This is my first time learning about Human Performance Technology (HPT). This post will be a Q&A reflection-style post to discuss my initial thoughts on HPT. These are initial thoughts and perspectives built on little knowledge and experience in the field of HPT. We'll see what my thoughts are when the semester ends!
What is Human Performance Technology?
From my perception, Human Performance Technology is a field that will focus on the skills and behaviors that make up organizational performance and how to specifically target and improve performance needs. I believe this area will entail identifying behaviors within performance, analyzing the factors that influence the behaviors, and strategically planning for changes in performance to meet larger goals.
In comparing my above initial thoughts on human performance to Stolovitch and Keep's (2004) thoughts, the text defines performance as including behaviors and outcomes of those behaviors as a combination that makes up human performance. This will be interesting to unpack throughout the remainder of the course. My initial definition leaned more heavily on behaviors rather than combining behaviors with outcomes. I can see how both are needed to truly define performance.
My Background Knowledge
I am coming into this course with a large amount of background knowledge in the field of instructional design. This background will help me in identifying employee behaviors, identifying the gap in current vs. desired behaviors, analyzing employees and workplace context, designing clear performance goals, and creating strategic solutions to the performance needs and goals. Essentially instructional design gives me a playbook to understand how to identify and address specific learning needs. In this course, I will need to focus these skills in a broader context of performance.
Additionally, my professional background in case management and health coaching gives me years of experience in working with clients to meet individual goals and needs. This gives me experience observing needs, defining goals, working with clients, and crafting individual solutions to reach goals. These skills can all be utilized within the context of HPT. I can take these skills and frame them around organizational goals and needs rather than just an individual person's goals and needs.
What do I wish to gain from this course?
From this course, I hope to gain a broader perspective of organizational needs and goals. Learning and training needs are great to work on, but are very specific outcomes that can only address some organizational needs. The concept of employee performance is broader and may need many unique solutions. The area of HPT will help me to address organizational needs and issues at a larger level. It will also give me ways to address needs in creative and effective ways.
Practically, I am hoping to learn how to identify HPT needs, correctly identify root issues, and craft practical solutions. Narrowing the root of the performance issues is something I am excited about. I am used to viewing workplace performance issues through the lens of being an individual employee. With this course, I hope to be able to view the root cause of performance issues through a broader lens and to see the complex organizational system at play. I would like to better understand the external and internal factors that can influence behavior within an organization (Stolovitch and Keep, 2004). I would like to see my understanding of HPT progress from general assumptions to a true understanding of how to collect relevant facts and data regarding employee performance and behavior. Finally, I am interested in understanding how to use HPT in a way that can add value to employees and their experiences within the workplace. I think it is easy to hone in on performance and forget the humans that go with the performance. I hope that HPT is an area that can help to increase the value of people within the workforce.
How can I contribute to this course?
I plan to contribute by taking a "learning out loud" approach. This course will use application-based learning. I will be contributing my thoughts, efforts, takes, revisions, lessons, and feedback. I will be open about this learning process and my own thought process as I go. I hope that this active learning process will help to contribute to the collective learning environment. Additionally, I can contribute by taking knowledge and adjusting it to my own unique position. I believe that my prior work experiences and my professional goals give me a unique lens to view HPT. My background will largely apply HPT to non-profit sectors. I hope this presents a unique view of HPT application in a unique business area. The great thing is all of my classmates have a unique perspective to share as well. I hope that through each of us working through these blogs and our larger projects we can share and see a variety of ways HPT can look and be applied in varying industries.
How will I use this course in my career?
I plan to use this course and its information in a highly applicable manner. I would like the broader topic of HPT to be used within my instructional design work. While I think the two fields can be seen as separate, I would like HPT to reflect in my instructional design work. My largest goal is to be an instructional designer who goes beyond creating training programs. HPT is what will help me reach this goal. If I can look at needs and problems through the lens of human performance and larger organizational needs, it should help prevent the training-only mindset.
I also believe this information and its application can help my work to be practical to the organizations that I work with. By crafting performance solutions, I hope that my work will help to meet bigger-picture organizational goals and make the work more essential to the organization. Therefore, I hope this coursework can be used in the future to make my instructional design work more essential to an organization. I am still in the process of job-hunting and transitioning into the instructional design field, so I do not have a specific work-based project to apply these topics to right now. However, I plan to use human performance within my interviewing processes as a way to show my ability to understand and address larger organizational needs and goals.
This is where I am starting at. This is my jumping-off point. A lot of my perceptions are general to my assumptions about HPT. I have not had the chance to dig into learning and applying this area, so everything is very new to me. It will be exciting to look back on this post in 8 weeks and see where my thoughts have changed or remained the same.
Reference
Stolovitch, H. & Keeps, E. (2004). Training ain't performance. ATD Press.
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