An outside perspective

Someone reached out to me for a case study on addressing a workplace problem. I was willing, but there’s a small problem; I’ve never had to address a workplace learning problem. At least, in the way most people expect. Instead, I provide an outside perspective. What’s that mean?

So, first of all, I don’t come from an instructional design (ID) background. I did get some exposure to educational approaches when I designed my own undergraduate degree in Computer-Based Education. Yet, there weren’t any ID courses where I was a student. As a graduate student, I took psychology courses on learning. I also read Reigeluth’s survey of ID design approaches. Further, I got a chance to interview the gracious and wise David Merrill. But, again, no formal ID courses were on tap.

On the flip side, I was in a vibrant program that was developing a cognitive science degree, and read everything on learning I could find: behavioral, cognitive, social, neural, even machine learning! I was in my post-doc as they were forming the learning science approach, too, and I was at a relevant institution. Still, no ID. So, I do have deep learning roots, just not ID.

Then, after the post-doc, I taught. That is, practiced learning design, and continued reading and talking ID, and attending relevant conferences. Just not a formal ID course. Then I joined a small startup to design an adaptive learning platform, and then started consulting, but never a workplace learning role inwardly faced.

What that means is that I bring an ‘outside’ perspective to L&D. Which, I think, isn’t a bad thing. I’ve helped firms meet realistic goals in innovative ways, courtesy of not having my thinking pre-constrained. I’ve been able to interpret learning science in practical terms, and infer what ID says (also, I’ve read it and reflected in context on it). So, I’ve talked L&D design, and ID improvements, but from the view of an outsider.

Many times outsiders can bring new perspectives. And, they can be ignorant of all the contextual details. Thus, it’s really important to ask and establish those constraints, and then to be sensitive to the ones that they didn’t mention. (One of the benefits of the court jester was to reframe things in ways that showed the humor in the hidden assumptions.) Still, I’m not apologizing. I think the background I’ve acquired is useful to people who need to meet real goals, and have a decent track record in doing so. I welcome your thoughts on whether an outside perspective is of benefit.