PROLOGUE

Standing on a Foundation of Continual Change

From the early planning stages for this book, we knew we were thinking differently about learning needs analysis compared with our past experiences. All three of us have held key learning leadership roles in various firms and have experienced firsthand the pressure to respond quickly to business leaders and market demands. We’ve also experienced times when learning was derailed, when it failed to meet learner expectations, or when it didn’t produce the desired business impact. If you’ve ever found yourself in the position of defending why things didn’t quite go the way you’d hoped, it’s likely that some part of the needs analysis was either incomplete or ignored. The resulting business impact becomes lost time, wasted money, and frustrated colleagues—something none of us wants.

As we wrote our book, we became keenly aware of the temporal nature of work. We began our planning at least a year before the word COVID hit the news. Throughout the global pandemic, we worked together—mostly virtually—not only adapting our approach to collaboration, but also adapting the book itself to be as relevant as possible to the changing nature of work. In all candor, having a project like this was a gift that helped sustain us through the isolation and uncertainty that the global pandemic created.

It’s now hard to imagine a world more complex. Overwhelming amounts of information, workforce reskilling needs, digital transformations, and emerging technologies seem to be the norm. It’s not enough to simply talk about the speed of change, but the very nature of change is increasingly disruptive and often unexpected, coming in tsunami-like waves. We receive early warning signals that the wave is coming, but it’s hard to fathom the real impact until change is upon us.

Our world is in constant flux, and it’s not limited to business. Our cultural, social, and economic fabrics are rapidly being challenged and redefined, often driven by global inflection points like a recession, a pandemic, climate change, and trade wars. While all that sounds quite ominous, the rise of technology, micro-financing, and digital trade is accelerating, making it possible for a new, interconnected world of work to emerge.

A clearer sense of our humanity is also on the rise. Empathy. Compassion. How we treat one another, the values we demonstrate, and the behaviors we model not only are transparent, but also can circle the globe, literally with a keystroke. What once was hidden is now visible. What once was acceptable may crumble under the scrutiny of exposure and accountability.

Workplace Learning Evolution: Enablement Over Control

The days of linear, predictable, and stable content, controlled by a corporate learning function, have come to an end. It’s simply not possible for any of us—no matter how talented, how experienced, or how smart—to forecast the future of what will need to be learned. The days of control are gone, and the world of enablement has arrived.

For at least the last decade, the learning industry has focused significant energy and investment on technology, looking for ways to shift learning from the traditional classroom to more personalized, mobile, and on-demand delivery channels. Technology platforms, smartphones, and robust apps have enabled major shifts in how we’ve begun to reimagine work. We often say, “Google and YouTube have changed forever the way we learn.” There’s no going back from our real-time, situation-specific searches that teach us what we need in that moment.

As important as those advances have been and continue to be, the next revolution in learning is turning inward to our own biology—the preferences, constraints, and needs of human psychology and the brain. The fields of social psychology and neuroscience have exploded over the last 20 years, yet much of the research has remained within the walls of academia and medicine. This research has given us a deeper understanding of how our brains register, process, encode, and recall information—the very essence of learning.

Our epiphany is this:

•  Change continues to rapidly accelerate, with information growing exponentially.

•  Learning professionals live at the heart of individual and organizational transformations.

•  No matter how clever the technology, how talented the instructional designer, or how adaptive the facilitator, our profession can increase its impact if we factor in how the human brain learns.

Start by Reimagining Analysis

This book was written by learning professionals for learning professionals who aspire to become better at their craft. We’ve focused on applying science (for example, social and organizational psychology and neuroscience) to the profession of learning, starting first with reimagining what analysis is, and then reskilling ourselves to have science-based conversations with each other and the business leaders we support.

Historically, analysis has been the easiest step to hurry through or skip altogether, as we either accept someone else’s definition of the “problem,” or we assume the gap can be closed by training. In this book you’ll learn about a new science-based framework called CLICS^™, which is our acronym for Capacity, Layering, Intrinsic enablers, Coherence, and Social connections. These domains are based on five science concepts crucial for learning. Our goal is to share new tools that practitioners can immediately apply, building on their existing skill sets and methods. Additionally, we’ve intentionally designed CLICS to complement traditional methods of instructional design, be that ADDIE, SAM, or any other approach you may use.

About This Book

We begin in chapter 1 with an introduction to CLICS, describing the need to approach analysis in a new, more human-centric way. Then in chapter 2 we examine the underpinnings of the behavioral science of CLICS—how the brain works, learns, and applies.

In chapters 3–7, we present a deep dive into each of CLICS’s respective domains along with practical applications. You’ll learn about each domain and its relevant science concepts and models, then walk through three practical scenarios using the CLICS Tool. The intention is to immediately enable you to start using this framework when doing needs analysis with your stakeholders.

In chapter 8, we lay out the tool in its entirety and revisit one of our practical scenarios with a twist.

In chapter 9, we offer proven science-based techniques to apply during design and development to facilitate more effective learning outcomes.

Chapter 10 is our call to action for a learning approach that applies behavioral science insights to the world of work.

The appendix, “A Brief Tutorial on the Science of Testing Programs,” provides straightforward guidance if you want or need to apply a rigorous approach to assessment. The process of measurement can be daunting, but consider whether this approach might be for you.

Throughout the book, sidebars containing interviews with business leaders (Cases in Point) and vignettes on the work of cutting-edge researchers (Scientist Spotlights) illuminate the practical side of these ideas.

So how should you use this book to get the most out of it?

•  Apply the tool using a learning request you currently have before you.

•  Reflect on how the scientific principles can help you guide conversations with your stakeholders.

•  Identify questions to use in your own needs analysis that fit the domains but are relevant to your organization and circumstances.

To follow our work, or simply connect with us, please feel free to do so via LinkedIn:

•  Mary: linkedin.com/in/maryslaughter

•  Janet: linkedin.com/in/janet-n-ahn-phd-705b7796

•  Jon: linkedin.com/in/jonthompson2758

We’re so appreciative that you’ve chosen to read our work.