Hopefully last week’s blog piqued your interest in performance improvement. This week, I’ll offer some thoughts on how to build a sustainable performance partnering organization. Introducing performance partnering into organizations is not new. Jim and Dana Robinson of Partners in Change were doing it for years before I met them in 1995. In their experience, the leader of the initiative was paramount to their success. The all-important first step is to develop sponsorship within your organization, and that takes leadership and a vision. Performance Improvement crosses many corporate lines and your initiative can fail if you don’t have support in several areas. If you are initiating this effort from a training organization, that’s fine, but you need support and cooperation from other areas like Human Resources and/or Organizational Development for starters. 1. Develop sponsorship through leadership and a vision - The first thing many organizations think about is the skills development of the people who will become the Performance Partners. I strongly recommend that you get your sponsorship, leadership and vision in place before you spend time and money on skill development. If you are not the leader of your training or learning organization, that’s fine, too. But, you will need whoever that person is to be your sponsor and take a leadership position with you. Once you have a vision and committed leadership, you can begin to inspire the rest of your team. 2. Develop the skills of your potential Performance Partners - Books and workshops are a good start for skill development, but make sure the workshops don’t merely present content. The best way to truly learn performance partnering skills is through practice and feedback with role plays. I know this because this is how I learned the skill and it is how I teach it today. As your performance partners begin to apply their skills, I also recommend they work in pairs. It’s sort of a buddy team like scuba diving. One person can conduct a meeting while the other observes and takes notes. The observer can act as a coach and give feedback to the meeting leader based on the principles learned in the skills building workshop. Whatever skill building approach you use, make sure it has both proactive and reactive consulting components. Typically, your clients are not out there just waiting for you to walk into their offices and help them solve their business problems. You will have to proactively, over time, become a trusted partner relationship with your clients. Once you have built a trusted partner you will be able to influence solutions that may be beyond your current control. Learning a reactive approach, which Jim and Dana Robinson call the "reframing" meeting, will help you gain permission to gather more data when you suspect you are either not hearing the whole story or maybe being asked to solve a problem with training when training is not the answer. 3. Develop a trusted partner relationship with your clients - Developing a trusted partner relationship takes time. Many instructional designers may not have pictured themselves being relationship builders when they were in graduate school or when they accepted a position in training. Welcome to the real world; this is a relationship business. In reactive consulting, you will use a series of questions and your client’s own data to either confirm a training request or to discover new and better solutions. Reactive consulting is something you will do when your client approaches you and it requires a good bit of skill and patience. Proactive consulting is something that happens when there is no pressing deadline or stressful initiative on the table. It is something initiated by you, the performance partner. It is a series of informal meetings where you attempt to assess the nature of your client’s business and ask strategic questions to be better prepared when a new initiative does arise. It is through these proactive consulting meetings, scheduled by you on a regular basis, that you will achieve a trusted partner relationship with your clients. Next week I will list and discuss three more principles for building a sustainable performance consulting organization.   Part two of three

"GAPS Map" Workshop

Last week I listed the initial three steps for building a sustainable performance partnering organization. Here are the next three steps along with a list to summarize all six steps. The person who told me this story also told me that in her next job, where she was the director of training, she tried a different approach. She called her new approach "stealth consulting". She approached her new clients with her Director of Training business card and didn’t tell them she was here to help them solve their business problems. She asked strategic, open-ended questions about their business issues. She found out what their business goals were. She asked for time and permission to gather additional data and she completed her Gaps Maps. As she and her clients discovered a variety of solutions to improve performance and achieve business goals, she became the trusted partner. Rather than talking about becoming a performance consultant, she simply became one. 5. Manage the common problems of change and adoption - Moving from training to performance consulting is a change in the way your organization does business. Like any other change initiative, change has to be managed. Only you know whether the "stealth" approach or a more formal approach will work in your organization. The best way to approach this situation is to do a gap analysis of your own company. One of my favorite clients, used to say, "Every organization has a culture, whether it is intentional or not." Since you are making an intentional change in culture by introducing performance consulting, you need to identify the gap between how your organization functions today and how you want it to function after the change initiative, especially with regard to human performance. Once you have identified this gap, you can begin to design programs to facilitate the change. 6. Document results and success to build a sustainable program - Perhaps the biggest challenge in any organizational change is making that change sustainable. Most of us are familiar with organizations who like to introduce the flavor of the quarter. It is important to manage change by not allowing too much change, and when you do bring on a new effort, stick with it. The best way to ensure sustainability is to make sure you share your positive results. You will make some mistakes and you will have some successes. When you do have successes, and you will have early successes, showcase that client and the work you have done together. Most importantly, take time to measure your results so you can showcase your success. No sales presentation in the world can top the value of positive results, or as Mark Twain put it, "Fewer things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." Finally, let your clients take credit for the good results you have produced together. This may be a bit difficult for you to do, but it is the best way to build a sustainable performance partnering program in your organization. Here are the six principles for your review:  1. Develop sponsorship through leadership and a vision  2. Develop the skills of your potential Performance Partners  3. Develop a trusted partner relationship with your clients  4. Introduce the program into your corporate culture      5. Manage the common problems of change and adoption  6. Document results and success to build a sustainable program Please contact me by email at dick.handshaw@handshaw.com if you have questions or write a comment below. Click on the Workshops tab to see the workshops that Handshaw, Inc. offers to help you with your Performance Partnering Program. Part three of three

I really do enjoy my trips out to ASTD and ISPI chapters. Last week I ended my year with two really good ones. First, thank you to ASTD Birmingham for their hospitality on Monday, December the 3rd. I had an enjoyable lunch meeting with them for what I think was a very good turnout for their chapter in a combined November/December meeting date. I used to do a lot of business in Birmingham and always enjoyed visiting that city. I hope you give me more reasons to return soon.I flew to Memphis on Thursday to attend and speak at a one day conference on December 7th in honor of ASTD’s National Learning Week. With one hundred people registered for the event, it was a huge success. The event featured four keynote speakers, good coffee and great food. I especially enjoyed the speakers dinner on Thursday evening at Corky’s Barbecue. Thanks for that one. There are a lot of great companies headquartered in Memphis to help support a vibrant and exciting ASTD chapter. Since we do have clients there, I know I will see you again soon. In 2012 I had the opportunity to speak to nine ASTD chapters, three ISPI chapters and I did one webinar for the eLearning Guild. I also presented at the 2012 Training Conference and at the 2012 ISPI International conference. It has been a very good year for me and for all of us at Handshaw, Inc. There is one common theme to my travel to professional associations and all of my colleagues’ interactions with our clients. That common theme is how much we learn from all of you. We do listen to you and we do value the improvements that all of you make in our company. We have grown and evolved in many ways over the past 27 years of serving the learning and performance improvement profession. We wouldn’t be able to do that without our clients and all the professionals who take part in professional associations. However you chose to celebrate the holidays, may you have a peaceful Christmas and a prosperous New Year. 

I’ve never been very good at making New Year’s resolutions, but here is something fairly simple. Let’s just try to do better in 2013… There is no doubt we have all seen tough economic times. Many people are still looking for employment and I hope this year they find it. Those of us who have jobs in learning and performance improvement have to pledge to do better this year. We must accept the responsibility to move beyond being order takers for training programs, and pledge ourselves to be solution finders. We need to look beyond the mere request and make an effort to link training goals to business goals. Once we identify the right reasons to develop learning, then push beyond "check-in-the-box" programs that present information without providing practice and feedback or measurement of results. Let’s pledge to ask for the time and the resources to develop learning that will make a measurable difference and achieve real business outcomes. We all know we can’t make everything we do fit these criteria, we have to pick our battles. When you find that client who is willing to work with you, give him or her your very best. No more excuses about the economy or the lack of time.  Let’s just do better…

April 8, 2013Greater Atlanta ASTD"Performance Partnering: Reframing Training Requests" 5:00-8:00 PM at The Home Depot Store Support Center See the Events page for more information.

Finally, it’s the day of the big training launch. You’ve used every bit of adult learning theory, creative talent, and design experience to create a training program that will knock it out of the park. You did a thorough analysis, followed ADDIE to the letter, and tested and verified that your training is going to meet every objective the business leader set out at the beginning of the project. But, from your seat in the back of the room your excitement quickly turns to dread as you realize the students simply aren’t connecting with the material like you thought they would. You did EVERYTHING right! What happened?! The problem is that you let the business leader set your program objectives. Gasp! "But isn’t that their job?" you ask. Well, in theory, yes. The business leader’s job is to identify the problem, do a root cause analysis, and come to you with a full understanding of how providing training to their employees can contribute to the solution. But let’s face it, all too often that’s not what happens.  Learning to Influence Without Authority What often happens is the business leader has a performance issue with their staff and wants to train them to do a better job. But what if training isn’t the answer? What does an Instructional Designer do then? It’s not your job to tell the business leader how to run their department, right? Instructional Designers should be designing to solve a business problem, and in order to get the heart of that problem they must also sometimes act as a Performance Consultant. A successful training program is one that changes behavior, imparts knowledge and skills, and meets a business need. If you’re designing to the wrong objectives, your training will fail, ADDIE notwithstanding. So give yourself permission to design successful training. Many Instructional Designers are intimidated at the thought of pushing back on the business leader’s training solution. At many companies, it’s not appropriate to tell a business leader how to run the business. When the success of your training is on the line, you can’t wait for permission to speak up. Use your knowledge of analysis to get into the business area and verify that the business leader’s assumptions about the solution are correct.  Identify the pain points and if you find issues that training won’t fix such as broken processes, document them.  You can document the issues and let the business leader decide how to resolve them, or suggest resolutions yourself. And now comes the hard part. You’re "just" an Instructional Designer. How do you get the business leader to listen to you?   Influencing without authority is a skill that you can develop just as you developed your instructional design skills. The business leader thinks they want training. But what they really want is for you to solve the performance problem they’re having with their staff. Clearly articulate the pain that they’re feeling and follow it up with a solution that provides the desired end result. They need to understand immediately that your solution will free them from the pain of the performance problem. If you like that "light bulb" moment when the students get the concept you’re teaching them, you’ll love it when the business leader realizes you have found out how to make the pain go away. You can read more of Kelly’s work at EffectiveTrainingDesign.com and RedFeatherNetworking.com

It’s time to go back to one of my favorite training conferences, Training 2013 Conference & Expo, in Orlando Florida. If you haven’t registered or just want to see what it is all about, go to www.trainingconference.com . I will be presenting a Hands-On Clinic on Performance Partnering: Proactive and Reactive Performance Consulting, February 20th, 12:15 to 3:15 PM. During the session I will present my eight principles for Proactive client meetings, which includes the skills required to develop a consultative relationship with key clients and leaders in the organization.  I will also present the eight principles for Reactive client meetings, which focuses on how to reframe a client request in a way that will yield better results for both you and the client. These principles will be supported by videos to demonstrate how to use them and then I will let the audience take over with live role plays. The interactions during the live role plays are always a surprise and a learning experience for everyone, so be sure and stop by to see what happens. See for yourself how well the principles work on the first try after very little instruction.  Hear feedback from your colleagues.  Then, imagine how well they can work once you have had a chance to practice them for a while. These are the same principles that the Instructional Designers and Performance Consultants of Handshaw, Inc. use when working with our clients to manage relationships, improve processes and/or develop learning solutions for our clients. If you are attending Training 2013 and looking to improve how you and/or your department engage with clients, stop by my session.  Pick up some new tactics and engage in interactive learning.  I invite you to take a sneak peek of the role play demonstrations by clicking here or the Resources link on the Home page. If you would just like to know more about Performance Partnering and how it can change your business, take a look at the workshop description on this site or send me an email.  I’ll be happy discuss it with you in detail.  Looking forward to Training 2013! p.s. If you need some new reading material on Performance Partnering, click here for my recently published article in Training Magazine.  Thanks!

Training Magazine continues to attract more attendees to their excellent conference. Attendance this year was 2,000, which is back to 2008 levels. The Monday evening Gala for the Top 125 draws a well-dressed crowd for the annual awards event. The attendees for this event were anxious to see if they went up a few numbers while some may have slipped a few numbers in the ranking. Regardless of the outcome, they were all smiles for the banquet and entertainment. The Training 2013 staff is always creative and not afraid to take a few risks with their selection of keynote speakers. The result is definitely not your basic keynote, but always something out of the ordinary and thought provoking. I’ve enjoyed every one for the last few years. This conference doesn’t have conference tracks, but every time slot is filled with a variety of topics from performance improvement to technology and leadership topics. I was impressed with the sessions I attended as well as the usual list of the big name speakers who always like to come to this conference.   It is still my favorite.

There is a recurring industry theme that I suspect may come across as a little threatening for training departments and trainers.  That recurring theme is that we should do less training.  I understand why this may be worrisome when you first think of it.  If I’m in the business of developing and/or facilitating training, it does not sound like the best career move to tell my manager that we need to do less training.  I recently attended Roger Addison’s excellent evening meeting and one day workshop for ISPI Charlotte.  There was one phrase though that I heard Roger use over and over again as I listened to him.  In response to many questions, his answer began with "Yes… and…" Let’s apply this to the question in my title. Is performance improvement a threat to training departments?  Yes, it could be a threat, especially if we do nothing to replace the training that we don’t provide.  Now here’s the good part, doing less training could be the best thing we can do to increase our value to our organization and our clients.  Instead of just taking an order for more training, which costs our organization money, we might take additional time to find out what the real business goal is, and what kinds of training or performance improvement activities would impact the achievement of that goal in a positive way. A fair question might be, "What does that look like and how long does that take?"  It’s hard for me to speak from personal experience, but I actually had a corporate job once.  It was back in 1979, right after graduate school, and I just started asking questions about our first training request like I was taught to do by my professors.  My boss told me he felt more like a detective than someone who provided training.  Interestingly, Roger used that same word, "detective" to describe what we do.  Along with that, another theme I heard was to be "observant". If you are a trainer who is somewhat intimidated by the prospect of doing less training, or using some of the complicated performance improvement models out there, relax.  Roger is definitely one of the most successful performance consultants out there and he just keeps it simple and practical.  It is my belief though, that if you are in the learning and performance business—and that includes trainers—performance consulting is something you can’t ignore. Consider that a better value proposition for your organization might not be "doing more with less", but doing less training better.  Even more importantly, we can use training where training will solve a performance problem and apply other solutions where training is not the best solution or the only solution.  The next time you get a training request, you can tell your client, "Yes we can do training, and…"

On the evening of April 8, I will have the pleasure of presenting "Training Request: Ask Questions First" to the Greater Atlanta chapter of ASTD.  This presentation helps trainers interact with their clients as consultants and not be perceived as order takers.  This sixty minute session presents eight principles for reframing a training request.  I will use a video role play to demonstrate how the principles are used in a reframing meeting with a client, and then I will ask two participants from the audience to do a live role play.  The rest of the participants will have the opportunity to provide feedback based on the eight principles. The business reason for the reframing meeting is best summed up by Emily Wilkins in her comment on last week’s blog.  If I may quote you again, Emily: "Organizations aren’t interested in training, they are interested in performance.  They just don’t know what else to say when a performance problem arises other than, "We need training."  It’s time trainers have the courage to say, "Maybe…but let’s do some digging."  The outcome of the reframing meeting is to do exactly what Emily suggested.  We are not trying to arrive at a new solution in the reframing meeting.  We are merely trying to get permission to gather some more data.  With better data, we can complete a gaps map which will point out the gaps and causes, which in turn will help us design better solutions.  Keep in mind, these solutions may or may not include training. The reframing and gaps map process I use is based on the work of Dana and Jim Robinson of Partners in Change, Inc.  Dana and Jim are recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award from ASTD. They have been an inspiration to me and are great friends.

April 13th, 2013 - The Gaps Map Workshop April 15th, 2013 - The Gaps Map Concurrent Session ISPI International ConferenceTHE Performance Improvement ConferenceReno, Nevada See the Events page for more information.

It’s time again for THE Performance Improvement Conference from April 12 - 14 in Reno, NV. My schedule this year will be very similar to last year. I’ll be conducting a full day pre-conference workshop on Saturday the 13th called, "Analyzing Performance gaps - The Gaps Map. This workshop is based on the work of Dana and Jim Robinson. I will explain how to complete the various portions of the gaps map in order to analyze performance gaps in an organization and prescribe appropriate solutions to achieve business goals. The workshop will feature a video role play of a sample meeting with a client to gather information to complete a gaps map. Following the video, I will have other sample scenarios for participants to complete their own gaps maps while meeting with me as their client in the prepared scenario.  Sunday, I’ll be meeting with other chapter leaders for the annual Chapter Leaders’ Workshop. On Monday morning April 15th, I’ll be presenting the same topic of Saturday’s workshop in a 90 minute format. After a brief explanation of the gaps process, I’ll show the sample video role play and we will conduct as many role plays with volunteers from the audience as we have time for. Asking for volunteers for the role plays, is risky because I never know exactly what will happen, but that makes it that much more fun and interesting.  Finally, at lunch on Monday, my friends Jim and Dana Robinson who are responsible for whatever I am able to teach others about Performance Improvement will receive the much deserved Tomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award. This award recognizes outstanding and significant contributions to the knowledge base of Human Performance Technology. Dana and Jim have published seven books in the field and helped dozens of clients through their company, Partners-in Change.  Before I met Jim and Dana, the world of Performance Improvement seemed complicated. It did not seem within the realm of an instructional designer to be able to practice successfully. What they did in their seven books and countless workshop and presentations was to give all of us easy to understand principles to use performance improvement in our companies and with our clients. They gave us tools, like the gaps map, that put performance improvement within the grasp of many practitioners in the training and HR fields. Dana and Jim are happily retired and living in the warmer climate of Raleigh, NC. Since I live in Charlotte, NC, I get to see more of them now. I will also be watching and applauding as they receive their award in Reno. Thank you Jim and Dana for all that you have given to all of us.

Please take a few minutes and review our new company website. The website offers some great new project case studies about real training and results! Let us know what you think and what else you would like to see or have access to on our website. Our team stands ready to work with you on your design and development, performance consulting, or custom technology needs!     www.handshaw.com

Certainly, the highlight of this year’s ISPI conference for me was the awards luncheon at which Dana and Jim Robinson received the Thomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award. The Robinsons have received many awards, from organizations including ASTD, SHRM and ISA. It was especially nice for me to see them receive this award from ISPI to recognize their achievements and contributions to performance improvement. They began their business, Partners in Change in 1981 in Pittsburgh, PA. By the time they retired in 2010, they wrote seven books and spoke at numerous conferences for ISPI, ASTD, Training Magazine, CLO Magazine and ROI Conferences. They have left a lasting contribution to the performance improvement profession over their 30 years in business together. I first met Dana and Jim in 1995 when I was introduced to them by one of my best clients. By that time I had been running my business for ten years. We were happily taking orders for training, sometimes asking a few questions about training goals but usually, just developing the best learning solutions we could. For the first time in my career, a client challenged me to align training goals with business goals. Fortunately, the client also introduced me to Dana and Jim and they taught me how to do that. In 1996, I hired Jim to do a performance consulting workshop for my company. Our shift from training to performance improvement was not immediate, but it has been lasting. Since, that workshop I have never been able to listen to a training request without asking questions. Over the past 18 years, Jim and Dana became mentors and also great friends. I’ve had so many people who have influenced my career and helped me throughout my life, but no one else has had as much influence over my career and business as they have. As they retired, I found myself writing and speaking more and more about the things they have taught me. I attended every keynote, every workshop, every conference session I could as they traveled and spoke. I bought every book and incorporated their processes into our work at Handshaw. I have recently begun helping my clients transition from training to performance improvement, all based on what I learned from them. Even more than learning their processes and tools, I have tried to emulate their generosity and their integrity to the profession. They offered their processes and tools freely in their books and conference sessions. They always made time to help anyone who was interested in learning from them. They are staying very active in their retirement and it was good to see them at the ISPI conference reconnecting with their friends and colleagues. I’m hoping for the sake of the profession that they will stay connected from time to time. We all owe them a great deal! Thank you Dana and Jim for all you have given us. You have left a great legacy!

I believe instructional design is part art and part science. I have always liked both science and art, so maybe that’s why I’m still fascinated by how instructional design works after using it for 35 years. Let’s take a look at the science part of instructional design first. Instructional design, as I learned it, is based on the field of behavioral science. B. F. Skinner’s principle of Operant Conditioning explains a lot about learning and motivation. The principle says that animals and humans are motivated by and learn from a stimulus from their environment followed by a response from the learner. One of my professors illustrated this point beautifully by asking us if we knew the key to the universe. Now there’s a question that will get your attention. We didn’t know, but he did. He explained that the field of cybernetics, invented by Norbert Weiner in 1948, was in his opinion, the key to the universe. I believe he is right about at least one thing. It is the key to how people learn. He explained it this way. If a plane takes off from New York to fly to Los Angeles, the pilot doesn’t wait until he thinks he is in Los Angeles to check his position. In fact, he and his navigation equipment are constantly checking position and sending back corrective feedback messages throughout the entire flight. And that, he said, is how people learn. Instructional design today is influenced by cognitive science in addition to behavioral science.  But since cybernetics is a study of systems, its basic principles still hold.  The human mind is a system and if we want to make a change in that system (by having someone develop a new skill, for instance) we have to understand its inputs, outputs, and controls.  Weiner himself explained that cybernetics was a way for humans to control their environment through communication. He says that "when a human sends a message, they are only aware that it has been received once the recipient replies, either verbally or non-verbally." If you think about a lot of training events where information is merely transmitted to a group of people, this strategy doesn’t really fit Weiner’s model. When there is no communication and no corrective feedback, there is much less learning. This underlying philosophy of cybernetics is something to keep in mind if you are asked to do rapid e-learning development.  Now let’s talk about the "art part" of instructional design. One of the things an artist does as he creates a work of art is start with a design in mind, but the artist is willing to change and improve the design as the piece is created. The artist allows the piece to evolve by critically viewing the piece or even getting feedback during pivotal points in its creation. I learned this during my undergraduate years of fine art training and have found it invaluable as an instructional designer. This is why developing prototypes and getting feedback from learners can be one of your most valuable design tools. Instructional design models give you another opportunity to approach your craft as an artist and a scientist. When it comes to choosing a model, I think there are number of very sound instructional design models in use today.  It does not matter as much which one you use as it does how you use it. The reason some people become disillusioned with instructional design models is that they try to use them as a cook book approach so they can do the same things every time they approach a new instructional solution Instructional design models are intended to make the design of instruction systematic and therefor more efficient. Because the output of one step becomes the input for the next step, they also make a logical progression that does not rely on what worked last time and keeps our design decisions relevant to what we are trying to achieve. They are not intended to be used exactly the same way in all situations. So we could say that instructional design models are developed in a systematic or scientific way, but the use of them often has to change in a more creative or artistic approach. 

In order to do better, maybe we need to do less, not more. If we focus on the learning initiatives that are linked to important corporate initiatives and leverage good design principles, like doing the proper amount of analysis before we jump into content, maybe we could just do things better. While it may not be possible to only develop learning for important corporate initiatives, if we can successfully reframe some of those requests that don’t really require training, we will have more time to do the right things right. Once we have identified only those projects that can benefit from learning, we can also use our instructional design skills wisely. The "art" of instructional design is in knowing which techniques to employ and to what degree of rigor based on the needs of each new situation. Instructional design used correctly doesn’t cost time and money, it saves time and money. All businesses do things to make or save money, but it is not just activities that make them successful. Successful businesses achieve real results. Many learning organizations today are focused on activities by taking orders for training programs and not pausing to focus on business results. The very notion of "doing more with less", an often quoted corporate mantra, is part of the problem. If a learning organization is charged with doing more with less, there is even less chance they will pause to make sure they are doing the right things. Too often the emphasis is on hurrying to get started, putting something online or in the classroom and moving on to the next project. While it is good to do things efficiently, it is more important to do the things that achieve business results. Instructional Design is a systematic process for designing effective learning in a very efficient and structured manner. The science of learning psychology and adult learning theory are important components of successful instructional design as well. The outcome of good instructional design is observable, measurable and replicable. If your instruction is well designed, you should be able to observe that particular behavior in the work habits of your performers. You should be able to measure the results of your learner’s performance against a predetermined standard. Whatever learning programs you design and develop should be able to achieve the same results over a large audience, if implemented properly. In the end the most important aspect is not the training program itself or even a positive experience as reported by the learner. The only thing that really matters is that your learners achieve a desired business result.

For years numerous people have suggested that I should write a book. My answer always was that if I could write about a subject that hasn’t been written about at least 400 times, I would write a book. It happened. I have something to say that hasn’t been said a lot—at least not in the confines of one book. Performance Improvement and Instructional Design are both large topics by themselves and cover a lot of content. There are lots of books on Performance Improvement and lots of books on Instructional Design. There are not, however, very many books that tell you how to do both in the same methodology. The idea for the book content occurred years ago during a client consulting engagement. I was teaching instructional design to the client employees and Jim Robinson was teaching them performance consulting. The client complained that we were confusing them because they couldn’t tell where performance improvement ends and instructional design begins. We got together and designed a single methodology which is what my company has been using since. The working title for this book is "Designing for Results" and it offers a strategy for identifying business, performance, and learning needs that will help achieve business results. The book describes Handshaw’s approach for performance consulting which is called Performance Partnering. Performance Partnering helps you take the outputs from your internal client interviews into your overall instructional design when a training program is called for. The book also describes how to leverage our approach to analysis and design to achieve observable, measurable and replicable results in our efficient design of instruction. If you have been keeping up with this blog, you will see many familiar concepts in the book. I would not have been able to write this book without having had the experience of writing in this format first. The book is not finished yet, but at this point it is almost writing itself. My publisher AMACOM, the publishing arm of the American Management Association intends to make the book available in the spring of 2014. I hope you will read my book and have as much fun reading as I am writing it…  

Oct 17, 2013 Presentation - "Doing More with Less" Click here to register.

Seems in our industry there are a number of buzz words and terms that may mean generally the same thing, and at times are used loosely, depending on individual preference.  Of course, buzz words can be overused and possibly misunderstood. Here are just some examples we all deal with in conversations with clients or potential providers, at industry or social events, or at a family gathering when someone asks, "What is it you really do?"   Training versus Learning is a good example.  Is "Training" the event during which learning occurs and is "Learning" the outcome?  It seems Learning and Training is used in some cases in the same context.  Does "Performance Consulting" have the same meaning as "Performance Improvement"?   In some circles, Performance Improvement is a methodology used by industry professionals to establish improvement goals, processes, tools, and so on that will impact individual and group performance.  For others, Performance Improvement is a corporate buzz phrase used in the context of, "you need to up your game."   In some organizations consulting is not always viewed in the most positive manner.  At times it can be viewed as something you’re forced to deal with when your management team hires consultants to help you do your job better.  In other organizations, a Performance Consultant is a well-respected title.  We like to use the term "Performance Partnering." Another area that gets plenty of buzz is the notion of aligning business goals with training programs, or tying in the business goals when building training in order to achieve performance improvement.  We’ve found that in some cases, when you ask for the exact business goals, they are not clearly understood or identified.  Thus, there may be training programs developed because a manager or line of business decide they just want a program developed to fix a problem.  In the end, the programs or consulting engagements may not be completely aligned to the business goals and thus may not achieve the desired positive impact to the business.        So, how can we put these industry terms into proper context?  What should we do as a common practice? How can we move forward with designing quality training programs and improving employee performance with minimal confusion?   Use your interview and partnering skills to determine the exact business goals and put them in writing.   Make sure you are consistent and clear with the terms you use during this process to minimize possible confusion with your client. If the business problem or issue can be fixed or improved with a training program which supports the stated business goals, then do it.  If a training program is needed, follow a systematic process to determine the requirements for the training solution, and then build it.  If a training program does not seem to be the complete answer, do additional interviewing and consulting to uncover more details on the current situation, along with the business goals and the desired outcome.  The identified gap becomes the target for the overall program.  Also, keep in mind there are situations where a complete training program and a consulting engagement are both appropriate and are required to close the performance gap and bring results.   

[Catalog description for my new book]  Training That Delivers Results Instructional Design That Aligns with Business Goals Dick Handshaw  Instructional designers and other training professionals are often forced into order-taking roles. The company wants training on a specific topic—business writing, behavioral interviewing, customer service—and a one-size-fits-all module is produced. Training That Delivers Results offers a far better way to educate employees, one that connects learning solutions with strategic business goals. Rather than being told what to teach, proactive designers collect data to define problems and develop training interventions. Written by one of the originators of computer-based training, Handshaw’s results-oriented model is systematic, yet flexible, and works for both instructor-led training and e-learning. Readers will learn how to: Analyze performance gaps ● Create targeted performance objectives and connect them with the right measurement tools ● Determine the best instructional strategy and the appropriate media ● Build consensus with project blueprint meetings ● Evaluate the effectiveness of training and use the data to continually improve. Learning goals and business goals should go hand in hand. Here are the tools, worksheets, and assessments needed to tie the learning experience to enhanced performance outcomes—and deliver sustainable, quantifiable business results.  Dick Handshaw (Charlotte, NC), president of Handshaw, Inc., is a consultant, speaker, and pioneer in the field, with more than 35 years of experience as a learning and performance improvement professional.    

Check out my new book cover...: Training That Deliver Results Instructional Design that Aligns with Business Goals

Instructional designers and other training professionals are often forced into order-taking roles. The company wants training on a specific topic—business writing, behavioral interviewing, customer service—and a one-size-fits-all module is produced. Training That Delivers Results offers a far better way to educate employees, one that connects learning solutions with strategic business goals. Rather than being told what to teach, proactive designers collect data to define problems and develop training interventions. Written by one of the originators of computer-based training, Handshaw’s results-oriented model is systematic, yet flexible, and works for both instructor-led training and e-learning. Readers will learn how to: Analyze performance gaps ● Create targeted performance objectives and connect them with the right measurement tools ● Determine the best instructional strategy and the appropriate media ● Build consensus with project blueprint meetings ● Evaluate the effectiveness of training and use the data to continually improve. Learning goals and business goals should go hand in hand. Here are the tools, worksheets, and assessments needed to tie the learning experience to enhanced performance outcomes—and deliver sustainable, quantifiable business results. Dick Handshaw (Charlotte, NC), president of Handshaw, Inc., is a consultant, speaker, and pioneer in the field, with more than 35 years of experience as a learning and performance improvement professional.

Feb 3-5, 2014 Breakout Session - "The Gaps Map: Identifying Business, Performance, and Skills Gaps".  Please join Dick and many of your peers at the San Diego Convention Center.  http://www.trainingmag.com/articles/conferences