Human capital is the single most important source of competitive knowledge in today’s increasingly knowledge-based economy.

The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning; Wick, C., Pollock, R., Jefferson, A.

While working with a client recently, we were vigorously moving through the task analysis. This allowed us to identify various learning objectives, align it to the content, and address potential behavior changes they seek in the audience.

When we got to the meat of the training module, I proposed a simple question. “What actionable tasks do you want them to perform when using this new tool?”

They were perplexed.

The content was identified.

The audience was clear.

The tools for the learners were drafted.

They answered with responses such as “think about this topic in a certain way” or “understand the topic”. To some, this may sound acceptable. Others would cringe at the answer in it’s simplicity for experiential learning design. Either way, the digging into the content and tools they had developed must be further investigated.

Through all of their planning, they had skipped one of the fundamentals of high quality training. Training is a way to get participants to “think” differently, and as a result, reflect positively on the business.

What is the business outcome?

The focus on the business outcome can sometimes cause training developers to lose sight of the the behaviors we want to change in the learning participants. Wanting to avoid compliance mistakes, teaching employees to think differently, and providing them a useful tool to analyze before projects are all very honorable goals of the training. More often than not, this is where the training analysis ends.

We have to be able to keep these in mind when developing training, but we can’t get lost in the weeds. Can you imagine what could happen if we build training to focus on the goals, and neglect the behaviors required to reach those goals?

Not the outcome, the behaviors

As workplace learning professionals,

We are not in the business of of providing classes, learning tools, or even learning itself. We are in the business of facilitating improved business results.

Harburg, 2004

This is done be changing behaviors of our audiences. We have to have actionable items which can be completed to achieve the desired results.

While this concept seems quite obvious when developing learning experiences, we have worked with countless training courses and programs who failed to properly identify the behaviors that needed to be changed.

From behaviors to results

Here are just a few of the topics we have been tasked with developing for our clients.

• Safety
• New hire orientation
• Communication
• Leadership
• Yoga programs
• Organization
• Custom software
• Unique presentation styles
• Confidence and empowerment
• Bioethics and trust

Can you imagine what would happen if we only focused on business results?

A thorough analysis and development of training focuses on actionable behaviors. These behaviors changes will manifest in positive business results. Here are just a few of our favorite questions when working with stakeholders and subject matter experts.

• What do you want the audience to do differently and better?
• Is there anyone currently performing the task at the optimal efficiency?
• What is the measurement of success?
• What is the timeline to complete that measurement?

These questions help gather insight for the expected results of the training. Depending on the topic, you may use one or more of the questions above to help pull out the necessary information from your stakeholders.