PIAF - the ideas adventure

From Monday of this week, I have been sharing with you a simple four-phase model for the design of workplace learning interventions:

• Preparation: Helping the learner to prepare for a productive learning experience.
• Input: Providing the formal element which hopefully will inspire the learner and act as a catalyst for changes in behaviour and on-going skills development.
• Application: Providing opportunities for the learner to test out new ideas and skills in the work environment.
• Follow-up: Helping the learner to continue their learning journey using on-demand content, coaching and support from peers.

Yesterday I demonstrated how the four phases could be applied to a typical skills development intervention. Today, I will attempt to do the same for an intervention that explores ideas.

First of all, what do I mean by exploring ideas? Well, I mean more than the teaching of the knowledge (facts, concepts, rules, etc.) which underpin work performance. Knowledge may be a pre-requisite to the exploration of ideas, but it won't take you all the way there. Ideas are key principles which underpin your decision making. It is not enough to know about ideas; before you can put them into practice you have to believe them too. Here are some examples of subjects which are fundamentally driven by ideas:

• Leadership
• Equality and inclusion
• Project management
• Art and design
• Marketing
• Strategic management

These topics will often form the basis for academic programmes, but the four phases of PIAF imply a focus not on learning for its own sake (or to obtain a qualification) but on learning as a basis for changing work behaviour. Here's how an adventure in ideas might look:

Again I have attempted to show how, as the intervention progresses, we see the shift from push to pull, from courses to resources.

Tomorrow, in the final post, I ask you to help me by sharing your own case studies for blended solutions which utilise all these phases.

Next: I need you

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