Rachel Burnham writes: I have written before about how important it is to
focus on performance in L&D and in my blog post ‘The Performance Paradox’ I
even argued that we need to focus a little less on learning to do so. So I was really looking forward to be at ‘Learning
Live 2017’, the conference organised by the ‘Learning and Performance Institute’
where there is a shared emphasis on impacting on performance. I have already
written more broadly about my experience of this event in a previous post, so
here I want to focus more specifically on my reflections around the relationship
between learning and performance, which were challenged during the event.
The emphasis on
performance came strongly through right from this start of the event, with the
Learning Live Question Time Panel and particularly the contributions of Charles
Jennings such as ‘Be passionate about performance’, ‘The only metrics that
count are business metrics’ and an observation by one of his colleagues that he
shared, that ‘Learning is the intelligent by-product of continuous improvement
in an organisation with a learning culture’. All of these I agree with most
strongly. In other words, for those of
us in L&D, learning is not an end in itself, it is a tool to improve the
performance of individuals, teams and the organisation and the learning may
come from focusing on improving performance.
There was also the
comment that we should stop using the term ‘learners’ and instead just refer to
employees or staff. Here I differ – I have
heard this challenge before and I know that sometimes in L&D we can use the
term ‘learners’ and end up distancing ourselves from those doing the learning
or negate the wealth of experience and insight brought by those people we work
with and serve. The term can form part
of a false separation of learning from work, when the two are increasingly
intimately woven together and learning very frequently occurs through work
itself. However, I still like to use
that term – instead I see myself as a ‘fellow-learner’ - I know I always learn
so much from the individuals and groups I work and I acknowledge this
freely. I often use the phrase
#alwayslearning.
But my
taken-for-grantedness of this emphasis on performance was challenged at the
event with a couple of comments from the floor. Not everyone present shared this thinking
about the importance of placing performance at the heart of what we do. In fact
one person said ‘It sounds as though learning is a dirty word’. They had understood the emphasis on performance
as a devaluing of learning. I was
surprised and went over to talk to one of the people who had raised this
challenge. I am so glad I did, because
we had a most interesting conversation as a result and continued talking over
lunch.
As a result I have
realised how easy it is to assume that everyone has travelled the same path I
have and has seen the link between learning and performance in the way I
do. I realise that I don’t always
articulate my thinking clearly that learning and performance are both
important. That I don’t always make
clear that I place stress upon performance, not to negate the value of
learning, but because too often as L&D professionals we have limited its
impact, by not thinking sufficiently about performance ie putting that learning
into practice. And by neglecting to
focus on performance we have sometimes tried to apply learning as a solution to
a problem it can’t solve or can’t solve on its own, if other factors
(resources, communication, organisational design, workflow, etc) are involved.
I came across a
similar challenge earlier in the summer, when I had the opportunity to participate
in an eLearning Network event whilst covering this for Learning Now TV – if you haven’t
come across the eLearning Network before and have any interest in improving the
quality and effectiveness of elearning I can highly recommend it. Once again, I had been talking about the
importance of focusing on performance, rather than learning and my neighbour challenged
me on this. In discussion, what came
through was that the term ‘performance’ had different connotations to each of
us. She had previously worked in an
organisation that focused on a deficit model of performance management, which
was highly target driven and seemed quite exploitative in the way it drove the performance
of employees to work harder. So the term
‘performance’ to my neighbour came with an awful lot of negative baggage. Whereas ‘performance’ to me, is simply about
focusing on the ‘doing of work’ and about the effectiveness and ease of
that. I think that by focusing on
effective performance at work more clearly, we will be making it easier to do
our jobs and in less time.
But neither this does
mean I don’t value or encourage learning for its own sake either. I love to learn whether about L&D or
other topics. I’ve been learning Greek
and I am fascinated by particle physics.
Sometimes, I set out to learn about something or how to do something
with a very clear practical performance goal in mind, but very often I don’t. Earlier in the year, I learnt how to use
Snapchat, because a friend suggested it and only later have I worked out some
ways of using it to aid learning – it is great for Working Out Loud and
reporting on events (for an account of this see Mike Shaw's blog) . In the Spring I
started on a collaborative learning journey with Niall Gavin to find out about
the use of VR and AR for learning – initially out of sheer curiosity, which
resolved into a decision to share our learning with others in a series of blogs and vlog conversations (and watch out for a forthcoming update). However, I doubt that I will ever, ever make
use of my limited learning around particle physics for any practical purpose –
I just want to know and have my mind-boggled.
And in
self-development, in personal learning, that is absolutely fine – and in my
book to be encouraged. It taps into what
Phil Race describes in his ripples model of learning ‘wanting/needing to learn’.
Sometimes we need to learn something, sometimes, as humans we just want to
learn something – our curiosity is fired up and that gives that drive to learn
something irrespective of any immediate need to use it for any practical
purpose. And it may never lead to any
to practical gain, but then again it might at some point down the road. Who
knows where it will lead us, what connection it might spark, what path it may
lead us on or what pleasure it may bring us.
However, in L&D
our focus needs to be on the performance of the organisation both now and in
the future and we need to keep that in mind.
When we talk about
the relationship between learning and performance, we usually speak as though
learning comes first and in the right conditions leads to improved
performance. I have been musing on whether
this is always the case. With the use of
performance support tools (such as job aids, video ‘how to’ guides, templates),
we can help people to work more effectively immediately, we can enable people
to perform here and now. So performance
can be tackled first, before any learning has happened. But in some circumstances, if you keep on
doing that task with the aid of the performance support tool – can the
knowledge get embedded, can the skill be built, can a new habit be developed -
so that eventually you have learnt through doing? Or if you use the performance support tool,
do the work and then reflect on why that works and how it can be done even
better – have you then learnt? Perhaps
in these situations performance comes first and then learning?
Learning and
performance are both important for those of us in L&D roles. If we focus on one to the neglect of the
other, we won’t be as effective as we can be, as we need to be. They are entwined.
Rachel Burnham
24/9/17
Burnham L & D Consultancy helps L&D professionals update
and refresh their skills. I am particularly interested in blended
learning, the use of digital skills for learning, evaluation and anything that
improves the impact of learning on performance.
