Quinnsights: Design for Performance

As designers, we’re asked toproduce courses when there’s a perceived problem. Sales aren’t up to scratch? Timefor a course. Customer satisfaction is lacking? Let’s arrange a refresher. Errorson the rise? Put ’em in the classroom! And yet, lots of times a course isn’tgoing to solve the problems. Instead, we need to designfor performance.

I have been known to arguethat it’s about skills, not just knowledge. And, generally, that’s true. Thereare times when knowledge is the necessary differentiator. But what reallymatters is performance. It makes all the difference.

Performance consulting

Problems in performance canhave multiple causes. Sorting out the root cause is an important component ofdesigning effective solutions. After you know the performance gap (and youshould be asking the measureyou’re impacting so that you know when you’ve achieved your goal), you need tofind out why.

Here’s an example. Let’s saysales for the new edition of the PoliticianNullifier aren’t meeting expectations. What are some possible reasons? Itcould be that sales folks haven’t been told where this product fits in theirpriorities. It could be that the product revision hasn’t been accepted bycustomers. Or the marketing’s off. The sales folks might not have the toolsthey need to work out customer costs effectively, or there may be highercommission on other products. They may not know how to deal with objections or explainthe new features. 

There are several questionsyou should be asking: Could they do it if their lives depended on it? Couldthey do it if they had the proper resources or help? Do they want to do it? Dothey need to learn something new to be able to do it? Answering these questionsis a process known as performance consulting.

The point is that there aremany obstacles to effective performance, and only some of them are addressableby instruction. If people don’t have time or the tools necessary, it’s not goingto happen. If people aren’t motivated or don’t think it’s important, they won’tdo it. And if they’re the wrong people, it’s unlikely. Make sure you’re solvinga problem where training helps. To put it another way, match the solution tothe core problem!

Design for performance

Designing interventions otherthan courses—revised incentives, performance support, context-sensitivesystems, spaced learning, expert access, and more—isn’t trivial. Sometimesthere are resources available, but people can’t find them or they’re not welldesigned. I once reviewed an aid a bank had developed for speaking withcustomers. It was well laid out to do the necessary discovery process, but itwas flawed, as well. It was designed for using a specific wording for each step,but the employees at the branch didn’t even know what it was for. The aid couldeasily have been designed to support the performer appropriating theterminology over time (to create a more natural conversational flow), but itwasn’t.

Performance support requirestwo other skills. One is information architecture, where resources are madeavailable in a way that performers can easily find the tool to use. Will it becontextually available, browsable through a portal, and searchable in ways thatprovide a very high likelihood of finding it? This involves tagging, at theleast.

The other skill is the designof the resource itself. In his excellent book, The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande talks about creating achecklist that flips the mortality rate from 80 percent to 20 percent indeveloping countries. However, one of the important lessons was that thechecklist was prototyped, trialed, and refined through testing. How does thisrelate to learning? Your first guess isn’t likely to be right and there should be a process formatching the resource to the need.

Then there is the importanceof curating a resource. That means finding an appropriate one, not necessarilycreating one from scratch. In fact, “curationover creation” should be one of your mantras. Don’t build what you don’t haveto. It’s about working efficiently, as well as effectively.

For the same reason,sometimes it’s a smart move to determine that the answer is in the network andyou don’t have to provide it. If a situation is unique, infrequent, ambiguous,or changing too fast, making a resource doesn’t make sense. In this case,connect the performer to someone who can help. Resources before courses, andsometimes those resources are people!

Designing for learning

When it is about courses, design appropriately. That means knowing andapplying a bit of learning science into our solutions. It means not following fadsor myths. It means designing to both engage and achieve theoutcomes.

Learning design starts withthe right objectives and immediately segues into designing appropriate practice,practice that:

• Is sufficient, spaced,varied, and deliberate
• Is resourced with models toguide performance and examples demonstrating application
• Builds in the emotionalconnection, as well as the cognitive

Our learning, like ourresources, shouldn’t be assumed to be good—it should be tested and refineduntil it achieves the necessary outcomes. It’s about recognizing that skillsand knowledge go together to lead to performance.

In conclusion

Our goals for individual, group, andorganizational success are not about learning but are about performing. Thestrategic move is to focus on improving performance and enable all the myriadways that can happen. As such, we should design for performance. Formallearning, informal learning, performance support, technology infrastructure,and culture all play a part in a performance ecosystem.