Let the ideas flow
We’ve talked a lot about how important it is to gather data about all the tasks and responsibilities in a job or a role. But, how do we collect them? How do we get all these task statements written out and documented? There are two options.
Facilitate a workshop with 5-10 moderate to high performers from the target job/role.
Send a survey to a group of selected representatives from the target job/role.
If you have the choice, the workshop provides far better results. However, the survey could be a good alternative when you have limitations on time, geography, or access to experts. You could also survey a wider group than with a workshop.
Workshop
The workshop has three parts to it.
Overview and Task Basics
Task Brainstorming
Task Refinement
Overview and Task Basics
During the first section, the goal is to help participants know what you are doing and why. Asking people to come together into a room with a stranger and asking them to list all their tasks and responsibilities can be very unnerving and they can tend to assume the worst. I take great care to ensure they know exactly what we are doing and not doing. I emphasize our goal is to create targeted training content and nothing else. I emphasize that we will not share any personal opinions or comments and our goal is to get a clear picture of what people do in that job or role so we can prioritize the right training content.
During this part, I talk about what goes into a good task statement. I don’t go into a lot of detail but I do emphasize that task statements should start with a verb and that it should be observable. From there I let them finish the statement as they’d like. I’ll even share some lists of verbs to help get their minds rolling so they can clearly articulate the action itself.
Task Brainstorming
For the next stage, I’ll pass out post-it note pads. Small ones which are normally 3x3 or 3x5. The smaller size forces them to be brief in the statement. I’ll tell them the only rules are that they should start with a verb and only put one task on each post-it note. I give them about 10-15 minutes depending on the job or role and I ask them to brainstorm and write down as many statements as they can individually during that time. It’s likely each person will come up with some of the same tasks as others but it’s also highly likely each person will think of a few tasks the others don’t think of.
Task Refinement
Once the group has brainstormed list of various tasks, we want to start to make sense of them, refine them, and group them. To kick this off, I ask for a brave volunteer from the group to share with us some of the tasks he or she wrote down. He or she will take the post it notes to a wall and post them up one by one and explain more detail.
As they do this, I will ask questions to clarify what they are doing and sometimes modify the statement, the verb, or sometimes add a post-it note to add a task if needed.
I ask them to start posting them on the wall or whiteboard and group them in a way that makes sense to them. There isn’t a wrong way. It could be by customer type, system, chronological order, or anything. We may end up adjusting the groups later but at least get it started. Use another post it note to place a heading over the group.
I then ask the others to add or adjust as they may need. If they have duplicates, there is no need to bring them up unless there is a real difference. Each person could also suggest other ways to group the tasks and if it makes sense to everyone, do it.
At the end of this discussion, you will have a full list of the various tasks for the job or the role and the groupings are logical responsibilities (groups of related tasks) to help organize them. In many cases, the responsibilities provides a good structure for the training itself but sometimes needs a little polishing to make sense.
I suggest you take pictures of the tasks on the wall and then remove them in order so they can be transcribed. I’ll usually transcribe them into an Excel file for sorting and filtering later when needed.
Task Surveys
I’ve run into a few situations where the workshop approach wasn’t going to work. In some cases it was because we didn’t have enough time or because the participants where scattered geographically so bringing them together for a workshop didn’t make sense.
For the survey, it requires some preparation to ensure the respondents know what they are answering. I’ll often kick things off with a short online meeting or phone call. I introduce myself and, just as in the workshop, I clarify my intentions and what I’m going to do with the data. I also clarify that I’ll only share the aggregate data and not individual responses.
In the survey tool, I’ll ask the main question, “What is a task you do as a [job title/role]?” I make sure not to emphasize things such as “most important” or “most common” because I really want them to think broadly in their job or role. I’ll then give them anywhere from 20-50 spaces where they can submit and answer.
I’ll also include a question at the end asking, “May I contact if clarification is needed?” Most say yes but it’s respectful to ask. If they answer yes, I’ll include a question of “Please select your preferred method of contact” and list email, phone, online meeting, in-person meeting, and other. This way I can reach out and contact them in the way they most prefer.
The challenge with this approach is that you won’t have them talking you through their response. So you’ll likely need to contact a few to clarify what they put in to make sure you interpret and transcribe it correctly.
Transcribing
No matter the collection method, you’ll need to transcribe and edit their task statements into a more formal format. You’ll need to watch out for the cautionary notes for task statements and sometime modify the action, add detail, break out compound statements, etc.
Once you are done transcribing and editing the list, I’d recommend running it by your experts one more time to ensure you haven’t forgotten or that you haven’t edited anything incorrectly but then you should be all set with a strong list of tasks.