pedaling towards performance hal christensen christensen/roberts solutions ispi conference –...

Pedaling Towards Performance

Hal ChristensenChristensen/Roberts Solutions

ISPI Conference – Vancouver, BCApril 14, 2005

© Christensen/Roberts Solutions

Moving Towards Performance

ISPI

From Performance and InstructionTo

Performance Improvement


Moving Towards Performance

Instruction is NOT the goal.

Performance is.


The Goal

Which is the more important goal for your organization?

o Having highly trained employees?

o Having employees who perform with a high level of competence and productivity?


The Dilemma

Today’s employees have access to a much greater number of well-managed

training courses than ever before

BUT

There is little evidence that this has had significant impact on their competence,

performance or productivity. WHY?


The Dilemma

Today’s organizations have squeezed as much cost as they can from their

training budgets

BUT

There has been little corresponding decrease, if any, in the cost of bringing workers up to competent performance.

WHY?


The Cost of Competent Performance

Business CostTraining Cost

With little or no training or support,

the cost of incompetence is

unacceptably high.

Incompetence Costs

Trial & ErrorSearching

AskingFixing Mistakes




With training courses, the cost of

incompetence is reduced but not

eliminated.

IncompetenceCosts




With training courses, however,

the cost of lost productivity time

spent in training is significant.

IncompetenceCosts

Time spent in training




In the face of a growing information

overload, how effective can the training course

model be?

IncompetenceCosts





As our customers increasingly demand self-service access to our resources, how effective can the training course

model be?

IncompetenceCosts





The goal is to drive the costs of

incompetence and lost productivity

towards zero.

IncompetenceTraining Time


Doing It Right

We need to find approaches that will maximize ROI by driving down the Cost of Competent Performance:

o The cost of incompetence

+o The cost of employees’ non-

productive learning time


The Solution


Training Wheels

How do they work?

o Lock the training wheels onto the bike

o Put the child on the bike

o Show her how to pedal and steer

o Let her ride

o She learns as she rides, letting the training wheels keep her balanced

o Remove the wheels when she is ready—and steady


Training Wheels

o Create a work environment/interface that will prevent or greatly reduce the chance for error.

o Allow learning to occur in the act of doing rather than prior to doing.

o Allow learning to occur implicitly rather than through explicit training.


Demonstration

IRS 1099r – Step-by-Step Guidehttp://www.crsol.com/dotproject/launch_activeguide.htm


Training Wheels

In the demonstration:o Where does the learning take place?o When does the learning take place? o When does the learning start?o How does the learning happen?o Is there more or less learning?o Are there more or fewer errors?o When is competence achieved?o Where are the cost savings?


Training Wheels

How can we apply the Training Wheels concept to other

situations?


Demonstrations

Real Estate ApplicationTraining Toolkit


Next Step

Can we motorize the training wheels in order to focus even more clearly

on performance?


Solving the Business Problem

In a race, the goal is to get from here:



To there:



And the performance can be measured:

Men’s 100-meter dash: 9.78 seconds



Who will achieve the goal more quickly and with fewererrors?

This sprinter?



Or this hurdler?



What is the impact of the hurdles?

Women’s 100-meter dash: 10:49 secondsWomen’s 100-meter hurdle: 12.61

seconds



What is the business solution?

o Give the hurdler more training

o Reduce the hurdles


Performance Hurdles

Webster:

A hurdle is an artificial barrier over which racers must leap.


Performance Hurdles

For Human Performance Technologists:

A hurdle is an artificial barrier that stands between workers and the job they want to do, an obstacle they must learn to overcome in order to do that job.


Performance Hurdles

Because of these hurdles,

Workers in most American factories spend just 20 percent of their time making things. Supervisors spend no more than 20 percent of their time doing things that appear in their job descriptions. Knowledge workers spend just 20 percent of their time adding core value…

Jay Cross and Tony O’Driscoll “Workflow Learning Gets Real,” Training Magazine


Performance Hurdles

And training courses themselves are part of the hurdle.

o How much of your organization’s L&D efforts and budget are devoted to creating “hurdle training”?

o How much of your organization’s operations budget is spent in non-productive training time?


An Analogy: Frogger


An Analogy: Frogger

How can we best meet the goal of getting the frogs to the other side of the road?

o Deliver an extensive frogger training curriculum to teach the frogs how to navigate the obstacles?

o Build a bridge across the road?


Demonstration

IRS 1099r – E-Z Path http://www.crsol.com/dotproject/launch_activeguide.htm


Training Wheels

In the demonstration:

o Did learning take place?o Was learning necessary? o Was competent performance

achieved?o Where are the cost savings?


The Power of Training Wheels

Training wheels can maximize performance efficiency by

o Embedding learning opportunities into the work activity,




o Embedding learning opportunities into the work activity,

o Making learning a by-product of carrying out the work activity,




o Embedding learning resources into the work activity,

o Making learning a by-product of carrying out the work activity,

o Where possible, making learning irrelevant to completing the work activity.


Summary

Which represents a better investment for your organization:

o Creating as much training as possible for the least amount of training investment?

o Changing the work environment to enable employees to perform competently in as little training time as possible?

Pedaling Towards Performance

Hal ChristensenChristensen/Roberts Solutions

[email protected]

pedaling towards performance hal christensen christensen/roberts solutions ispi conference –...

Documents

training slide

training wheels

training budgets

performance improvement

cost of lost productivity

training course model

performance ispi

performance instruction