The Critical Prior Knowledge of Performance Analysts in ISD/LXD - Comes from Prior Education & Experience

With an emphasis on Experience, IMX.

Back in the mid to late 1990s, I had a major, multi-year project with General Motors to transfer my ISD methods, my PACT Processes for Performance Based Instruction, to their internal staff and the staff of the half-dozen or so subcontractors - over 300 certifications were awarded in total between 1995 and 2000.

In developing dozens and dozens of 'Performance Analysts,' it became apparent to me that many, fresh out of college and on the staff of some rather large consulting firms, had NEVER had a job before their first one, the one that they were in now.

When it came time, after the INFOs and DEMOs to participate in the APPOs (Application Exercises), the difference in the initial efforts by those who had a real job before the one they were currently in to prompt their 'Analysis Teams' to break a job or process down into Areas of Performance (Major Duties, Key Results Areas, Accomplishments, WBS, etc.) was quite apparent. So, I had to revamp my Performance Analysis Workshop to account for that variance in the Prior Knowledge from prior education and experience of my varied target audience.

I started to include DEMOs and APPOs where they did an analysis on Kid Jobs (where you generally got the cash) versus Young Adult Jobs (where you generally got a paycheck).

Mowing the lawn, babysitting siblings, and making a meal were some of the 'fodder' I had to use for those DEMOs and APPOs - as I had to find something my Learners/Performers could relate to. They had to build up some initial competence and confidence before tackling real work for GM in conducting Analysis Teams through the Analysis processes, first in supporting another Lead Analyst before they could be certified via a Performance Test to go solo.

They had to learn to Trust the Process, even if they were scared.

I had to dig deep into my own history of Kid Jobs. In the mid-to-late 1990s, only some people in my target audience could relate to my prior job as a paperboy. Or mowing the lawn. Or even babysitting their siblings. I had to find some way, something to analyze, that minimized their fears as they climbed the Learning/Performance Curve, as their 'performance' in the exercises was visible to their peers and our common client who would assign people to projects post-development.

That kind of prior knowledge from education/experience was soon proven to be a critical success factor in how well people did in the workshops and afterward in their project assignments and was temporarily used in the selection criteria until the subcontractors started to complain about some of their people being left out, and soon we were back to developing people who had never had a job before the one they were in right then, supporting GM in the high stakes projects.

Working their initial projects post-development with a carefully selected Lead Analyst proved to be a key to some (not all) in being certified at Level 3 - the ability to solo. Some never went solo and continued to work with a lead so designated, or focused on Design or Development. Not everyone is cut out to be an analyst. I had warned GM about that as some of my own best staff analysts were lousy designers, and some of my best designers were lousy analysts.

It was the difference in pattern recognition versus pattern creation in my way of looking at it.

I was doing this multi-year effort in parallel with finishing a book that I had started in 1983 and finally finished in 1999, lean-ISD. That book is available as a paperback and a Kindle, but also as a free 410-page PDF as of 2007. It was intended to provide pre-readings before workshop attendance and be a reference for post-development. No one could be expected to remember it all.

See that FREE PDF lean-ISD book, and a few others, here: https://guywwallace.wordpress.com/free-books/

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