POINT OF VIEW
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BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND*
As we begin conversations with our prospects and clients, we take the time up-front to understand what specific outcomes our clients are seeking to achieve and how they will ensure that the targeted change is sustained over time. Our experience tells us that often a needs assessment has not been completed, nor has much consideration been given to ensuring that performance changes take hold and can be sustained. By beginning with the end in mind, Performance Edge Plus takes a complete end-to-end approach in order to develop the one size fits one performance improvement system necessary for sustained success.
When asked, many clients are unable to articulate learning outcomes in terms of the necessary knowledge, skills and behaviours required, or management levers needed, in order to create and sustain the change and reap the rewards of enhanced business results. Some organizations look to their employees to tell them what training or other initiatives (or interventions) are necessary to drive improved business results. The challenge with this approach is that most employees are not aware of the knowledge, skills or behaviours they may be lacking, while others who may have those insights are often uncomfortable disclosing that information.
In the absence of an internally completed needs assessment, at Performance Edge Plus we take the time to ask thought-provoking questions up-front, which helps us to understand:
• their vision of the targeted state and how that differs from the current state
• what people would be doing differently from what is done today
• what business results would be used as the measure of success
• what the business has already tried in order to improve performance, and what has worked / not worked
• what sustainment activities will be necessary, and
• what processes must be implemented to create a loop for feedback and continuous improvement.
Taking this approach, Performance Edge Plus is able to develop an engagement design that is uniquely suited to each client's situation, scaling the needs assessment appropriately to gather the remaining critical information, crafting the learning or performance improvement solution, embeding sustainment activities making the solution stick, and developing a post-implementation plan to facilitate on-going evaluation and collaboration along the business’ performance improvement path.
* Credit to Stephen Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
ONE SIZE FITS ONE
Decades of experience working with clients tells us that every organization is unique and therefore every organization warrants a customized solution to its business challenges. This One Size Fits One point of view is central to how we approach our client engagements.
Some service providers believe that a learning solution developed for one company can be readily altered for other companies without compromising the quality of the deliverable. They argue that this approach saves time and money for everyone. Unfortunately, their promise of direct relevance for the learner is rarely fulfilled.
Their approach is like shaving down the four edges of a square peg to force it into a round hole. The results are large gaps. For example, in curriculum design this may mean that people in unique roles are lumped in with the general target population. This typically results in reduced learner engagement and lack of ability to transfer the learning to their specific role within the organization. It may also mean the unique structure and location of the leadership team cannot be accommodated. This causes a lack of leadership support and coaching, significantly reducing leadership commitment and the probability that the change effort will succeed. Also, superfluous content in the “off the shelf” solution distracts from the key business objectives, unnecessarily wasting learners' time and the client's money. And finally, the company's nomenclature and values are often missing within the core content, causing confusion and creating a distraction to content adoption by the learners.
At Performance Edge Plus, we believe that it is absolutely critical that we design and deliver relevant and engaging learning specifically for our client. To do that we need to truly understand the organization, its culture and the learners' needs. Our team of design and development experts collaborate with subject matter experts to craft the most appropriate performance improvement solution. Throughout, we provide the project management to ensure that our work is delivered collaboratively, on time, with quality - and within budget.
HEAD AND HEART LEARNING
At Performance Edge Plus, we endeavor to create learning experiences that will be rewarding for the learner, and will also result in sustained growth for the business. To accomplish this, we believe in engaging both the head and the heart of the learner by creating trust and safety in the learning process, by leading learners to accept, absorb and adopt new knowledge, by ensuring that the design is appropriate for a variety of learning styles, and by learners taking responsibility and accountability for their own skill development.
Workshops led by expert facilitators move learners through a process of:
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creating a safe and respectful environment in which to move learners outside of their comfort zone, and thereby stretch their thinking toward possibilities. This is done through specific activities at the start of the workshop. In creating this supportive environment, there is a much higher probability of learner retention and adoption of the new knowledge, skills and behaviours back on-the-job,
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self-assessment and discovery, stimulating an emotional connection necessary for engaging the learner,
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contextual and process learning of directly relevant content, ranging from short bursts to full day sessions, appealing to a variety of learning styles and designed to have the learner understand and embrace new knowledge, skills and behaviours,
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reflection. Reflection is critical to deepen the understanding of what needs to be done, why and how, and motivating the learner to become self-managing throughout the learning process, and
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developing and committing to a learning contract with their manager, empowering the learner to take responsibility for their own development.
Engaging both the head and the heart of the learner through this deliberate learning journey helps also to create a positive culture of learning in the organization, and leads the learners to comment and ask: “That was a worthwhile investment of my time....so what’s next?”.