By Susan Camberis
Editor, Training Today

ATDChi’s March members-only skill building clinic and networking event featured Talent Development (TD) expert Megan Torrance. Megan is the CEO and Founder of TorranceLearning, an award winning consulting firm in Eastern Michigan.

Sponsored by Benedictine University in Lisle, the event was held in Benedictine’s new Sorensen Hall of Leaders, named for long-time faculty member and TD/OD leader Dr. Peter Sorensen. Before Torrance took the stage, Dr. Sorensen and fellow professor Dr. Therese Yaeger, both long-time friends of ATDChi, welcomed participants and discussed the important connections between TD and Organization Development.

The clinic highlighted several instructional design tools that Torrance and her team have successfully used with client companies across industries. Megan highlighted the idea that you won’t necessarily use all of the tools in a tool kit for each project, but that it is important to have the right tool when the need arises.

Here are three actionable learnings from the event:

1. Align learning objectives to business results. Torrance highlighted Brinkerhoff & Apking's high impact learning map (2001) as one useful way to drive alignment. Brinkerhoff and Apking suggest aligning learning objectives first to critical job tasks, then to key results, then business unit results, and finally to organization goals. This alignment drives the “why”. The “how” comes in the form of helping learners understand how individual learning objectives align to organizational goals and objectives.
   
   
2. Design for “moments of learning need.” Torrance has expanded upon Gottfredson & Mosher’s 5 Moments of Learning Need (New, More, Apply, Problem Solving, and Change), adding four of her own (Before, Prepare, Remember, and Teach). Considering each moment and how training will (or will not) help to address the need can be a valuable exercise when designing learning experiences.
   
   
3. Make MVP your BFF. Given the rapid pace of business today, Torrance is a proponent of the Minimum Viable Product (or MVP). This means cycling more rapidly through the traditional ADDIE model (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate), so that evaluation takes place earlier and more frequently. Megan’s rules for iterations are: it does real work; someone else has to use it; you gather data, and data informs the work in the next iteration.

For more information about the tools shared in the session, visit: www.torrancelearning.com/toolkit

To stay up to date on the latest with Megan and TorranceLearning, follow @MMTorrance, @xAPIGnome, and @Tlearning