INTERVIEW: PRISCILLA PRICE SPOKE TO US ABOUT HER EXPERIENCE WITH THE BRINKERHOFF HIGH-PERFORMANCE LEARNING JOURNEY PROGRAM.
Priscilla is the Director of Global Learning and Development at SonicWall. A company that has been fighting the cyber-criminal industry for over 30 years defending small, medium-size businesses and enterprises worldwide. Priscilla has attended a few of the programs that The Learning Gym has to offer including the Accelerated Learning Certificate in Virtual Training Program, which lead her to take the Brinkerhoff High-Performance Learning Journey Program.
WHAT IS THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE LEARNING JOURNEY (HPLJ)?
The High-Performance Learning Journey equips you with the tools to significantly improve your design and deliver impact on a learning investment. Based on the research of one of the leading impact evaluation experts, Professor Robert Brinkerhoff, it reveals the difference between a successful and unsuccessful training program. This certification builds from his research on training impact, integrating findings from recent research on what makes a learning journey approach achieve performance faster and more consistently.
HERE’S WHAT PRISCILLA HAD TO SAY ABOUT HER EXPERIENCE:
WHAT MOTIVATED YOU TO ATTEND THE HP LG PROGRAM?
“As an L&D professional, I was looking for new ways to create effective training programs within my organization, and during another TLG program that I attended, I heard about the HPLJ. As soon as I had the opportunity, I joined the program. I’d like to add here that the knowledge that I gained in this program made a huge difference to the training programs that I create now.”
WHAT BENEFITS DID YOU EXPECT FROM THIS PROGRAM AND WHAT BENEFITS DID YOU GET?
“When I heard about the HPLJ or the high-performance learning journey I was very open to the whole idea as it was new to me. The whole journey was very insightful for me because it started with a lot of pre-work on the Promote platform. We had to create our own personal performance path and identify what success looked like for us. We put it on the platform before we came into the program, which created a lot of expectations even before we got to the instructor-led session. The eye-opener for me was the importance of on-the-job activities. Rather than trying to squeeze everything into an instructor-led session. To provide bite-sized learning, so that it would increase the application on the job. I also loved the assessment tool to appraise the program and identify how much of an HPLJ it was.
I loved what Shilpa said… “think of HPLG as a dial, is it more of an HPLJ or less of an HPLJ”. So that’s exactly how I looked at the program and those were the benefits that I took away from the program.”
SINCE TAKING THE PROGRAM HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO APPLY WHAT YOU LEARNED TO DESIGN LEARNING JOURNEYS THAT STRENGTHEN PARTICIPANT LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE RESULTS?
“I’d say absolutely! I use the assessment tool now to identify how much of an HPLJ the program is. Another thing that I’ve incorporated is getting the participants to do a lot of pre-work, exactly how it was done in the HLG journey. The introductions are done a tool, participants come in stating what they expect out of the sessions, we have them sign contracts, etc. so there’s a lot of involvement and engagement from the start. Something else that I picked up is identifying the barriers to a high-performance learning journey very early on in the program. Previously as a learning and development person, I would just approach teams, offer programs and see if they were interested, but after going through the HPLJ program, my method has changed. I engage more with the supervisors and leaders to understand what their issues are and what they expect to get out of the training. I spend more time upfront, questioning them on how they expect the training to make a difference to the issues and when we identify that, yes, training is the right solution and it will help them, only then do we start creating the learning journey. As a result of so much supervisor involvement, I’ve seen programs being more successful than they used to be in the past. I’ve also applied something else that Shilpa mentioned during our HPLG journey, which was to have a lot of peer interaction. This was something that our programs did not have before. By creating small groups, from various departments or even countries, that wouldn’t normally work together, we found that the learning has been greater. Participants have come back to us and told us they loved interacting with different people, and they loved the smaller teams and being able to work together. So, I’d say we have implemented a lot of what was plotted out in the HPLJ, and it has been successful in our program.”
Priscilla’s key takeaway was that the success of these training programs was increased by getting stakeholders involved earlier on and getting participants to interact with each other. She finds it’s a much more effective method of training that helps learning stick post-session and participants apply what they learn more effectively back on the job.
DID YOU HAVE ANY OTHER MAJOR AHA MOMENTS?
“The whole journey for me was an Aha moment! Learning how to design training programs that are journey-focused and not just event-focused, for me, was the real aha! I also loved when Shilpa mentioned that the amount of time that people spend in the training room, in the instructor-led sessions, should be 20% of the program, with the remaining 80% on the job, doing tasks on their own, so the learning can stick. It was also about the performance-based learning outcomes, that the whole program gave us, which for me was the biggest aha moment in training.”
Priscilla noted that she’s seen a significant increase in on-the-job performance after implementing the HPLJ tools in her training programs.
WHO WOULD YOU RECOMMEND THIS PROGRAM TO?
“I’d recommend this program to all L&D professionals, especially the ones who oversee creating learning programs. Whether they are creating training for an organisation or even if they are external training consultants, if they are creating learning programs for intervention training, this is a great program to attend.”
ANY FINAL ADVICE OR TIPS FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING TAKING THE PROGRAM?
“I’d say that if you want to create a program that will scale well within the business and make a difference to your organization, or the client that you’re supporting, I’d highly recommend that you go through the HPLJ. I’ll add a small plug here, it is not part of HPLJ but I’d also recommend the 12 Levers of Transfer Effectiveness. While the HPLJ program tells you what you’re supposed to do and how to create a great training intervention; the 12 Levers program gives you tips, ideas and practical ways of applying the learnings. They go together. I’d say you need to attend both of them. At the end of the day as trainers, we want more for our participants than just attendance at a 2-hour session. We’re looking to invoke behaviour changes. I want my participants to go and make a change in their job. So to design these programs effectively, to ensure that your program focuses on job application and success on the job, I highly recommend going through this program.”
AS YOU ARE BASED IN INDIA, HAVE YOU SEEN THESE KINDS OF PROGRAMS AND THIS SHIFT IN TRAINING FOCUS BEING ADOPTED BY OTHER L&D PROFESSIONALS?
“I feel we’re almost halfway there. I know HPLJ was available before the pandemic, but due to it, everyone had to move over to virtual training. As a result, I think most L&D professionals realised what we used to do in the past was alright, but not great. Thanks to all the new tools that we’ve been introduced to, the new technology that are now available and the ability to find innovative solutions to create learning programs, we’ve been able to redesign. I think it’s probably more important for people to go through it now, post-pandemic because a lot of our L&D professionals realised they can’t do classroom training, so how best can I run effective training programs. It has helped us to better understand we just don’t design programs for one country, we are designing global programs for all leaders of the organization. This HPLJ journey has helped me do that effectively.
Priscilla has also completed the Kirkpatrick programs and felt that taught her a lot about how to measure training effectiveness. “I’d say if you can do all the three, HPLJ, Kirkpatrick as well as your 12 levers, you’d have a really strong foundation to be a great L&D professional.”
Priscilla left us with this comment about our co-founders “Shilpa and Melanie are two of a kind I must say. What I love about both is their willingness to share their ideas, their openness, and their willingness to allow us to copy whatever they’re doing, I loved it. They also hold you accountable. You come back to a session, having chosen a program of your own to redesign using the concepts you’ve learned, and they give you very effective feedback on what could be better. That was amazing, so that’s why I love them both.”
We’d like to thank Priscilla Price for her valuable feedback, insights, and continued support of The Learning Gym.
