As CEP 817 wraps up with our final module, I present below my final report on my Problem of Practice and my work through the Stanford Design School’s Design Bootcamp process:
Identified Problem of Practice:
Initial: Staff Members do not embrace continuing education as an important part of their practice.
Redefined: Current continuing education and training sessions are not meeting the needs of our staff.
In an effort to make continuing education and professional development activities as accessible to obtain as possible, we began using an LMS to host content, courses, and calendars to keep everyone updated on all training. As EMS providers it is required that continuing education be obtained for re-licensure every three years. Despite an abundance of opportunities, staff members often wait until the last minute to get the minimum amount of credits by attending or participating. This lack of participation had initially been identified as a lack of motivation or appreciation of the importance of continuing education. Through this process, it was determined that original assumptions as to the opinions of the staff about continuing education were not completely accurate, or that extrinsic factors were leading to the identified Problem of Practice.
Mode 1: Empathize
In an effort to better empathize and understand the staffs lack of participation in either online or classroom educational opportunities, I conducted two empathize projects; interviews, and participating in the training as a student. My complete report on the empathy research can be found in my previous blog post here: Empathy Research. To summarize the most important barriers to participation were:
- Lack of familiarity with online learning and technology.
- Unable to find reliable blocks of time to focus on the material while on shift.
- Overwhelmed with change and options of the new system.
- Unwilling to complete the tasks off-shift without pay.
I personally tried to complete some of the online courses while working my road shift and found the interruptions of emergency calls very frustrating when trying to complete 60 to 90 minute courses.
The Empathize Mode was extremely valuable for me as I had not taken into account that the problem was more a logistical one than a motivational one. In the past I have known several providers that are always attending sessions, and very engaged in the content. I myself also spend a great deal of time in classes as a student. It was therefore assumed incorrectly that the problem lie more with motivation of staff than the current structure and system of continuing education we had been using.
Mode 2: Define
After completing the empathize exercises, and with a better understanding of our staff in regards to our problem of practice, we moved on to the Define mode. To see my entire posting on the Define mode you can read it here: Define Mode -1, and Define Mode -2.
One exercise in the define mode we used was to ask “why” 5 times in regards to our problem of practice. I actually ended up what I thought were two very informative branches of the exercise:
Staff don’t have the time to attend. – Why?
Training usually occurs on time off, even if paid to attend – Why?
We can’t stop primary care duties when on shift for training – Why?
Not enough staff on duty at the same time – Why?
Too Expensive – results in offering large classes infrequently, still do not reach all staff.
Lack of interest, don’t find classes valuable. – Why?
Material may not seem practical for all providers.– Why?
Classes are not developed based on actual provider experiences. – Why?
Instructors do not know what types of experiences providers are having – Why?
There is an inefficient QA/QI process to determine where education is necessary.
The define mode tied very closely with the discoveries of the empathize mode, since there was such a change in my perceptions and misconceptions deriving from the empathize mode exercises. The define mode proved critical in the rest of the process. An incorrect definition of the problem would have resulted in an incredible amount of wasted time and effort creating ineffective solutions for an ill defined problem. Thankfully through the process I was able to redefine my Problem of Practice, and my subsequent design mode work proved to be successful upon initial testing.
Mode 3: Ideate
If simple solutions presented themselves for every problem, we wouldn’t have many problems left. The challenge of this mode was to begin actively working and thinking on the problem by generating ideas and questions that stemmed from the well defined Problem of Practice. The activity for this mode was a creative process, with a little structure, but mostly beginning with idea generation and allowing the mind to work the problems. My entire post on the activity can be found here: Ideate Activity.
One very valuable technique I had not used in the past when brainstorming or working a problem was to actually write down questions on paper to stimulate thought, and then use as a reference to address when returning to the problem. I found this very valuable because while during the ideation phase of allowing our mind to work the problem while we did something else, I had not actually addressed some issues, but was able to generate good ideas upon re-reading them.
Many of my questions revolved around; time scheduling, funding and compensation issues, creating motivation to participate, designing accessible training. Two questions I had never thought of with students before where:
- Does a reward system or recognition system provide any benefit for adult learners in the workplace or does it create animosity?
- How often should staff be reminded about opportunities before it becomes annoying and deters participation?
While I often spend a great deal of time participating in ideation much like this design mode describes, the specific techniques we practiced to make the time more productive were very valuable.
Mode 4: Prototype
Feeling confident that I now had a better understanding of my Problem of Practice and some of the elements that would need to be addressed, I was anxious to explore practical solutions. In our prototype mode section however we first explored making a prototype of a big idea. My prototype was to represent my view on learning. The entire blog post can be read here: Prototype Activity -1. 
This activity did lead to the idea for the next mode and my creation of a solution. During my discussion of my prototype of my view of learning, I talk about the importance of information being relevant and accessible when needed in a convenient way. I admit I did not initially understand the direction of the activity, and it’s apparent deviation from what I would consider as a prototype being a sort of first draft to a solution, however the process as we completed it led me to what I feel now was a very good idea that I hope will be very successful when implemented to my entire staff.
The second part of this mode resulted in the creation of one solution that could be implemented and work to address my Problem of Practice. The full blog and description can be found here: Prototype Activity -2. Stemming from our first activity, the idea to integrate interesting and informative journal articles into our shift schedule webpage arose. I took an existing resource that everyone was comfortable with, avoiding the overwhelming aspect of something new out of the equation, and simply created a way to populate and update journal articles at the top bar of each day of the month. If you click the links that are updated through RSS feeds, you can read an article relating to EMS practice. Since most staff check this several times a week, it gives also gives them a quick glance at something that they might find interesting or relevant and encourage them to spend a few minutes reading something that will benefit their practice.
Here is a link to the prototype/demo page that was used for testing and feedback: Prototype EMS Shift Calendar
Mode 5: Testing
With a prototype solution ready to go it was time to send it out to a group of staff members and ask them to be part of my testing group. Once again for this activity there were two parts, the first part resulted in a presentation and blog post on our Testing Process. If you follow the link you will see that my testing process was very simple. The cartoon I created explaining the process can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRQOMkCsZoY or in my appendix. Basically, I simply made the Prototype Calendar with the links live, told a few of my co-workers about the change, and after a week called them up for phone interviews to see how it worked. The complete blog post on my interviews and results can be found here: Testing Results.
To summarize, the solution was a success, and the few staff that tried it liked the idea and admitted to reading a few articles. My expectation is not that my fellow staff members will go from reading zero to twenty articles a month, but if I can get them to read even one or two a month it will be a step in the right direction.
Summary on the Process
I found the information from the Stanford Design School very interesting. Although at first glance it might be difficult to make the association between what is essentially a guide to successful product development and education, having applied the techniques now I can say there are many similarities. It comes down to understanding your consumers, getting to really know in our case the students or staff we are trying to help. The empathize mode for me was incredibly valuable. I feel that the empathize mode and the knowledge I obtained through those activities has significantly improved my ability to help solve my Problem of Practice. Since I am directly applying this process to my workplace, I am once again reminded how effective learning can be when relevant and accessed at the right time in a student life.
I am proud of my solution and feel that although it is only a very small piece of a very large process that will need to be in place to solve my Problem of Practice, I am on the right track and have acquired new tools to help me be successful. The process and activities completed in CEP817 proved to be challenging, fun, and despite initial reservations, extremely rewarding for me both professionally and personally.
For more information on my work in CEP 817, I hope you will follow the links to my complete entires to the blog.
Thanks for reading and sharing my adventures.
-Brian
Appendix:
Below are a few additional pieces from my work in the modes this semester.
Why-How Ladder – From Define Mode – Part 1
Prototype Solution – From Problem of Practice Solution (example of journal article links)
Testing Process Presentation – From Module 6 Lab
Brian M. Claesson-Patten 