Soon after I began the Foundations of OPWL (Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning) class in the Spring of 2021, the head of an organization approached me. Some staff and clientele had complained about his recent hires. The new employees were from a different ethnic group. It was difficult for their clients and colleagues to understand them when they spoke.
This blog post is a reflection-on-action where I reflect on my actions last Spring. In light of my more in-depth understanding of analysis and the benefit of networking with colleagues and peers, I consider how I could have improved my performance.
The head of the organization knew I had experience teaching English to second language learners and needed my expertise. My former educator would have dug out my notes and drafted lesson plans. With knowledge of the theories that enhance workplace performance improvement, I examined the problem from a performance and cause analysis standpoint.
Here’s the approach I followed using the ADDIE Model.
Performance Analysis
Performance analysis is “the process of identifying the organization’s performance requirements and comparing them to its objectives and capabilities Rothwell et al. (2020.)
This process identifies gaps or discrepancies in performance. To put it simply, it is the difference between the current and desired level of performance. At a more granular level, performance analysis involves estimating or assessing a discrepancy’s impact on stakeholders in terms of tangible costs.
After performing a performance analysis, I was able to ensure that the cost of eliminating the performance issue did not exceed the cost of the problem. Not only was the organization losing clients, but they were also receiving negative social publicity that served as a deterrent to potential clients.
Cause Analysis
Cause analysis is defined as the process of determining the root cause(s) of the performance gap Rothwell et al. (2020.)
It is integral to analysis as it involves examining the gaps identified through the performance analysis more closely.
I had some assumptions going into the project. It seemed apparent that the issue was with a foreign accent. Still, I’d learned enough fon my instructional design journey to employ a systemic approach to the problem.
Using two tools, Rummler-Brache Performance™ Matrix and Gilbert’s BEM (Behavioral Engineering Model), from my toolbox, I attempted to conduct a thorough causal analysis. It was at this point I met my first roadblock. The head of the organization made it clear that he wanted my analysis restricted to the individual performer level and not the organizational work or process level. I could understand his reluctance to face the possibility of receiving potentially negative feedback.
Receiving feedback is the bedrock of ID work, but that doesn’t mean accepting it doesn’t sting sometimes.
tip top learner
I drilled down on the individual performers identified as responsible for the discrepancy. I carried out observations. I interviewed a couple of them. I found that wearing masks (Covid pandemic work-life) while communicating with clients was compounding the issue. The masks made it more difficult for clients to understand employees and vice versa. I reported my findings to the head of the organization. He requested training for the underperforming staff.
Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation
At this point, I wasn’t exactly sure how to proceed, but I did know enough not to be dangerous. I decided to look for a training course designed for speakers of the foreign language in question so the learners could learn to enunciate more clearly through the mask. Additionally, I created a step-by-step process the learners could use to:
- Ask for clarity when clients didn’t understand the clients.
- Escalate the matter to another colleague if the client expressed frustration.
I also tracked compliance and adherence to determine if the employees completed the material. About 9 months later, the situation greatly improved, complaints were down, and client consultations were back up. Could I have offered a better, more tailor-made, cost-effective, timesaving solution? Let’s find out.
Even after conducting performance and cause analysis, an ID barely scratches the surface of the level of analyses required to provide a performance solution. In the Spring of 2022, my Instructional Design class taught me that analysis activities can include a training requirements analysis, a task analysis, a learner analysis, and an environmental analysis. That’s a whole lot of analysis! Now let me elaborate on the terms down.
Training Requirements Analysis
A training requirements analysis (TRA) is the process of identifying and specifying suitable training arrangements for a recommended solution. It also considers the extent to which the client or organization will sponsor the training from creation to implementation and maintenance. A TRA can help you minimize the cost of creating, implementing, and maintaining training. This way, you can close the gap at the lowest possible cost and win some points with your client. On further reflection, I might have closed this gap with an instruction manual for instructor-led training and a few job aids instead of enrolling the learners in the external vendor’s online program.
A TRA would have revealed that I needed more adequate sponsorship than I had. For instance, I was required access to observe and interview exemplary performers and SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) instead of being limited to the performers who needed to improve their performance.
Any instructional designer’s dream is to work with stakeholders wholly committed to meeting sponsorship responsibilities that support the instructional design project. Owing to a myriad of reasons, this isn’t always the case. I’ve since learned to employ the “consultant’s back-step shuffle,” moving from one alternative to the next best in projects lacking adequate sponsorship. The former me chose a training ideal for the learners due to their ethnicity. The new me would explore finding substitutes for SMEs to conduct a task analysis.
Task Analysis
A task analysis (TA) mines examples of exemplary performance to determine what the training will address and what learning activities it will contain. It involves asking pertinent questions to generate a task list that accurately represents exemplary performance clearly and understandably. When IDs use well-written task analyses to design training, learners can do their jobs in ways that eliminate the performance gap.
I didn’t use a task analysis to inform my design phase. As a result, the learners had to wade through irrelevant material in the vendor’s training. In this project, training focused on enunciating terminology and phrases that constitute the interaction between employees and clients might have been more relevant and saved the learners’ time.
Learner Analysis
A learner analysis (LA) aims to understand the learners’ needs, motivations, who they are, what they already know and need to learn to do their jobs.
Working in education prepared me to perform learner analyses. As a result, I based my decisions on my analysis instead of relying solely on information from the sponsor, guesses, and assumptions. Not every learner characteristic was relevant to the project’s design, so I focused on what was relevant. In this case, ethnicity was relevant, and it impacted my design decisions.
I quickly learned that my learners had no problem with their knowledge and skillset. They were new immigrants, and the organization’s clients were unfamiliar with the learners’ foreign accents and vice versa. Although I sourced training specific to learners with this particular accent, it wasn’t authentic to the particular workplace. I am aware that this can affect how well learning transfers to the workplace. Consequently, the importance of environmental analysis cannot be overstated.
Environmental Analysis
Environmental analysis examines factors in the learning environment that influence how learners receive and complete training, achieve learning outcomes, and transfer what they’ve learned to their job. My design on this project could have benefitted from an instructional context where the learners could practice their speaking and listening skills and receive feedback. By rehearsing in de facto work-like situations, (in this case with native English speakers wearing masks), learners would have a greater chance of transferring skills to the workplace and achieving the desired results. When learners know how training can be applied to the workplace, they will be motivated to learn, master learning objectives, and perform to the desired standard.
Ask
Something important I’ve learned is that the learning and development community is a very supportive one. As a learning experience designer, I am learning to reach out and ask for advice or help. This hasn’t always been easy for me, considering that I’m an ambivert. After completing that project, I realized I needed to build professional relationships that I could continue to leverage and nurture. No one knows everything or has all the answers, and neither do I. Instructional design has many moving parts and instructional designers just starting out can quickly feel overwhelmed and intimidated. I continue to tackle these feelings by building, learning from, and giving to my professional learning network.
A Personal Learning Network is “a reciprocal network that you create to learn from, connect with, gather information or resources, create with and finally share what you have learned. A Personal Learning Network can occur in your school, face-to-face, online, at conferences, or through reading, reflecting, and sharing.”
COLLETTE CASSINELLI
I improve by constantly reflecting and growing within this network. If you’re new to instructional design, you aren’t alone. You can build and grow and share with your learning network as well. Click download to get a free printable to create your personal learning network.
If you would like to learn more about reflection-on-action, check out my post on Upskilling with Reflective Practice: The Key to a Mediocre Proof Workforce.
References
Human performance improvement (HPI) basics: Gilbert’s behavioral engineering model (BEM). (n.d.). Vector Solutions. https://www.vectorsolutions.com/resources/blogs/human-performance-improvement-hpi-basics-gilberts-behavioral-engineering-model-bem/
Instructional design course handbook (3rd ed.) OPWL. (Original work published 2019)
RummlerBrache.com. (n.d.). RummlerBrache.com. Retrieved January 19, 2022, from https://www.rummlerbrache.com/?msclkid=6fcf71a027011359c31d104877af881a
Systemic approach – Dictionary of agroecology. (n.d.). Bitly.ws. Retrieved January 19, 2022, from http://bitly.ws/nVe8
What is reflection in action and reflection on action? (n.d.). Askinglot.com. https://askinglot.com/what-is-reflection-in-action-and-reflection-on-action
Rothwell, W. J., Hohne, C. K., & King, S. B. (2018). Human performance improvement. Routledge.