I was listening to Christopher Nolan discuss the process of writing and directing The Odyssey. When asked whether he had written Matt Damon’s part with the actor in mind, Nolan said:

“Part of my writing process is to not ever think about actors while I’m writing.”

His reasoning was that thinking about a familiar actor would inevitably limit the character. You start writing around what you have already seen that person do, rather than what the story requires. There is something useful here for workplace learning.

We can spend too much time designing for an imagined ‘learner’. We define personas, preferences, confidence levels and supposed learning styles. Before long, the material has been built around our assumptions about the person rather than the work they need to do.

That does not mean ignoring the people involved. It means starting somewhere else.

• What performance is required?
• What decisions must people make?
• What does good judgement look like?
• What constraints will they be working within?
• What evidence will tell us that something has improved?

Once those things are clear, we can design support that gives people enough structure to succeed without prescribing every move.

Specify the performance, clarify the boundaries, and provide useful support.

Then leave some space for the person doing the work to bring their own experience, judgement and capability to the role.