SYSTEMS:

Course
EDTEC 540

Artifact: Job Aid/Solution System Report

Secondary Artifact: 110' Patrol Boat Anchoring Job Aid

Project Description
As previously discussed in the cognitive section, I conducted a performance analysis on anchoring evolutions for 110’ U.S. Coast Guard patrol boats. Using the information that I gathered from conducting the performance analysis, I created a job aid to address the skills/knowledge barriers facing Commanding Officers of the patrol boats. However, there were other barriers to performance that could not be solved by the job aid:

Environmental/Incentive:

COs knew that their supervisors viewed a cutter with no running rust on its hull as a sign of a “squared away” CO (clean, well kept cutter means outstanding CO).

Motivation/Value:

COs saw changing the stainless steel anchor for a steel one as causing extra work for their crews to keep the hull clean and therefore not good practice.

In the report that I submitted along with the job aid, I added a section with a proposed solution system for dealing with the original issue of preventing the bending of the cutter’s anchor during anchoring evolutions.

EDTEC Standard
When conducting a performance analysis, there are always cause and effect situations that will be uncovered. The job of the performance technologist is to find the drivers and barriers that are hindering the intended solution to the problem. Although I had created a job aid to assist Commanding Officers in the fleet (which I have sent to some actual patrol boats to implement in their operations), it is only one part of a greater solution system that needs to be implemented. Overall, this artifact demonstrated my ability to effectively use performance analysis to identify causes and potential solutions.

Problems or Opportunities
I found this assignment as a chance to really show what I had learned about performance analysis. Of all the facets of EDTEC, performance technology is what I like to do best. I like looking at problems and trying to figure out what has caused them and also how to solve them. The only problem that I faced was that I was still very new to the EDTEC program, and was learning as I progressed through the course.

My Capabilities
I realized that although I had never gone through all of the formal steps in the process, I had already been doing performance analysis in my professional career with the Coast Guard. I had come across many problems during the course of my career, and had found ways to solve them. For example, I found a different way (created a system) to teach the international navigation rules to enlisted members that worked with me on my first ship. The book with the navigation rules is a confusing, hard to comprehend book for many individuals. It is written in a legal style, that makes it much more confusing to the reader than it needs to be. Members need to pass a navigation rules test to obtain certain qualifications. Most members were just given the book to read and memorize, and then had to take the test. Many were struggling with the rules, and the way that they were trying to learn them. After all, “an infertile environment can block the success of even the most skilled and motivated individuals” (Rossett, 1999). I decided to begin teaching a course for anyone interested in studying up for the navigation rules test. We would meet nightly for three days, where I would go over every rule and put it into easy to understand words. I would also describe scenarios and situations, and ask the students for the proper way to respond. Members who went to my study sessions had a 90% success rate of passing the test on the first try, compared with the normal 60% success rate of trying to learn on their own.

Lessons Learned
I learned quite a lot about performance technology in EDTEC 540. After taking this course, I feel that I have a strong foundation on how to conduct a thorough performance analysis given a business problem or situation.

Reference:

Rossett, A. (1999). First things fast: A handbook for performance analysis. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.