How to Start
The HR director for R&D contacted the corporate expert on training, Lisa Owens. Her standard answer to the question, “How to I get started?” was, “Use the ADDIE process. First do an Analysis of the situation and needs, then Design a solution, Develop, Implement and Evaluate it; then begin the process of continuous improvement.” (Figure 1) That answer wasn't sufficient. The project was too large to comprehend. It felt as if we were trying to eat the proverbial elephant. To tackle the problem, we combined three industry models to provide a structure for designing week-long programs across all five bands of diverse participants.
Figure 1: Sample ADDIE Timeline
The answer lay in combining 1) a ‘corporate strategy’ model (Martin, 2001) and 2) a training industry model (ISPI, Van Tiem (2001)), which we refer to as the “gap model”. By working through both models iteratively, while using ADDIE to manage the project timeline, a process was established to deliver a Corporate University – that is, a training program linked to and supportive of the business strategy (Figure 2, see page 3).