The line of enquiry takes a field trip into the real world of the people concerned to find out if they know what they should be doing and why they are not already performing as desired. The author is relentless in pursuit of clarity and focus - and merciless in dealing with "fuzzies" which include any performance that cannot be observed.
Attitudinal requirements are banned and are replaced by concrete indicators of the competence required.
This method is objective. It operates on analysed goals, observable objectives with defined conditions of performance and corresponding criteria for assessment. There is no place for fuzzy logic, no chance for politically correct values or emotional responses to be imposed on trainees by managers or trainers - no chance for larger personalities from above to mould "mini-mes" from their workers.
The discipline of this thinking is refreshing. However, I see a sweet irony in this man's work: Attitudinal questions are most important! They haven't disappeared at all but have found their rightful place expressed in leadership by example that results if you follow this method. It requires people with a "training problem" or a "performance issue" to step into the shoes of those people concerned and walk a mile with them, to understand what makes their days brighter or dimmer and exactly how these factors influence the required performance or lack of it.
The sweet irony is that achieving this engagement with workers requires an attitudinal approach within management that closely aligns with Christ's great commandment to love thy neighbour as thyself - which is about as fuzzy as you can get.
However, attitudinal change falls beyond the scope of criterion-referenced instructional design into the fertile field of organisational development - which is expertly tended by so many exciting authorities and consultants.
On a practical level, the up-front analysis required to develop criterion-referenced instruction is wonderful for business because it can eliminate or reduce the need for instruction.
This may be because the problem is perceived but not real - and fixing the perceived problem would create more problems - or because a range of factors other than lack of skills are causing it.
Another reason I love this method is that it offers an efficient and dignified learning pathway to the student - dignified because it respects students' time and existing skills. How many of us have sat through well-meaning but expensive training programmes only to be frustrated by content that is irrelevant, too easy, or too hard?
This mediocre experience is followed by the issuing of a certificate indicating only that the training has been paid for and attended. The experience is worse in the isolation of the online medium, in the absence of all those good "fuzzy" experiences of enthusiasm, encouragement, humour, spontaneity, sharing between peers and being "glowed on" by the teacher.
This method shows how to foster tremendous motivation in trainees by satisfying their appetite for development. How it does this is simplicity itself.
First, there is a carefully considered hierarchy of skills that are required to achieve the desired performance.
From this total the target population's level of existing skills are subtracted and the remainder is the content of the required instruction.
This instruction exactly meets the training needs of the population and the performance requirements of the business. Explaining how to get to this point takes five and a half books, but from here on you have the instructional needs of management and workers marching forward shoulder-to-shoulder with a common purpose - and an inbuilt system of competence assessment that cannot be argued with.
Next, I intend to find out about the kinds of coaching methods that are used to support different forms of criterion-referenced instruction.
- Brigit Manning is a technical and business writer based in Hastings.
