Performance support approaches enable users to learn effectively, at the point of need
If you provide people in the workplace with the knowledge and information they need to do their jobs, will they need training? Gloria Gery answered this rhetorical question in 1991 with an emphatic ‘no’. Gery points out that providing knowledge within the workflow leads to fewer mistakes, higher productivity and faster acquisition of skills. However, it has taken decades for the importance of performance support and other workflow-based approaches to be recognised within the L&D world. And that’s what performance support is all about.
This post focuses on one aspect of our recently released paper, Designing Learning that Works: Using 70:20:10 Effectively, authored by no less than 70:20:10 Institute Co-Founders Charles Jennings and Jos Arets themselves.
Performance support is not the only way to implement 70:20:10
There is a certain confusion about the role of performance support.
Performance support is not the only way to support or implement the 70 in 70:20:10. The 70 involves much broader, more holistic, opportunities and approaches.
Challenges such as stretch assignments, opportunities to increase spans of control, apply reflective practices, special assignments and many other actions carried out within the flow of work can also be utilised as part of the 70 within a 70:20:10 solution.
Performance, not learning
Above all, 70:20:10 is not simply a solution box to support learning. Using the five new roles in our 70:20:10 approach, and applying new processes and new tasks within those roles, will result in the improvement of performance aligned with organizational strategy and business needs.
This will result in supporting high performance instead of supporting learning. With 70:20:10, L&D can become capable of demonstrating business value instead of just learning value.
Want to learn more about the complete picture of how roles and delivery factor into a proper 70:20:10 approach? Download the free paper today for the answers.