What is the minimum viable spec in corporate training?
In our industry, we talk about learning as if it’s a thing…but what kind of thing is it, really? Great, we can do all sorts of cool stuff to help people learn. But, for many reasons, we usually don’t. There is a point at which that awesome “learning” thing we like to say we do is in such short supply that it no longer qualifies as such. Like anything, this probably varies from organization to organization, but as an industry, we can (and should) set standards.
How’s this for a standard for learning:
One or more objectives/goals
Call them learning objectives, call them focusing goals, call them organizational impacts, call them whatever you want — but specific something. Preferably something well-formed that is both actionable and measurable.
Measure of success for each objective/goal
This means an assessment of some sort. For instance, a test with a minimum of one question per objective/goal that allows us to measure if it was successful at the individual learner level.
This also means disallowing any questions that are NOT linked to a specific objective/goal.
Content scope and definition
- Targeted to a specific learner population
- Unique identifier for the content bundle
- Fulfills all learning objectives via some combination of: live interaction, text, audio, images
- Unique identifier for each learning asset, objective, and filter
- Named content owner designated with upholding the standard
- One or more learner feedback capture mechanisms (survey, open comment form)
- Systemic learner behavior tracking
- Explicit update cycle: complete feedback review process, content stale date (visible to learner), content last updated date (visible to learner), content version tracking and audit log
- One or more targeted learning filters: directing learners identified as needing it, diverting those who don’t
That last item will likely be the most controversial. I’m not attached to it, but I include it on behalf of performance improvement aficionados everywhere. I want to provide some way to close the loop and ensure that training only goes to people who actually need it.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.