Training Industry Magazine - Winter 2023 - 18

* What expected or unexpected
outcomes might come of this addition?
* What else could you consider?
From this exercise alone you might be
able to imagine how adaptive a course
can become by way of incorporating
critical thought. It takes great adaptability
to think about adaptable scenarios that
will help your learners develop these
micro-behaviors.
Adaptability
Most of what you have read thus far
and will continue to read is a scaffold
for adaptability. From this reading, we
already know that having contextual
awareness enables us to be more
adaptive and critical thinking can deepen
this adaptability. In the rest of the article,
we will explore varying constraints and
how these can add incredible depth
to one's growth, and establish a brief
understanding of vertical development.
Why does all this matter to us as
learning
designers? How does
it
increase or optimize high performance
in our organizations, leaders and
their teams? How does it provoke our
desired changes?
The theory is that the more adaptive one
is, the more prepared one will be in the
workplace to pivot. Nothing has proven
the importance of this more than the
previous three years. Organizations all
over the world have had to pivot more in
these past three years than some have
in decades.
So, what does it mean to be
more adaptive?
If we think about a specific personal or
professional conflict, it might be easy
for us to wrap our heads around the
difference between rigidity (standing
one's ground) and adaptability (being
open to the perspectives of others).
In conflict, we may see both parties stand
their ground and get nowhere. We may
Incorporate the art of inquiry
into your adaptive learning
to develop critical thinking.
alternatively see one person become
more adaptable while the other remains
rigid. Or we can see both parties become
more adaptable, thereby demonstrating
what healthy conflict might look like.
Of course, this is one example. However,
adaptability looks similar in areas of
trust, communication and collaboration
as well. Very rarely will high performance
stick if only one person is adaptable. All
parties involved need to be adaptable.
How then would you build adaptability
into your courses?
You may wish to incorporate
action
logic, sense-making or " if this, then
that " questions into your initial learner
self-assessments. You can follow-up by
offering learners customized training
recommendations based on the
three assessment outcomes.
that they step out of their comfort zones
with their choices.
As you can see, this opens the floor
extremely wide for instructional design.
So, how then would you define the
constraints needed for each of these
concepts? Where do you draw the lines?
Constraints Management
Constraints should be contextually
bound. For example,
for something
that is contextually clear (such as
known, repeatable and effectively
operationalized) in an organization,
you might have tight to rigid constraints
imposed on operations. You might
see this in sales scripts or transaction
processes,
accounting/finance,
top
You may also consider experimenting
with various branching scenarios
throughout your training, deepening the
internal critical thought process, slowing
down the learner, encouraging more
time to think through all the possibilities
and not just game their responses.
Alternatively, you may encourage users
to build their own " elective " learning
pathways based on their uniquely
assessed needs; recommending also
data
inputs or reports. There is a strict
process to follow for each of these
in most organizations and deviations
could have extremely adverse effects
on the business.
In a more complicated context, such
as building marketing campaigns,
advertising online, website design or sales
discounting, you would want to introduce
your team to governing constraints where
there is some flexibility.
In contrast, with a complex context,
such as digital
transformations, new
product development or technological
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Training Industry Magazine - Winter 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - Winter 2023
