3 Steps to Model Behavioral Objectives Through Learning Design

Years ago, I had the opportunity to lead the evolution of a corporate training university from face-to-face classes into online learning. During this transition, members of the facilitator team expressed concern that face-to-face facilitation experience had not prepared them to engage learners online. The team researched and selected a nicely marketed online workshop that promised “facilitation techniques and activities to engage online learners.” Two facilitators were selected from the learning team to attend and we paid several thousand dollars for the privilege.

After the workshop, I found the two facilitators and asked how it went. They looked at each other and hesitated. I suspected something wasn’t right and posed my question again. Taking a deep breath, the pair began to describe a frustrating four-hour webinar, during which they had simply watched a slide deck presentation while a facilitator read from the slides. While the presentation included descriptions of online facilitation techniques that might have been engaging, absolutely none of these were used in the course itself.

The two facilitators felt terrible. They knew how much registration had cost and how excited the other facilitators were for a review of the course. But the truth was, these two dedicated team members had spent most of the course sitting at their computers, trying to stay awake.

How could this happen? How could a course about online engagement reflect absolutely none of the principles it promoted?

For the answer to this question, let’s look to how modeling is used in learning design.

Modeling (i.e. demonstrating a behavior or attitude for others to imitate) is a key component of authenticity and relationship building. When a person models their words through their actions, it sends a message that they are reliable and trustworthy. Similarly, when an organization models their message through their policies, products, and strategy, it reflects their reliability and trustworthiness.

When our learning and development departments model through learning design, the very structure of a program (or course) is carefully built to embody a practical example of the desired behavioral outcomes that learners can observe and follow. In learning and development, there is a tendency—which is perhaps a reflection of under-resourced design teams or other systemic challenges—for learning designers to build learning programs by entering content into templates or the unmodified pre-built formats of rapid design tools. Doing so does not, however, consider how the learning will model (or undermine) the desired behavioral outcomes of the learning.

As a CLO, I can't dismiss the cultural impact of modeling through learning design. When my team's learning design has the potential to either build trust and foster loyalty OR to break trust and drive disengagement--I must take it seriously.

Ultimately, as a learning leader I must recognize that using modeling through learning design to build credibility is a key underpinning of a successful and sustainable learning strategy.

What does it look like when learning does NOT model behavior through Learning design?

Consider these examples, which I have personally encountered: 

• A manager development course on ‘expectation setting’, which was not designed to include a clear introduction outlining what learners should expect during the course—thereby failing to model expectation setting.
• A learning series encouraging employees to practice a ‘speak up culture’—i.e. a culture where employees feel free to share their ideas and opinions and feel confident that their ideas are heard and recognized—which was not designed to include ways for learners to provide feedback or ask questions—thereby failing to model a speak up culture.
• An online workshop meant to encourage employees to adopt usage of a new analytics dashboard, which was not designed to refer back to the dashboard after introducing it at beginning of the course—thereby failing to model adoption (i.e. acceptance, integration, and use of a new product).

When learning design does not--in practice--reflect the principles of its own content, the learning experience can come across as disingenuous or even hypocritical. Such dissonance can demotivate or disengage learners. Zooming out this perspective to an organizational learning function, it's easy to see how departments that design learning to model the behavior they ask from learners can build trust within their organization. Conversely, departments that expect certain behaviors from learners (i.e., behavioral learning outcomes) while failing to model those same behavior in their own learning design build distrust.

Three steps to model behavior through learning design

Ironically, my own experience with learning programs where content was not modeled in the learning design outlined a clear roadmap of what to avoid. From this roadmap, I have drawn the following principles for how modeling in learning design can improve the learning experience and learning results within an organization:

1. Know your core behavioral objective(s). Most learning designed for professional development programs have at least one behavioral objective. Perhaps a course is meant to help managers evaluate performance. Or perhaps a workshop is meant to improve employee’s problem solving skills. These core behavioral objectives are what should be modeled in the learning design. Identify them early in the instructional design process and keep them in mind throughout.
2. Ask, “How does learning design model the behavioral objective?” This is where ‘show, don’t tell’ comes to mind—it is also where learning designers might need to get creative. For example, consider a course about problem solving that has a behavioral objective for learners to use a specific investigative questioning technique. To model through learning design, the course must actually pose the investigative questions to learners in the way prescribed by the technique. Modeling the questioning technique in this way allows learners to experience being on the receiving end of the questions and to observe the investigation process in real time. As another example, consider a course about negotiation that has behavioral objectives for learners to use bargaining and problem solving. To model through learning design, this course might require learners to use bargaining and problem solving to negotiate their preferred learning modality or practice exercises with each other. Modeling these skills in the very design of the course allows learners to practice while also demonstrating the negotiation process in real time with real outcomes.
3. Encourage metacognition by pointing out the modeling to learners. In some cases, it can be beneficial for learner development to highlight where behavioral objectives have been modeled in the learning design. Highlighting to learners where the learning (or facilitator) reflects the behavioral objectives can encourage metacognition—i.e. learners’ awareness and understanding of their own learning processes—which is tied to improved learning results. On a larger scale, modeling through instructional design also models metacognition where learning designers’ deeper awareness of their own design process reflects to learners how to be more self-aware in their own learning.

Growth Challenge - Assess Your Organization's Application of Modeling Through Learning Design

Who could you talk to this week to assess your organization's current practice of modeling desired behavior through learning design?

Here are two questions to start the conversation:

1. How are we ensuring that learning design models (and does not undermine) the behavior we are asking learners to adopt?
2. Where in our learning design are we failing to model the behavior we are asking learners to adopt (e.g., Failing to include a way provide feedback to the learning design team when completing a "how to give feedback as a supervisor" eLearning course)?
3. What is the affect on credibility and learner trust if our learning design does not demonstrate (i.e. model) the behavior we are asking learners to adopt? What would be the value of bringing these into alignment over the next 12 months? (Metrics might include learner engagement, satisfaction, or improved learning outcomes.)

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Rebeqa Rivers is cultural change strategist and Chief Learning Officer of South of Seoul. She champions the strategic role of learning to shift culture, foster belonging, empower innovation, and drive business results.

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