The Point-of-Work Assessment (PWA) is a discovery discipline designed to examine sources of performance and productivity restrainers in the Workflow. The outcome delivers findings across six categories of attributes limiting optimization of workforce capability. Traditional Training Needs Assessments typically only cover one - People/Capability - in search of training solutions. That's great...but not enough! (more…)
Training? Are we Training or are we Learning & Development (L&D)? Depends who you ask. To our operational stakeholders we are referred to most often as “Training” not as “L&D”. Why? Mainly because of the long-held beliefs that “Training Drives Performance”. If an operational leader perceives a performance shortfall, “Call Training!” because that’s what we do. But what if the performance deficiency is not exclusively a knowledge or skills gap? Methinks L&D should STILL get the call…AND the request for training should be met with “Sure we can help with…
The short answer is YES! Arriving at a destination has a connotation of finality or completion, but what happens when the characteristics of the “destination” are dynamic and influenced by continuous change? Welcome to the world of Learning & Development (L&D); a world where we struggle to optimize workforce performance outcomes with static solutions and technology in a Dynamic Learning Performance Ecosystem. We (L&D) see it. Our operational stakeholders see it…and are asking for different solutions that show measurable impact to the bottom-line. The question becomes one of are we…
About two years ago I contacted Gartner regarding a Magic Quadrant for Performance Support; they had none…and no immediate plans stating they were not in “that space”. I suggested at the time that if they were serious about being in the learning space, they should include performance support. I doubt if my suggestion was the catalyst, but they just released a document for Digital Adoption Solutions - DAS platforms in the context of Sales Effectiveness and provided a list of vendors. Sort of… (more…)
Friday afternoon I had one of those moments where “poking the bear” was top of mind. The thoughts that surfaced triggered a brief paragraph-sized post…launched around 2:00 PM ET on Friday…10,017 views as of noon Saturday and some great dialogue still underway. “Why poke the bear?” or maybe, “Who is the bear?” Funny thing, the bear is not a “who” as much as it is a “what”. The bear is a myth. that many organizations at the enterprise level must overcome…simply put, it’s a blind spot. The bear is a…
In a previous corporate role, I completed a Point-of-Work Assessment – PWA with several colleagues in support of a new supervisory role slated for integration into 500+ retail stores. During the PWA, those slated for the promotion and a contingent of incumbents told us they wanted NO eLearning in preparation for the new role. Each store had one, maybe two computers available for training, so availability was tough and re-accessing eLearning all but impossible. Our practice was headed toward pushing training out to the stores for Floor Sales Supervisors and…
There’s a really good chance this title will “poke the bear” but then maybe the bear needs a little poke. After 35+ years in corporate L&D, I look back and see the first 20+ doing excellent work as a sales trainer and in various team and senior leadership roles yet only managing to amass an impressive string of failures. Not failures in producing top-drawer learning solutions; rather, failures in NOT consistently accelerating productivity at Point-of-Work. My “poke” surfaced during a successful first-of-four phases of SAP deployment followed by a botched…
Possibly a more relevant question is “Who owns profitability?” Certainly, we could answer everyone in the organization owns profitability, and that’s true, though some functions more directly than others. The whole concept of Point-of-Work seems to imply a place where work is accomplished. In part, I agree, however Point-of-Work is more of a discipline than a destination. It is a focused mindset on building sustained workforce capability and accelerating productivity that produces measurable business outcomes and value. Is that responsibility owned by L&D or the operational side of the business?…
7-RIGHT THINGS are core attributes to consider when building Performance Support solutions. Last week InSync Training' Virtually There Webinar Series hosted "Performance Support: Accelerating Productivity at Point-of-Work" and the 7-Right Things were discussed. Sorry if you missed it, however there is some good news - a downloadable version of the infographic - Click below to download... (more…)
Join Gary Wise on 7/9 at 2PM ET for a hashtag#VirtuallyThere series with his event, "Performance Support: Accelerating hashtag#Productivity at a Point-of-Work." Register here: https://hubs.ly/H0jmDkp0 (more…)