As a mental health institution, Arkin treats people with psychiatric disorders and complex psychological and addiction problems. It’s a fierce subject for both clients and employees. In order to create and guarantee a safe (work) environment for everyone, Arkin has developed the DIM (de-escalating intervention method) training for its employees. DIM focuses on de-escalating unwanted situations and on handling and learning to deal with verbal and physical aggression. It’s a topic that’s “top of mind” all year round, but how do you ensure that the right knowledge is also available all year round? To address this, Arkin started a collaboration with Xprtise to find the right training strategy. This was found in the “5 Moments of Need” methodology®.

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Paul Govers, training advisor at Arkin:“Our employees currently learn all the ins and outs of DIM in a four-day course. After those four days, they know how to deal with aggression and how to restore communication and cooperation with the client. Due to all kinds of factors, it is possible that an employee may not know how to act in the most important moment – despite the intensive training. That’s why, even after the four-day course, we want to continue to provide our employees with the knowledge and help they need at that specific moment to deal with most of these issues. So when I heard Janine talk about the ‘5 Moments of Need’ methodology at the GGZ Ecademy seminar, I was immediately interested.”

Arkin’s question

A lot has changed in recent years in the field of learning and development at Arkin. Paul: “When I started here six years ago as a training advisor, 90 to 95 percent of the training courses were classroom-based. Since then, we have brought various training courses back to their core, we have ‘blended’ training with e-learning and we have looked critically at what fits into which training. We now offer the theory via e-learning, so that we can give all the attention in the classroom to practicing situations.”

However, this is not enough. Paul: “As a training department, you want to offer your employees learning interventions that will last as long as possible – and preferably all year round. At the same time, you want formal learning to take as little time and effort as possible and to be as close to the workplace as possible. That’s why Janine’s story appealed to me so much. The 5 Moments of Need are focused on ‘the moment of application’: the moment when you need certain knowledge in order to be able to apply it (directly). That moment could occur in our case just one year after attending the four-day course. Do our employees have the right knowledge ready at that time? We struggled with that, and that’s why we asked Xprtise how our current learning methodology could be changed.”

Analysis to identify the desired workplace learning solution

To investigate whether and how the “5 Moments of Need” learning strategy could be applied to the DIM training courses, Peter van Overbruggen and Janine van Zoest (an Xprtise 5 Moments of Need consultant) started an analysis process. This process consisted of three workshop days – in collaboration with the Arkin training team – to create the complete desired workplace learning solution. The three-day workshop program included:

  • An introduction to DIM (by a training advisor from Arkin);
  • The Rapid Workflow Analysis (RWA);
  • The Critical Skills Analysis (CSA);
  • The Learning Asset Analysis (LAA);
  • Creating a blueprint for the Workplace Learning Solution (LEaP).

The tasks and roles of the employees were examined in a structured manner in order to implement the training strategy on that basis. In the new learning solution, the higher the priority of the task, the more attention it gets. Paul: “Together, we defined what our ideal learning solution should look like. We looked at critical tasks and less critical tasks in the area of DIM. We ranked them and, based on those scores, we looked at what needs to be trained classroom-wise, what can be done via e-learning, and what content can be provided in the workflow. We also looked at the connection with the existing educational resources, techniques, and systems. Adapting your learning solution can often be done with most of the existing learning resources – something that Xprtise has made us understand.”

The result so far

The result of the analysis process is a blueprint to create the new learning solution – based on the “5 Moments of Need” methodology – for DIM. Paul: “With this final design, we are taking another step forward. Previously, (new) employees had to read a reader about DIM; now we have a four-day training, and I expect the training will be even more efficient and effective in the future. Whereas we are now trying to compress the whole story from A-Z into four days, we will soon only have to focus on the really critical tasks in the training. Moreover, the idea is that the content and resources will soon be available via performance support, so that we can shift the current one-time learning moment to many more moments during the year.”

Annemarie Schoemakers, Advisor Training & Development at Arkin and together with Paul involved in the project: “The analysis process is just a start. Right now our priority is starting the implementation in which we would like to use the support of the Xprtise team again.”

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The next step

The next step is the implementation of the new design. Paul: “I am very enthusiastic about the blueprint that Xprtise has created for us. As far as I am concerned, we are now about to enter the next phase and make real progress on it. And not only in the field of DIM, but also for other topics and training courses. The topic of ‘motivation’, for example, could very well be dealt with in this way.”

“I am very pleased with Xprtise. They have supported us professionally and tightly in this first (research) phase. You can tell that they already have quite the mileage with this subject, so everyone involved has a lot of experience – and the Xprtise name says it all – and expertise in this field. They are convinced about their approach and therefore dare to be strict. And that, in turn, has given us confidence.”

Would you like to take a closer look at your current learning methodology?

Are you an L&D professional, like Paul from Arkin, and would you like to take a closer look at your current learning methodology? Consider partnering with Xprtise on an analysis project to investigate whether the “5 Moments of Need®” methodology fits your organization. In just four days, we will set up an analysis process, with an average lead time of six weeks, in which both experts from the business lines and the L&D  team will be involved. The result will be a blueprint to make it easy to design and develop powerful new learning solutions supporting the complete 70-20-10 spectrum.

The “5 Moments of Need Designer Certificate” course for hospitals and care organizations

In addition, the “5 Moments of Need Designer Certificate” course for hospitals and care organizations will be launched for the third time in January/February 2019. This course teaches L&D professionals to design and develop real workplace learning solutions. In three months’ time, you will learn all the ins and outs of the “5 Moments of Need” methodology and work together with 16 L&D professionals towards obtaining the “5 Moments of Need” Designer Certificate. Parallel to the analysis process at Arkin, Paul also followed this training course: “The advantage is that after obtaining the certificate, you have the knowledge in-house and are not dependent on an external advisor for everything. Of course, we will continue to work with Xprtise, but it’s also good that part of the new training strategy can be implemented internally.”

“I think it’s great that Xprtise has brought the ‘5 Moments of Need’ methodology to the Netherlands, and I hope that this will be adopted by many other companies in the (near) future. I think the methodology really adds value for Learning & Development in the Netherlands! Traditional training is still so dominant as the prime solution in so many places, and there is still a lot of work to be done. It would be nice for new workplace learning efforts using the 5 Moments of Need to spread quickly here.”

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