Which is Better - To Know or To Do?

This is the first of eight expanded articles from each of the points in the initial article in this newsletter, "L&D is Behind the Times: Here's How We Catch-Up." This article focuses on point #1: Focus on the moment of apply.

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To know or to do?

It is a question many learning and development professional have asked. Which is better? Where do we start? Do we design learning experiences around what people need to do or what they need to know?

Great questions.

Born from roots in formal education, the process of creating an L&D solution often begins with the question, "What does the learner need to know in order to perform this task?" This sounds like a logical first step. After all, in traditional education it is knowing that earns us a good grade, a graduation certificate, and the promise of a good job. It's a familiar model to L&D professionals and to our stakeholders.

Armed with the answers to that question, we (L&D) gather information and focus first on knowing. But we are already behind before we have truly begun. Our logic, this traditional education logic that we have as our collective experience, is flawed. It doesn't translate to the workplace.

I love the exercise Elaine Beich asks readers to do in her book, "The Art and Science of Training." She asks readers to think back over the past two months and list what we learned and why we learned it (p. 7). When I did this activity recently, I jotted down learning about nutrition to feel better, learning how to fix my vacuum because it was broken, and learning how to paint furniture to brighten up a space (and save money). When I looked at my answers, I saw the common theme. I had a personal need to do all of those things. There wasn't one where knowledge alone was enough.

Because my end goal was to put a new skill into practice, I was driven by the "Moment of Apply" as most adult learners are (per Conrad Gottfredson and Bob Mosher's, 5 Moments of Need). As Malcolm Knowles, the father of adult learning in the United States, put it, adults are practical and they are seeking relevance. We want to learn practical things that are relevant to our lives.

In our workplaces, we learn so that we can improve something or do something new in relation to our jobs. The role of L&D is to create the conditions whereby this learning can happen, whether that is a leadership skill or navigating a software system.

When L&D spends the majority of our time gathering and delivering information instead of focusing on the application or "doing," we miss equipping the learner with the point of the learning.

Take this example: You sit in a typical training session where an L&D professional is sharing information (all too often in a lecture style) for 50 minutes and then gives you 5 minutes to practice or review what was shared at the end. You go back to your workstation with the little bit of knowledge you were able to retain in that time paired with that 5 minute, teensy toe dip into doing something with it. But overwhelmingly, you have to figure out how to apply what you learned by yourself. You have to connect the dots from the classroom to the job. That's the hardest part of learning. Chances are good, because you feel unequipped to change and your world moves quickly, you turn back to old habits and your L&D knowledge session is quickly forgotten. Sadly, this example is all too common.

We are doing this backwards. We need to flip the model upside down and start there.

Since the point is to do something with the information (knowledge), let's start there. This means starting with what learners need to do. Then, in a designed learning experience, we guide learners to do that work through hands-on practice in a safe environment, accessing the resources along the way. Learners grab the knowledge they need as it associates with a task, not the other way around.

An alternate example: You spend one hour in a training session with only a brief (3-5 minute) intro and then experience 55 minutes of guided, hands-on practice activities. It is like a dance between finding the information needed or, if a traditional classroom setting, the facilitator giving a quick bit of info and then you (the learner) practicing and using it right away on your own. You are doing things exactly the same way you will do in your role. Now, you go back to your work station after that hour and the dots are already connected. All you have to do is start working. It's a completely different experience with a completely different outcome.

So, which is better - to know or to do? Both are needed, but the purpose in a workplace is to do. So, let the doing be your guide and the knowledge will follow.