Workflow Learning Powers Classroom Effectiveness

I spent six years of my life in post-graduate study emerging with a Ph.D. in Instructional Psychology and Technology. I’ve devoted 38 years since, enriching that degree with real-world experience in the arena of organizational learning and workplace performance. At the heart of all I’ve learned in these 38 years are two realities:

• Methodology powers learning.
• Real learning happens while working.

Methodology Powers Learning

Learning is a partnership between the learner and the methods we employ to help them optimally develop, maintain, and expand on the knowledge and skills they need to perform effectively on the job.

The following table shows six fundamental instructional approaches that facilitate learning (applied research has confirmed their efficacy). Whenever these methods are orchestrated properly, learners stand a much better chance of learning than when we fail to employ these methods well (or at all).

To the right of each method in the table is a partial description of the learning side of instruction. Most certainly, this learning side is no small feat. The entire basis for Instructional Systems Design (ISD) is the assurance that the methods on the left facilitate the learning processes on the right. Compelling research confirms that this is the case. Methodology can and does make a difference in the speed and degree to which people learn.

It used to be that learning professionals had enough time to build and implement instructionally sound learning solutions that fully employed these instructional methods to help learners master what they needed to learn.

Today, that isn’t the case. The extent of what people need to learn has expanded while the time allotted for learning professionals to help them learn has diminished dramatically. The result? Although some L&D groups may still attempt to design solutions that call for full instructional treatment, in actual practice, methodology is mostly abandoned. The pressing demands of time limit instruction to lengthy presentations supported by slides with infrequent questions and a few occasional activities. Most often lost in this compressed time frame are rich, integrated practice exercises accompanied by meaningful feedback. Feedback is one of the most uniquely powerful gifts a trainer brings to learning. It’s the force multiplier of learning and is the single most powerful instructional method for accelerating learning.

The good news in all of this? There is a way to add back time for methodology without adding more time to training. The solution is “workflow learning”, which occurs while people actually perform their work.

Real Learning Happens in the Flow of Work

In recent years, our youngest son Jason drove one of our cars through a large body of water that had accumulated in a parking lot following a massive rainstorm. As the cold water flushed up and around the heated engine, it stopped – for good.

We’d paid to have Jason receive the best driver’s education possible. He sat through all the classes, scored well on the tests, and did well in his on-the-road driving exercises. He qualified for his learner’s permit, which allowed him to continue learning to drive while in the flow of traffic and required that he always be accompanied by an experienced driver to provide on-the-road coaching.

Jason’s mother started as his driving coach but, recognizing that her feedback was primarily panic prompted, she quickly reassigned the job to me. I vividly remember riding with tongue biting silence as Jason transitioned from what he had learned in the classroom to actually becoming a competent driver. The classroom, with its on-the-road driving activities, was a good start in his learning process, but that’s all it was: a good start. His real learning to drive happened over time while in the flow of traffic (i.e., the flow of work).

This doesn’t mean he didn’t need the class. He did! On-the-job competent performance can certainly start with formal learning. But deeply rooted, connected learning requires ongoing application in the flow of work. It’s here where all the nuances of the real world hone, reinforce, expand upon, adjust, internalize, integrate (I could go on) what was and wasn’t learned during training.

Also, people are most receptive to learning while in the workflow. They have clear context and compelling need. What they don’t generally have is someone to safely coach them through job tasks, which is especially vital when the critical impact of failure is significant to catastrophic. This is why organizations need Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSSs). In addition to supporting performers in the workflow, an EPSS can help restore the time required to recharge the classroom with the right mix of methodology.

An EPSS provides 2-click/10-second task-level access to all the resources an employee needs to perform effectively on the job. Using a rating scale like the following identifies tasks people can safely learn while in their flow of work (using an EPSS). At whatever moment they need to perform any task rated a 4 or lower, they can simply use the EPSS to coach them as they perform the task. If they make a mistake, that’s ok. They’ll learn from it while in their workflow and will more readily remember it because it happened in the context of their work. Failure, when the consequences are low, can be a most effective teacher.

By safely shifting skills and knowledge rated 1-4 into the flow of work, to be learned while people are doing their work, we regain classroom time for methodology. This makes sense because the skills left to teach in the classroom are rated 5-7. They require the right mix of methodology and justify the investment in that methodology. If a business leader wants to reduce the training time for these skills, we can just ask, “Which of these ‘high-risk’ skills do you want to leave to chance?”

I don’t know if Jason’s instructor warned him about driving through massive water puddles. If so, Jason clearly forgot or didn’t pay attention. Forgetting happens after every learning event, no matter the methodology. This is why an EPSS is such a vital component to the learning blend. For the classroom to have full power, it must extend its reach into the workflow. This can happen by pushing reinforcement of that learning into the flow of work employing an EPSS to coach people at every ongoing moment of learning need. This “Digital Coach” (i.e., EPSS) provides just-in-time performance support for every job task, including those skills with a high impact of failure that we’ve targeted with effective methodology on the formal side of learning— just in case learners forget, didn’t pay attention, things change, or something goes wrong.

On average, half of the skills covered in traditional formal learning can be safely pushed in their entirety into the workflow. There, performers learn those skills with the help of a Digital Coach as they do their work. This is real workflow learning: learning while working. As we extend our reach into the workflow with the power and gifts of a Digital Coach, we can free up time on the formal side for methodology. Anything less is a waste.