Performance Support …#3 of the top 5 articles of 2013

Rounding up our list of the top five Performance Support articles in 2013, here’s article #3

The Round-Up: #3

Survive and Thrive with Performance Support by Conrad Gottfredson & Bob Mosher, June 2013

This is a short but informative article published by the Training Industry Quarterly. It is written by Conrad Gottfredson and Bob Mosher, another Bona Fide voice in performance support from Ontuitive. The article’s focus is on developing a performance support infrastructure that allows the organization to move, adapt, and flex in response to inevitable change.

The workforce are seen as “dynamic learners” that contribute to an organization’s agility. Developing and implementing a performance support infrastructure gives these dynamic learners instant access to what they need in order to perform competently. The main focus of the article is on integrating the infrastructure according to the workflow process in question and designing according to two principles, proximity and immediacy. Performance support is efficient when it is accessed within 2 clicks and 10 seconds.

Do you have a performance support infrastructure in place? What are its strengths?

Stay tuned for more upcoming blog posts for the remaining top five performance support articles of 2013 … and be sure to check out the first two articles of five in this series:

Performance Support …#2 of the top 5 articles of 2013

In the last performance support blog post I talked about the importance of providing the right information and the right amount of information at the right time to help increase productivity and reduce time off the job spent looking for answers. I also included the first of our top five articles of 2013 on performance support. So here's article #2: 

The Round-Up: #2

Now's the Time for Performance Support By: Conrad Gottfredson, April 26, 2013

Gottfredson, Chief Learning Strategist of Ontuitive, a world-leader in performance support, is an extremely credible voice in the performance support arena and has produced a wealth of very informative and insightful articles in 2013.

Gottfredson based this article on Gloria Gerry’s book “Electronic Performance Support Systems” that she wrote in 1991. The content in this book has become extremely relevant again and the desired approaches more achievable, due to the existing and emerging technologies available now.  Gottfredson devised six attributes or principles of an effective performance support solution from Gerry’s definition of the same term where performance support is an: “Orchestrated set of technology-enabled services that provide on-demand access to integrated information, guidance, advice, assistance, training and tools to enable high-level job performance with a minimum of support from other people”.  The Performance Support Pyramid methodology is intertwined throughout these attributes and provides a hierarchy for “anticipating the evolving information requirements of a performer”.

Gottfredson also includes a graphic that visualizes learning transfer after a training event. This subsequently shows how performance support steps in when that transfer does not occur due to lack of use or forgetting. Not implementing a performance support system is like sending someone into a forest without giving them a map. Overall, this is an excellent study on performance support that provides great insight and advice on how an effective strategy encourages self-supported, high-performing, independent and productive workers with minimum disruption to other people in the organization.

Do you have any favourite performance support articles or research? We’d love for you to share them with us.

 Stay tuned for more upcoming blog posts for the remaining top five performance support articles of 2013 … and be sure to check out the first article of five in this series:

Performance Support...The Low Down

Let me read you your rights: Performance support is about providing the right information, the right amount of information and at the right time.  It’s not a new concept; it is a relatively new and trend worthy approach to designing learning experiences. Performance support, or just in time learning, supports the 70:20:10 model (more about this model in a later blog post). This idea, researched at the Center for Creative Leadership, proposes that 70% of your learning happens on the job.

Think back over your career. Have you ever had to stop what you were doing to find an answer to a question, so that you could move forward with a task? Think about how it feels when you are in the zone and then it’s disrupted. Is it easy or hard to get back into your workflow? Have you ever attended a systems training course and subsequently forgot everything you learned because you didn’t use it right away?

An appropriately designed performance support strategy can help to increase productivity and reduce time off the job spent looking for answers. It should be seamless and obvious. You don’t stop and think about it. It could be a printed quick reference sheet, a help system embedded in a software program, an online product comparison, online sales tips, to name but a few.

As to be expected, there's a wealth of information about performance support on the web. We looked at existing credible sources and found what we think are some of the best 2013 articles that provide hands on tips and information to help  design and implement the best possible performance support strategy for your organization. We've included the first of our five top articles of 2013 on performance support below. Stay tuned for upcoming blog posts on the remaining top four performance support articles of 2013.

The Round-Up: #1

16 Performance Support Tips, Strategies, and Tactics By: Jennifer Neibert, March 27, 2013

 Learning Solutions Magazine published some of the best articles on performance support in 2013. This is a compiled list of tips and tricks from the presenters at the eLearning Guild’s Online Forum, “Learning at the Moment of Need: Connecting Learning to Performance," on April 11th and 12th, 2013.

It gives you a good sense of what performance support is all about and some expert bite-sized advice on how to approach your design strategy. The article questions the traditional approach to training and eLearning in today’s world where employees are expected to do more, with less time and less resources. Some of the advice includes focusing on the point of need, ensuring information is as easy to access as possible, making content short and concise and design for performance first, knowledge second.

If you attended the online forum in April, We'd love to hear what you liked, learned and remembered.