After completing a course in human performance technology, I now define HPT as: Evaluating the problems in a work environment or organization and coming up with solutions to solve those problems to meet organizational goals. My definition from week 1 was: My current understanding of Human Performance Technology is using data to track people’s performance or progress toward completing job standards or skills. Technology is also used to create training that is performance-based to teach the necessary job skills. My definition of human performance technology has developed to encompass more. The term “technology” was limiting to me. Human performance analysis involves more than just technology.
I learned that there are more solutions than training. Several speakers for the class said that 90% of the performance solutions are not training. Applying Kirkpatrick's 4 levels of evaluation to human performance technology made the evaluation make more sense to me. It didn’t seem so hard to apply and implement.
Personal HPT strengths:
- Capable of involving others appropriately, stresses complementary skills, draws strength from team diversity. – I like to find experts; it doesn’t bother me to find people who are better than me at something and then set them up to do what they do well.
- Organized rigorous, and prudent. – Lets credible data talk. - It makes me look better if things are based on good data, not just my opinion and experience. I like to research, and I like to find the story that data tells.
- Approve analysis selection, design/development, and implementation outputs. – The ADDIE process applies to all human performance technology, not just training. After this degree, I have a lot of experience with ADDIE!
- Provide resources. – I’m really good at finding resources and sharing them with the people that need them. I love to make job aids or simple things that make a big difference. When I was working with several school districts to hire substitute teachers, I made a cheat sheet of all the schools’ hiring requirements because it varied from district to district. This way, my co-workers had a quick reference.
- Analytic, systematic investigator – I love to dig until I get to the root cause then find a solution.
Personal HPT areas for growth:
For each of my weaknesses, I think I just need more projects. I need to be thrown in the mix and get some experience. Some of the areas are weaknesses simply because I have not yet experienced them. I don’t know how I will handle the situation.
- Able to maintain a system perspective-adopts a holistic view. – Looking at performance solutions as a system was new to me this semester. The concept makes sense, I just need more practice.
- Anticipates how change in one area affects others. – I could work on this. Again, I just don’t have experience in this area. I like to fix things, but I don’t know what to look for in a different area when I change something.
- Not swayed by enthusiasms or constraints - I could work on this one – Like the other weaknesses, it’s mostly just that I need experience. I have trouble seeing past constraints. In the end constraints make me more creative, but it takes a while to get to that point.
- Principled yet flexible sticks to the bottom-line goal, bend to pressures and constraints without giving up the goal, and accommodating client wants where and when feasible without losing sight of the desired results. – I am a flexible person, but I am a goal-driven person. I don’t like people keeping me from my goals, and when I have a plan, I want to stick to it. So far this has not been tested professionally, so again, I just need experience to know how to handle it.
- Sensitive of the need to verify perceptions, does reality checks with reliable persons, and double checks interpretations. – If I don’t know that something is going wrong, I don’t like to remind people that it could, so I won’t always check in. I go with no news is good news. I realize this isn’t wise when dealing with a situation where there is change management and communication can be interpreted in many different ways. It’s better to have constant communication and feedback to find the issues early and often.
I like to think of myself as a trainer or learning and development professional more than just an instructional designer. Human performance technology lends itself to the broader definition of learning and development. It is also more marketable to be able to offer more solutions than just training.
Skill list taken from: Stolovitch, H. D. (2004). Training ain't performance. ASTD Press.