Issue 03 | When Clarity Reveals Complexity
Light changes direction when it moves between different mediums. This is refraction. In organizational systems, perspective operates in a similar way. What is visible depends on how it is being observed.
Issue 01 shaped what is seen. Issue 02 structured how it is seen.
Visibility is the result of both. However, higher visibility does not simplify systems…
Issue 02 | Within the Frame
A lens is not a single surface. It is a carefully assembled system of layers, each shaped for a purpose, each contributing to clarity. On its own, one layer does very little. Together, they bend light, correct distortion, and bring the world into focus.
L&D works the same way…
Issue 01 | Seeing what Others Miss
When light passes from one material into another, like air into water, it bends. Hidden details and new perspectives suddenly become visible. This is refraction. Not magic. Not philosophy. Physics. And perhaps the best metaphor for what modern L&D can do for business…
By Clearpath Learning Group
There’s an irony in strategy: the simpler it appears, the more complex the thinking behind it. In learning and development, this contradiction is especially notable. Leaders crave clarity. Learners crave relevance. But getting to that crisp, confident simplicity requires a rigorous process of unraveling, interpreting, and reshaping. Simplicity, in this context, is not a shortcut. It’s a result.
As performance-driven L&D specialists, our work often begins in the thick of it. We sift through learning libraries, modules, complicated org structures, processes, and knowledge portals. We identify when multiple platforms are at odds with each other. Often, we encounter content with no clear owner, purpose, or expiration.
We see over and over again people trying to find direction, teams trying to remain efficient, and organizations pushing against the current. Our early L&D efforts are rarely about adding more training. Instead, we focus on identifying and removing what no longer serves the business or its people. A workforce doesn’t need everything. They need what works.
Trimming runs up against the instincts of most organizations. The default impulse is to offer “more”. They want to cover every case and anticipate every need. But in the excess, people lose focus. They often miss the thing they most need to understand. They pause, question, and hesitate. “More” works against the goal.
To make wise and thoughtful reductions, L&D experts first have to understand. That means getting to know the entire system from the training content to the business it’s meant to serve. We look at roles, workflows, competencies, and behaviors. We examine what success actually looks like, noting what’s being measured (and what’s not). We find out how people are expected to contribute across different levels. And through conversations with leaders and learners, we look for inconsistencies, duplications, signals, and patterns.
These many pieces and parts get distilled down to identifiable capabilities and defined proficiency levels which allow us to move forward with the learning blueprint process. This phase of analysis and assessment is where precision originates. At this point, a sound and successful strategy begins to take shape.
Blueprinting is a practice in disciplined imagination. We draft what a learning ecosystem could look like if built on purpose, aligned to business needs, and responsive to both industry and organizational change. That vision becomes an adaptive framework. It is more than a curriculum. It is an active model that will evolve with a business.
In design and development, the discipline of reduction continues. Rather than overloading people with options, we create learning experiences that do more with less. Every learning touchpoint has a job to do. If it doesn’t serve the strategy, it doesn’t survive the cut. What gets left out is just as powerful as what gets put in.
Think of it like pruning a tree. Cutting away healthy branches seems counterintuitive and even reckless. But those careful cuts allow the tree to grow stronger. The same is true for learning systems. Strategic reduction gives way to healthier growth.
With the clutter gone, people can access the path forward. There’s a route ahead with clear wayfinding and checkpoints. Managers coach with clarity. Executives lead with confidence. Learning moves from being something that pulls people away from their job to something that functions within it.
This is the work we take on. We translate business imperatives into human terms. And we do it all knowing that the simpler something looks, the more skill it took to make it that way.
The goal of L&D isn’t volume. It is velocity. This is the paradox we live by: when learning is distilled down to its most essential form, it becomes expansive. It creates space for understanding and momentum. This is what strategic simplicity delivers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Clearpath Learning Group is an award-winning learning strategy and design firm specializing in performance-based training that connects individual capability to organizational outcomes. From defining role-based skills to launching scalable global programs, Clearpath’s end-to-end solutions turn complex business challenges into strategic opportunities. Since 2009, they have delivered innovative training across continents and industries for small but mighty non-profits and the largest Fortune 500 companies. Every program built is shaped by insight, aligned to purpose, and designed to last. No matter their size or stature, clients across the globe count on Clearpath to help people work smarter, faster, and with far greater purpose.
By Clearpath Learning Group
Word on the street says it may be time for a new L&D Glossary.
Over the last decade, as the “training” landscape has shifted to performance-based “learning,” there has also been a shift from simply defining general job competencies to understanding the corresponding capabilities. Competencies guide job selection and definition. A capabilities view describes how and to what levels the skills and knowledge encapsuled in the competency must be displayed (by individuals and by teams) in order to prove and produce proficiency and performance.
But these words – all of them: competency, capability, skills – are almost always used interchangeably and often incorrectly.
It’s a somewhat dangerous and confusing space for those of us who are responsible for clearly defining roles and responsibilities and setting our organizations up for success.
Let’s clear this up!
Definition of competency: possession of sufficient set of knowledge or skill to contribute to a job or set of responsibilities. (The HCM Handbook further defines the professional use of competencies: “Competency is a term frequently used in the world of work, education, and personal development. It is an essential aspect of understanding one’s capabilities and potential for growth”).
A general set of “competencies” is good and absolutely necessary for defining roles and responsibilities of your job families, writing proper job descriptions, and recruiting your talent. But then what? How do you ensure that every next step taken from onboarding into job performance, through performance management, and ultimately into career-pathing remains aligned to drive the business outcomes you were expected to meet by defining those roles in the first place?
Definition of capability: this one is pretty simple – it’s merely the ability to do something.
But first, let’s back up.
Inside the definition of competency is the word “capability.” It’s just a quick mention and easy to miss, but it really is key.
In order to properly define a clear set of capabilities, we must look at the complexity of the competencies.
The big question: why has the industry at large not been defining capabilities and using this work actively to prove and sustain performance?
The actionable question: how is it done?
At Clearpath, over the last two decades we have navigated the shifts and shores of human and organizational performance – and we have instinctively developed methods that both clarify and activate the proper relationship between competencies and capabilities.
The result of such methodologies measures and proves that an individual in your organization (who came with a set of competencies) is able to do the job you have defined at a specific level of proficiency in the environment and with the tools and methods established for the job within your company. This all must be defined.
A performer may come with a strong set of competencies in Sales, for example, but…
When you define the competencies to this level of detail for the roles in your specific organization, then you truly understand the capabilities that you can then develop, grow, measure, scale, and reward.
As with all work worth doing well, creating your Capabilities Framework should be a focused effort with a solid method for capturing and distilling the detail and proper mapping and alignment across your organization. Though this may sound daunting, we can help. It’s what we do.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Clearpath is an award-winning learning strategy and design company specializing in world-class training solutions that connect the dots between individual capability and organizational performance. Known for its discovery-driven approach, Clearpath uncovers authentic business goals, performance needs, and contextual nuances to create learning that aligns with strategic intent. In a field where human potential is the most valuable asset, that’s where Clearpath begins—with solutions shaped by insight, guided by purpose, and designed to sustain meaning and momentum across the organization.
By Jenn Kammerdiener
While recording an episode for Clearpath’s upcoming L&D podcast, I had the always-welcome opportunity to talk with Guy Wallace, an important mentor of mine and the first to introduce me to his ideas around Master Performers. In the workplace, these are the high achievers who take ownership of their roles in an organization. They embrace learning, communication, and company vision. It’s easy to find them. They regularly step forward.
Master Performers teach L&D professionals what we need to know to do our job, simply by doing theirs.
These individuals best understand the inner workings of a business. They hold keys to doors of all kinds.
Guy’s lessons have always resonated. This particular one hit home in an unexpected way. Turns out I’d been tracking the premise since the age of eight.
I was sitting in the third grade at my small elementary school. We were getting ready to receive some non-English-speaking families from another country. My teacher at the time was paying attention to how to integrate and teach them from within our already English-speaking classroom.
She chose a bold new approach. My clever teacher looked around, pointed to a few of us, and said ‘I would like you, you, and you to stay after school and meet with me’. Perhaps I would have volunteered without a bribe, but she offered us chocolate. I would do anything for a candy bar in those days. So, I stayed behind that afternoon and joined her special little committee.
As she explained what she was doing, we began to realize that we’d been selected because we were ‘masters’ of the English language within her classroom. The plan was to have us decide and determine how these children could learn to speak like third-graders. In retrospect, I find this fascinating and so very smart.
I think about that all the time when I consider the importance of identifying and utilizing master performers as an L&D professional. I actually experienced it from the other side, as a child in a classroom. My teacher chose to take good advantage of our third-grade enthusiasm and command of the English language appropriate for a young person. We would help her help them. Our new classmates would learn our language by reading and speaking with us.
As L&D practitioners, we engage master performers to simulate all the inputs, the outputs, the expected outcomes, and so forth. It’s how we work.
When we start asking questions of a client and of their business, we should ask to speak with their master performers.
These eager individuals have found ways and means to excel. They understand the inner workings of a process we must get to understand ourselves. This is one of the fastest ways to gather essential data.
Start with those who hold the answers and the insight. Always start there. Always start with performance.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jenn Kammerdiener, Founder and CEO, Clearpath Learning Group
Jenn is a Global Learning & Performance Architect with more than 20 years of business strategy and executive consulting experience. She’s led vital initiatives for Fortune 1000 to 100 organizations across industries with a systematic approach to org design, change management, and learning path objectives. In 2009, Jenn launched Clearpath to provide world-class performance solutions and services with a team approach. Under her leadership, Clearpath’s reach has grown to extend beyond 250,000 learners globally.
By Clearpath Learning Group
The areas of Organizational Design, Change Management, and Learning and Development support business performance in different, yet complementary, ways. Organizations that grow despite the odds and thrive amongst change understand the importance of paying attention to all three strategic areas of focus.
Seasoned L&D professionals know that these strategies often intersect. If placed in a Venn Diagram, the powerhouse of performance would be found at the point where all three converge.
Let’s consider an analogy…
We realize and accept that it takes effort in different areas to keep our cars humming. Businesses require similar attention to perform at their finest.
To maximize our car’s efficiency, we periodically check the alignment. There are generally small adjustments to be made that greatly improve performance and prevent unnecessary wear and tear. Identifying hidden points of failure reduces operating costs and the price of significant repairs down the road.
Organizational Design Provides Realignment
Organizational Design aims to identify those often-hidden inefficiencies, redundancies, and knowledge gaps that prevent a business from running smoothly and with maximum efficacy. It realigns business goals to the actuality of the vehicle driving them.
With regard to L&D, it relates to the realignment of business goals to an organization’s people and leadership. It looks at how best to integrate people with the processes, technology, and systems they use. Org design fine-tunes for productivity and makes small fixes to the machine to prevent larger problems.
When we set out on a road trip we generally prepare, making sure we have a jack, some road flares, and a spare tire. It’s not that we anticipate needing these things, but there’s a chance. If we live in certain climates, we put snow tires on our cars ahead of winter weather. We don’t know how much snow there will be, but it is inevitable.
Change Management Provides Preparation
At Clearpath we call this Change Effectiveness, a strategy that prepares businesses for the unknown and any number of possible and likely hurdles.
Some disruptions are unpredictable, but some are those that businesses must come to expect and embrace. There will always be new competitors, changing technology, and economic shifts. These create new expectations, requirements, and processes. Change Effectiveness strategy means identifying changes, communicating them, and getting ahead of any resistance.
Preparation helps businesses move forward smoothly amid change. In the case of market-wide shifts, it provides them the opportunity to get ahead of the competition that might not be ready.
Checking the alignment and preparing for our trip won’t get us far if we don’t keep the tank filled. No matter what condition our car is in when we leave the shop, or how stocked our trunk is, it needs gas. When it runs out, it will need more. And the better the fuel we put in, the smoother things run.
Learning and Development Provides Power
L&D provides the training organizations give employees to improve their skills, knowledge, and competencies. It also refers to how that information is delivered and to what end.
Whether onboarding, leadership development, compliance training, talent strategy, or other training—L&D sets out to provide learning so that people can do their best work. The most successful businesses use L&D opportunities to engage and excite their people in the process. Clear and meaningful learner journeys empower a workforce.
Three mighty strategies steer businesses toward optimal performance. Organizational Design creates smooth-running organizations. Change Management keeps companies performing well amid transforming conditions. Learning and Development provides tools and insight to a workforce so that they can drive carefully structured businesses forward.
Skilled L&D professionals map maintenance, correct problems, and suggest the best ways to keep your business running well. It’s our job to see you safely to your destination. And we’d like you to enjoy the ride, too.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Clearpath is an award-winning learning strategy and design company specializing in world-class training solutions that connect the dots between individual capability and organizational performance. Known for its discovery-driven approach, Clearpath uncovers authentic business goals, performance needs, and contextual nuances to create learning that aligns with strategic intent. In a field where human potential is the most valuable asset, that’s where Clearpath begins—with solutions shaped by insight, guided by purpose, and designed to sustain meaning and momentum across the organization.
By Jenn Kammerdiener
Design Thinking has become a leading innovation process that seeks to deeply understand users—in other words, people. As L&D professionals, people are at the core of all we do.
The methodology works by breaking down preconditioned responses and assumptions. It deconstructs and redefines problems, guiding us toward those pioneering solutions we wished we’d ‘thought of first’. It is non-linear and iterative. And as practice, it can generate a great deal of enthusiasm.
It is the focus on understanding human needs and delivering solutions via human-centric means that sets the method apart. Let’s break that down.
Design thinking puts human emotion first. This is a bold contradiction to the adage that it’s just business, don’t take it personally. Here, we approach solutions to problems by focusing on and involving the human perspective.
Learning and Development initiatives empower a business’s people. Understanding their point of view is a necessary starting point. Tethering to this truth is a Clearpath tenet and Design Thinking is naturally one of our most widely used methodologies.
There are five basic steps. Some say seven. But you’ve got things to do, so let’s talk about five.
Step One.
Design thinking starts with empathy.
We know—how novel! It asks that we always begin here. All steps forward must be taken from the perspective of an organization’s users—its people.
A decade or so ago a reality TV show Undercover Boss followed executives on “undercover missions to examine the inner workings of their companies.” What reality TV does best (or worst, depending on perspective) is to shine a pleasant white light on human achievement and a blinding fluorescent light on human strife. You can guess the endings of every episode before they begin. After a week in the trenches, the boss came away with a new understanding and perspective. He or she came away with empathy.
What would happen if our industry professionals all took a beat and actively got to understand, and not just know, our clients and their people? And what if this all happened before we entertained offering suggestions and strategic paths forward? Insight. Insight would happen.
It seems obvious. But it’s a step too often skipped. We owe it to our clients to discover the hidden complications and inefficiencies that they most need to solve. These are generally not those that our clients, or even we, think are the problems.
Businesses often ask for a resource when what’s really needed is analysis and a solution for a business problem.
This means we must ask a lot of questions. It means focused observation. And it means setting aside everything that we ‘think’ we know for a bit.
Step Two.
Once we understand the problem, we need to define it.
If we frame a problem with a tangible question, we articulate the answer we’re trying to find. Once the question becomes part of an equation, we start to think of that problem as solvable. And when an answer is positioned as a sum of the parts it becomes a reasonable and accessible exercise. We know what we need to do.
Further, still, if we define the problem from the user’s—the people’s—point of view we boost our empathy. And that’s the name of the game. This is where we start if we’re to motivate, and subsequently empower, our people.
Step Three.
Since our equations are filled with variables, here’s where we ideate.
If you’re requesting a type of guide let’s first look at where you’re looking to go.
We have, as a whole, become preconditioned to look for fast paths. And sometimes the ready path is the best. But more often than not—it’s not. This is where ideation wakes us up.
It’s the energizing point in the process where design thinking asks—with a glint in its eye—that we step back and rethink. It asks us to throw out old ideas in favor of new ways forward. And it reminds us that trodden paths are flat for a reason.
If we pause to determine with certainty what solution is indeed the best solution it might likely be a short moment spent on a complete shift in outcome.
Step Four.
Fresh thinking requires fresh form and so—we prototype.
Creating quick, preliminary devices to apply our ideation lets us test our ideas. If all goes according to plan, we’re assured that we are indeed headed in the right direction early on and without a large investment in time and money. An efficient L&D professional will be able to easily identify good (and bad) signs along the road as ideas become tangible.
This is when we dip our toes in the water. It’s that cautious, initial step forward before we dive in. And still, we must remember to base our findings on what works for others. We’re building for them.
Step Five.
Finally—we test.
It’s not the type of test we all recall from school. This step, too, is iterative.
We gather feedback from the client and their people. We adjust. And we refine. Here’s where we start to see it all make perfect sense. If we’ve put in the work, we’ll have arrived at the best answer, design, and solution.
What began as a journey to understand people ends by proving we do.
Design Thinking is a multi-functional instrument in the L&D toolbox and one we at Clearpath use often. There are, of course, many methods. But each, if used well, promotes one common goal: We help organizations succeed by setting their people up for success.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jenn Kammerdiener, Founder and CEO, Clearpath Learning Group
Jenn is a Global Learning & Performance Architect with more than 20 years of business strategy and executive consulting experience. She’s led vital initiatives for Fortune 1000 to 100 organizations across industries with a systematic approach to org design, change management, and learning path objectives. In 2009, Jenn launched Clearpath to provide world-class performance solutions and services with a team approach. Under her leadership, Clearpath’s reach has grown to extend beyond 250,000 learners globally.