LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES

Focus on embedding
technology-enabled
performance support into
day-to-day work rather
than delivering traditional
training courses.

56 TD | August 2014 PHOTO: THINKSTOCK


The Learning and Development
Revolution WE NEED TO HAVE
BY CLARK N. QUINN
T
he world has changed. Not is changing,
or will change, but has changed. Technol-
ogy is now ubiquitous. Digital technology
is everywhere we need it to be; so, too, then is in-
formation, communication, and interaction. This
alone would be challenging, but organizations also
face globalization issues, the fall of competition
barriers, and more.
The result is simple: Optimal execution of a busi-
ness plan no longer is sufficient; it is just the cost
of entry. The only sustainable differentiator will
be continual innovation, which will not come from
methods we’ve used in the past. Training alone,
whether face-to-face or online, only addresses the
one element of the equation. More is required.
What leads to innovation is the capability for
people to interact constructively. Barriers to
innovation have to be systematically dismantled—
making sharing safe, diversity accepted, fresh ideas
welcome, and new approaches embraced.
These barriers can encompass certain skills, but
they’re not developed outside of practice, so they
largely aren’t amenable to training. Barriers also
include culture, facilitation, and ultimately how we
use technology to optimize performance solutions.
Indeed, one of our biggest challenges is that
we’re not leveraging technology in a way that’s
podcast
aligned with how people really think, work, and
learn. Digital approaches are the perfect comple-
ment to our brains when we use them correctly.
This is the revolution we need to have.
Changes in the world
To understand how to leverage technology in
alignment with how we think, work, and learn, we
need to examine what’s known about each and, in
some cases, change our assumptions.
To start, old models of workplace thinking sug-
gest that the best approach is a hierarchy where
executives determine strategic direction, man-
agers establish tactical approaches, and workers
perform specific actions. Plans are prepared, in-
dividuals are trained, and then the organization
executes performance.
Evidence shows that this model no longer is
appropriate: Competition is too fast, situations
are increasingly ambiguous or novel, and the front
line must react to much more without guidance
or supervision. Instead, people often work better
when they are given clear goals in a context, and
are empowered to pursue those goals by means
that they determine and with adequate support.
Small, diverse teams collaborate to solve prob-
lems, not individuals in isolation. This means that
August 2014 | TD 57
 organizations need to prepare for and facilitate
people working together, and they must un-
derstand how to communicate and use tools to
generate shared solutions in an effective way.
The way we think also is under revision. Old
models expected us to fill heads with knowl-
edge, which was followed by work to produce
output. We worked alone with few resources,
and training was used to ensure that we knew
all we needed to know across all situations.
This approach assumed that when properly
trained, people worked logically and consis-
tently. Weak performance was the fault of poor
training or the individual. This theory also has
proved inaccurate.
The new picture of how we think is very
much contextual. We reconstruct our under-
standing anew in every circumstance. We are
more productive when we’re supported with
external resources. We are good at pattern-
matching and meaning-making, and we’re far
better off leaving rote memory and complex
calculations to digital technology and reserv-
ing our abilities for multifaceted decision
making in challenging conditions.
ONE OF OUR What we know about how people learn best
BIGGEST also has changed. It’s no longer effective to
simply transfer rote knowledge. Traditional
CHALLENGES IS classroom training that presents information
THAT WE’RE NOT and then tests for knowledge transfer is useful
LEVERAGING in few situations.
Training’s role is evolving. We need to offer
TECHNOLOGY IN different types of learning and support to help
A WAY THAT’S workers perform in these new contexts. In fact,
ALIGNED WITH new learning should look a lot like performing
the actual task because we are more likely to
HOW PEOPLE learn skill proficiency through a variety contex-
REALLY THINK, tual practice situations that guide performance
WORK, AND and offer individualized feedback. Practice is at
the center of learning, not at the end. And ide-
LEARN. ally, it comes at the moment of need in situ, not
separated away.
We need to start differentiating the capa-
bilities of learners and matching them to the
support they need. For instance, traditional
formal learning—which addresses why infor-
mation is important and assumes no prior
knowledge—is best for novices.
Once performers have progressed to the
58 TD | August 2014
practitioner stage of their jobs, they don’t need
the full course. Instead, these workers need
access to resources, information, and people
who can help them in the moment, as well as
help develop their skills over time. And experts
don’t need courses; they need collaborators
who can work with them to advance the orga-
nization’s understanding.
Overall, work should incorporate a full suite
of resources—colleagues, tools, and informa-
tion—that surround and support performers
rather than having those performers go away
to learn on their own before returning to work.
The changing role for L&D
Training is not going away, but we need to shift
our thinking. We need to focus on optimizing
performance and facilitating innovation.
L&D should shift to P&D, performance and
development. We can facilitate performance by
providing support tools, user-generated con-
tent, and courses. We can support innovation
by facilitating and developing communication
and collaboration, as well as personal knowl-
edge mastery.
We also need to shift from the unrealistic
model of providing all the help to a more man-
ageable focus of doing what needs to be done.
I find the least assistance principle, which
asks “What’s the least I can do for you?” to be
a strategic way to manage resources. People
don’t want everything; they want to focus on
the task and just want the help they need. This
frees up resources to do more with less.
The first thing we need to do is redesign
learning to match how people really learn. We
must quit thinking that adding a quiz to Pow-
erPoint slides and PDFs is going to make a
meaningful impact. Instead, we need to design
courses with meaningful practice (resourced
with the least amount of additional material)
when it meets the necessary criteria.
We should err on the side of incorporating
performance support into work rather than of-
fering courses. We should have support tools
available as part of the workflow, so workers
don’t need to shift mental gears to find the an-
swers or help they need to excel at work.
Ideally, the resources performers find and
use will come from the network, not your
work. When resources come from the people,
they’re more apt to be for the people.
There’s an important role for facilitation in
these activities, and we’ll need skills to design
support resources and to make them findable (a
bit of information architecture).
The ultimate principle here is to have
workers go to the network first because the
information will be there and the needs likely
will be unique. Meanwhile, workers will go to
performance support when there is a recur-
rent need for specific types of information and
the benefits outweigh the costs.
Finally, people will go to courses only when
acquisition of new skills sets will make a sig-
nificant difference to organizational success.
Such skills will increasingly be more general
than specific, and concept-driven rather than
procedure-driven.
New roles for L&D professionals fall largely
into categories of performance consultants
and innovation facilitators. Performance
consulting skills will focus on optimiz-
ing performance, determining root causes
of problems, and designing initiatives that
include performance support and courses. In-
novation facilitation will center on developing
culture and facilitating independent and col-
laborative learning and working skills.
Instructional designers are the natural can-
didates to shift to performance consulting.
Rather than simply designing effective courses,
they will need to investigate and assess perfor-
mance gaps and then propose solutions.
Trainers already are in the facilitation game
because good training isn’t just presenting in-
formation, it’s facilitating learning. The change
will be to move learning out of the classroom
to start facilitating across the network. The
goal is to observe individual and group work-
ing and learning, and look for opportunities to
remove barriers and improve interactions.
Foundations
Three associated elements underpin this trans-
formation: infrastructure, strategy, and culture.
Infrastructure has to accommodate the de-
livery and augmentation of formal courses, so
they can be accessed anywhere, tracked, and
extended over time. Development, delivery,
and contextual retrieval of content and inter-
active performance support resources also are
essential.
The social network, therefore, must be
robust—in both user accessibility and interac-
tion capabilities. Developers and users must
effectively collaborate on support needs. Col-
laborative documents trump emailing files
around, for example.
This leads to the second leg of the foun-
dation: strategy. In addition to conversations
with IT, L&D needs to partner with the busi-
ness units they support.
Strategy begins with affecting business
metrics, and not L&D efficiency data. The
cost/seat/hour ratio is not a business metric;
business metrics are such measures as sales
closure rates, product development times, and
customer satisfaction. These are the measures
that L&D needs to be influencing in positive
ways. And this can’t happen in a silo.
None of this will work without a culture
shift. As the saying goes, “Culture eats strat-
egy for breakfast.” A strategy predicated on
developing effective contributions across the
organization requires a culture that makes
such contributions plausible. Elements include
valuing diversity, openness to new ideas, safety
in sharing, and time for reflection. Leadership
has to model the behaviors as well as support
them, and L&D needs to actively make them
explicit and facilitate them.
Join the revolution
The shift in the L&D role isn’t going to be easy,
but it is necessary. This revolution makes L&D
work more meaningful to individuals and the
organization.
Training is no longer enough. Technol-
ogy now gives us the opportunity to do much
more, and we have the responsibility to do it.
Join the revolution—we have so much to offer.
Clark N. Quinn is an internationally known consultant
and speaker. He is the author of Revolutionize Learning &
Development (ASTD Press); clark@quinnovation.com,
@quinnovator.
August 2014 | TD 59
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Copyright of TD: Talent Development is the property of Association for Talent Development
and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without
the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or
email articles for individual use.