CDLA · Module 1 — Performance consulting and action mapping
Cathy Moore's model: business goal, on-the-job actions, practice, minimum information. Built for workplace learning.
About 20 min
Practice in the lesson player
Sorting, matching, quizzes, and the module gate stay behind a free account so scored answers are not public. The teaching notes below are the same cited curriculum.
01
Cathy Moore published action mapping as a visual way to design workplace training. Everything on the map must link to a measurable business goal. In 2013 she added a flowchart to step 2 because too many teams skipped the question "is training even the solution?" The map is built together: client, subject-matter expert and people close to the job should be in the room when the goal is set.
02
Business goal: A number the business already tracks, a gap, a timeframe and a role. "Improve communication" fails. "Cut warehouse count errors 15% in two quarters" can be designed against.
Observable actions: What must people do on the job to move that number? Keep asking "so they can do what?" until a supervisor could watch it. Then ask why they are not doing it today.
Practice activities: Realistic practice for the actions training can fix. Decisions and consequences, not slides that define the topic.
Minimum information: Only what people need to complete the practice. Company history and nice-to-know theory stay out unless they serve an action.
03
Goal: Reduce repeat contacts on billing disputes from 31% to 22% within two quarters, tier-1 agents.
Action: Before closing, confirm the customer can see the corrected amount on their own app screen.
Why not today: The step is not in the script, and agents assume the correction is visible (data cell, not knowledge).
Fix: Add the step to the script and the QA form. Practice only the tricky part: what to say when the app has not refreshed.
Minimum information: The two refresh delays agents will meet and the wording for each.
04
Moore has warned that some people present action mapping as a way to organise the client's existing content into activities, skipping the analysis. That is not action mapping. If you start from a content dump, you are decorating the dump.
05
Question | ADDIE-style start | Action-mapping start
First document | Needs analysis and objectives list | Measurable business goal and action map
Unit of design | Topics and terminal objectives | On-the-job actions and practice
When content appears | Often early, from source documents | Last, and only if practice needs it
06
A real map produces 15 to 40 actions. You cannot build practice for all of them. Score each action on three things: impact on the goal, how often it goes wrong, and the cost when it goes wrong. Build practice for the top few only. Everything else goes to a job aid, a process change or nothing. This is where most of the hours you save come from, and where sponsors see that you are protecting their budget.
07
On one page, draft the four columns for your request: goal, five to ten actions, why each is missing (use your Gilbert grid), and the practice you would build for the top three. Leave minimum information empty for now. Lesson 8 fills it.