The concept of Think Tanks has been appealing to me ever since I first heard of them in my graduate school days. Upon hearing the term, I imagined the prospect of a full time job dedicated to nothing but coming up with creative ideas and exploring big problems and vague possibilities. However, when you think about it, who is going to fund people to do nothing but sit around and think. And what is the likelihood of brilliant and useful ideas coming from people who never actually interact with the real world. The book Think Tanks (P. Dickson, 1971, Ballantine Books), although somewhat dated, provides a more accurate picture of the professional think tank. Their members are paid to think, but mostly about problems that someone is willing to pay them to solve, and the ideas better be expressed in terms of action-oriented reports and/or persuasive presentations. It was also apparent in the book that the number one customer for think tanks (at least in 1971) was the US military. As the military has shrunk I suspect the demand for think tanks has also.

I have long since given up on the ideal of belonging to a think tank. So imagine my delight when I was invited to participate in the first ISPI sponsored HPT Think Tank: From Theory to Practice this past November. Granted it was only a three day event (and no one was paid), but it came much closer to my ideal of a think tank than what was described in Dickson’s book. Many of the pioneers and best known contributors to our field participated, along with representatives from the ISPI advocates and a few, like myself, from the trenches. Throughout the 3 days, this group conversed and occasionally dialogued with the minimal structure of some big, and appropriately loosely defined, questions. The questions included:

What is HPT?

What are emerging trends in organizations?

What should performance and training professionals consider as they prepare for the new century?

How might ISPI support the profession in this preparation?

There was no expectation (or delusion) that we might definitively answer these questions in a few days time. Rather, this was billed as the beginning of a dialogue that will hopefully be continued by both the invitees and anyone else who is interested in these large questions. The output from the 3-day session has been posted to the ISPI website for all to peruse and comment on. If and when this group meets again, they should benefit from the comments and feedback from the profession at large. Whether you want to comment or not, you should take time to witness Lynn Kearny’s expertly crafted visual/verbal depiction of the 3 day event on the website.

Let’s see if I can whet your appetite for viewing the website by mentioning a just a few of the topics and observations (some of these are from my personal notes and may not have made it to the website). Not surprisingly, one of the topics that came up frequently was the impact of information technology. Like all the other professions, we are constantly working to incorporate the latest technology in our products and services. But what other implications does technology have on performance in general? One of the new trends is automatic measurement of all transactions and the subsequent "mining" for useful patterns in all this transactional data. How might this data be leveraged for performance support in the form of knowledge or individualized performance feedback?

Exploding technology creates all sorts of interesting possibilities but it is not without problems. One of the biggest problems is that relatively speaking, only a small amount of the world’s population is participating in the technological revolution. There is a grave danger that large portions of the world will be left behind or left out of the new connected world and the new economy. Our advocate from Microsoft noted that the term they use for this is the "digital divide", and unfortunately the digital divide is growing. Could/should the world’s experts on training and performance assume some responsibility for addressing this gap?

Another discussion that I found insightful was around how to get performance technology to be viewed more strategically by business leaders. After all, 15 years ago, who had ever heard of an Information Officer? There were many opinions about this (including maybe HPT isn’t and shouldn’t try to be strategic) but one observation stuck in my mind. Nothing ever becomes important to business leaders unless it is recognized as preventing them from meeting their business objectives. And this recognition will not come from us sharing and advocating "what HPT could possibly do for individuals and organizations." As a case in point, performance support seems to be increasing in credibility in organizations. Not because of the neat-o programs that some of us have created, but because businesses have realized that their products are too complex to simply stick a procedural manual in the box. Consumers expect support for using what they buy long after they open the box. What does this tell us about how we should position performance support? I think it tells us a lot about where we should be looking to see which of our products and services are likely to truly be valued by organizational leaders.

As you can see, at this stage, mostly what came out of attempting to answer big questions was lots more questions. Here’s a couple more that might be worth pondering:

Are we limiting our effectiveness by calling it "human" performance technology?

Do processes prevent people from thinking and performing "out of the box"?

If today’s organizations want to cope with change, will tomorrow’s strive to create change?

I think many of the participants in the think tank would share the view that we are not anywhere near having the answers yet. But it is important to periodically take time to reflect on what the important questions are and at least begin a dialogue about the answers to some of those questions. This process was begun at the HPT Theory to Practice Think Tank. I suggest you see where this dialogue is going and begin to participate in it. Isn’t that part of what responsible professionals and professional associations do?

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