HPT Workshop: Day 1

This post is part of a multiple part Series on the 2012 Performance Improvement Conference.
#ISPI2012

I have been attending ISPI's Performance Improvement Conference 2012. Today was the first day of the 3-day Principles and Practice of Human Performance Technology workshop. The workshop is being facilitated by Roger Addison, EdD, CPT, and Miki Lane, PhD, CPT. Both have a great deal of experience as performance consultants, and share meaningful experiences that help make the content seem more relevant. I also met several excellent co-attendees at the conference. We have worked as teams for several exercises, and I am getting to know and appreciate the knowledge and experience of my team members. I'll write more about these team members in a later post.

We spent the morning getting an overview of the field of human performance. We then spent much of the afternoon learning important techniques for analyzing and identifying business needs and opportunities, and it sounds like a significant part of tomorrow's workshop activities will also focus on analysis.

Performance Definitions

One of the things I found interesting was the distinction between Performance Improvement and Performance Technology. In a previous post, I've described The Difference Between Instructional Design, Instructional Science, and Instructional Technology. I will add on what was learned in today's workshop to include similar categories. Here are the four components I think are relevant to understanding the field of human performance:

• Performance Improvement is the GOAL of the performance consultant. 
• Performance Science is what we know about what works in improving human performance. These can be called "best-practices" or "evidence-based practices."
• Performance Technology is the means for reaching the goal of improving performance.
• Performance Consulting is the use of performance technology (based on performance science) to reach the goal of performance improvement. It usually involves the following major steps: (1) the diagnosis of performance problems and opportunities, (2) the implementation of research-based strategies for improving performance related to those problems and opportunities, and (3) the evaluation and follow-up to see how effective those strategies have been. 

Levels of Performance Needs

 When diagnosing performance problems and needs, it can be useful to identify the level of the performance problem, need or gap. These levels are:

1. Worker (individual level)
2. Work (process level)
3. Workplace (organizational level)
4. A fourth level can also be added: World (society level)

All About the Money?

One of the most important things I learned this first day was that when we are analyzing a problem or a need, we should always link that need to how it affects the financial success of the organization. If an organization has the goal of profits, then all activity should be focused on increasing profits in sustainable ways. For some reason this seemed new to me, something I had never considered. This is possibly because I work as an academic in higher education where making a profit does not seem to be at the forefront of my (nor my peers') thinking. But the discussions and the activities in our workshop today helped me realize the importance of this kind of thinking.

Higher Education

I wonder when higher education institutions will finally realize the importance of linking performance to the bottom-line. And if/when they do, how will they deal with the potential conflict between profitability and academic freedom? It's clear that some for-profit organizations are focused on financial gains and have had some success at being very profitable, but at what point does this compromise the mission of the organization? I have a close friend who works at a for-profit university, and he describes increasing pressure to allow students to pass poorly-designed courses, even when he knows the students do not have the skills needed to move on. Even if the institution reaches its goal of profit, it abandons its goal to provide quality education to its students, thereby failing to fulfill its mission as an institution of higher education.

 What About the World Level?

The other consideration is the World (society) level that is now being considered by many in the HPT field. We live in a society in which there are limited natural resources, and without responsible use of these resources, we might find them damaged or totally depleted. The famous Dodo bird provided very valuable feathers centuries ago, but those in the feather-finding business did not consider the World level when following their business plan and eventually eliminated all Dodo birds, thereby halting their own performance. What if this same thing happened with ore, water, or fuel? The broader mission of an organization should (in my opinion) consider the impact of its work on the global scale, including impact on natural resources and on things like international relationships and society in general. 

*     *     *

So, there are my thoughts and reflections from day 1 of the Principles and Practices of HPT workshop. I will continue to write as I progress through the workshop and the conference. (Here are my thoughts on day 2).

The Tendency to Jump to Conclusions

We live in an increasingly complex world, one that is competitive and sometimes harsh. A poor decision now can mean many negative consequences in the future.

What constantly surprises me is that in all of the organizations I've worked in, people (including myself) have the tendency to jump to a response before they consider the problem. Why do people tend to do this? There are probably many reasons- it is easy, we think we know the right answer, we are conceited or overly-confident, etc. When we jump to a response, we might sometimes be right, but we can very often be very wrong.

The Importance of Analysis
To make good decisions in business, in instructional design, and in our lives, we need to analyze what is happening before we jump to our responses. The capacity to consider a problem from different perspectives, to gather data on the nature of the problem, and to critically analyze that data are absolutely vital, and if we do not analyze the problem, we might end up making these common mistakes:

• fail to articulate the actual problem and work to solve a pseudo-problem.
• fail to articulate our goal.
• overlook crucially important data that could help us solve the problem or fill the need.

Instead of jumping to conclusions, we should ask the following questions and gather data and research deeply to answer them:

• what really is the problem? What is the root cause of the problem?
• what do we want to happen? what is our goal?
• what data are there to help us answer these questions correctly?

By truly analyzing a problem and articulating what we want to have happen, we will be much more likely to respond in an effective way. So, what do you think? Is there something I am missing? Why do we tend to jump to conclusions without thinking through all of the issues clearly?

ADDIE Process - the Analysis Phase

This post is part 1 in a 5-part series on the Phases of the ADDIE Process of Instructional Design. 
Next post: Design >


One of the tools instructional designers use to create effective instructional materials is instructional design process. This is important because following a process can help ensure that there is greater quality to the finished product that is created.

In a previous post, I wrote a basic overview of the ADDIE Process for instructional design. Over the next few weeks, I am going to write a series of posts of each of the individual phases or steps in the ADDIE Process. These steps include Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate. In this post, we will focus on the Analysis phase.

Analysis
The purpose of the analysis phase is to orient yourself toward creating a successful learning experience for your learners. In this phase, you answer key, fundamental questions about the instruction you are designing. At a general level, this includes the following questions:

1. Who are we designing this instruction for? Who are the learners? This question may seem obvious at first, but gathering information about your learners' background, cultures, prior relevant knowledge, age, time constraints, etc. will give you knowledge that will help you provide effective instruction for that group.
2. What specifically do we want our learners to know and do? Most often, instructional designers will work to create a series of instructional or learning objectives. These objectives should state very clearly what the student will be able to do by the time they finish learning. If these objectives are not clear, then it is difficult to know if the instruction is successful.
3. How will we evaluate student learning? Knowing how you plan to evaluate learning will guide the manner in which you design your instruction. 
4. What is the learning context? Where will the students learn from the instruction? This is an important clarification because it affects the later phases of the instructional design process.
5. What is the performance context? Where will students apply this knowledge in the future? Knowing how and where students will use their newly acquired knowledge will help you design instruction that can be applied more readily by the learner.

Remember, there is a lot to this phase of instruction, so I encourage you to learn more about how to perform it effectively. Click here to learn about the next Phase: Design. To learn more about the Analysis Phase, read the following:

1. Read Boise State's page on Analysis
2. Read The Systematic Design of Instruction
3. Watch this introductory video on the Analysis Phase:

Click Here for next phase: Design