A compelling account of powerful metrics to stay ahead of the curve revealed in ‘Speed Matters’ SINGAPORE, June 17 2021 — How do some best-in-class organizations manage to stay ahead of their competitors in this fast-paced business world? How do some futuristic leaders measure speed in their teams and stay speed-savvy? Dr. Raman K Attri, a performance scientist, an author of 20 books, and a global authority on speed in learning and performance, reveals the answer to these critical business questions in his latest book, Speed Matters. We live in highly accelerated times where the speed of business creates massive...

When I was a kid, I contracted polio. That took away my ability to walk and a large part of my mobility. I was devoid of any social network and lived in a highly impoverished and oppressed environment. I had no choice but to live with myself. Those environmental triggered me to grow up most of my childhood as an introvert. I had an extreme inferiority complex that developed me into an introvert. I talked less and stayed within myself. I was not outgoing enough even to say hello to strangers. The main thought in my childhood was how to...

The businesses have seen a drastic change during the dire times of the pandemic in the year 2021. While on the one hand, it slowed down businesses in certain areas, on the other, it over-accelerated the adoption of unimaginable levels of changes and technologies. Certain strategies failed miserably during these sudden transformations and adjustments, while a few others worked miraculously. More than anything else, a significant shift occurred in the strategic thinking of learning and training leaders. While we are eagerly looking forward to the end of the pandemic era, the time has come to look back and reflect upon...

The pandemic has accelerated the digital revolution and adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies to improve operational efficiency. However, not all kinds of technologies would speed up the employee development process. Leaders need to understand how much any technology would contribute towards accelerating employees’ time to proficiency. The author’s extensive research with best-in-class organizations revealed five speed-focused strategies that learning and training leaders can use to determine the most appropriate technologies in their context. The ultimate goal of these technologies should be to speed up employee development and performance. Speed-focused strategies A hypothetical employee development journey is shown in this picture...

The business world is experiencing an unprecedented labor shortage. The thought leaders have been stipulating how AI and automation technologies could bridge the gap. Before we jump to the solution, we need to understand why this shortage is being experienced by most organizations.  The shortage of labor is driven by the skill shortage, not the headcount shortage per se. Prior to the pandemic, the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Future of Jobs report predicted that by 2025, the workforce would need specific advanced skills like complex problem-solving. But the pandemic pulled that need some five years earlier than most organizations had...

If you are a small business owner, you may not be fully shielded from the ongoing talent shortage in the market. Unlike large corporations, you may not have the infrastructure, resources, and cash to sustain yourself. You need to be creative about handling their existing workforce and address talent acquisition challenges. The talent acquisition and development challenges for small business owners During the pandemic, I conducted research that showed that small business owners have three challenges. To hire a talented workforce at a faster rate. Bringing them up to speed faster than the competition. To enable current employees to master...

The value of training and learning interventions at the workplace is undeniable. Training is the first line of defense in many organizations to prepare their employees. Most training designs are geared towards traditional goals like improving employee performance, developing new skills, and providing initial operating readiness to the people, thereby preparing them for the job to some reasonable extent. However, the business world has changed drastically during the pandemic. It demands innovative ways to speed up the skill acquisition of employees. Training organizations now require a training design that enables much faster development of employees’ skills and performance to specified...

WHY SHORTEN TIME TO PROFICIENCY? A key stage in the development of an employee is becoming proficient in their job. At this stage, their performance is consistent, reliable, repeatable, and above acceptable standards, in every situation, they might face in that job role. They can perform their function or job to established standards; they are independently productive and require little supervision. However, the term proficiency is largely misunderstood in the sense of business and academic literature. Proficiency is measured at a job role level. That means it is not measured at the task or skill level. When your house is...

This article describes why traditional training and learning interventions fail to shorten time to proficiency of employees. It investigates how 4 major speed blockers, 15 key inefficiencies, and over 100 indicators are found in traditional training and learning design that elongate time to proficiency.

This article, for the first time, investigates the business thought process of organizations or project leaders that drives them to actively institute projects, resources or teams to reduce time to proficiency of the human resources, workforce or people. This article describes four foundational business drivers or pushes towards a shorter time to proficiency. 

This article reveals, for the first time, some eye-opening numbers about time to proficiency of employees in different contexts and settings. An outcome of an extensive research study conducted on speeding up time to proficiency, this article describes why organizational leaders should act upon this burning business problem of such a large magnitude and scale. Do you even know the time to proficiency of your employees or team members in a given job role? If not, then this article is meant for you. In a recent conference, I presented that time to proficiency of the workforce is so large a...

This article defines the business metrics like proficiency, speed to proficiency, time to proficiency, time to competence, accelerating time to proficiency, accelerating speed to proficiency, and accelerated proficiency in a well-rounded description based on research. Recently I completed my doctorate research on accelerating speed to proficiency with over 85 leading experts and thought leaders from over 50 organizations spread in 7 countries and gathered over 66 successful projects which led to a successful reduction in time to proficiency in various contexts. One of the things I learned during the examination/evaluation of my thesis is how poorly the term “speed to proficiency”...

This article shares the research findings in one study and describes 3 powerful workplace learning strategies which have proven to shorten time to proficiency of employees and explains a model to shorten time to proficiency by leveraging these strategies. The scanning of past research studies on workplace training and learning suggests that there are many training and learning strategies to enhance training outcomes and make learning more effective, enhance training transfer to the workplace, and accelerate skill acquisition. It looks like there are quite a few workplace training strategies that may hold the potential to reduce time to proficiency. However,...

In this article, 5 strategies from research are discussed which can be specifically used to implement/design the classroom or instructor-led training interventions to accelerate speed to proficiency.

This article analyzes the typical proficiency curve and suggests 4 potential approaches that can accelerate proficiency in workplace skills. Accelerate proficiency-based training, accelerate on-the-job experience, accelerate proficiency with restructured training and combine multiple approaches. The corporate goal to accelerate proficiency is as intriguing as it is mysterious. Though there is plenty of research on elite expertise and accelerated expertise, the area of accelerating proficiency is under-represented. Not many approaches or strategies are known to professionals and business leaders to accelerate proficiency in professional skills. A while ago I presented the paper “Rethinking Professional Skill Development: Accelerating Time-to-Expertise of Employees” at...

This article describes guidelines for to use of an intuitive and practical 4-tier model for the measurement of technical training effectiveness through 4 simple indices: training reaction index, improvement index, effectiveness index, and impact trends. I wrote some papers and articles on measuring the effectiveness of training (including impact and ROI) back in 2005. I conceptualized a simple, intuitive, and practical 4-tier “Return on Effectiveness (ROE)” model for measuring training effectiveness and ROI as an engineer would do. Since then I have received quite many requests, particularly from technical training managers to elaborate on the approach a bit more. Somehow, the...

This research study reports 5 powerful e-learning strategies that can accelerate time to proficiency in complex cognitive skills: Experience-rich multi-technology mix, Time-spaced micro-learning content, Scenario-based contextualization, On-demand performance support systems, and Optimally sequenced e-learning path. Accelerating time to proficiency of the workforce is a crucial business goal. E-learning has made big waves in the past decade. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate the contributions or role of e-learning towards accelerating time to proficiency of the workforce, particularly for accelerating complex cognitive skills. On that subject, back in June 2016, I presented a paper titled “E-learning Strategies at Workplace That Support...

This article explains how to use 5 problem-centered to design training for real-world problem-solving skills. These methods are – Problem-based learning (PBL), Project-based learning, Scenario-based learning (SBL), Case-based method (CBM), and Simulation-based learning. Problem-centered training design has proven its effectiveness in equipping learners with real-world problem-solving skills. Problem-centered training design is depicted through several terms with similar basic intents of developing higher-ordered problem-solving skills in employees/learners. This article will explain the 5 most common methods: Problem-based learning (PBL), Project-based learning, Scenario-based learning (SCL), Case-based method (CBM), and Simulation-based learning. Also, two variations namely Problem-based case learning (PBCL) and focussed discussions...

Through 6 research-based guidelines, this article explains why it is important to acquire complex problem-solving in today’s job environment and how training experts can design a training curriculum that ensures acquiring complex problem-solving skills in any complex domain. Global jobs, especially technical ones are becoming more complex day by day. Complex jobs are the jobs that are characterized by the complexity of decision-making, complexity of problems, complexity of problem-solving, complexity and ambiguity of the tasks, uncertainty in the environment, and complexity of interactions it entails. Task complexity is another key factor to determine job complexity. TaskManagementGuide website defines task complexity...

This article explains how to rapidly accelerate expertise and behavior change using a powerful methodology of simulating rapidized failure cycles in a compressed time frame. Back in October 2014, I had a pleasure of an intellectual conversation with Dr. Lia DiBello, a well-known cognitive scientist, now President and CEO of WTRI, a San Diago-based firm specializing in developing and delivering products/services based on leading-edge cognitive science research on decision making, cognitive agility and enhanced performance in business. Dr. Lia DiBellow shared a powerful technique of simulating ‘rapidized failure cycles’ in a compressed time frame for rapidly accelerating expertise and driving...

In this research-based article, an instructional design model and the 9 promising e-learning methods are described which can be used to design a curriculum to accelerate proficiency in workplace skills. In a previous post ‘5 E-learning Strategies To Accelerate Time to Proficiency in Complex Cognitive Skills At workplace‘, I summarized 5 e-learning strategies to accelerate the speed to the proficiency of employees, particularly in learning complex cognitive skills from a research paper published I published in ICEL’2016 conference (here is the link to the research paper). While that post established a conceptual model of e-learning strategies that are shown to...

  In this interview, Dr. Robert Hoffman shares how training methods like mentoring, tough cases, and operational simulation lead to accelerated expertise. The buzzword “accelerated expertise” has drawn a lot of research and business interest. Previously I have written about research on novice to expertise transition in several posts: Progressions in Novice to Mastery Skill Development and I also shared some key models that explain this transition or progression towards expertise: 7 Models That Explain How Novice Develops into an Expert. In another post titled What Does 9 Famous Training Models Say About Accelerating Expertise?, I touched upon 9 famous training models which...

This article presents 6 training strategies to accelerate expertise based on the postulations from Sternberg’s (1999) model of expertise development. How to accelerate expertise? In previous posts, I highlighted the need to find solutions to accelerate expertise. Among several models for training design, the “Developing Expertise” Model by Sternberg (1999) is quite useful to define training strategies. The main feature of this model is that it postulated that ‘expertise’ is trainable – however, required correct orchestration of the training strategies. What is Sternberg’s Model of Expertise? Sternberg presented a model of developing expertise have five key elements: Metacognitive skills, Learning...

This article shares 4 interesting perspectives and 5 guidelines to design training for skill acquisition toward unconscious competence. How does an individual acquire unconscious competence? Skill acquisition toward higher level competence kept me fascinated for years. While developing my doctorate literature review, I started out with some research on models of expertise/competence development. My other posts address some staged models of skill acquisition towards a higher level of competence, proficiency, and expertise.  While I explained the Progressions in Novice to Mastery Skill Development in general, I also described 7 Phases of Skill Acquisition: Mastery and Beyond on Dreyfus’s Model. Taking it further,...

This article summarizes 9 of the famous models of training from research to explore if expertise can be accelerated. Accelerated expertise has been talk-of-the-town in the academic circle lately. Now the business world has started seeing the need for the expertise of their employees to be accelerated. In general, building expertise takes a long time. In previous posts, I tried to review the research perspective on stages one travels during his or her journey towards expertise acquisition. See posts: Mastery Demystified: How Do the Skills of a Novice Develop into Mastery? Demystifying Stages in Novice to Expert Transition: 7 Models from...

70:20:10 framework has seen its induction in several organizations. I got a chance to have a conversation with Dr. Charles Jennings, a learning thought leader and advocate of the 70:20:10 framework to investigate the potential this model hold to accelerate employee workplace learning and performance. He emphasizes that this framework if applied strategically, can enable organizations to compress time-to-competence. In this article, I will share 9 guidelines Dr. Charles shared that applied strategically can enable organizations to compress time-to-competence.   Charles Jennings is one of the world’s leading experts on building and implementing 70:20:10 learning strategies. 70:20:10 is based on observations that...

This article raises an important business concern why the time to proficiency of employees in any job is of utmost importance to any organization. What is this time to proficiency metrics anyway? Before we talk about time-to-proficiency metrics in the business world, we need to recognize the market forces such as time-to-market pressures in terms of how those metrics shape the pace of business. Over the last decade, every one of us has seen tremendous changes in technology and learning across industries. In the hi-tech industry, organizations are trying to squeeze (or accelerate) time to market new technologies, services, products,...

A few weeks back I was honored to have a conversation with Dr. Dee Andrews regarding his experience with accelerating proficiency in the military and how that could be translated to the organizational environment. About Dr. Dee H Andrews:  Dr. Dee H. Andrews, is a consultant specializing in training and human factors psychology. He retired as a Senior Scientist in Human Effectiveness Directorate in Air Force Research Laboratory, Arizona. As Senior Scientist, Dr. Andrews was the laboratory’s principal scientific authority for training research. His responsibilities included sustaining technological superiority for training by planning and conducting theoretical and experimental studies. Dr....

This interview explored Dr. Ruth Clark’s research on 4 cognitive training methods in building and accelerating expertise in problem-solving skills. Back in October 2014, I had a pleasure of an interview with Dr. Ruth Clark exploring her views about certain training strategies to build expertise in problem-solving skills and potentially accelerate it. She emphasized using worked examples and Scenario-based e-Learning training techniques as key to building expertise. Here is an excerpt from the conversation. About Dr. Ruth Clark: A recognized specialist in instructional design and technical training, Dr. Clark is an author of Scenario-based E-Learning and the newly released second edition...