like me to join the group at LinkedIn - but that would be nice too! :)

And here is a link to the ISPI Conference site. If you can come - please do so!!!

Hope to see YOU there if you can make it!

# # #

Margo Murray - Facilitated Mentoring Podcast

Got a chance to watch my friend Margo Murray's Podcast on Facilitated Mentoring. Caused me to grab her 2001 book "Beyond the Myths and Magic of Mentoring" - "How to faciliate an Effective Mentoring Process" off my shelf for a quick refresher.

Here is a link to her Podcast.

Managers' Mentors' Margo Murray discusses the advantages of adding a facilitated mentoring program to your development process.  

I am looking forward to seeing Margo at ISPI this April in Orlando...just weeks away!

# # #

Prove the Cost of the Problem/Opportunity 1st - and the Cost to Fix it 2nd. Let it Sell Itself!

Twitter's SLQOTD - "Social Question of the Day" asked about ROI - taking me back to the early 1990s and an article I did on Determining ROI that the editors renamed as "Costing Out a Training Project" - which is why I have self-published 4 out of my 5 books...editors! 

The article had nothing to do with "their" title - but did have to do with comparing CONC with the CoC - the cost of non-conformance with the cost of conformance.

Then digging that out of my files I see that that issue of Technical & Skills Training in May-June 1991 had an interview with Brother Joe Harless.   

The CoNC and CoC were concepts from the world-wide TQM - the Total Quality Management movement.

The key idea is present the CoNC first - because that will be the bigger number. I did that in a Client Projects where the cost of non-conformance to a standard was hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Which made the CoC - the costs to fix that at between $2-3 million - paltry. 

Can anyone say peanuts?

That sold the deal and the Client used that up-the-chain-of-command to sell the 2-3 million dollar investment because they explained the cost of the problem/opportunity FIRST.

Then the CAD project started - and after that training was developed on the CAD-CAM training.

A CAD on CAD. 1991. And it wasn't the first - CAD about CAD.

# # #

Podcast Resources: LearnOutLoud.com Podcast Directory

From an email I recently received...you too can sign up for a daily notice...many of their offerings are FREE!

We have just added 600 new podcasts to the LearnOutLoud.com Podcast Directory! We searched all over the Web to find the best podcasts you can learn from in every category. Our LearnOutLoud.com Podcast Directory now features over 2000 podcasts. Since we started our handpicked podcast directory back in 2005, it has now grown into one of the top podcast directories on the Web. Browse all of the podcast in our directory today:

www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory

Here are the number of podcasts that we've added by category. Please note that the podcasts are sorted by default according to popularity so you'll have to dig deep in order to get the new podcasts which haven't yet risen in popularity.

65 New Arts & Entertainment Podcasts

100 New Business Podcasts

25 New Education & Professional Podcasts

40 New History Podcasts

60 New Languages Podcasts

30 New Literature Podcasts

10 New Philosophy Podcasts

100 New Politics Podcasts

25 New Religion & Spirituality Podcasts

50 New Science Podcasts

75 New Self Development Podcasts

50 New Social Sciences & Current Events Podcasts

60 New Sports & Hobbies Podcasts

40 New Technology Podcasts

25 New Travel Podcasts

We have also cleared out all the dead podcasts in our directory and updated all the feeds of existing ones, so they should all work. Please let us know of any issues you have with a podcast or if there are any podcasts you'd like to see added to the directory by emailing us at: podcast@learnoutloud.com. You can also add your own podcasts to our site through our TeachOutLoud service.

Load up your iPod or portable audio player with downloads from over 600 new podcasts on LearnOutLoud.com.

www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory

# # #

Blending Generic and Specific Content Using Blended Media to Meet Stakeholder Requirements

That's me this past December in front of Performance Model data posted on the wall - done by some of my L&D staff at Wachovia - A Wells Fargo Company - who were learning the PACT Processes for T&D/ Learning/ Knowledge Management. 

The next picture is me in 1995 taken from a video of me speaking to the T&D staff of Eli Lilly - one of my 49 Clients between 1982-2007. You can easily see that I'm now a grey-beard.

 

And that's OK. My message is the same today about performance-based ISD as it was in 1995 as it was in the mid-1980s when I started to codify my approach to ISD - which operates at 3 levels - with my ADDIE-like approach in the middle. I needed to codify and standardize an ISD methodology for the consultant staff at R. A. Svenson & Associates - which later became SWI - Svenson & Wallace Inc. I was a partner there and led the T&D/ISD practice of our firms. 

My speciality has been CAD - Curriculum Architecture Design within the world of ISD - and I developed the PACT Processes to address and link and commonize instructional project planning & management, instructional analysis, instructional design (at 3 levels), pilot-testing (at 2 levels), and evaluation/qualification/certification in terms of: Can THEY Perform? 

Don't like Knowledge Tests - they really don't count. You can know and still not be able to do - so what's the point of that? That's why the Performance Testing is one component of the overall methodology - and the development of those tests - based on Performance Models and Knowledge/Skill Matrices is at the 3rd/lowest level of PACT: the Instructional Activity level of design of PACT. It's all covered in my book: lean-ISD.

And I don't like Generic Corporate Competencies. Which is how most "Competency Models" - but not all - are done. They are generic, vanilla, worse than worthless - in my humble opinion.

"Why?" you ask.

Find your version of Competencies and then imagine the "application" (called Appos for short in PACT) which would follow the Infos and Demos of such things. 

An Appo in PACT can be a quiz, knowledge test, simulation, role play, game, case study, real work, etc.

Did your Competency Appo have "high fidelity" to the real-world application of the knowledge/skills of that Competency?

Probably not. If it did - excellent!!!!!! Your shareholders and stakeholders win! 

Otherwise they lose. Because research shows that without "prior knowledge" only 15% of learners can transfer a learning from one context to another - their own. Of course a "highly motivated learner" can typically trump that (they're probably in that 15%). Assessing your learners - how many of them truly fall into THAT category?  

I'm guessing that most executives are in that 15% too. Which is why they might buy into Generic Competencies as it has always worked for them as they climbed the ladder. 

But I digress.

My point here - and the excerpted video coming up - is to focus on how PACT avoids the general and gets specific but then can find a way to use the generic as well.

Consider the next graphic as part of your advanced organizer for the video that follows - take a good look at it - and pay particular attention to the bookends that are "bookending" the content in the middle...click on it to make it larger...

Modules in PACT are not all 2 hours long - they are modular content of Instruction and/or Information that are each the "appropriate" length. The necessary length - not arbitrarily/ coincidentally / magically: 2 hours each. How does that happen? That's kind of your first clue - I'm thinkin'!

Here is the embedded video - just over 12 minutes:

The slide graphics that you can just barely see in the video are covered in Chapter 9 of lean-ISD - which is available as a free 404-page PDF at www.eppic.biz - and is also available as a hardbound book and a Kindle book from Amazon.com. Note: I hold the inventory - so if you need a volume of books, contact me and we'll cut out the middle man/middle Internet.

The key slide is of the 5-Tier Module Inventory framework - which is the key to the modular approach to creating definitions of Modules in the design process of CAD - Curriculum Architecture Design - by "processing" the analysis data - analysis data of Performance and Enabling K/Ss.

Lean

The joke about the book is: "how can a book titled lean be so thick Guy?"

My retort is that:"it'll hold a door open in a windstorm."

For the questioner isn't thinking about what it really takes to make any process lean. It's not about skipping steps or short-cutting everything. It's about getting all the unnecessary steps out of the "paper process design" - all of the "iterations" - unless by design - and then putting all of the infrastructure (tools, data, methods, techniques, etc.) into place to enable people to accelerate the process. And then ensuring that people have been trained or have learned "how to."  

I didn't want PACT to be an iterative process - unless it was to revisit those things that are now important so that we can detail them further. I defer detailed analysis for example - so as to not "boil the ocean" for a cup of sea water. 

In fact analysis starts in the Phase 1- Project Planning & Kick-Off phase, continues in Phase 2- Analysis, and continues through Phase 3- Design, and into Phase 4-Development/Acquisition, and is "still tickin'" in Phase 5- Pilot-Testing. And depending on how well that Pilot-Test went - which by design is a "full-destructive-test" - there might be some in Phase 6- Revision & Release (release to the LMS/LCMS, whatever).

It's also true about "design" which runs through all of the phases of the MCD - Modular Curriculum Development/Acquisition (referred to in the video as CCD: Customer Curriculum Development/Acquisition - the ADDIE-level of PACT). 

This confuses some people who are used to thinking about ADDIE as a linear process - and even those who claim that ADDIE is iterative. I would never say that - it's an iterative process - to a Client - for they'd want me to "lean it" first. Which is what I have done!

We don't go back to square/step 1 or 2 and redo. Never! We leverage what we did in all the prior squares/steps and then add to, embellish - not to be confused with "embellishing the spec" - a step in MCD and IAD's Phase 3 post-Design Team Meeting.

Improve specific - not generic - Performance not Competencies. I use the phrase: 

Performance Competence - the ability to perform tasks to produce outputs to stakeholder requirements.

Know the stakeholder requirements, the outputs of the process, the tasks necessary - and then enable that!

One of my mentors over the years, the late Geary A. Rummler, reviewed the book before it was published - and he redesigned my cover, surprising me with his specific generousity - and gave me this quote:

“If you want to ground your fantasy of a ‘corporate university’ with the reality of a sound ‘engineering’ approach to instructional systems that will provide results, you should learn about the PACT Processes.

 

If you are the leader of, or a serious participant in, the design and implementation of a large-scale corporate curriculum, then this book is for you.

 

This system could be the difference between achieving bottom-line  results with your training or being just another ‘little red school house.’ ”

-1999

 

I've tried to be generous myself - and enable you by making many PACT tools and references available - for free - and all that is required is that you keep my copyright markings in place and give appropriate attributions - these are all registered copyrighted materials! Fair enough?

# # #

The T&D or Learning Path - with a Beginning - a Middle and an End - at least to Start

This is a 9 1/2 minute excerpt from the 2 hour 3 minute video of me at Eli Lilly in 1995 speaking to the T&D Staff (it was 1995) about Curriculum Architecture Design - where I talk about Learning Paths - or T&D Paths - Curriculum Paths - or Learning Continuums - and how I sort the analysis data into the design.

It was always my belief that all analysis data needed to be used in the design - or "why bother" capturing it.

Here is the embedded video:

I had seen too many Analysis Reports with all sorts of data that was never used in the downstream steps. Certainly not very lean. So I changed that in my PACT Processes - covered in my 1999 book "lean-ISD" - which I wrote in earnest in 1997-1998 - after having started in 1984 when it was tentatively titled "The Curriculum Manager's Handbook." 

This video excerpt covers the design meeting process of processing the Performance Model data and the K/S data from the K/S Matrices. Then I talk about using the PST - Project Steering Team to prioritize the gap T&D Events (comprised of one or more Modules) to forecast the costs.

I also use my made-up-number of 60% - as in you typically only need to put 60% of the ideal CAD in place. Because at some point the ROI goes negative. 

The things that you don't "bring to market" are what I've always called U-OJT = as in Unstructured On-the-Job Training - known now-a-days as Informal Learning. Either way - it's Learning By Chance versus Learning By Design.

My process enables the customer and other key stakeholders decide what gaps should be developed/acquired and which are left to chance. 

It is a Business decision. Not an Instructional decision. It's a negotiated decision - which means an ISD person cannot win. Let the customer decide. Better yet, facilitate that dialogue.

I'd be a lyin' Brian if I told it any different!

See the full video here. Or Google it!

# # #

A Rose Is a Rose Is a Rose - and Lean-ISD is a Registered Copyrighted Book

Thanks to following Big Dog, Little Dog - I was able to post a comment on the following site 2 days after their posting:

http://dibta.blogspot.com/2009/03/lean-instructional-system-design.html#comment-form

They are using the term "lean-ISD" in a manner not consistent with how I have used it in my book of the same "title" - a book by the way that has a registered copyright.

Inadvertent? I hope so. Deliberate? I hope not.

We'll see what they do with my feedback, information and request. 

No harm (if they change this real soon) no foul. Otherwise....

It is an ethics test. Like much in everyday life.

Meanwhile while I wait to see their response - you can get a free copy of the book at www.eppic.biz - and free tools and templates that you can use if you maintain my copyrights and provide appropriate attributions - and not claim it as your proprietary processes/etc.

# # #

The Wizard of Newnan - Brother Joe Harless on Video from 1993

Dear Brothers and Sisters of HPT - Human Performance Technology,

After last weekend's visit with Joe Harless - was it only a week ago? - he ventured into his storage space of Harless Performance Guild treasures and searched out a video that we had chatted about after our two video sessions.

It was him as a Wizard doing the Banquet Speech at the 1993 Chicago NSPI (now ISPI) Conference. It arrived in the mail on Thursday.

The videography is unfortunately very poor and the audio track worse - but what are you going to do? This is the only record of this event!!!

And it is Brother Joe!  

This is hilarious and worth putting up the the bad A/V. Seriously! 

Turn the volume way up - unless someone is trying to sleep - and in that case get your headphones out and turn the volume way up!

That's Roger Addison doing the Introduction. During his speech, Brother Joe, er, Wizard Joe, "calls out" Tom Gilbert, Geary Rummler, Bob Mager, Susan Markle and Ann Parkman from the Banquet audience during his Wizardry! Plus several others HPT luminaries!

Enjoy! Embedded video of just under 41 minutes is here:

Also - this is available on Google Video - which is shutting down for some unknown reason "soon" - and I need to find another video hosting service that will allow YOU to download a copy to your computer and iPod/Zune - so you can have your own personal copy. I always treasured such VHS tapes - then DVDs. So YouTube is out. Unless you have THAT software that'll allow you to do that - download a copy of their videos - but most probably don't. Any suggestions - leave a comment please!

Joe has, of course, agreed to let me do this. He sent me the tape.

Thank you Joe - and the tape will be in the mail tomorrow snailing its way back to Newnan and the Wizard who lives there! And I will be back after the Conference to finish the stories - especially that story about Bob Mager - who BTW I read about today in an email exchange about the Past Presidents' Luncheon at the start of the Conference - had his appendix out this past week and is doing well - and is to be going home today.  

Brother Joe - we've got to get THAT story about you and Bob captured on video! And get additional stories/ memories from the past! And go back to Sprayberry's BBQ! My treat next time!

You all know how to search for the other videos, use: HPT Practitioners Podcast, HPT Legacy Series, and the name if you want to narrow your search down!

Go for it!

Roll Tide! (That was for Joe!)

Most respectfully,

Brother Guy

# # #

Miki Lane - A Treasure of ISPI - An HPT Practitioner

Miki Lane is another treasure at ISPI Confernces. I served with Miki on the ISPI Board in 1999-2001. I had known him for about 20 years - he is a serious practitioner of HPT - Human Performance Technology - and ISD - Instructional Systems Technology.

Hope to see you at ISPI mid-April. You can really learn about improving human performance -and not just doing stuff - that's cool or hip or both. 

Check out the ISPI Conference here.

# # #

 

A Visit with Joe Harless - March 14, 2009 - Priceless

I drove 5 hours in mostly a downpour, from Charlotte NC, to the suburbs of Atlanta GA, to visit with Joe Harless on Saturday March 14th, 2009. 

Here is his hacienda in Newnan Georgia - through my rain splattered windshield...

Storyline: I drove 5 hours this past Saturday to visit with Joe Harless for a video taping session - for the second year in a row. 

It was great - other than the video "problem" - the second "problem" in two years - more on that in a moment. It must be "operator error" rather than a technology error. Dang!!!

Joe had me come into town in an other manner than what my GPS was suggesting. It was shorter, less congested he said. It was also more scenic.  

Joe had agreed, for the second year in a row, to be the first in this year's HPT Practitioner Video Podcast Series. But I was really there to conduct a more open video interview with him about what he's been up to lately, the recent and past books he's written, and his stories/ memories of other HPT luminaries - some of whom have recently passed on.

It was, well, priceless. 

I set up my camera - and then we decided to head down the street for lunch at Sprayberry's BBQ - opened in 1926 - a most famous BBQ joint just down the street from Joe's home. 

Everyone who worked there knew him, they were mostly Sprayberrys themselves. Even most of the patrons - long time patrons - said hello to Joe! He entertained me with many stories of his indoctrination of the many visitors he brought to Sprayberry's from his many years of operating the Harless Performance Guild in Newnan GA.   

Here is our 2nd HPT Practitioner Video Podcast - for 2009 - fairly redundant with the 2008 version - not his fault - I wrote the script...this video is 6:30 (minutes:seconds)...

Then we sat down and did a more open, relaxed interview...and just after his story about his good buddy Bob Mager - and well into the next story - my camera shut down - my battery went dead - and I lost a most memorable story about Joe and Bob. Why I saw the monitor go dead several minutes after it shut down - I don't know.

Here is the more open, not so-rambling interview with Joe about what he's been up to lately, about his most recent book, and some trips down memory lane...even without the Mager story it is 32:48 in length...

I won't spoil it here - I did ask for permission to come back next year - and I will have improved my technology significantly by then. Or I may go back in the next few months - if time allows - and capture that story about Joe and Bob Mager - and some more stories/ memories. It was, as I've written, priceless.

One thing you should know about - Informal Learning - if you will - is about Joe's most recent book: Black Warrior's Curse - available here. He gives the background for the book's storyline in the longer video interview. I decided there during the interview that I more than revered him. I loved him. Child of the 60's and all that. Me that is. And him too.

It was a most rewarding experience. Priceless to borrow a phrase. I am glad to share this - the first of many longer - more open video interviews that I hope to do in the next few years - of: The HPT Legacy Series. 

Please feel free to capture your own and share with others. I certainly don't own the concept!!!

Here is Sprayberry's just down the street from Joe's house...I caught these photos after they were closed for the afternoon - on my way out of Newnan...

For more on Sprayberry's see these Google search results.

Thanks again Joe! You are priceless!!!

Even though Joe won't be at the ISPI annual Spring Conference - I will be. I will be there to see the many people who carry on in the tradition of Joe Harless. Those who understand - it's all about Performance Improvement. Accomplished behavior.

I hope to see you there. For information about the ISPI conference this April, go here.

# # #

Hope to See YOU in Orlando in mid-April at ISPI - My Professional Home!

On behalf of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), I would like to personally invite you to attend my educational session taking place during THE Performance Improvement Conference, April 19-22, in Orlando, Florida. With less than six weeks until the conference, I am excited about the opportunity to speak and share best practices with you! A description of my educational session is included below.

 

In today’s economy, performance improvement professionals must be armed with the knowledge and understanding of practical HPT methods, tools, and techniques. Join me in sunny Orlando at the ISPI member rate of $875 and explore real solutions to the most pressing concerns organizations are facing today. This is your opportunity to network with the best and brightest minds in the field of performance improvement.

 

Project Planning and Management of HPT and ISD Efforts
Need to do a better job at predicting project schedules and costs? This session will provide you with guidance, examples and 2 exercises for establishing a custom macro-plan framework as well as a custom micro-plan framework that is situationally appropriate for your needs. Macro framework examples include ADDIE and DAMAIC -- and sometimes require a blend of your workstream with parallel efforts. Micro frameworks focus on key activities' task-sets such as conducting surveys, or review meetings.

Objectives:

Able to assess your situational context to establish your project planning needs and criteria

Able to develop a macro-planning framework for your situational context

Able to develop a micro-planning framework to fit your project staffing realities

Able to develop management strategies for project monitoring and troubleshooting

For more information on THE Performance Improvement Conference please visit www.ispi.org/ac2009. 

To take advantage of the $875 member rate, if you are not a member, call ISPI or download the special registration form at http://pl.ispi.org/conf/AC2009/Orlando-Presenter-Friend-RegForm.doc. 

If you have any questions or need assistance, call ISPI at (301)587-8570. I hope to see you in Orlando!

 

Sincerely,

Guy
Guy W. Wallace, CPT

CADs Architect Both Formal and Informal Learning of Many Blends - By Design and Not By Chance

In the prior post I present two videos - and links to their source on Google Video for those who may want their own copy - from 1995 and 1997 - about The PACT Processes for Training/ Learning/ Knowledge Management.

The 1995 video is of me making a presentation about CAD - Curriculum Architecture Design - to the professionals in several of the many T&D staffs of Eli Lilly. 

As I wrote in the prior post, I had thought that I had lost both videos (on VHS tape) long ago. So it was interesting to see what I was saying about CADs back then.

The video is 2 hours and 3 minutes in length - good for a long airplane ride via your iPod? - and it may not run smoothly via the Blog Posting - another reason I put it on Google Video for downloading. It's a big file: 1.3GB - higher resolution than probably needed. 

At one point, very well into the 2 hours I talk about the ability to see the whole set of Knowledge/Skill needs via the K/S Matrices collected via the analysis methods - and then being able to better choose media - the various blends including the use of books, brochures, videos, "e" such as CBT - Structured-OJT (S-OJT) - and even targeting some "potential content" as U-OJT: Unstructured OJT.

U-OJT is unstructured on-the-job-training - my term for what later became Informal Learning. 

The analysis proved its need for on-the-job PERFORMANCE.  The Business decision to not "bring it to market" - to not build or buy it - left it to chance. By design. The learners/ Performers would have to learn it I say, "by hook or crook." In other presentations I would salute the audience and add: "Good luck!"

Tagging potential content as U-OJT meant that not another nickle would be spent on it - as decided by the customer and other stakeholders on the PST - Project Steering Team. But the CAD effort did the "value add" thing in at least naming it. 

How much U-OJT/Informal Learning is not even named for the Informal Learner trying to figure it out? Or for their managers/peers to whom the responsibility then falls? Because if Guy doesn't learn it - how to perform - they'll have to carry me - or in their own defense - teach me. Otherwise my performance is a burden to them. And to my customers.

How efficient - or not - is that approach?

Leaving even Informal Learning "to chance" - for me - is problematic. I'd rather that be "by design."

At least for the critical learners/Performers that a CAD would address - the PUSH Target Audiences. Other, less critical to the mission needs of the Enterprise, the PULL Target Audience learners/Performers might have everything left to chance - by design. 

It's a business decision to invest in learning. It's a business decision to not invest also.

But one thing a CAD does if done well, is produce specifications of modular content for those PUSH Target Audiences in such a way that many PULL Target Audiences can also get some of their needs met. More R's for the I's without investing deliberately in those PULL Target Audiences. Gravy!

If it were all your money, if you owned the Enterprise, how would you invest?

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2 Videos - In 1995 - Me Speaking at Eli Lilly on Curriculum Architecture Design - CAD - and Testimonials from Clients and Stakeholders at GM in 1997

While scouring my basement last weekend for Geary A. Rummler artifacts for PDF'ing for the upcoming ISPI Conference in April - where there will be a Memorial Service - more like a life's celebration for a Giant in HPT and ISPI and many other groups and movements (Six Sigma anyone?) - I came across two video tapes that I thought that I had lost for good many years ago. 

It was a nice surprise. Like Christmas in March. 

The first video - is me in 1995 (much darker moustache than today) at Eli Lilly speaking on CAD - Curriculum Architecture Design - to members of the multiple T&D organizations. It's 2 hours and 3 minutes of "Guy on CAD and MCD" (labeled as CCD back then):

And if anyone thinks I sound like a certain "BB" - well, he really sounds/mimics/parrots me. After all - I taught him everything he seems to know, and be able to do. At least according to the reports I get. And he's credited "his" methods to following around Deming. The late quality guru. Yeah, that makes sense.

When someone else claims your life's work as "their proprietary processes" - well - they flunk the ethics test.  

 

The second video - just under 12 minutes - is a series of testimonials from ISD professionals and my Client (Dave Smith) and my Client's internal clients at General Motors OED (Organization & Employee Development)  in 1997 - the forerunner to GMU - General Motors University:

They are speaking of their reactions to MC/MI - Modular Curriculum and Modular Instruction - the adaptations of my PACT Processes we did at SWI (Svenson & Wallace Inc.) and then CADDI (Curriculum Architecture Design & Development Institute) for T&D/ Learning/ Knowledge Management. 

That adaptation was a result of a PPTT - PACT Process Technology Transfer.

Since the mid-1980s I've trained and certified, sometimes formally and sometimes informally, T&D staff (L&D now-a-days) professionals at MCC Powers (now Siemens Building Technologies), AT&T Network Systems, Amoco, Dow Chemical, NCR, Eli Lilly, GM, General Physics, Raytheon, HP, Bandag, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, plus other smaller ISD shops, and dozens and dozens of my own staff consultants at both SWI and CADDI, and most recently some of my L&D staff at Wachovia GBG Learning & Development. 

I've also delivered sessions and workshops at a dozen ISPI Chapters going back to 1984. Plus many presentations at ISPI, ASTD, Lakewood Conferences, and a few others. 

I am happy to share what and how. It's been my life's work.

Most give credit where credit is due. Some flunk the ethics tests every time it is offered.

Why tie this to Rummler? He reviewed my book lean-ISD, wrote a nice review and redesigned the book cover (without my asking him to do so).

I'd know the late Dr. Rummler since 1980 when we first met at an NSPI (now ISPI) Conference in Dallas. Then I got to work alongside him when I was at Motorola in 1981-1982. 

It was after leaving Motorola in late 1982 when I first started writing the book that eventually became lean-ISD, codifying what eventually became The PACT Processes. I'd asked Geary in 1999 to review the book - and as I was claiming that portions of it were based on "performance analysis" - specially things I learned from him-  and from derivatives of derivatives credited to him - I wanted his approval and permission to continue such claims.  Geary was very generous to me. 

The analysis is Rummelr-esq. That's where the focus on performance analysis came from. 

The design concepts at the CAD and MCD levels are mine. I intended to increase reuse due to the configuration rules - the rules/guidelines of modularity - that I developed and evolved over the years and through dozens and dozens of real-world projects. 

I tell people to "Trust the Process." It has passed the acid test many times, in many contexts. 

The book "lean-ISD" is available in hardbound or Kindle at Amazon.com for a fee - and for free as as 404-page PDF at www.eppic.biz

And the PACT Processes and methods are yours to use freely with appropriate attributions and retention of my copyright markings. That's all. It's that simple - and ethical.

For free PACT resources and tools, go to The PACT Wiki.

Please maintain my copyright markings and provide appropriate attributions. I am trusting you to be ethical.

And...to Trust the Process!

To get a copy of the videos at Google Video:

Guy at Lilly in 1995 Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4802883581145109725&hl=en

Testimonials in 1997 Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2305315185286017323&hl=en

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Writing a Better Job Description

Without taking away anything (hopefully) from Barry Schwartz's message in his TED Talk - thanks to Albert IP's Posting on it, with the 20 minute video clip here - I'd like to address the questions that Albert raises in his Post's title: How Do You Write the Job Description of a Janitor?

Barry Schwartz's example - on screen behind him - was a rolling list (think movie credits scrolling at the end of the flick) of Tasks.

Reminded me of the typical "Task Analysis" outputs I saw everywhere when I first got into the Training biz (1979). 

And that might seem reasonable to many - that a Task Analysis might produce a "list of tasks." 

But those lists of micro and/or macro tasks always bothered me - usually they seemed to be a random list of things one might do - tasks. But with little context. 

The sequence of tasks on those lists usually bothered me too. I guess I look for meaning in sequence. 

As I was initially schooled in a Geary Rummler-like approach to "analysis" in the fall of 1979 - albeit a derivative of a derivative of the Rummler approach - yet consistent with it - I was always comparing and contrasting those Task Analysis outputs to what we were producing in our Training Services Department in 1979 when we completed analysis efforts. 

One part of our analysis produced what I now call a Performance Model. The format is different - I evolved it over the years.

Originally we called it a Job Model - but when I started using this Rummler-esq method and format to capture the performance of whole teams on larger, multi-role processes, Job Model seemed too narrow a label. Thus "Performance Model." 

The other key output from our analyses back in that day was a Knowledge Map - now known as a Knowledge/Skill Matrices - or K/S Matrices (or Matrix).

Both outputs add layers of detail - or surround the Task list - with helpful context and detail. 

That's what's missing in most Task Analysis - and most Job Descriptions: helpful context and detail. Although former colleagues may have changed the names to hide the real source for their "proprietary methods."

Helpful context and details - I think - such as: 

• What are the outputs of tasks?
• What are the measures/metrics of those outputs and/or the tasks? How would you know good from not so good (otherwise known as "bad")?
• Are those tasks done within the context of other peoples' tasks with the same or different roles/job titles? Or with customers - external and/or internal? Or with suppliers - internal and/or external?

Additional edifying context might include these tasks are grouped into this performance category - to better organize the unfamiliar with a way to look at individual tasks more holistically. I label those clusters "AoPs" - Areas of Performance. But they are similar in concept - but not in practice to: Key Results Areas, Major Duties, etc.

Or further edify with descriptions of "what typically might go wrong" - answering: where does Murphy lurk? - and why? But a job description is not the place to go deep with strategically and tactically "what to do" to avoid Murphy in the first place, nor contingency strategies and tactics for when it was unavoidable and then "now what?"

I also believe, and have done much work in this arena, that linking the enabling K/Ss to what I call the "Output/Task Cluster" - of data - adds further insight for the learner/Performer. And perhaps to a boss that grew up in some other role within that department - but never did "this" job themselves - although they might have worked close enough to form an impression of what that job is all about without really knowing it. 

My approach to K/Ss involves 17 K/S Categories - to help one systematically derive them. Too much? Not when you see the results.

Here are some links - first to some Blog Postings on this - and to an article from NSPI (now ISPI's) Performance & Instruction Journal from back in November of 1984 - and to a an expanded version of that first article. 

I recently trained some of my team on how to do this. I've trained hundreds over the years - formally and informally.

I also wrote what is now Chapter 11 in the 3rd edition of the Handbook of Human Performance Technology on this topic/approach - and went beyond the K/S portion to include how to use that Performance Model to systematically derive all of the enablers of Performance. 

That expansion beyond K/Ss is covered slightly differently in two quarterly column I wrote back in 2006 and published by BPTrends - that was highlighted in their Spotlight on ROI a few weeks ago. Here is my Blog Posting about that. 

The Barry Schwartz TED Talk is inspiring. His goal to bring back ethics and morality to work is applaudable. Do the right thing rings out, sings out to us all in these difficult times. 

How can we help?

Improve our view of performance and job descriptions well beyond simple or complex lists of tasks. That leaves too much of the full, rich story/view of any job. Too often Job Descriptions serve the needs of HR in a Compensation sense - and they don't want that detail. Find another mechanism to communicate it - because you probably won't win those battles.

But do the right thing! Get the clarity of the real performance requirements out there! That way - everybody wins!

Thanks Albert for your post!

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