What’s more critical to meeting business goals: proving that employees are knowledgeable, or proving that they know how to apply their knowledge and skills in the workplace?
Many learning leaders would agree that they’re both imperative to perform in their roles. However, when we really think about it, productivity is more affected by what people do, than what they know. An organization’s performance is strongly influenced by employee behaviors and how they choose to work on a day-to-day basis. With that in mind, consider this question: “Is the direction of your learning content heavily focused on measuring knowledge (e.g., assessments, tests and quizzes) or behavior (e.g., observation, coaching/mentoring)?”
For some learning leaders, that can be difficult to answer because many of them are often challenged with defining the specific behaviors they want to change. And many times, L&D professionals set objectives that aren’t tied to performance but instead knowledge. Building knowledge isn’t a poor choice; however, employees must know how to apply the learning in their roles.
L&D leaders must ask themselves, “What behaviors do you want to see post-training?” Answering these questions can guide learning leaders closer to targeting training needs that align with business objectives.
Identifying the Desired Behavior Change
If we go back to the first question and accept that the success of any organization is more affected by what people do than what they know, the answer is that it’s more important to prove that employees can apply their knowledge. In fact, cognitive learning can be far less valuable in driving performance if learners aren’t also taught how to actually perform the task and apply new skills on the job. So, where’s the bulk of your L&D budget being directed? Knowledge or behavior?
Cognitive learning is indeed important — performance in every job depends on a base level of knowledge, however, what L&D professionals must consider is whether investing in building knowledge is going to improve individual performance. Or instead, would focusing on achieving specific behaviors be a more effective route?
To help, L&D leaders must consider this: “If the training is successful, what differences would I see if I visit the workplace in a few weeks or months?” Answering this question can provide a basis for designing the learning intervention and help learning leaders identify the desired behavior change.
Setting Performance Objectives
A performance objective defines the skills and capabilities employees are able to accomplish after they complete training. Effective performance objectives are aligned with business strategy and are compatible with the language of business stakeholders. They’re clearly defined and based on specific key performance indicators (KPIs) — a quantifiable measure that’s used to track progress toward a specific objective. This way, learning leaders and stakeholders can be on the same page of how to measure improved performance.
During training, explain to learners what the targeted performance objectives are before, during and after the program to increase the likelihood of a behavior change. This can give learners a firm understanding of what behaviors they’re expected to demonstrate after they complete the learning. In adopting this performance-oriented language in training, every element of the program becomes linked to achieving performance improvements.
Knowledge Is Still Power
Performance objectives are great for accomplishing a behavior change, however, cognitive learning objectives and building knowledge in the workplace is still imperative. The point is to shift the decision about what knowledge is needed to perform in their roles to the individual learner. It’s about giving learners the autonomy to seek the knowledge they need to conquer individual work challenges.
Once the performance objectives have been defined, we must encourage learners to answer this question for themselves: “What new knowledge do I need to hit my performance targets?”
The role of L&D leaders in identifying performance objectives is to ensure that training is targeted and will drive behavior change, not just knowledge acquisition.
