Hal Richman

Methodology

Bernard Woods (Goss Gilroy Inc.) and I have developed a Methodology to provide a variety of stakeholders with a roadmap in addition to rigorous methods and tools for specifying and evaluating learning, training and development (LT&D). The Methodology gives senior managers, learning, training and development professionals, professional evaluators and similar stakeholders what they need to make a convincing case to senior management about improvements in work performance and organizational results.

The Methodology is not positioned to replace other techniques and methods, but to complement them. We are trying to provide a more formal way for people to understand their business/work problems at a systemic level, assess if learning, training and development (LT&D) is useful for solving them and if so, provide a minimalist set of tools for evaluating LT&D initiatives that enable drawing a line of sight to organizational results.

In summary, the Methodology’s phases are:

1. Determining the organizational challenges and problems to be addressed:
Focussing on the three main sources of challenge – external factors, the organization itself or a division or work team within the organization – we produce a precise definition of what needs addressing; e.g. too much overtime, high staff turnover, too few staff, etc.

2. Mapping the work system, especially as it relates to the determined challenges and problems: Our proprietary mapping method enables a broad range of stakeholders and analysts to quickly grasp the system, providing common ground for assessing what’s needed to address the challenges.

3. Defining the performance improvements needed to address the organization’s challenges: To ensure that initiatives are tightly linked to what people need to do to improve their work performance, we define specific and measurable performance improvements.

4. Ensuring that the problem is not caused by performance, management, systems or leadership issues: If LT&D initiatives have been selected as a way of addressing the organization’s challenges, we need to ensure that the problem is in fact one that can be addressed by LT&D.

5. Specifying the LT&D initiatives that can have impact, especially system-wide impact.

6. Drawing a clear linkage between outputs, immediate and mid-term outcomes and larger systemic impacts: This allows us to understand the potential effect of the initiatives on work performance and organizational results. We clearly specify the proposed initiatives and also annotate the work system map to illustrate how the initiatives are to be best placed within this system in order to have maximum impact on work performance and organizational results.

7. Completing a Measurement Framework: Building on this linkage we specify in detail how the intended effects of the initiatives will be measured, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Download a copy of the Methodology White Paper.

A Lean Approach To Specifying And Evaluating Learning, Training and Development Linked To Work Performance And Organizational Results by Productivity Solutions Inc., Goss Gilroy Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License

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