Books by LearningPlus founder James L. Vesper

Training for the Healthcare Manufacturing Industries

Training is one of the most important -- and costly -- investments an organization can make. Focusing on employee performance and using a systematic approach to design, develop, deliver, and measure effectiveness of instruction can optimize the training investment. 

This book examines topics related to training, adult learning, human performance, multimedia, new training technologies, and compliance issues, all from a healthcare manufacturing industry perspective. A step-by-step approach to instructional system design provides for highly effective instructional programs.

Written by a practitioner and designed for departmental supervisors and managers providing on-the-job training, this book offers proven tools and techniques for planning, implementing, and measuring training programs that work.

Preface

It was a phone call that started all of this: my manager called me while I was working in France and asked if I would establish a corporate group to develop training programs on the U.S. FDA's Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations (cGMPs) and the company's standard operating procedures. Maybe it was because I had taught several "standup," leader-led programs or had taught at Indiana University, or maybe because I had been labeled a "creative" type -- I'm still not sure. But, as they say, it was an opportunity I couldn't refuse.

Entering into the task, I encountered professions and jargon I had never known: instructional designers, instructional technologists, front-end analysis, mastery learning -- the list could go on and on. But what was exciting was getting a glimpse of how different training could be if approached from the perspective of human performance. It was there and then I discovered that "training" was much more complex than I had been told or had experienced.

Despite the complexity, there was a simplicity in the goal: getting a person or persons to perform tasks safely, correctly, and effectively, time after time.

In trying to understand and deal with this seeming paradox, I began reading about human performance, adult learning theory, and what other industries were and are doing in instructing and training their employees. I discovered a variety of ways to deliver instruction, some of which have been around for generations and others just now becoming practical and useful.

Also, I began talking with and visiting other pharmaceutical and medical device firms to learn and share approaches, tools, frustrations, and ideas.

And yes, I talked with some of the users of training programs to learn what they liked, what they did not like, and how they thought learning could be best be integrated into their operational or professional activities.

This book is the result of the learning and experiences I have had regarding training and performance since receiving that phone call in September 1989. It is a book I wish I had had when I started that job.

Several people to whom I have described this project have said, "Oh . . . it's going to be a cookbook for doing training." I think it all depends on what you mean by "cookbook."

There is a cook who comes to mind who meticulously follows a recipe. Her use of timers, thermometers, and measuring cups would make the director of the National Bureau of Standards proud. Her successes, though frequent, are uninspired. A crisis occurs when she discovers there are only two cups of flour and she needs three, or when the sauce breaks down and separates into globules even though she followed the recipe precisely. Variations and surprises throw her into turmoil.

Another person comes to mind -- my father. Raised in his family's bakery and studying the subject in college, he learned that recipes were guides. Temperature and humidity were factors to be reckoned with just as the time in the oven. He learned there are rules of thumb about what you can substitute if you run out of a particular item. If you discovered you were out of flour, that gave you the opportunity to try something else. Occasionally it did not work, but most of the time, the results were sensational.

The point is this: if you try to use this volume as a step-by-step, do-it-without-thinking cookbook, you will succeed to a limited degree. But, if you understand the concepts and principles, and apply them to your specific situation with creativity and courage, using this book as a guide, you will do far better.

Getting the best and most from the people who are doing a particular job is not a validated process. Neither is producing a training course or lesson that will yield optimal results on the first (or second or third) try. There are, however, some guidelines and approaches that will greatly increase the probability of success. If you understand something about how people -- adults -- learn, how to systematically define the problem and how to solve it, the learner's needs and how to meet them, you'll be 80 percent there. The more frequently you do it, the more you will learn, and the better the results.

There is science and technology involved in training, but there is also some art. You are fighting for the attention and concentration of people who usually would rather be elsewhere, doing almost anything. Creatively developed and visually appealing handouts, engaging computer-based training, videos, slides, or the use of a well-told story in any medium can help get people to focus on the knowledge and skills you are helping to provide to them.

Julia Child, one of America's greatest chefs, with her co-authors wrote:

Cooking is not a particularly difficult art, and the more you cook and learn about cooking, the more sense it makes. But like any art it requires practice and experience. The most important ingredient you can bring to it is love of cooking for its own sake.

Change the verb from "cook" to "teach" or "train," add some rigor and technology, mix well, and there you have it.

There is a basic model of instructional systems design, with as many variations as practitioners, used to systematically produce a "training intervention." The approach you will find here is a mix of (what I have found to be) the best of the variations, plus some new ideas, realism, and experience gained while working for a large pharmaceutical corporation and, more recently, consulting in the U.S. and abroad. Included are examples or situations where people (including me) have learned something from the College of Painful Experience.

This book will not make you an instructional designer or a performance technologist; it does not intend to do that. This book should help you make 80 percent of your training programs 80 percent more effective than what one professional calls the "spray and pray" approach to training. To go much beyond that 80/80 estimate, and for complex or unusual projects, you will need the experience, expertise, and unique perspective of professional instructional designers.

If you have an opportunity to be involved with training and human performance, you are very fortunate. You will learn an incredible amount about people, various topics, and using a systematic process for solving problems that will help you in every other position that you will have. You will make a difference in the lives of people and in the quality of your firm's products and in the company's profitability.

And, if you do it right, you will also have a whole lot of fun.

Jim Vesper
June 1993
Rochester, New York

Table of Contents