Be a Designer, Not Just a Trainer
Mar 26, 2009 Selling Social Learning, Social Learning SIG
As Dave and I talk about in the latest podcast “Be a Designer, not just a Trainer” (iTunes link) “Performance Improvement” or HPT (Human Performance Technology) should be at the top of the food chain. The following should be understood by us all:
HPT is (should be) in direct coorelation with goals
Learning is a subset of HPT
Training is a subset of Learning
eLearning is a subset of Training
Yet so many times we skip the HPT & Learning parts and go straight for Training or eLearning. Why is that?
The point was driven home just now as I went to my LinkedIn page. It asked for my Industry. I tried to find anything about HPT or Performance Improvement or anything like it. Not there. But there is eLearning, Education Management, Higher Education, Human Resources, Primary/Secondary Education and Professional Training / Coaching. But nothing to do with performance improvement.
Too general? Maybe. But I don’t think so. LinkedIn takes what are the most popular categories. How many of you would consider yourself an HPT professional? Exactly. That is why it is not an option. That is why ISPI has a lower membership (10K) than either ASTD (70K) or the eLearning Guild (35K). This is backwards. We should all be ISPI members and THEN ASTD or eLearning Guild members.
Unfortunately, too often too many people jump from goals to training and skip the inbetween. Why can’t many break free of this rut? My opinion is that this is what those in executive management expect. They expect training. Come to them with some other solution besides training that will work better and their reaction often is, “Why are you doing that? Aren’t you supposed be doing training? This isn’t your department.” I know – I have had it happen to me in the past.
But if we are going to be effective, we have to think of ourselves as Designers of human performance, not Trainers of content.
Tags: astd, design, elearning guild, ispi, LinkedIn
March 27th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Kivin, I have the same problems. I’ve been trying to introduce HPI/HPT to Chinese training professionals but found they have less interest in this topic but much more in training. I felt frustrated when an introduction to Gilbert’s BEM was regarded as “frontiers” and “something not practical”. I thought it would be better in the US.
March 27th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Thanks for your comment, Lydia. It made me realize how US centric I am. Yes, I had hoped that we could have moved beyond that by now, but was also hoping that others in the world were further than we were. Guess not.
April 2nd, 2009 at 6:38 am
The best this I liked about this post is the title “Be a Designer, Not Just a Trainer”. Thanks for the input.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Early in my career–just before starting a full-time job as “writer/instructor”–my boss-to-be sent me to a workshop on programmed instruction.
The original designers included people like Geary Rummler and Dale Brethower–groundbreakers in the field of performance improvement.
As a result, I learned to take a systems approach toward things that look like training problems. Even where there are clear skill/knowledge gaps, I’m guided by Joe Harless’s advice…
“Never ask what the client wants people to know.” He’ll tell you. And it’s likely to be History of Widgets, Theory of Widgets, Widget Appreciation.
The right question is “what do you want people to do?” In the best of worlds, that strips away a lot of nice-to-know impedimenta.
And, if the client thinks they do need to know the history of widgets, you’re forewarned.
April 14th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Great advice, Dave. It is interesting, almost sad, to watch our focus go toward the DO but then the client focus on the KNOW. Sometimes it is very difficult to help them get their focus where it should be. The first hurdle is us. The second hurdle is them – helping them overcome a perception we have created. Yikes!
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:56 am
*raising hand* I consider myself an HPT professional. “HPT & Learning parts and go straight for Training or eLearning. Why is that?” … because IMO, most of the population came from training TO HPT rather than (other) user-advocacy positions. And other HP disciplines, such as human factors, are aligned with ACM and SIGCHI, for example–heavy hitters. FWIW, eLearning Guild has free membership, ASTD has a spiffier website. ISPI needs to step up and market (which costs bucks) to compete, and let go of this second-class attitude!