Hello everyone! Well, the journey through my HPT class is almost finished. This will be the last post related to the class itself. I’m looking forward to branching out and discussing different topics. Let’s dive into this post. I was asked to look back on the past 8 weeks and reflect on several questions.
How do you define HPT? Has it changed?
Looking back on my definition from week one, I don’t believe much has changed. HPT is a systematic process of analysis, root cause identification, intervention planning, and implementation used to improve or remove the performance gaps found. I believe I have a deeper understanding of what HPT is and how to use it in my current line of work.
What things mattered most to you, and why?
I think what I learned the most was that there are no shortcuts to be taken if you are genuinely interested in improving performance and removing gaps. Each step in the process is critically important and deserves the time needed to ensure the proper outcome.
Strengths – things I believe are strengths for me.
- Verifies perceptions – I constantly ask my peers for feedback to check and make sure I perceive things right and what I need to correct.
- Gives credit where credit is due – I believe that any project accomplished well has been a team effort, and the contributions of the other team members are just as significant, if not more so, than mine.
- Sequencing interventions – it is essential that interventions are sequenced appropriately, and I work hard to ensure that they are and consult with team members if there is a question about the sequencing.
- Analyze learning/work environment – Again, I believe this is a team effort, and the knowledge of others compliments my own. This is very important when it comes to analyzing the environment.
- Conduct gap analysis – I have had years of experience conducting gap analyses and believe I am pretty good at it. This is a foundational skill for anyone in ID or HPT.
Improvements – things I feel I need to improve on.
- Diplomatic and credible – I am sometimes too direct with people, which has created problems with stakeholders in the past. I am working on matching people’s communication styles to meet their needs better.
- Sort out priorities – I come from a technical background, and new pieces of tech are sometimes tough to ignore.
- Communicate effectively – As I said before, sometimes I can be too direct with people. This has extended into my written communication. I generally have someone review my work before submitting it to the stakeholders to communicate the right message.
- Promote HPT – I have not been an active advocate of HPT because I have not been knowledgeable enough. After this class, I am hoping to change that.
- Maintain system perspective – because most of my career has been in ID, it is sometimes difficult to keep a systems perspective and not jump to looking for instructional interventions to resolve performance gaps.
How would you use these skills?
To a small extent, I was using some of these skills before taking this course. As an ID for a publicly traded company, I often get requests for training when there is not a learning need but a performance gap that needs to be filled with a non-instructional intervention. What I lacked at the time was understanding how to ground my interventions in the analysis I had completed. Moving forward, for any project I take on, I will analyze both instructional and non-instructional interventions and work with my stakeholders to ensure the proper interventions are being implemented to resolve the performance gap.
That’s it for today. Talk to you soon.
Scott