From Learning Landscapes to a Performance Landscape
What’s your mental picture of the learning landscape and the tools you have available to you, as a learning professional, to do your job?1
One of the conclusions from our White Paper on ‘How Managers learn (in their own words)’ was that Learning and Development professionals need to revaluate their perspective of the learning landscape and start to think about a performance landscape.2 This paper sets out our thinking on the idea further.
The White Paper was based on a survey of 206 managers and established the frequency and effectiveness of a number of informal learning activities.3
Before going any further, it is worth stressing that this paper is not about informal learning as such, nor are we saying that informal learning is good and formal learning is bad! There is an unquestionable place for all formal learning methods, but as they only amount to 30% of effective learning in organisations is it right that our focus and starting point is with these methods?
History of learning
A good starting point is to consider the history of learning and how it has evolved over the years. My colleague, Owen Ferguson has written an excellent article, ‘The Convergence of Knowledge and Work’ tracing the development of training and learning through the industrial revolution to today’s knowledge environment. In summary, most of our thinking about learning and training is stuck in the industrial age of the classroom, instructional design and control of learning.
The issue, as Owen points out, is that we live and work in a knowledge economy with a culture that is more questioning and curious than ever before. At the same time, technology has transformed access to knowledge and creates a range of opportunities that a learner will instinctively grasp when they need help to meet a challenge.
Indeed, one of the things that most of us fail to realise when undertaking informal learning is that we are learning! Chatting to a colleague about a problem is not seen as learning. Learners are as pre-conditioned as learning professionals to think of learning as being something that is controlled and delivered to them, whether in the classroom or through an e-learning module.
Purpose of learning – performance
Not only has the mental model of learning not evolved, but in many cases it seems to lack a clarity of purpose.
Why does Learning and Development exist and what value does it add? To my mind this is simple: Learning and Development exists to serve the organisation, by improving performance. It is not responsible for performance; that role needs to lie with line management, but it should be measured on its impact on the performance of the organisation. It is responsible for bringing specialist knowledge of how people learn in order to perform and to maximise the opportunities that exist within the organisation.
The expertise of Learning and Development professionals should enable them to:
1. help executives and managers identify performance gaps (a performance gap is where the potential of the organisation is not being achieved).
2. act as trusted guides as to the best method of achieving the desired improvement.
3. articulate a clear set of responsibilities around what needs to be delivered and the various interdependencies.
4. deliver their part of the plan to close the performance gap.
The language they should speak is not about learning outcomes, but performance outcomes. What really matters is what learners actually do when in the performance arena.
This may well mean learning professionals acquiring a new set of skills in order to thrive in this new environment.
If we accept that learning is about performance and that the paradigm we have of learning needs to evolve, what models and tools exist to help us build a new performance-based view of learning?
New ways of thinking about learning
Charles Jennings sets outs a learner focused model called the ‘find/access model’4 , in a blog about the future of learning.5 The model is very useful in terms of thinking about what people need to learn in order to be able to perform. Charles calls it ‘content-right learning & content-light learning’ and argues that the amount of content learning departments should deliver needs to be dramatically reduced from the existing traditional model.
He also provides a useful framework around what learners need to know, and the idea of core concepts, together with the stages of Memorisation, Familiarisation and On-Demand, set out well the split between training and performance support.
To be effective, we need to start with a clear view of the performance required and the performance gap, and then take a learner-centric perspective based on what is effective in the performance situation. This means moving away from seeing formal learning as the starting point and learning outcomes as the focus.
The performance landscape
The model (although simplified) benefits from placing performance as the sole focus and bringing the effective and frequently used informal learning tools to the fore.
This is a radically different starting point and perspective from most mainstream current thinking, and reflects our suggestion that the starting point and main area of focus for learning departments should be on supporting informal learning, rather than seeing it as a ‘nice-to-have’ bolt-on.
Charles Jennings suggests that this means that learning departments need to therefore focus ‘on basic conceptual tools such as creative thinking, critical thinking and analytics skills, logic, search skills, data validation skills, research methodologies skills, networking and communication skills.’ These are the core workplace skills which underpin better informal learning and therefore facilitate improved performance. (This is also supported by Tony Karrer 6 and his view of workplace literacy.7 )
A focus on performance also moves the measurement process from inputs and outputs to performance outcomes and the methods of achieving them, and makes for a much more meaningful conversation with line executives about their concerns and requirements.
So the learning department of today may want to think about changing its name to ‘Performance Support’ and shift the focus to, as Jay Cross says, ‘helping people perform better, faster, cheaper’. In this world your paradigm needs to be based on a performance landscape.8
To conclude as I started: what’s your mental picture of the performance landscape and the tools you have available to you to improve the performance of your organisation?9
1 We define a learning landscape as a range of learning opportunities that exist within an organisation to provide learning outcomes.
2 Available at goodpractice.com.
3 Informal learning definition by Jay Cross: ‘anything that is not easily recognisable as formal training and performance support.’
4 http://www.duntroon.com/index.html
5 http://charles-jennings.blogspot.com/2009/12/getting-to-core-of-learning-content-in.html
6 http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2009/03/workplace-productivity.html
7 http://www.workliteracy.com/
8 http://togetherlearn.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/the-training-department-of-the-future/
9 The performance landscape is the range of learning opportunities that exist within an organisation to improve performance. These are hugely influenced by the performance culture of the organisation.
0 Responses