Training or Performance Improvement?

As Learning and Development professionals we usually heard our clients or colleagues say: "We have a problem and our team needs more training!" Even though sometimes this statement can be true, in other cases training is not what people need. During this week, I had the pleasure to present Dr. Ryan Watkins in a session about learning and performance improvement. Dr. Watkins is a professor and researcher specialized in needs assessment, instructional design, and performance improvement. He is the author of A Guide to Assessing Needs: Essential Tools for Collecting Information, Making Decisions and Achieving Development Results (World Bank, 2012).

Are performing and performance the same thing?

Before jumping into arranging a traditional face to face (boring) training, as instructional designers we need to analyze first. What do we need to accomplish? Why are we not accomplishing those things? A need assessment is critical to understand what is the real problem and propose a solution. It entails a "systematic study of a problem or innovation, incorporating data and opinions from varied sources, in order to make effective decisions or recommendations about what should happen next" (Rossett, 1987).

The Dick and Carey Instructional Model (1978) is one of the most powerful tools to analyze performance issues. This model is a systemic approach to performance improvement. It analyzes the performance objectives and the entry-level behaviors of the learners' target audience. Research has shown that about 70% of performance problems are tied to organizational issues. Only the remaining 30% is derived from individual performance issues (Hartt, D., Quiram, T. and Marken, J. A., 2016).

Many analysis tools can be used during the need assessment: root cause analyses, guided expert reviews, performance observations, document or historical data review, task analysis, concept mapping, etc. You can choose any of them and triangulate the information to have a better picture.

We need to have a new conversation with our clients and colleagues. A conversation that is focused on figuring out how to get to the performance results they need, and not just training!