Gloria Gery

How the context has changed, is changing, will either render us irrelevant or make us more critical. How can we proceed to have more leverage in what we do? Workflow is one way for us to better integrate what we do with people's lives. The computer-mediated context IS the workflow context. So how do we integrate what we do into that context?

Getting to performance…

• Takes too long
• Costs too much
• Is inconsistent in terms of
• Outcomes
• Kinds of answers
• Time it takes
• Quality of work

…therefore the ability to deliver consistent performance becomes a key differentiation

• Increasingly difficult because of variances in performers – we can't make the usual assumptions about our audience; it's fractured

And then there's complexity – everything is configurable, flexible.

One of the questions I hear is, How is Workflow Based learning different from performance support? This is performance support on steroids – magnified, with a much higher impact. The workflow is the context, the magic filter through which we will be able to filter content, against which we have to compare default tactics. There will always be instructor led training, there will be far less of that than the workplace learning resources.

What is the filter which drives my assumptions, actions, deliverables? It's not just instruction. Content – how does that differ from what you do? Content has to have context, delivery vehicles; it has to be organized around some artifact.

We can “Google” things to death – what we need is a context filter. People talk about “peer assists” all that is finding someone who knows what to do – the “go-to” person. There are people whose whole job it is to compensate for people who don't know what to do – we call them the Helpdesk. Trial and error – we have a whole choir of people telling us, try this, try this, try this. The default tactics are not working any longer.

Issues:

The traditional presentation of content an resources fails to synthesize into a meaningful framework. It's all over the place, as if everything you need is hanging by threads from the ceiling. Which is relevant? How do I filter? How do I determine which of these things apply to what I'm doing? Meanwhile, the organization, the customer wants you to “name that tune in one note”!

We need to weave all that information into a pattern – subject/topic/product oriented information is not workflow learning. It's more like a tapestry – all the stitches being in order and in some form of organization.

The problem is we're doing this from the producer's perspective: pushing stuff out into the organization. What if we map the workflows, then organize resources by workflow? There are people out in the organization trying to do work – what is the filter? How do we represent knowledge, content, data, processes, so that the time to knowledge or time to performance (knowing or doing) is minimized.

We are focused on the wrong thing. Organizational structure is the other barrier. This is not hard to do; it is hard to get done. Think about the performance chain.

Here's a definition: Workflow is a structure/sequence of activities that a person has to do to achieve defined desirable goals and results specific to the condition. Deliverables, solutions, decisions… Filters are needed to screen out the irrelevant and bring to the fore the things that are relevant. The workflow is the best default filter for all data: what is relevant to this context? The structured or dynamic sequence is the best filter for content/data.

What does that mean for trainers? We can teach people how to do the work, or we can work to influence the context to provide filtered information and help people to synthesize it. In any learning experience, there is always that moment where you “get it.” How do we accelerate people's arrival at that moment – and that generates confidence.

There are two contexts for doing this: in courses, or while working. The eLearning context is currently being designed by people who know JavaScript – they've never even seen the work! In too many organizations, users are bouncing between multiple systems to get one task done. How can we configure the interface layer to structure the processes and provide in-context learning because THAT is the teachable moment we are always looking for? Why not have a “help me decide” button, or be able to run our mouse over a link that boots us into a course that matches our context?

Why Now?

Because now there is a convergence of need, technology, design, and models.

Have you ever looked at a traditional “data dump” report? There could be hundreds of pages, and the user has to know what to look for. The patterns, relationships, meaning are not explicit. What if we presented data in the context of the decision to be made, or patterns to look for – in the language of the performers, not the technicians?

Example #1: Recruiting website example: only 6 of your x became y, therefore you need to adjust here. Success stories. Details. “Show me more” – all about successful recruiting

Example #2: Claims processing website: Wizards – “help me resolve this” series of questions for resolving coverage issues

It's all done at the moment of need, and when you use these tools a few times, people learn the rules.

It's our job to create a synthesis around what people have to do because our job is to make them successful.