Start Digging
Why Bedrock?
Bedrock is a critical component to the foundation of any structure. Construction engineers look for it to ensure the structure will remain stable over time because bedrock is stable and consistent. It doesn’t settle as much as the top soil, the sub soil, or other rocky layers. Bedrock can vary in depth and can be as shallow as five feet or 100 feet.
This is a great analogy for doing a training analysis. We “dig” through layers of “dirt” to find the bedrock on which to build our training. Our digging is more like identifying experts, influencing our business partners, gathering data, observations, measuring work, and analyzing results to come up with an answer. Sometimes we dig a little and sometimes we dig a lot!
So what does this look like?
We think of doing an analysis as digging through about four layers of “dirt”.
Layer 1 - Top Soil or Job and Role analysis
Layer 2 - Subsoil or Task Analysis
Layer 3 - Weathered rock or Process Steps Analysis
Layer 4 - Bedrock or Frequency and Difficulty Analysis
The first layer is getting familiar with the job or role itself. The difference is that a job is typically related to an official job title. A role is something less formal and is normally a way to segment work among a team or it could be an ancillary set of responsibilities shared across several jobs.
The second layer is digging down into what tasks that job or role does. Get clear on the actions and behaviors in that task. Focus on the verb to ensure you and your business partners are really clear on what the person is really doing here. There is a big difference between “Review” or “Approve” when it comes to a task.
The third layer looks more deeply into each task to see what steps are required to complete it. Start with the “happy path” and figure out what someone does from step 1 to step x. Then go back and take a look at the decisions someone makes and what to do when something doesn’t go right the first time.
The final layer is the bedrock. It’s going to help you focus on the most critical tasks to train and ensures you allocate your time effectively in the training. We look at the tasks and determine which are most difficult or easy and which are more or less frequent. There are a number of ways to measure this but it helps you to focus your training on the most frequently completed tasks and the most difficult tasks.
We must seek out this bedrock to make sure our training is stable over time. If we know which tasks someone is most likely to see after training and will struggle with the most, we can prepare them to be successful. We will make sure the training we deliver targets the knowledge and skills that will make the most difference.