HPT and My Future
Investigating Human Performance Technology has enhanced my understanding of the job field that I am building a career in. HPT and Learning Design have a remarkable amount of overlap. In large organizations the two types of professionals are likely to collaborate. In small settings, a Learning Designer may be expected to perform HPT tasks. I expect that the ability to speak knowledgeably about HPT will serve me well in the future.
Takeaways
I have learned a systematic approach to addressing problems that may not be best served by an instruction-based solution. I now have a proven strategy for breaking down and classifying complex performance problems whereas I may have relied on intuition in the past. I feel confident that in the future I will be able to advocate for HPT solutions when costly training interventions can be avoided.
Defining HPT
When I began this blog, I described HPT as follows:
Based on what I know so far, HPT practitioners help organizations identify problem areas and generate solutions.
While I do not disagree with my initial thoughts, they were not very specific. I now know that HPT practitioners analyze and monitor performance (good or bad), systematically design interventions, help organizations implement changes, and evaluate or monitor performance data.
Self-assessment
While I feel I possess many of the skills needed to practice HPT, I still have a long way to go before I would apply for a job in the field. This self-assessment is based on the personal inventories outlined by Stolovich and Keeps (2004, pp. 139, 141).
Tasks I feel proficient at tend to overlap with my past experiences or my work in Learning Design:
- Gap analysis
- Objective-writing and outcome-writing
- Question-asking, listening and gaining buy-in
- Thorough analysis
- Collaborative ideation
Tasks I am still a novice at often fall post-development as I have rarely had the opportunity to implement interventions in real organizations:
- Implementing interventions
- Monitoring progress
- Data collection and analysis
- Identifying and distilling appropriate projects
- Finally, I have not yet had the opportunity to promote performance improvement approach over other approaches to a real problem, but I look forward to trying!
