In October of 2007, I co-authored an article for Training Industry, Inc. titled “The Training Value Gap.” The thesis of the article was that delivering small nuggets of learning incrementally, rather than waiting until the entire learning program was completed (before delivering anything) would allow learners to quickly obtain at least some of the required knowledge and skills and rapidly translate those skills into incremental performance improvement. This would result in the organization receiving the benefit of the improved knowledge and skills much earlier than it would have if the training organization would have waited until the entire program was complete before delivering the program.
When Bobbi Edwards and I wrote that article seven years ago we had never heard of Agile. Thus, although we had a theory for a new approach to learning product development, we didn’t have a methodology to support this new way of architecting learning solutions. Over the years, my teams have attempted to accomplish this new approach to learning solution deployment using a variety of waterfall development approaches, including Six Sigma. It wasn’t until the organizations reporting to me began using Agile that we were able to leverage this iterative, incremental, approach to learning program design, development, and deployment in a sustained manner.
For those who are not familiar with Agile and how this approach to product development has changed our lives, consider how you currently receive updates to the apps on your smartphone or the software on your personal computers. Chances are that you frequently receive small functionality updates to these applications. This is in stark contrast to the mindset that existed years ago when software applications would only undergo major rewrites every 18 to 24 months. Delivering incremental software fixes and functionality allows customers to receive the value that can be derived from minor functionality updates quickly, as opposed to waiting for up to 24 months for all of the desired functionality to be built into a release.
Consider the impact to customers if it still took two years before they would be able to tweet the contents of a Web page because the company that built the Web browser was holding off on the update until they could also build in code that would allow users to post to Facebook and Google+. Agile has provided software developers with a methodology that supports incremental releases and also accommodates for the change that is the reality of the world that we live in. As a result, we all receive the benefit of frequent fixes and increased functionality.
Applying this metaphor to training allows the new manager, who needs to develop leadership skills, the ability to master the skill of chairing a meeting even though the component of the curriculum that addresses navigating the culture of the organization has not yet been built. The implications are that this new manager (and the company) can immediately benefit from one component of the training even though the entire program has not been developed. This approach allows the company to receive incremental value from the training thus reducing the training value gap. When training content is developed and delivered the Agile way companies and trainees can realize the benefit of the learning solution almost immediately.
I encourage everyone to consider using Agile to help close the training value gap.
