Beginners Guide to Action Napping

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My client was exhausted.

I'd been working with Darla for almost 10 years and we'd successfully delivered several projects together.

But this was different. Dark circles under her eyes, tears streaming down her face, she was at her wit's end with an underperforming employee.

Penny had been at the company for 8 months. She had settled in well and was popular amongst coworkers.

But she wasn't getting the hang of some critical tasks.

The consequences were severely impacting Darla.

"I've explained the process to her several times. She seems to understand. But when I leave her alone, she just doesn't do what she's supposed to."

I suggested we have a coffee and do some action mapping. Let's figure out whether more training would help.

Darla seemed happy with the suggestion.

"Ok sounds good. My left boob is leaking so let me pump some milk before we go."

What the... ??!

Ok, let's back up a little. This is probably a good time to give you more context.

Darla isn't my client. She's my wife.

And Penny isn't her employee. She's our one-year-old daughter.

But whilst I may have bent the truth to introduce the story, there?was?a performance problem. Penny was waking up every 45 minutes and didn't settle until she was fed.

We were exhausted.

Surely, being a learning designer whose primary responsibility is behaviour change, I could sort it?

Of course, I'm being flippant. But the parallels between our situation at home and my work were clear.

This might even be easier.

Why?

Because a knowledge dump wouldn't work. I'm fairly confident Penny would not respond well to a 20-minute eLearning module, no matter how engaging.

So, we were forced to bypass knowledge and focus on behaviour change.

Over a period of several weeks, we sleep trained Penny. We stopped picking her up at night and patted her back when she was upset. When she sat up in bed, we gently laid her back down.

Finally, we started moving away from her cot. She knew there was someone nearby, but needed to learn to settle without being touched.

This process has been ongoing for the past 3 months and whilst we're not there yet, we're both getting far more sleep.

And whilst my domestic issues are the least of your concerns, I hope this highlights the importance of focusing on behaviour. We changed Penny's behaviour using a series of practise activities.

How can you apply this logic to your own training design?

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