Efforts to apply Design Thinking to Instructional Design fail when they try to force fit Design Thinking concepts into the ADDIE process or visa versa. The front-end of ADDIE (analysis and design) is where Design Thinking is most useful. It can help to break through listless approaches to learning design and replace it with user...Continue Reading
The language of employee engagement is growing in HR and training circles. Engagement is being used both as an explicit goal and measure of successful interventions. But what is the relationship between engagement and performance? Can we assume that more engaged employees perform better? Taking it further, can we assume that engagement causes improved performance?...Continue Reading
We all make mistakes. We know better, but we follow old ways or accept cultural practices that don’t work. There are patterns that produce successful projects and those that lead to failure (see the project death march). I did a recent presentation on the classic mistakes we make in the planning, design and implementation of...Continue Reading
If you’ve been in the learning business for a while you’ve likely seen a few examples where learning initiatives have simply missed the mark. They didn’t produce the anticipated return on investment. Planned performance improvement did not materialize. Learners didn’t develop the skills targeted by the program. Or if they did they certainly aren’t being...Continue Reading
The Learning End GameTrap Perhaps you’ve re-committed to improve learning as the mission of your department (or next big initiative, or…). It’s well meaning but can be self defeating (or worse, self-fulfilling). The term leaves the impression that learning is the end game, your raison d’être. The real end game is performance; individual and organizational,...Continue Reading
Advocates of the most laissez-faire approaches informal learning suggest that given the right tools employees will do just fine without all the interference by the learning department. No one can argue that experience is not a powerful teacher, or that our most valuable learning occurs while working. But it’s pretty broad generalization don’t you think? Some...Continue Reading
The Learning Circuits Blog big question this month is: How do you respond to the “I want it now!” request from a demanding executive? They provide the scenario of a Type A executive with a website open on rapid instructional design prompting the “I want it now” request. (Hard to imagine i know, and if...Continue Reading
Through her Action Mapping process Cathy Moore has demystified, and put a friendly face on an analysis process that produces lean and effective learning programs with an emphasis on practice and application. The four step analysis process of identifying business goals (1), desired actions/behaviours (2) and practice activities (3) before identifying content (4) is much...Continue Reading
In a Learning 2.0 world, where learning and performance solutions take on a wider variety of forms and where churn happens at a much more rapid pace, what new skills and knowledge are required for learning professionals?” ASTD Learning Circuits big question for July The Learning Circuits big question this month is an important one,...Continue Reading
In a blog post a while back I mentioned it might be nice to see the training function morph into something more akin to an organizational effectiveness unit in the next ten years. So I enjoyed a recent post (The Rise of the Chief Performance Officer) by knowledge management leader Tom Davenport where he suggests...Continue Reading
This blog contains perspectives on the issues that matter most in workplace learning and performance improvement. It’s written by Tom Gram.
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Here are some popular posts from Tom’s former blog, Performance X Design. Some older posts contain inactive links and unedited formatting while they wait impatiently for him to update them.
