- How do you define HPT?
Human Performance Technology is a whole field of study that focuses on how to improve training protocols, identify issues and their solutions, and help workplaces improve through interventions and creating guiding coalitions.- How does this compare to your definition from week 1?
My week one definition wasn’t even a definition, it was me admitting that I had no familiarity with it. The course ultimately did go in a direction where I learned that I was already familiar with some of the material, but the majority of it was brand new to me.
- How does this compare to your definition from week 1?
- The key things I gained from this course were, oddly enough, management skills. Much of the course was about identifying problems within workplaces, deciding how to approach the correcting of those problems, creating a guiding coalition to lead the changes, and how to follow up and ensure that the recommended changes are happening. All of these skills are applicable to management, and can be enacted before problems arise to ensure proper flow of the workplace and improvement of morale.
- Personal Reflection:
- My strengths throughout this course were almost all within the critical characteristics (that is, the “personable” part). When I read through the list I recognized nearly all of them as strengths for me; Cause-conscious, Organized, Diplomatic, Principled yet Flexible, Able to sort priorities, the list goes on. These strengths are all things that I learned throughout my professional career. I had to be cause-conscious when determining the demonstrations I would bring to schools that I’ve visited in the past, and organized to make sure I wasn’t accidentally repeating demonstrations. I had to be diplomatic when managing student concerns, principled when tasking volunteers and flexible with their class and work schedules to ensure events would happen. I had to be able to sort out priorities for the sake of my university, ensuring that my projects fit their goals as well as my own.
- I’ll admit that almost all of the technical competencies are things that I feel I could work on. “Sequence performance improvement activities” and “Sequence performance intervention outcomes” are both things that, though I can do them, I don’t feel confident. “Assess performer characteristics” is in the same boat. I can do it, but I don’t feel very confident in it. “Determine performance improvement projects appropriate to work on” is something which I struggled with. I was able to settle on something eventually, but it wasn’t a selection process that I felt comfortable with. “Promote performance consulting and human performance improvement as a major approach to achieving desired results in organizations” is a mouthful. It’s also something that I don’t feel confident in post-class. Although I made a plan, and although I do use part of my plan in my own workplace, I don’t yet feel confident in my ability to do this with the entire plan.
- I don’t intend to go into HPT, so I think I will most likely use these skills if I transition into an administrative or managerial role. These skills are pretty applicable if one is in charge of a workplace, as you can use them to remind yourself to check in with your workers, learn what can be improved for them, and enact changes that will improve overall workflow.