Deployment vs. Implementation vs. Adoption vs. Sustainability

This update was made on April 13, 2023. Since I retired, the Point of Work Assessment (PWA) Workshop series has been discontinued, and the entire contents with worksheets and instructions are now only available in a new book I wrote earlier this year: "Confessions of a Performance Ninja: Optimizing Workforce Performance @ Point-of-Work." This book embodies the transformational aspects of change that come with any Deployment - Implementation - Adoption - Sustainability initiative, whether large or small. The confessions offered in this book came from things that worked well and…

POINT-of-WORK:  Navigating Digital Transformation with Transformational Change

A few years ago I was blessed to speak at an IQPC Talent Management conference on a topic of “Change Leadership – When Change Management Is Not Enough.” My speaking invitation came from a post titled “Managing Change or Leading Change: Does It Matter?”  I guess they liked the post and topic idea because IQPC interviewed me prior to the conference. The post is hyperlinked above and contains the interview transcript they provided. I share all this because it is the perfect lead in to navigating transformative initiatives be they…

Point-of-Work:   Convergence Shift to Workflow Performance

Over the last several years, I have written about the concept of convergence; specifically, convergence of learning with work. Emphasis was placed on assets Learning & Development (L&D) produced to enable performance support closer to actual work. Workflow Learning is the more current manifestation of convergence and is a new rallying point for L&D. My fear is that there is potential that L&D may be saddled with a blind spot that will not fully optimize solutions integrating newer technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) directly into workflows. Does this negate the…

POINT-OF-WORK: CEO for a Day

If I had the opportunity to be CEO for a day, I’d blow the doors off the existing Learning/Training paradigm and shift my CLO out from under the HR umbrella or create a role and align them as a direct report...with the title of Chief Capability Officer (CCO). Place the CCO over the Office of Workforce Capability (OWC) staffed with a hit squad of Performance Consultants working directly with Operational stakeholders. Start small - then scale! (more…)

POINT-of-WORK: A Discipline That Evolves the Scope of Training

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…

CEO for a Day…Epilogue

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…

Is L&D Held Hostage by Learning?

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…

POINT-of-WORK ASSESSMENT:  Systems & Technology

In this snippet of the Point-of-Work Assessment methodology we focus on Systems (which may include multiple enterprise systems, software apps, and "human" systems) utilized to accomplish work…and…Technology utilized by Knowledge Workers as they accomplish task-level work activity that requires interfacing with any combination of their work systems (which may include mobile phones, tablets, desk-top computer, and other hand-held devices). Productivity Acceleration Technology and the implications to L&D represent the primary focus in this document (See Figure 1) and the importance of WHEN & HOW it is introduced to the Knowledge…

POINT-of-WORK ASSESSMENT:  Content & Resources

As we progress through the Point-of-Work Assessment, in previous snippets we’ve considered performance attribute clusters specific to Environment & Culture – People & Capability – Workflows & Processes. Hopefully, you’ve seen a degree of overlap and interdependencies among these three clusters. This snippet describes the importance of Content & Resources the Knowledge Worker relies upon to optimize their individual performance at the task-centric and role-specific levels. Assessing attributes across critical Content & Resources overlaps directly with Workflows & Processes although is more specific to efficient accessibility and effective application at…

POINT-of-WORK ASSESSMENT:   People & Capability

This post is another snippet from the Point-of-Work Assessment (PWA) Workshop and focuses the Knowledge Worker and the human attributes that influence roles and capabilities at Point-of-Work. Typically, when we (L&D) consider the “People” variable in our training solutions, key focus is on the Learner and the necessary job-related knowledge transfer requirements. That’s not wrong; it’s just not enough…if sustained and measurable workforce performance at Point-of-Work is the end-game. In this narrow focus we miss multiple influencers that either drive or restrain productivity/performance. I think it safe to say that…