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By
Harold D. Stolovitch & Erica J. Keeps
hstolovitch@hsa-lps.com
&
ekeeps@hsa-lps.com
Before
embarking on a voyage to create instructional programs, it is essential
that one has an understanding of the learner population/s for which the
training is directed. This article provides guidelines and procedures
for conducting a Learner Analysis.
Who
and How Many?
Here are some helpful
guidelines for specifying what type of learners and what volume of learners
you will train:
- Specify all of
your target audiences. Notice the plural. Often, we receive a request
for training (or generate a training initiative ourselves) that is focused
on a single, specific audience (for example, sales representatives for
Sales Force 12; customer service agents; installation technicians) as
if it were completely homogeneous. Dig more deeply. Are we talking about
novice or experienced workers? All levels of experience? Is what we
will be developing only applicable to this specific group or can it
(will it) be used with other groups (such as supervisors of the targeted
group; part-time people who are also occasionally required to perform
the same task; external, third-party partners)? Probe to identify all
relevant learner groups and list these.
- Note geographic
dispersion of the learner groups. This, too, will influence how you
deal with training delivery decisions. It may be more cost effective
to send a trainer to four sites than to incur additional costs to create
Web-based learning.
Procedures
for Conducting a Learner Analysis
The most common methods
for conducting learner analyses are these:
- For each identified
target audience, select a sample of learners (more on this to follow).
- Obtain permission
from managers (and from unions, if appropriate) to observe, interview
and/or test the sample learners. By far, the most common technique for
gathering information from learners is the structured interviews. Observation
and performance testing can be very helpful in building a complete portrait
of the learners, but these generally take large amounts of time and
can be viewed as intimidating.
- Gather any existing
data that are available about each learner group. Examples of existing
data include:
- employment
statistics (for example, years of experience, previous types of
jobs, numbers of learners per geographic location)
- educational
background (for example, schooling, previous training, certifications)
- work statistics
(for example, performance results such as sales or average number
of repair orders completed, ratio of exemplary performers to average
and deficient performers)
- types and volume
of grievances
- job descriptions
or work expectations
- overall or
synthesis reports of performance appraisals
- work climate
study reports.
- Interview sample
learners and take careful notes on responses. Watch out for biases you
may bring to the interviews.
- Synthesize the
learner-analysis data in a succinct, accurate report.
- Use the findings
of your learner analysis as key inputs to your training design. Respect
who and what your learners are. Do not be overly influenced by what
their managers tell you about them. Just because a manager used to be
one of them does not mean she or he can speak for them. After all, weren't
you once a teenager? Does this make you qualified to speak for your
own teenage children or those of your neighbors?
Guidelines
for Selecting Sample Learners
There are two main
guidelines for selecting sample learners for your learner analysis.
- Select, at random,
typical learners. They should not be the best or the worst. Absolutely,
positively and in no way (is that strong enough?) accept the following
as representing the learners you are targeting for your training:
- managers or
supervisors who volunteer to "tell you about the learners because
I work with them every day"
- instructors
who offer to "tell you all about the learners because I teach
them all the time"
- the best, most
experienced performers
- those who have
already taken the training (although these may be helpful for reviewing
your training when you have tried it out)
- other instructional
designers or trainers who will be happy to "speak from their
experience with other groups"
- even truly
representative learners who volunteer to tell you about other learners
(let them speak only for themselves).
- For each target
audience you simply require a few learners, often not more than four
to six. Here is why. If you adopt what is commonly called a clinical
approach, you probe, in-depth, with each individual subject - listening,
observing and, if necessary, testing. You gain rapid insights about
your learners. What our research shows in terms of quantity/usefulness
of learner-analysis input is that after very few clinical instances,
you obtain most of the required learner information for developing learner-centered
training. Figure 1 shows what happens.
Figure
1: Quality and Usefulness of Learner Information Relative
to the Number of Learners Consulted
Determine how many
different audiences you have (for example, novice/experienced/advanced;
different job titles; different organizational levels) and consult learners,
one at a time, until you do not appear to be accumulating significantly
new and different information from additional subjects.
A
Tool for Choosing What Information to Gather
The information you
should collect during your learner analysis is listed below.
- Target population
information:
- primary populations,
including job titles and organization levels, and key or major characteristics
of each
- secondary populations,
including job titles and organization levels, and key or major characteristics
of each.
- Background and
aptitude information:
- current knowledge
and skills in the task or subject-matter area
- relevant background
(for example, education, certifications) and experience
- understanding
of the learning/performance required
- major misconceptions
about the task or subject matter
- specific and
relevant background, experience and/or aptitude deficiencies that
might affect learning and/or performance.
- Attitudes information:
- general attitudes
toward task or subject-matter content
- subtasks or
subtopics within the task or subject-matter content toward which
there are very positive feelings
- subtasks or
subtopics within the tasks or subject-matter content toward which
there are very negative feelings.
- Learning method
and language preferences information:
- instructional
methods and strategies that are seen to facilitate learning (preferences)
- instructional
methods and strategies that are seen to hinder learning (dislikes)
- instructional
media/delivery systems preferences
- instructional
media/delivery systems dislikes
- language level
and knowledge of specialized terminology
- style of language
preferences (technical, conversational, combined).
- Tool and prerequisite
skills information:
- capabilities
in relevant tools and prerequisite skills
- deficiencies
in relevant tools and prerequisite skills
- other deficiencies
that require special attention.
- Other relevant
information about the learners:
- as a whole
- as specific
populations or sub-groups.
By incorporating the
guidelines provided for specifying your learner populations and selecting
sample learners following the procedures given for conducting a Learner
Analysis and gathering the information listed above, you should be well
on your way to performing a Learner Analysis that will assist dramatically
in maintaining a learner-centered focus in your instructional design.
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This article is an excerpt from Harold Stolovitch and Erica Keeps' bestseller,
Beyond Telling Ain't Training Fieldbook.
Interested in learning more? Click here
to order a copy of the book.
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Talent
Management is a monthly magazine directed to top-level management,
senior human resources, and workforce and organizational development executives
whose task is to optimize the abilities of their human assets to drive
and improve the execution of enterprise strategy. Harold Stolovitch is
the regular "Human Performance" columnist for Talent Management
magazine. You can read his latest article, "What To Do About Performance
Troublemakers " by
visiting page 10 of the October 2008 digtial edition at http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/mediatec/tm1008/.
For more information on Talent Management, visit their Website
at www.talentmgt.com.
If there are any topics that you would like Harold to address in his column,
please email him at hstolovitch@hsa-lps.com.
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Our Guest Author Series
features articles by various professional colleagues. The latest in our
series is by Carol Haig, CPT. Carol leads Carol Haig & Associates,
a consulting firm that helps organizations improve performance by aligning
the work, the worker and the workplace to meet business goals. To learn
more about her work, contact Carol by telephone at 925- 934-5338 or by
email at carolhaig@earthlink.net,
or visit her website at http://home.mindspring.com/~carolhaig.
Needs
Analysis Can Save Your Life
By Carol Haig, CPT
What
if you had just five minutes to conduct a needs analysis? And, you had
to do it over the phone, without observing the environment or anyone in
it? Oh, and you had to build rapport and trust while simultaneously entering
the information you gathered into an electronic call record? And you had
to do this for four consecutive hours? Every week!
The
Setting
Welcome to a community
crisis center where trained volunteers answer the phones 24/7, fielding
requests for help and information from a cross-section of county residents.
Supported by an extensive resource database, knowledgeable staff, colleagues,
and their own life skills and experience, volunteers have to be ready
for anything. Indeed, calls can be about whatever is troubling the caller-from
questions about local government services to requests for rental assistance,
drug abuse treatment, counseling services and homeless shelters
to
help with bereavement issues, mental illness, and suicide. Sometimes,
the caller just needs to talk.
The
Challenge
Most calls last less
than 20 minutes, which means that the volunteer conducts a needs analysis
at light speed. Like the analysis challenge in the workplace, ensuring
that all needs are identified is the goal. However, because a life may
be at risk, it is critical not to miss anything. The caller may be distressed,
confused, disorganized, in danger, or unable to articulate a clear problem
or request for help.
In addition, callers
may not be native speakers of English, lack basic communication skills,
and may be drunk, on drugs, or belligerent. They can be of any age. Often,
their experiences in the world and their views of society differ greatly
from those of the volunteer on the phone. To bridge the divide and help
the caller, a solid grounding in the skills we use for a workplace needs
analysis is an invaluable bonus for the volunteer. It is a small, but
rather dramatic, step from the corporate client who is reluctant to spend
time on analysis to the time crunch that comes with every hotline call.
Communication
Protocol
Fortunately, the hotline
environment encourages the jettisoning of politically correct (PC) business
interaction. While initially uncomfortable, volunteers quickly learn to
appreciate the license to ask all the highly non-PC questions they could
never consider in the workplace: "What is the source of your income?"
"And exactly what drugs are you addicted to?" "Do all six
of your children have different fathers?" While it is important to
gather critical information to help the caller, it is equally important
to be respectful when asking questions. The combination of non-PC questions
and the requisite follow-on inquiries move the analysis ahead quickly.
A real eye-opener
in crisis work is that the majority of callers, particularly the regulars
who phone in daily and have done so for years, struggle with multiple
issues. No one, it seems, is "just" bi-polar, or obese, or unemployed,
or living on the streets; they are likely to be facing a combination or
even all of these challenges. So how are callers helped?
Toward
Solutions
As we know from our
experiences with workplace needs analyses, helping the client organize
all the issues and then deciding which one(s) to address for the biggest
potential payoff, is often the best course of action. On the hotline,
volunteers apply a triage technique to help callers decide how to leverage
their most critical issue(s) for results likely to mitigate some or all
of the other concerns. Referring the caller to a full-service homeless
shelter that provides counseling, health, and employment support, for
example, could be the most effective overall solution.
The mission of a crisis
center is to save lives and keep people safe. Suicidal callers often receive
the greatest benefit from respectful but direct probing into their circumstances:
"You say you want to kill yourself. Do you have a plan?" "Have
you attempted suicide in the past?" "What happened?" "Have
you ever been diagnosed with depression or a mental illness?" "Where
are you right now?" With critical information collected through careful
questioning, the volunteer can usually help the suicidal caller to identify
a reason to continue living and formulate a strategy for both short and
long-term survival.
Value
Added
Needs analysis is
the responsibility of everyone in a leadership role; it is not the exclusive
territory of the performance improvement practitioner. Leaders conduct
needs analyses and choose solutions every day. From responding to a massive
disaster like September 11, to helping one caller on a crisis hotline,
needs analysis skills are invaluable. Where can you put yours to work?
We're
always looking for articles to include in our Guest Author Series. If
you have one that you would like us to consider, whether it be new or
previously published, please contact Erica Keeps at
ekeeps@hsa-lps.com.
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By
Erica J. Keeps
ekeeps@hsa-lps.com
Recently
back from our latest river cruise through Provence (this one makes three
in Europe in less than a year!), we realized that cruising is becoming
addictive! What could be more pleasant than cruising along in your floating
hotel exploring new places with old friends and new. Our latest voyage
was with Amadeus Waterways, specialists in river cruising in Europe. We
embarked in Lyon, France and disembarked in Arles, France seven days later.
Cruising
is a time to unwind and enjoy not working; admire the countryside and
calm and serene rivers. Traveling through the wine county requires tasting
its products and learning about the viniculture that has been an occupation
and tradition for thousands of years. How civilized and pleasant to sip
a glass of Chateauneuf-du-Pape as you take the opportunity to meditate
on past activities while making resolutions for the future. How wonderful
it is to relax with friends and colleagues and discuss topics and themes
that we rarely have time to consider because of all the "fire fighting"
we are subjected to daily. All in all, a combination of personal and professional
renewal.
![](Graphics/IMG_1240_2.jpg)
And now for a change of pace! Our next cruising adventure is an ocean
cruise on one of the largest ships in the world. We board our ship, Royal
Caribbean Cruise Line's Mariner of the Seas, in Los Angeles on February
22, 2009 and return seven days later after visits to three ports on the
Mexican Riviera and several days at sea. Interested in joining us, contact
me by email at ekeeps@hsa-lps.com
or by phone at 310-286-2722.
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Harold Stolovitch
will present Training Ain't Performance on
October 16, 2008 and conduct his
Systematic Course Development Workshop from November 18 - 20, 2008
for the ASTD Los Angeles Chapter in Los Angeles, CA. Click here
to view HSA's Events Calendar to learn where and when Harold will be speaking
as well as to read session descriptions.
Due to popular demand, Harold will be the principal speaker and facilitator
at ASTD's Telling Ain't Training Mini-Conference on October 21 & 22
in Chicago, IL and on November 6 & 7 in Arlington, VA. Click here
for more information.
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Do
you have any burning Human Performance Technology questions? Visit the
Ask Harold section of HSA's Website
and ask your questions for Harold Stolovitch to answer. Here is a recent
submission that might intrigue you:
What
is the difference between a competency and a skill?
To read
the response, visit Ask
Harold. To ask your own question, just click on the crystal
ball at left, fill out the form and click submit.
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on any of the covers below for more information or to purchase copies
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