Rethinking Learning Design: Part 1
To consider behaviour change, a designer must take into account motivation, environment and culture. A quick way to explore this is Lewin’s famous equation, B= f(P,E)
“An individual’s behaviour (B) is a function (f) of the the person (P), including their history, personality and motivation, and their environment (E), which includes both their physical and social surroundings.”
Is behaviour change a sustainable goal? How, for example can you take behaviour change, and turn that into performance?
I have been thinking about an overly simple interpretation, that performance is simply a tangible action that can be measured. Ultimately, a clear goal that can be observed over time.
That takes me back to the four elements I want to cover with a model for learning design:
Performance - a clear business goal
Personalisation - considering capability, opportunity & motivation
Environment - what is possible and achievable in a space
Culture - how the social world affects design
Now this sounds a lot like systems thinking, and perhaps even more so Peter Senge’s 5th Discipline model. So far so Org Design - but I want to put development and growth at the centre of the model, not just change.
If I imagine three constituent parts:
Psychology & Sociology - this is educational & learning theory, memory behavioural science, neuroscience etc…
Product Design - making things that have clear outcomes, to solve a problem
Marketing & comms - how to transmit messages & create change
Can I combine them into a model that helps a designer consider the person, the environment & culture, all focused on a clear performance goal?
Is this something that could be applied in multiple contexts, for example at any point in an employee lifecycle, to craft interventions aimed at developing skills, behaviours & sustainable growth?
This would be a model that contains models. It would stand as a reminder of a wealth of other tools, as a simple diagram.