Written by Christoffer Andreasson
Head of Content at Promote
Think back to learning to ride a bicycle. Someone steadied the seat, the surface was flat, and a fall cost nothing. Training wheels came off only when you were ready.
Skills at work grow the same way. Giving feedback, leading a customer call or coaching a team member all improve through practice, and practice goes best when the first attempts carry low risk.
People build real confidence when early practice happens in a safe setting and every next attempt is only slightly harder than the one before.
The High Performance Learning Journey (HPLJ) methodology, developed by Dr. Robert O. Brinkerhoff and Edward Boon, calls this approach Crawl, Walk, Run. This article shows what it looks like with everyday skills and how to plan it for your own programs.
The bicycle example shows the whole idea
In their book "Improving Performance Through Learning" (Promote International AB, 2019), the authors use the bicycle to explain Crawl, Walk, Run. The rider starts on a bike with training wheels, pedaling short distances next to a spotter on a flat surface. Next come balance and steering, then longer rides with training wheels, and finally riding unassisted.
The book adds a useful point. The goal decides what "Run" means. Riding to the playground, riding a mountain bike off-road and racing in the Tour de France are very different targets, and each calls for a different journey.
The same holds at work. Before you plan the practice, define the real situation where the skill needs to show up. That situation is the "Run," and everything before it is designed to lead there.
-
Crawl
-
Walk
-
Run
Crawl: low stakes, plenty of repetition
Early practice takes place where a mistake costs little. In the methodology these are called sheltered settings, where the risk to both the organization and the performer is low.
Crawl activities are often short. A participant interviews an experienced colleague about how they handle a situation. A participant watches a short video and compares it with their own approach. Two peers run a five-minute role-play and swap notes.
Crawl is also a good place for a quiet skill that is easy to overlook: noticing. Training transfer starts with observing others who use the skill well, then assessing how well it was done. Knowing what good looks like gives learners a standard to aim for when they try it themselves.
-
Example: A project manager named Pat, starts with exactly this. She interviews two experienced colleagues and completes video modules before she tries anything with a subcontractor.
Walk: realistic scenarios with a net underneath
Walk activities move closer to the job while keeping the safety net. The scenario looks like the real thing, and the people involved are colleagues, coaches or facilitators who expect a first attempt to be imperfect.
This is also where checklists and observation tools start to help. A participant can check their own attempt against a short list, ask a peer to do the same, and see the gap between the two views.
-
Example: Pat takes part in several negotiation and problem-solving role-plays during a twoday workshop. The situations resemble her actual work with subcontractors, but nothing is at stake yet.
Run: the real moment, with support
Run is the real situation named on the participant's Personal Performance Path. By now the participant has tried the skill several times.
Run still includes support. A manager who knows the plan can point to the right opportunity and give a few minutes of feedback afterward. The book describes this as perhaps the most important way to strengthen the results of a journey.
-
Example: Pat's first real issue with a subcontractor arrives about a week after the workshop. With her manager's support, she negotiates an agreement on the schedule. She then posts a summary online and compares experiences with two peers from her cohort.
Three everyday skills, three small ladders
Here are three hypothetical examples. They are illustrations for planning, not research findings or customer stories.
Small steps keep motivation high
A good ladder has no big jumps. Practice activities should present no huge leaps in performance from one attempt to the next, because a leap raises the chance of failure and lowers motivation. In the authors' words, you should not throw non-swimmers into the deep end of the pool.
Two design habits make this practical.
First, start where the participant is today. A seasoned sales representative and a new hire may need different Crawl activities for the same skill, and the first group can move to Walk sooner. Offering choices lets people skip what they already know.
Second, let the participant set the pace where possible. In the examples above, the challenge and risk of practice rose slowly and ideally at a pace controlled by the participant.
Feedback and job aids do much of the heavy lifting
Every practice step is more useful with feedback. For each practice opportunity, decide who is best placed to give it and how, and then designing the activity around that.
Feedback can come from a coach, a facilitator, a peer or a manager, so no single person carries the load. Checklists, models of strong performance and short quizzes let participants give themselves feedback too.
Job aids matter just as much. A well-built checklist or step-by-step guide that participants use from the first practice attempt can shorten the road. Rather than creating 10 or 20 practice cycles to reach mastery of a skill, a good performance aid might reduce the cycles by half or more, because the performer can rely on it on the job while competence grows.
Good aids take time to build. They require a solid understanding of the job, and that effort pays back in practice.
One question to take to your next program
Choose one skill from a program you run today and ask: what is the smallest, safest first attempt a participant could make this week, and what would the next step look like?
If you can describe three steps from the first try to the real situation, you have the outline of a Crawl, Walk, Run sequence. If you can describe only the last step, adding the earlier ones is the place to start.
