5 Examples of Performance Support that ‘Support’ Our Daily Lives

Performance support is highly-relevant content, information and processes that employees can reference on the job at the moment of need, without disrupting their normal procedures. It’s a critical component for any learning and development team, and, if done well, it can extend the efficacy of your  initial training and onboarding courses. But as more and more companies adopt this L&D component, they’re borrowing ideas from instances in their everyday lives, proving that performances support certainly isn’t just for the workplace.

To help you draw inspiration for your own training program–and to demonstrate just how much we all rely on performance support–we’ve collected five examples of performance support that we’ve used outside of work. Some of these are simple, some are more specific, but they all prove how having a small amount of the right information in hand can sometimes make a big difference.

1. Reminders

After forgetting something one too many times, it’s common practice to stick a big Post-it note where we won’t miss it or schedule a reminder on our phone. These reminders act as somewhat of a checklist, allowing us to mentally tick the box that we have our keys or phone. Most importantly, they make sure that we’re successful throughout the day–exactly like performance support.

2. Navigation Systems

When driving in a new place, odds are, you’ll turn to a navigation system for help. Of course, you already know how to drive and obey standard traffic laws, but you might not know the roads well enough to get to your destination efficiently–that’s where navigation systems step in. With just-in-time knowledge, navigation systems save you untold time and frustration.

3. Recipes

For those of us who aren’t professional chefs, we usually rely on recipes to whip up a successful meal. Recipes are not only easy to read, but they often come with helpful tips, too, answering questions that may arise during the process. Successful performance support should do the same thing–tackle small problems as they happen, so that users can solve them as quickly as possible.

4. Mobile Apps

One of my favorite apps is SkyView, which allows users to point their smartphones at the sky to identify constellations, planets and stars. There are countless other apps, too, that act as a reference tool, providing the information you need at the moment you need it. For users, this saves an invaluable amount of time that they would have spent scrolling through Google results or thumbing through a manual.

5. YouTube

The short, demonstration videos found on YouTube are a great example of performance support. Whether it’s seeing how to tie a bow tie or poach an egg, learners are often more successful the first time around when they can see how to perform a task. Not only that, but the rise of mobile devices have made short videos more widely available, wherever and whenever you need them.

The bottom line:

Instances of performances support happen everyday and, while the term itself might best left for the workplace, it’s important to evaluate when and why these examples are important in your daily routine. You can take those same principles (and some of the same tactics) and apply them to your own performances support program.

To learn more about Inkling can provide mobile performance support, contact our sales team for a free demo.