PERFORMER Support: Learning @ the Moment of Need

We've MOVED!!

2010-06-04T13:27:00.009-04:00

Greetings!! We're not sure if most of you have heard, BUT we've moved the PS Blog to a new NING community. This blog site still contains all of our old postings, but we won't be adding any new content here going forward.Our intent is to allow for greater opportunities to share ideas. Our new NING site includes not only all the information found in this Blog, but it also allows for MANY other

Beyond Job Aids

2010-04-17T05:38:00.005-04:00

Providing Access to Reference Information @ the Moment of Apply In previous blogs we have discussed the three time phases of apply: the time before performance, the time during performance, and the time after performance ends. The “time during performance” has been the primary focus of performance support focus for decades. Allison Rossett, in her book: Job Aids and Performance Support: Moving

Is Being a “Learning Organization” Enough?

2010-03-31T09:49:00.003-04:00

I was once debriefing a training class with a senior manager from an organization who had purchased a large training program from us. We were specifically discussing the results of the post assessments each student had completed. Overall the students had done fairly well. As the instructor I was pleased and anxious to hear what I was hoping to be glowing feedback from this particular manager. I

Why Focus on Workflow Process?

2010-03-01T05:46:00.004-05:00

Pursuing Competency Beyond Mastery When you add performance support to the mix, the pursuit of skill mastery changes. There are levels of mastery with performance support. Mastery obviously includes complete internalization of an independent skill. With this highest level of mastery a performer has the ability to complete a task automatically. This capacity is securely encoded into long-term

Upgrading - A PERFECT time for Performance Support

2010-02-16T11:07:00.009-05:00

I remember teaching my first Lotus 1-2-3 release 1.A course in 1987. No laughing please... I know that this may have been before some of you were even born! But seriously, we did have computers back then and many users were struggling to master the complexities of things called Spreadsheets, Word Processors, and Databases. These were the emerging technologies of the time. Of course, many of these

THRIVING IN THE NEW NORMAL:

2010-02-08T15:57:00.006-05:00

LEARNING ORIENTATION AND LEARNING AGILITY By Magaret Martinez http://trainingplace.com/ In the previous blog, Timothy R. Clark and Conrad A. Gottfredson discussed how many businesses are struggling with achieving or maintaining competitive advantage. To help, they suggest that organizations should learn to pursue learning agility—the ability of an organization to learn at or above the speed of

THRIVING IN THE NEW NORMAL:

2010-01-28T15:06:00.003-05:00

THE FIVE FACTORS OF LEARNING AGILITY Note: The following is a reprint of an article written by Timothy R. Clark and Conrad A. Gottfredson. We include it in this blog because Performer Support is a core contributor to organizational learning agility. Organizations have reason to ponder their mortality these days. A few short months ago, a financial tsunami hit the United States. The rippling

New Year's Resolutions

2010-01-18T10:26:00.006-05:00

I’ve always been a big New Year’s resolution guy. I’m not sure why I don’t muster up the same determination and focus throughout the year, but there’s something about that “clean slate” feeling of turning another page in the calendar to get me going. Although 2009 CLEARLY had its challenges, it was an amazing year for Performer Support and the growth of this community. We doubled in size and now

When Things Go Wrong

2010-01-04T13:28:00.003-05:00

IT’S BEST TO “SOLVE” WITH SELF -SUPPORT AND COLLABORATION It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer. Albert Einstein Leaders are problem solvers by talent and temperament, and by choice. Harlan Cleveland One of the realities of life is that things don’t always work the way they’re supposed to work; life doesn’t always happen according to a script. And sometimes

Reflections on 2009: Who Would Have Thought??

2009-12-22T12:24:00.002-05:00

To borrow the opening line from Charles Dickens’ classic novel Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”. I’m not sure if we could find 12 better words to describe my thoughts when reflecting on the past calendar year. It will be interesting to see how historians recall 2009, but we think it’s safe to say that it will be remembered as a wild one on almost every

The New Blend for the New Normal

2009-12-10T20:00:00.003-05:00

Blending Formal and Informal Learning The learning tradition of pre-modern society was for centuries defined by two enduring patterns. The first was informal learning in the form of on-the-job training. It was customary to apprentice young workers in the skilled trades by having them observe and work alongside competent craftsmen until they acquired enough knowledge and skill through experience

Social Networks: Are they the "Learning Portals" of today?

2009-12-04T10:33:00.007-05:00

Con and I had an AMAZING time at Learning 2009. It was great seeing many of you there, as well as meeting the new members of this ever growing community. We are now up to over 550 member companies worldwide! Although communicating with you through a blog like this is has always been wonderful, still nothing beats seeing each of you face to face from time to time! Our thanks and kudos to Elliott

Trainers: A KEY stakeholder in a successful PS implementation

2009-10-16T14:23:00.005-04:00

One concern I have always had when I speak about Performance Support is that I will be perceived as “bashing the classroom”. I recently delivered a keynote on Informal Learning and Performance Support for the Institute on IT Training Conference in London. I had an attendee, or delegate to be geographically correct:), come up to me after my session asking if I felt that the classroom, and the

Performer Support and the Moment of Change

2009-09-18T12:50:00.007-04:00

Learning, Unlearning, and RelearningIn an earlier blog article (http://performancesupport.blogspot.com/2009/05/moment-of-apply.html ) we stated that the moment of “Apply” is the “most critical moment in any person’s individual learning process.” Certainly preparing learners for this “most critical” moment should be at the heart of all we do – after all, if people can’t perform at that moment,

If I could start the jouney all over again...

2009-09-04T14:31:00.003-04:00

As I sit here waiting for the long weekend to arrive (for our non-US readers, this coming Monday is a holiday called "Labor Day" here in the states) I've had a moment to reflect on my week. I was filled with appointments, presentations, and travels talking about the value and application of Performance Support (PS). Candidly, I've been overwhelmed of late by the huge upsurge in the popularity

Another PS Component!

2009-08-05T22:52:00.006-04:00

"Self-Check" — a Fundamental Principle of Training and Performer SupportDuring graduate school, I embarked on a project that inadvertently schooled me in the impressive power of self-evaluation as a principle of instruction. I had just completed a course at the University of San Francisco from Michael Scriven – a thought leader in the practices of performance evaluation. Following, I had

What's in a Name? ... EVERYTHING!

2009-07-17T11:15:00.004-04:00

As we've shared many times in this blog, the label "Electronic Performance Support System", or EPSS, was first originally claimed by Glory Geary in her 1991 groundbreaking book which shares the same title. Performance support (PS) as a discipline has matured tremendously since that time, and has truly come into its own over the past few years especially due to the current economic climate we live

Lessons Learned

2009-07-10T15:27:00.006-04:00

The Personal Rewards of Training in the Virtual ClassroomBob and I just finished teaching our new course: High Yield Training in the Virtual Classroom. During this virtual Instructor led training (VILT) course we employed our GEAR design and development process.For those readers, not aware of the GEAR methodology, here’s a brief description:The GEAR™ model consists of a spaced learning that

Crawl, Walk, Run... The beauty of PS Design

2009-07-02T09:46:00.005-04:00

We were recently talking with a large training group who was beginning their journey into PS. As they began to realize the potential of this approach they became more and more anxious about the amount of work that lay ahead of them. When organizations first look at PS they immediately discover two things:They have what appears to be an unlimited amount of projects that PS could impactThey have

The Moment of Apply

2009-05-22T19:34:00.001-04:00

At the Heart of it AllOur industry has made great progress in meeting the instructional needs of people who are learning something for the first time and when they want to learn more about it. We have rightly broadened our approach from the traditional classroom to include other formal means to help people learn quickly and effectively. We have employed innovative technologies to make these

Web 2.0 - Let's be careful this time...

2009-05-12T14:48:00.007-04:00

The Danger of Unclear ExpectationsI was recently attending a conference where a presenter was sharing their new Performance Support(PS) strategy and proceeded to demonstrate a web 2.0 application. It was a Community of Practice (CoP) that enabled collaborative document sharing, wiki type message boards, and an instant messaging environment which showed the learner who was "online" based on their

An Index of postings: A recap!

2009-05-04T14:58:00.008-04:00

The PS Community Blog has been in existence for over 2+ years now! Many have asked for direct references to some of the postings based on topic and intended outcome. We thought this week's posting might be a good time to take a breath and give you a link back to all the postings since we started. Below is a catalogued list which includes the title, intent (Strategic or Practitioner), and a brief

Training in the New Normal

2009-04-22T17:36:00.005-04:00

The Role of the Virtual ClassroomDuring the past 6 months, there has been a major spike in the use of the virtual classroom as an alternative to the traditional classroom. There are many reasons why this is happening and why it is wise to do so. Here are some: First, organizations have significantly cut back funding, forcing learning leaders to look for ways to deliver instructor-led training

The Visiting Expert Series: Vol. #1

2009-04-17T07:13:00.011-04:00

We are going to start a new "feature" on our blog this week: "The Visiting Expert Series". In an effort to expand the reach and scope of the blog we are going to be inviting guest industry experts to contribute to our blog. Not only does this give you a well deserved BREAK from us, it will also broaden the perspectives and expertise shared. This month's guest is Dr. Allison Rossett, author of the

Webinar on Designing for the Virtual Classroom

2009-04-09T08:42:00.009-04:00

Designing PS into the Virtual Classroom:We have received a lot of feedback lately that, due to budget constraints, many of you are beginning to use synchronous delivery tools such as Webex or Adobe Connect to host what would normally be your face to face Instructor-led classes. What’s the most effective way to design and deliver these classes WITHOUT it becoming “Death by PowerPoint”? How can PS

Blended Learning - It's time has FINALLY arrived with PS

2009-03-27T12:00:00.002-04:00

How PS Can "Save" Blended Learning!!Con and I have been working this instructional approach for over 15 years now!! I remember having my first "blended learning" meeting back when I was with Element K in the early 90's. I was even on a special "taskforce" for it! :) The original premise was that since we finally had all these learning assets at our disposal, from classroom to e-learning, how

Conducting a Sucessful Rapid Task Analysis

2009-03-20T13:36:00.008-04:00

Rapid Task Analysis ChecklistThirty years ago I took my first instructional design course. At some point during that class I learned about task analysis. Since then, I have grown to realize that it is a most vital skill. If you get this wrong, learning and performance support spirals out of control. It becomes unwieldy and murky. Of all the skills, in our profession that we need to get right, we

Has Single-Source Publishing FINALLY Come of Age?

2009-02-13T14:31:00.006-05:00

I remember attending my first session on “Reusable Learning Objects” back in the early 1990’s. A dear colleague and friend of mine Wayne Hodgins, the individual whom many credit with starting the learning object movement, was attempting to help us grasp the concept. To oversimplify, we were talking about a world where an Instructional Designer authored a single chunk of content, for example a set

M-Learning vs. M-Support

2009-02-06T14:31:00.005-05:00

Mobile “Support”: Is it the next generation of M-Learning?Con and I have been watching the buzz around what our industry is calling “Mobile Learning”, or M-Learning, for quite some time with some very interesting trends emerging! I thought I’d share a few in this week’s Blog entry. Any and ALL comments are welcome!!M-Learning vs. M-Support: There appears to be two disciplines emerging within this

New Media Elements on PS Blog

2009-02-03T15:21:00.030-05:00

Con and I will be adding a few media elements throughout 2009 to help spread the word round PS.Podcasts: We will be recording at least one podcast a month. This month's podcast is on "The Five Moments of Need". One of our classics:) You can download the audio file for playing either on your PC itself or an MP3 player of your choice. To download the podcast to your PC:Right-click on link below you

Four Recommendations for Learning Professionals

2009-01-09T03:49:00.007-05:00

Flourishing During Rough Economic TimesAlma Morgan was a dairy farmer in my home town of Circleville Utah. He had the wonderful gift of optimism – which is a remarkable attribute for any dairy farmer. Once, after experiencing significant losses within his dairy herd, my dad asked Alma how he remained so positive. Alma's response was, “I just tell myself that this too

2009: The YEAR for Performance Support!

2008-12-22T09:57:00.005-05:00

With the year winding down, it's time for the classic 2009 predictions. Clearly Con and I are biased about this, but we firmly believe 2009 will be THE year that Performance Support(PS) finds its rightful place in our industry. One common question we are often asked is, "Why didn't Performance Support take off back when Gloria Gery first talked about it in the early 90's?". We both feel that

Communicating, Collaborating, Innovating

2008-12-05T11:26:00.004-05:00

Building Virtual Communities that ThriveI’ve been tracking virtual communities for a long time now for many reasons including the potential they offer to performer support. I’ve wanted to understand why some communities flourish, others falter, and so many fail. Here’s what I have foundVirtual communities thrive when:Members of that community have compelling needs and wants that the community can

Performance Support is No Longer a “Nice to Have”

2008-11-24T13:45:00.006-05:00

PS is KEY to the succes of any Learning Organization:Clearly we live in challenging times. Throughout the coming months budgets in every area of an organization are going to be tight and tested like never before. Learning organizations will be asked to do their part to both watch its spending and increase its impact. We can no longer afford, if we ever could, to spend money on learning assets

Delivering Strategic Value

2008-11-05T15:27:00.017-05:00

The Role of Engagement in Performer Support The above video demonstrates a fundamental challenge of leadeship -- "engagement". With times being what they are, organizations are turning even greater attention to this issue. Those of us in the world of performer support would be wise to also focus on the fundamental drivers of employee engagement. After all, a minimally engaged employee will

Closing General Session at Learning 2008

2008-10-29T10:03:00.009-04:00

We were introduced to the final version of the "telework" game created by the students form Chamberlin College! The game will be available on-line and is opensource so any compoany can use it. They named it "Teletrust" because trust was identified as a HUGE part of teleworkers being successful and managing their time. It was an incredible game. Almost everyone in the conference said they'd use

Day 2 from Learning 2008

2008-10-29T08:55:00.004-04:00

Great 2nd day!! We had a number of exciting things going on. This will be an overview for now, BUT Conrad and I will do a deeper dive on all these issues in future blogs:We delivered our 2 final sessions today (PS Expert Panel, Paper-based Job Aids). Both went very well! We'd like to thank our 4 panel of experts (Jan-Jan Lam - Disney, Stacey Jewesak - Bank of America, Gary Wise - Cincinnati

Greetings from Learning 2008!!

2008-10-27T16:37:00.006-04:00

Conrad and I are literally sitting in Orlando listening to the closing general session for Day 1 of the Learning 2008 conference. It's been a great day with some amazing dialogue AND great talk around PS! More on that in a minute...I've included a picture from today's General Session. Elliott has been doing a lot of talk around Next Gen - how to work with them, what's their make-up and learning

A Challenge Worth Pursuing

2008-09-25T17:30:00.009-04:00

Surviving Unrelenting Change During the past few weeks we have seen a financial tsunami hit our country. It’s impact is reverberating throughout the world because of today's globalization of markets. This interconnected world-wide economy presents to us a competitive environment unparalleled in intensity. Ultimately to survive organizations must be prepared to continuously undergo new knowledge

Owning a Hammer Doesn't Make One a Carpenter

2008-09-12T14:38:00.002-04:00

The training industry can become overly obsessed with learning tools. Both Conrad and I have been in this industry for over 50 years combined (no age jokes please - BUT we do miss the printing press! J) and have seen many a tool come and go. The danger of tools is that simply buying, owning, or designing with them does not guarantee a successful learning outcome. One doesn’t' need to look

Negotiating the Churning Waters of Change

2008-08-14T12:13:00.006-04:00

Organizational Learning Agility and Performance SupportThis week we delivered to our community a draft research report titled In Search of Learning Agility, Assessing Progress from 1957 to 2008. “This report is written to address the market upheaval, technological explosion, demographic churning, and political

The Importance of Process

2008-07-18T14:30:00.014-04:00

The Importance of Process in PS DesignMany Instructional designers we've work with struggle when going from designing for formal instruction to designing for Performance Support (PS). Many of the skills and design techniques currently useed need to be adapted to create effective PS solutions.Task analysis, for instance, is still an importart part of any design, but additional circumstances need

2008-05-27T13:51:00.008-04:00

Achieving a High Performance Workforce in “Times of Radical Change”A colleague recently pointed me to a December 2007 article in HR Magazine that purported to make a business case for “creating a High Performance Workforce.” Since performance support is all about optimum (or high) performance the topic captured my full attention. My problem with the article and others

Categorizing PS Solutions and Their Authoring Tools

2008-05-06T14:28:00.012-04:00

Several weeks ago, we extended an invitation to this growing community to join us in the LearningTown Performance Support Group (http://www.learningtown.com/). There are currently 138 members in this group and it’s growing. We have moved our forum discussions there to take advantage of the rich environment. For the time being the blog and wiki will remain where they are. We believe that

Performance Support CAN'T stand alone!

2008-04-18T16:52:00.003-04:00

Blended learning was all the rage in the 90’s. For many it simply meant adding e-Learning to the end or beginning of a training session, typically positioned as reinforcement or prework. We’ve learned a lot since then. Blended learning doesn’t mean simply putting a bunch of learning options together and letting learners choose. Blended learning takes the best of each asset and creates a total

CoP Breakout - ASTD

2008-04-06T19:09:00.002-04:00

I recently attended ASTD's TechKnowledge 2008 Conference in San Antonio. It was a very nice event with SOME discussion around Performance Support. It still amazes me how little conversation there is around this critical topic. I did two breakouts on the subject and we had some great turnouts. My bias is still that we're WAY too training focused and don't deal directly enough with the power of

Follow-up to the RTA Webinar

2008-03-17T22:57:00.013-04:00

Rapid Task Analysis for Performance SupportRecently Bob and I hosted a webinar for this growing Performance Support Community. During the session, we discussed Rapid Task Analysis. Here is a summary of what we presented during the meeting. The slides and a job-aid checklist are posted in the members portion of our performance support wiki. Once you have read this article, enter any questions you

Building a Performance Support Community

2008-01-30T19:22:00.004-05:00

We just completed our third Performance Support workshop at the Masie Center. As you can see we have added to our community 29 more remarkable people who have already proven themselves as committed Performance Support professionals.As you all know, Bob and I are convinced that the future holds great things instore for this discipline. Performance Support is the key to delivering strategic value

An Invitation to Our Performance Support Community

2008-01-24T15:49:00.000-05:00

Increasing Organizational Value Via Performance Support Bob and I have had the privilege of meeting and working with thousands of remarkable people genuinely devoted to our training profession. They work long and hard helping people in their organizations develop and maintain the skills they need to do their work. Unfortunately we've seen this deep devotion continually challenged by leaders in

The importance of Process

2008-01-14T14:45:00.000-05:00

Context is KING in Performance SupportDo you remember the "Content is KING" expression from the '90's? That was back when all the talk was around instructor-led training and the emergence of e-Learning. Back then, the statement couldn't have been more true. And as we discussed in earlier blog entries, when a learner is experiencing the first two moments of need (When learning for the first time,

Performance Support to the Rescue

2007-12-07T09:24:00.000-05:00

Delivering Greater Organizational AgilityYogi Bera spoke prophetically when he declared, "The Future ain't what it used to be." No statement could be more descriptive of our situation today. We live in a global age where the "playing field has been ripped wide open and the recurrent need to reconfigure people and capabilities to serve an ever-changing market [requires]... individuals to embrace

Learning from others

2007-12-03T08:53:00.003-05:00

10 Myths of Performance Support Con and I often encounter misunderstandings and myths about performance support. This isn’t surprising considering how confused our industry can readily become. We don’t need to drive down memory lane very far without finding compelling evidence of this fact – just think back on the early days of e-learning with its initial promise to replace ILT. So, I thought I’d

Charting Your Performance Support Path

2007-11-14T19:41:00.001-05:00

Watch Out for the QuicksandCollectively Bob and I have spent almost fifty years helping organizations figure out how to gain and maintain the competencies they need to succeed and survive in the marketplace. Inherent in this effort has been negotiating around, over, and sometime even through the quicksand that threatens their Performance Support efforts. For those of

Finding the True ROI in Learning

2007-11-08T15:34:00.001-05:00

Finding the TRUE ROI in LearningAs long as I've been in training we have been debating its ROI (Return on Investment). We have struggled long and hard to link measurable business results to learners who attend some form of formal instruction, in class or on-line. Why has this been so hard? Why do so many still find this exercise exhausting, expensive, and often inconclusive at a meaningful level?

A Beginning Discussion

2007-11-01T16:15:00.001-04:00

What is Performance Support?It only makes sense that we begin this blog with a definition that can help drive a very important follow-up discussion. We need to work together to clearly define the scope of this practice we call performance support. This can also help us make sure that we’re all talking about the same thing when we discuss this topic. So, here’s a