Think Practice First

What if L&D designed with a mindset that “thought practice first”?

If I said to any dancer, sportsperson, musician, or wood-worker “How do you improve your skills / your performance / your capability?” They would firstly look at me like I’d asked a stupid question and then answer, “I practice” (with the “Duh!” either said or implied).

So why is it in L&D that when we think about improving performance and increasing skills of our colleagues / managers / leaders practice probably isn’t our first thought. We’ll think about researching a model or best practice, creating content, structuring a workshop, or designing (or curating) that piece of e-learning.

If we, in L&D, are about improving performance then we need to

Think Practice First.        

When designing to develop skills we should ask ourselves:

• How do I create opportunities for people to practice this skill in a safe space and get feedback?
• How do I make that practice realistic and challenging?
• And how do I give people just enough content/theory so that they can apply just one or two key concepts in practice quickly?

If we designed with the mindset of Think Practice First, how would our designs change and what difference would that make to how people can actually use those new skills?

Flip the time ratio

Firstly, we’d probably significantly reduce the content and the “teaching time” and significantly increase the practice time. We’d probably push ourselves, as the trainer, to the background; we, and the content we so brilliantly impart, are much less impactful on improving a person’s performance than the opportunities they have to practice.

Make it real

Secondly, we would think about making that practice real and impactful and the feedback high quality. That may mean that we need to challenge ourselves on the quality and efficacy of those little triad role-play exercise, where Steve from Accounts pretends to play a difficult customer so Amy can practice. Unfortunately, Steve from Accounts can really only ‘play’ .... Steve from Accounts. And as for the feedback people get from their colleagues, how many times have we ever heard anything other than, “Yeah, I thought you were really good”?

And 'making it real' doesn't mean encouraging our people to just "go and practice back in the workplace", that's just asking them to "fail live" (but more on that next time!)

Put practice first

Thirdly, we’d think more about where we put those practice opportunities in the flow of the learning journey. Practice with feedback increases self-awareness and helps us to monitor our progress to our goals, so as well and thinking practice first, why not put practice first. We are currently running a coaching skills programme with the NHS in which the very first activity is a practice session, before they have been given any skill instruction/content. This practice first approach means that the individuals get a sense of their own skill baseline and what it is that they need/want to work on. This puts them in the right mindset for the learning to come. And enables them to personalise that learning to what they need.

Next time you design, what would happen if you thought practice first?