One of our healthcare clients is struggling to "nail down" the content required for a curriculum they would like to launch and deliver to all of their employees. They don't have full-time designers on staff and the initiative has been "paired" to a parallel initiative by the marketing team to raise awareness of this new service. The client is on the cutting-edge of delivering this service to their patients, and employees must communicate the service correctly or risk the ire of the patient and their family- or worse, expose the company to incalculable legal risk.
How are we going to help you ask? For one, we are going to provide them with a model to select the exercises and activities that require development for the curriculum. Secondly, we are going to map and structure the curriculum for them using mind-mapping software as well as color-code the content for the particular audiences that will need to take it. Lastly, we will prioritize the development efforts for them so that they can begin delivering the curriculum where it will have the greatest impact first. This will allow them to logically and cost effectively develop their people's skills at a rate aligned to when they will begin rolling out the service.
The most important thing we are going to provide this client is clarity. Before commencing any of the actual work, we will meet with the organization's leaders and set clear and definable goals for the employees who go through this curriculum. This is easier said than done and requires rigorous questioning of business leaders in order to succeed. One of the things we do at Collabor8 is help business leaders drill down to the performance expected of their employees and any performance metrics they will use going forward to evaluate the employees. Using our systems thinking approach, we will define both the performance as well as the metrics before beginning the curriculum design process. We will additionally define how Managers at the organization are going to reinforce the performance that will be taught by the new curriculum. This is all an effort to ensure a true change in the performance of the staff, and not just an information dump to the employees.
Alex is a co-founder and Managing Member of Collabor8 Learning, LLC, an instructional design and performance management consultancy. His firm collaborates with organizations to enhance the way they develop and train their employees and/ or customers. To learn more about Collabor8 Learning, click here.
Alex can be reached by phone at 786-512-1069, email- alex@collabor8learning.com or via Twitter@collabor8alex.